A Wonder Working Stone is, depending on how you count it, the eighth album by Alasdair Roberts, the rake-like Scottish folk bard-bellower with the cello-bow voice. It’s not, by any means, an easy voice. But it is a rich one,…
Category: Records
Album | Villagers – {Awayland}
If 2012 was a ‘meh’ year of some good British records and nice debuts by a handful of promising artists, 2013 will be forced to do better, not only because there’s no massive international event to distract us (yes Olympics,…
EP | Apples & Eve – Dionysus
When you see that a band is formed of musicians who have worked with the likes of Beirut, Laura Marling, and Peggy Sue, you expect them to be pretty good. But you still won’t expect to hear the remarkable sound…
Album | Gaze Is Ghost – Plume
There’s something alternately smoky and ethereal in this debut album by Gaze Is Ghost, who so far has such an appropriately elusive online presence that all I know about her is that she’s a Paris-based singer-songwriter with a changing pen…
EP | Malpas – Where The River Runs
Out in Leeds the other night, I came across a unusual beer that was essentially like drinking bacon. A pint of ‘Smoked Porker’, a rather unique and very, very dark ale, took a little getting used to. The barman who…
Album | Cellophane Flowers – Staring at the World
The wonderfully quirky London-based quartet that are Cellophane Flowers have finally unveiled their debut album and what an album it is. From their previous releases, we had an idea of what we could expect from Staring at the World: driving,…
EP | Roo Panes – Weight of the World
There’s plenty could make folks a little wary of Roo Panes’ quick rise over the recent months. Half a million YouTube views is more than impressive, but then it was in large part fuelled by his link-up with a well-known…
Album | Straw Bear – Black Bank
I thought the banks were skint? This one seems to be full to bursting, with a remarkable range of ideas and styles filtered through layers of Fenland folk oddity. Generally speaking the tone is gentle folk-pop, not dissimilar to The…
Singles Round-up | Terry Emm, The Beatrix Players, The Lumineers & The Lake Poets
Terry Emm – Gently How have we not previously heard of Terry Emm? This Christmas single follows on from two albums – both of which are consistently as gorgeous as ‘Gently’. Not since Spandau Ballet’s ‘Gold’ has a song’s title…
EP | Hot Feet – Wood House
Let’s talk Hejira. Let’s talk Joni Mitchell’s eighth studio album. All big imagery, curiously picked guitars and Joni’s distinctive voice fluttering about like a pleasantly drunk moth. Hejira is the musician’s favourite Mitchell album and an obvious influence behind Laura…