If you haven’t watched the video for ‘Give it Away’, the lead track on Andrew Bird’s most recent EP of the same name, do it now. Immediately. It features a human piñata at a 1950’s-style kids birthday party, and a…
Album | The Unthanks with Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band – Diversions vol. 2
The band is incredibly versatile, from march music offset with sparse, mournful arrangements on the beautiful ‘Trimdon Grange Explosion’, to near classical arrangements on the Prokofiev-reminiscent ‘My Lagan Love’ and the James Bond pyrotechnics in the new rendition of ‘Queen of Hearts’. In its tones and timbre, every track is as reassuringly traditional as logs on a fireplace, but they crackle with a new wit in combinations that, without contradiction, show British folk – and brass band music – at its most innovative.
Interview | Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman – FFS speaks to the first lady and gentleman of folk…
If folk were to have anything as bourgeois as a hierarchy, husband and wife duo Sean Lakeman and Kathryn Roberts might be prime candidates for the top spots. Initially part of folk super-group, Equation (also featuring Seth and Sam Lakeman…
Live | Eugene McGuinness @ The Lexington, London, 26th June 2012
Eugene McGuinness had achieved lots of things before we came to know about him when ‘Lion’ was added to the 6Music playlists. Apologies for us being a little behind the times on this one, though it seems we’ve rocked up…
Album | Meursault – Something for the Weakened
It’s been clear from the outset that Meursault are a band that push outwards at all times. Their oft-changing line-up, unpredictable live shows and, most obviously, famously mercurial sound – which has seen them flicker constantly between the extreme end…
Brian’s Mixtape | Ladies
Dear readers, You may have suspected that I would jump on the sporting bandwagon and create a playlist around the greatest of all competition anthems, Vangelis’ Chariots of Fire because of the ‘Games’ that people are getting all worked up…