Stomping onto the stage at Shepherd’s Bush Empire with a jumper wrapped turban-wise around her head and a Norwegian fox dangling from her throat, Martha Wainwright bursts straight into a rendition of ‘Factory’. Choosing to begin the evening with a…
Category: Reviews
Album | Willy Mason – Carry On
For serious Willy Mason devotees, a number of the tracks on Carry On will be thoroughly familiar; he’s been gigging them all around the place for upwards of a year. Recording the album in the depths of south London with…
Live | Gabrielle Aplin @ Scala, London
Gabrielle Aplin, currently best known for soundtracking a snowman love story on the John Lewis Christmas advert, lit up the stage at the Scala with an impressive live show. Read Paul Woods’ review of Gabrielle Aplin live at the Scala on 22/11/2012 on For Folk’s Sake.
Album | Joyce The Librarian – They May Put Land Between Us
When Joyce The Librarian first found their way into FFS ears earlier this year, it took us a while to get over their wondrous name, the Stilgoe & Skillern song of a sex-starved book lender that inspired it, and all…
Album | Maia – Pepper Stars
“As the alien living amongst you, I’m glad to see we can finally live in peace,” coos Maia’s lead singer Tom Clegg on the opening track of ‘Pepper Stars’, in a vocal style similar to what one images an extra-terrestrial’s…
Singles Round-up | Abi Wade, Family Machine, Killing Fields of Ontario, Magmana, Jennifer Left, Reuben & the Dark, Songs For Walter
Abi Wade – Heavy Heart/Faker Often compared to Joanna Newsom and Regina Spektor, cellist-percussionist Wade suffers the same pitfalls as those kindred spirits in that the germ of a great idea can be lost in excessive quirkiness. ‘Faker’ is the…
Live | Staves @ Village Underground, London
The Staves appeared quietly confident as they took to the stage on the second night of their headline tour, and who can blame them after touring with Bon Iver and that much-talked-about show at Wembley Arena last week. The band,…
New Bands Panel | BRNS – Wounded
This week our writers get their heads around the intriguing prospect of Belgian four-piece BRNS (pronounced ‘brains’), who veer between all kinds of different styles. Could they be Belgium’s answer to Alt-J? Here’s what FFS has to say…. Rosy Ross: I…
Album | The Cairo Gang – The Corner Man
Emmett Kelly is, to all intents and purposes, the only permanent gang member and since a debut album under that name in 2006 has put out only an impossible to find follow-up, a solitary EP and a collaboration with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. The latter, the occasionally fantastic Wondershow of the World, was certainly not time wasted, but The Corner Man is too deeply felt and too thoroughly delivered to be the work of a regular sidekick.
Live | Andrew Bird @ The Roundhouse, London
Not enough people have heard of Andrew Bird. But if you’re one of the people who haven’t, don’t worry yourself about it; you now have an enormous, folky heap of wonderful music to sink into. Bird has a degree in…