Folk
Live Review: Smoke Fairies – Hebden Bridge Trades Club, 26.4.15
After their second album got mixed reviews Smoke Fairies had a crisis of confidence questioning whether they should go on but this confident show made you glad they did. One of the reasons the critics turned on them was they lurched from a faintly twee folk duo to a full blown rock band almost overnight. …
Live Review: Seasick Steve – Sheffield O2 Academy, 16.04.2015
It would have been so easy for Seasick Steve to infiltrate the crowd of his own gig. For one night only, Sheffield 02 Academy was filled with men of a certain age, complete with beards and baseball caps. But that’s not to say it was only the older generation at this gig. The audience spanned …
New Music: Cabane release debut single Sangokaku, featuring Bonnie ’Prince’ Billy & Kate Stables
Sangokaku is the perfect title for Cabane’s debut single. In Japanese it translates to ‘sea coral’, believed to hold magical healing properties, which have been completely absorbed into this music. Sangokaku is graceful and haunting. As you listen you find yourself feeling isolated, considering your own loneliness, teetering between the elated and melancholic. But you …
Track: Miya Folick – Talking with Strangers
Talking with Strangers is a new release from the Santa Ana, California singer-songwriter Miya Folick. After growing up in a Buddist family, music was always an important part of her life, but that only really took off when she taught herself to play the guitar in downtime whilst studying Theatre in college. Talking with Strangers …
Track: Kodaline return with new single, The One
Taking a lead from Sliding Doors and a myriad of dating website ads, the video to Kodaline’s new single The One, has a real ‘will they won’t they’, sniff of destiny about it. The two are perpetually in the wrong relationships, living in the same area, going to the same parties, they even went to …
Meet: Jessica Davies from Smoke Fairies
After a critically acclaimed debut album Smoke Fairies seemed on the fast track to success but a more a muted response to their second record Blood Speaks sparked a crisis of confidence. It promoted Jessica Davies to turn to band mate Katherine Blamire, and pose the difficult question – was it time for them to …
Track: Meesh – Lake/Endings/Glenn
I first came across Meesh last December, attracted in a sort of anti-Mumford and Sons fashion by their self-labelling of their music as anti-folk. Despite this label, their music was a little bit folky, but I loved it nonetheless (see my earlier review). They have just released three new songs, available to download for free, …
News: Final Cambridge Folk Festival line-up announced
Singing Scottish twins The Proclaimers are the latest big name added to the Cambridge Folk Festival bill joining veteran peacenik Joan Baez, posh troubadour Frank Turner, Joan Armatrading and Wilko Johnson who has recovered from his cancer scare. But if you want to go you’d better be quick as the strong bill means Saturday day …
Album Review: Stornoway – Bonxie
Oxford four-piece Stornoway are back with a new album called ‘Bonxie’, released on 13th April through Cooking Vinyl. It’s the first of Stornoway’s albums to take the services of a producer, their previous releases being very much DIY efforts, but not DIY in quality I hasten to add. The producer in question is none other …
Track: Jenny Hval releases That Battle Is Over, ahead of her new album Apocalypse, Girl
Already the veteran of albums under her own name and her guise of Rockettothesky, as well as being the singer of gothic metal band Shellyz Raven in her younger days, Norwegian singer songwriter is preparing to release her third studio album ‘Apocalypse, Girl’ on June 8th via Sacred Bones. Ahead of it, she’s released a …