The Latest
Following last year’s scarily accomplished debut album, New Thing, Avery Friedman returns with her new single “You Move”, a song about savouring the unexpected fruits that reveal themselves amid times of uprootedness. Watch the accompanying tomato-themed video directed by Dylan Friese-Greene. Friedman kicks off her first UK/EU shows this month.
Jason Dungan (aka Blue Lake) and Johan Carøe’s “Routine” is like a shared creative diary, its ideas growing slowly as their friendship developed. Real life imprints itself on the music, so this ostensibly ambient album explores different moods and shifting modes. Slow music that is rarely imposing and never overly showy, yet contains genuine emotional heft. It is also unabashedly enjoyable, from start to finish.
Garefowl recorded “Things That Vanish” at night on Hirta, the main island of St Kilda. There are no synths this time: field and hydrophone recordings and X-ray diffraction drones take their place. In this Track by Track, the band introduce the seabirds behind the tunes. “It is not too late to learn the lessons of the past.”
Shovel Dance Collective’s “Everything in Readiness” is due 23 October on Glitterbeat’s tak:til imprint. “Jer the Rigger” is their third single, part of an opening suite that is accompanied by a video from Tim Plester and Rob Curry featuring footage from the Doc Rowe archive. The band say the arrangements were constantly tinkered with on the road, sometimes paying off, sometimes not.
We spoke with Ohtis after his End of the Road set. He wasn’t having the best of days; it was the kind that would have pushed even the most chilled artists into stress overdrive, but he played and spoke to us anyway. He talked plainly about his new album, a friend’s stories he’d played on repeat during a dementia period, the gospel band he’d love to start, and more.
Kahil El’Zabar’s “Sketches For Trane” is an astonishing suite in tribute to John Coltrane, released for the centenary of his birth. At 72, the Chicago drummer has gone back to the future to propagate Coltrane’s message of expanded human potential to a new generation of listeners. Alex Neilson calls it one of the best albums he has reviewed for KLOF.
The Leaf Library’s “Library Music: Volume Two” is a form of “compilation as curation”, drawn from a decade or so of recordings. Every release from the band feels like an exploration of pop music’s possibilities, and this archival collection is the perfect way of experiencing their range and sonic versatility. We can only hope that “Volume Two” isn’t the final instalment.
New tunes from Jude Brothers, This is the Kit, Rayland Baxter, Sheherazaad, Sam Burton and more. Plus recommendations ranging from an album inspired by Slovak-Hungarian heritage to a late-80s Manchester band inspired as much by madrigals and liturgical music as Joy Division. And Will Oldham provides food for thought on the music algorithm.
Margo Cilker’s third album “Little White Cross” comes from a place of darkness, full of gun violence, wildfires and abuse, but seeks glimmers of light. Bruce Robison sits behind the desk for a mix of originals and well-chosen covers. Forget any future comparisons to Lucinda; this is the here-and-now Margo Cilker, and she’s magnificent.
This week’s Mixtape features several obscure labels: Glasgow’s Greater Lanarkshire Auricular Research Council, Australian Cassette label Burgan Triangle Tapes, and artist-run Joshua Tree imprint Searching Records. We’ve also got tracks sung in Irish, creative music exploring the outer reaches of the harp and lap steel guitar and more.
Good Habits’ “Better for Now” pushes outwards, from festival-ready trance-folk to intimate acoustic balladry. An overriding spirit of positivity runs through songs about body image and burnout, all carried on buoyant melodies. The result is a blend of virtuosity and sheer vitality, making them one of the most exciting bands on the British folk scene right now, and one of the most technically accomplished.
Martin Simpson’s “Some Kind of Jubilee” is a seventeen-song double album, made in the US and the UK to mark half a century since his debut. Veterans and newcomers play alongside him. The music is rich without ever being overplayed, and the vocals are warm and engaging. The album is a real achievement and a career highlight. Take a bow.
James Yorkston announces “La Magnifica”, a career-spanning double album, out November 27th on Domino. It picks from his 15 albums for the label, from the early Athletes days to his most recent Swedish collaborations with Nina Persson and Johanna Söderberg. The first of two new songs is also out today, accompanied by a video directed by Lewis Baillie.
Biita Houdei’s solo debut “This Bed Was Made For Me” challenges quickfire disposability head-on. She sewed a patch for each of its fourteen songs, then recorded them over ten full, back-to-back days. The result exudes personality and feeling, a testament to the slow process and the commitment and patience required to create a complete work of art.
Jason McNiff talks through his latest album, Ten Blue Songs, which was recorded and produced live by Trevor Moss. Clarinet, double bass, piano, and violin accompany him on an album whose influences include Italo Calvino, Raymond Carver, Ernest Hemingway, and guitar legend Davy Graham. “This album is evidence of our working life and couldn’t exist without the gigs”.
Fermanagh-born, Dublin-based composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist RÓIS, aka Rose Connolly, has signed to Domino Records. Her critically acclaimed 2024 album, MO LÉAN, will be reissued globally – remastered with a brand-new track, “PORT NA H-EALA”. Watch her performing “WHAT DO YOU SAY (LIVE FROM A WAKE)”.
Smithsonian Folkways will reissue Michael Hurley’s 1964 debut “First Songs” on vinyl on November 6th. Frederic Ramsey Jr. originally recorded it at home in New Jersey on the reel-to-reel machine he used for Lead Belly’s Last Sessions. Mike Monseur has remastered it, and it comes in the original black gatefold. Watch the video for his classic ‘The Werewolf Song’, which was animated by Hurley’s friend Drew Christie.