Category: Records

Album | Tanya Tagaq – Animism

Inuit throat-singer Tanya Tagaq surprised many pundits by winning Canada’s Polaris Prize in 2014 ahead of a number of more established names, not least the Arcade Fire. The prize is awarded for ‘artistic integrity’ and, listening to Animism, Tagaq comes…

Album | Idlewild – Everything Ever Written

In the six years since Idlewild released Post Electric Blues, they’ve had a lengthy hiatus, put out a handful of solo projects, and ultimately realised that Idlewild was something worth holding on to. They’ve returned with a clear sense of…

Album | Marika Hackman – We Slept At Last

Within folk, there’s a constant and essential need to remain within the acoustic, the wooden, the real. Crossing into unfamiliar instrumental territory can often fragment a delicately antiquated and almost traditional approach to the genre. Familiar up and down the…

Album | The Amazing – Picture You

It’s with pleasure that I greet the return of Swedish quintet The Amazing. Their 2011 album Gentle Stream was one of my favourite albums of that year, becoming something of an emotional touchstone thereafter. Its dynamic mix of minor key…

Album | Gretchen Peters – Blackbirds

Gretchen Peters’ Blackbirds is bookended by two songs of the same name. The opener is electric and confrontational, the closer a milder and softer reprise. Powered by Peters’ voice – lived-in, loaded, tainted with regret – the chorus of the…

Album | The Unthanks – Mount The Air

The Unthanks’ latest album is filled to the brim with the epic, the grandiose, and the fairytale-­esque. The finest moments of Mount The Air are perfect slices of modern folk, always with a nod to some of the genre’s greatest…

Album | Duke Garwood – Heavy Love

Duke Garwood’s Heavy Love opens with the dark, creepy electric blues of ‘Sometimes’. It’s muddy, sexy…and that’s before Garwood’s deep vocals kick in to create a dark fantasy. His bleak storytelling is captivating, with his music setting the scene and…

EP | Emmy The Great – S

The magic of Emmy The Great’s latest EP is undoubtedly contained within ‘Swimming Pool.’ Make no mistake, the track should be and probably will be heard widely over the course of 2015. It’s a fine slice of modern synthesised pop.…

Album | Punch Brothers – The Phosphorescent Blues

Was anyone aware that prog-bluegrass-folk existed? And that it could be pulled off not just competently, but thrillingly? Neither was I until I gave The Phosphorescent Blues, Punch Brothers’ fourth album, a spin. A 10-minute opener may not be what…