Field Music Plays… is a release that couldn’t have come at a better time for the Sunderland trio given their recent Mercury Prize nomination. Some of the eight songs compiled on this stopgap release were b-sides whilst others whilst others…
Category: Reviews
Album | Bellowhead – Broadside
The first thing to say about Bellowhead’s new album is that Broadside is a great title. Referring both to circulating ‘broadside ballads’ of centuries gone by, and to the ‘broadside’ of a ship (that’s the side with the cannons )…
New Bands Panel | Mt. Wolf – Life Sized Ghosts
This week it’s the turn of electronic-folk upstarts Mt. Wolf to go under the folk microscope. Based in London, each member was born by the sea, on the coasts of Guernsey, Dorset and Brighton. Prepare to get swept away…. Joanne Rowe: Hailing…
Album | Lau – Race The Loser
Folk too often is, by its very nature, a fairly conservative musical genre. There are enough mavericks to mix it up, of course, but when a band ambles on stage with a guitar, a fiddle and an accordian, you generally…
Album | Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog – Draw Dros y Mynydd
Depending on where you stand, lyrics are either mere words to carry a tune or a key element – a story or sentiment necessary to make a listener connect with a song. I’ve known passionate music fans as well as…
Album | Princess Chelsea – Lil’ Golden Book
Princess Chelsea (a.k.a. Chelsea Nikkel) has created an album like a gothic fairground: Lil’ Golden Book evokes spells or fairy tales, the scarier end of Disney, and Edward Scissorhands, mashed together with hints of Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Deerhoof,…
EP | Feldspar – The Flat And Paper Sky Vol. 1
Soaring tunes, powerful vocals, lush instrumentation. If that sounds good to you, then so will Feldspar’s debut EP. And it certainly should, because this is a truly exciting debut from a band who should go far. The London five-piece announce…
Album | AC Newman – Shut Down The Streets
AC Newman’s Shut Down The Streets will be welcome listening for those who want to extend the summer past the album’s October release date. The album’s instrumentation is flecked with major key twinkling of banjos, dulcimers and Rhodesy keys that…
Album | Ryan Bingham – Tomorrowland
After receiving a string of awards, and the Billboard success of his third album Junky Star, it is no surprise that Ryan Bingham wanted a bit of a shake-up, somewhat comparable to Emma Watson’s haircut after filming for the Harry…
Album | Denver – Denver
The idea, floated in their press release, that Denver come across as “a modern-day Highwaymen” might be stretching it a little bit. Groupings that bring together the likes of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennnings belong in…