Folk
TRACK: Valley Maker – ‘No One Is Missing’
AUSTIN CRANE sounds like a name that folk scene followers have heard for ages, so it’s quite surprising to know that he is just past 30, moving back East after pursuing a PhD in human geography in Seattle. He was born musically at the time of Fleet Foxes’ major success and in a way it’s …
TRACK: Panteon – ‘Waking Waiting’: lighter-than-air alt.folk explores the void at the end of the affair
YVONNE AMBRÉE is an artist currently based in Berlin who writes, records and produces music under the nom-de-musique Panteon. She has a particular way with an airy, fragile folk melody and a voice to match, delicate and honeyed, just a touch of the Marissa Nadlers in her velvet swoop. Which is not something to be …
PREMIERE: Ted Barnes and Sarah Johns Music Party – ‘Arrangements’: theatrical delicacy from returning Clayhill prodigal
YOU MAY or may not have been blessed enough to have swooned for Clayhill, the cruelly underrated trio who got lumped into the semi-trendy genre ‘The New Acoustic’ by the music press alongside the likes of Lowgold and Kings of Convenience, which definition did them a massive disservice. Seek ye their albums; for further evidence …
EP Review: Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou – The Helm of Sorrow
Dark folk singer’s collaboration with Louisiana sludge metallers bears yet more fruit.
Lizzie Reid – ‘Been Thinking About You’: jazzy swing with real heart, soul and devil-may-care
LIZZIE REID, the young Glaswegian songwriter who is a massive, massive new talent – no dissent now at the back, this is just how it is – has been melting hearts at Backseat Mafia over the past few months as she’s hashed out a little trail of candid and heartfelt tunesmithery en route to her …
SEE: Cassandra Jenkins – ‘Michelangelo’: subtle, haunting Americana
NEW YORK folkie Cassandra Jenkins has stepped away from the world of self-releasing on her own Cassandra Complex imprint to ink her signature for Brooklyn’s Ba Da Bing, which imprint – sometime home to Damon & Naomi and Comets On Fire, among others – hosts her second album, the detached, observational beauty of An Overview …
SEE: John Smith – ‘Friends’: honey-voiced folk salutes those dear to us
A SIMPLE name, perhaps, but far from simple tunesmithery: John Smith is coming into 2021 with positivity and a grab-bag of songs to beguile you. Essex born but raised on the Devon coast, he’s earned his crust previously as a session musician, lending his chops and precision to bigger names across the globe, such as …
SEE: The Stockholm video for James Yorkston and the Second Hand Orchestra’s ‘Ella Mary Leather’
AS THE year takes it final bows – mostly, you’d have to say, free from the tossing of bouquets, unless they’re dead black roses or somesuch – we at least have the joy of a soon-coming new album from Fife’s always warming James Yorkston, this time in tandem with The Second Hand Orchestra. The album’s …
Track: Another Michael reveal the beautiful indie folk of ‘I know you’re wrong’
Philadelphia indie folk three piece Another Michael have announced details of their new album ‘New Music and Big Pop’. It’s due out on 19th February via Run For Cover records, and is preceded by a new single ‘I know you’re wrong’, which the band have released with an accompanying RuneScape visual. It’s a beautiful slice …
TRACK: Zola Jesus beautifully refashions the Armenian folk standard, ‘Krunk’
ZOLA JESUS has gone back to her roots with a beautiful and deep take on the Armenian folk standard, “Krunk”; be enraptured by our embed herein. The track was originally released on the final Bandcamp Friday of the year, with all proceeds going towards the Armenia Fund, and its efforts to provide humanitarian aid during the …