Danny Neill

Toria Wooff’s sophistically cultivated self-titled debut album is a work of art that demands proper engagement and, in return, promises fruitful payback. The maturity on show points to even more interesting creativity further down the line.

Echolalia is a unique album that repurposes the glory days of English acid folk and pastoral, rural progressive music into a 2025 context. We could use some more of this good stuff in the world right now.

Music that grows out of in-the-moment self-expression such as this can only ever really sound like itself…The Ancients – Isaiah Collier, William Hooker, William Parker – are here to sort the real space cadets out from the pretenders.

Nadia Reid’s ‘Enter Now Brightness’ is an album unfettered by generic pigeonholes and working in complete service to artistic expression. Alongside moments of reflection and introspection, we witness joy, light and a piercing optimism that ruptures this album with vibrant colour.

In the hands of film producer James Mangold, there is a very real probability that the definitive Bob Dylan film has finally arrived, with the man himself nowhere to be seen but his spirit and very essence seeping into every frame.

The Weather Station’s ‘Humanhood’ is a sharp-edged bulletin from the 2025 frontline. Within, hope can be found, not just in the human spirit but also in the boundless forward-motion energy that creativity offers us all…there might yet be light at the end of the tunnel.

We chat with 21st-century renaissance man Sam Amidon about his influences, his love of instrumental music, jazz and folk; and of course, the creation of his sublime new album ‘Salt River’.

Sam Amidon’s Salt River is an album whose full kaleidoscopic experience is revealed through repeated listens. Eclectic is an easily applied word, but here we have an artist releasing a groundbreaking, spirited and adventurous album that is genuinely worthy of the description.

Danny Neill shares his Top 10 albums of 2024, including releases from Leyla McCalla, Josienne Clarke, The Decemberists, Yasmin Williams, Ac Sapphire, Jerron Paxton, Niamh Bury, AJ Woods, Kronos Quartet and Richard Thompson.

I cannot recall feeling the Royal Albert Hall more alive with restless anticipation minutes before Bob Dylan’s arrival, nor can I think of a more joyous roar erupting when the main attraction arrives on stage for a night of plentiful highlights and some revelations.

For anyone already aboard the Sun Ra mothership, Kingdom of Discipline, the latest release from the man and his Arkestra on Dead Currencies, is going to fast become a key missing piece to the overall puzzle as well as a favoured edition from the catalogue.

Past sounds have never sounded so thoroughly born of the present as they do on Jerron Paxton’s raw and wonderful ‘Things Done Changed’…a finely crafted album for today made oh so skilfully with the tools of yesterday.

Jake Blount & Mali Obomsawin’s Symbiont is a magical fusion of natural beauty, fragility, turbulence and ever-evolving motion. It is awe-inspiring, a ball of chance and wonder, much like the planet Earth.

Danny Neill shares his highlights of Cambridge Folk Festival 2024, featuring notable performances by Leyla McCalla – a set that was tingling with magic, Fantastic Negrito, Konyikeh, Katherine Priddy, Lizzie No, Peggy Seeger, Oysterband, Rioghnach Connolly and more.

Americana often conjures up words like psychedelic or cosmic, but the form rarely offers such a way-out hue as experienced here; Wes Tirey Sings Selected Works Of Billy The Kid is a true one-off. 

How in-sync this star-studded collaboration is with the spirit of Sun Ra; Kronos Quartet & Friends Meet Sun Ra succeeds in playing like a transmission from the stars, a deep space echo and chime…lay back and wait for lift off; what bliss.

The Decemberists set the bar very high with ‘As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again’, a record packed with highlights, a fully-loaded taste of their essence, pulling in every colour and thread they have touched upon in a long and varied two-decade career.

With ‘Days of Shaking,’ M G Boulter takes a deep dive into the darkest corners and the toughest dreams and nightmares that visit during those nocturnal hours. Aiming high, he has taken time to create a full-length work that demands and rewards deep immersion.