The once-rarefied (some would say shunned) musical zone of the singer-songwriter has become rather crowded in recent years, a space for any old chap with a guitar and a vintage waistcoat and, as with any burgeoning cultural phenomenon, the more…
Category: Reviews
Album: Nik Freitas – Saturday Night Underwater
Richey Edwards used to style his hair as Ian McCulloch, John Lennon was initally obsessed with having an Elvis quiff and Ian Curtis tried to dress like David Bowie. Great musicians all have to start somewhere and their beginning is…
Album: Babette Hayward – You Might Be Somebody
It’s been three short years since Laura Marling released her brilliant debut Alas I Cannot Swim. In that time, Marling, along with her contemporaries, has helped to forge the folk revival. This has seen, amongst others, Marling, Fleet Foxes and…
Singles: Marcus Foster, Kyla La Grange, O’Death & Grass House
Marcus Foster – Rushes & Reeds Marcus Foster, possibly best known for having Robert Pattinson sing one of his compositions on the Twilight soundtrack curiously reminded me of a band slightly North of his London roots; Oxford’s Charly Coombes and…
Album: Ty Segall – Goodbye Bread
Before we start I should make my feelings clear: winsome West Coast garage–punker Ty Segall makes me sick. Years of amateurish and painstaking hours strapped to the acoustic guitar have seen me boldly exploring the lyrical and sonic hinterland between…
Album: Vetiver – The Errant Charm
On their fifth album The Errant Charm, San Francisco’s Vetiver make no surprise departures from the breezy psychadelic-folk that fans have become accustomed to. It is a lazy afternoon of a record – a perfectly pleasant diversion that leaves you…
Album: Sarah Jarosz – Follow Me Down
When Mumford & Sons recommend a 20-year-old banjo picker who is already on to her second album, it’s got to be worth a look. And so we found Texan Sarah Jarosz who brings us the rather fine Follow Me Down.…
Album: This Frontier Needs Heroes – The Future
History repeats itself, which explains why you can hear so much of the past in The Future, the second album from New York brother-sister pairing This Frontier Needs Heroes. Brad and Jessica Lauretti lap up influences from two of America’s…
Album: Sparrow & The Workshop – Spitting Daggers
Sparrow & the Workshop might be expected, from their name, to be cute and feathery. In fact they’re raucous, all thumping beats, handclaps and caterwauling vocals, like a countrified take on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs; in ‘You Don’t Trust Anyone’,…
Live: Anais Mitchell @ Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Anais Mitchell leapt into our consciousness with last year’s stunning folk-opera Hadestown, a sprawling masterpiece with a lengthy cast of distinguished contributers, not least Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, the Low Anthem’s Ben Knox Miller and Ani DiFranco. Lush instrumentation and…