David Kidman

The strongly individual blend of instrumental colours continues, all surfacing through the texture in various delightful and surprising permutations over the course of this 40th Anniversary (Two-Score) album from Blowzabella.

Dungeness provides further persuasive evidence of Trembling Bells’s ever-broadening evolutionary (and revolutionary) scope of their music. They are still very much a force to be reckoned with, of that let me leave you in no doubt.

Echo in the Valley represents an affectionate and genuinely responsive dialogue between two musicians whose bond is so absolute, who so clearly, permanently, inspire each other to ever greater heights of music-making.

Musically, The Two Worlds is mesmeric…retaining the carefully atmospheric, dreamlike ambience of its predecessors. Centred around Brigid’s trademark clangorous, heavy-sustain piano tone (or reverberant guitar and organ) for a backdrop, all detail is couched in a languid analogue sound that oozes authenticity.

Mad Martins a genuinely stimulating cultural artefact, born of an inspired collaboration of like-minded creative artists. It depicts the lives of the three Martin brothers, born in the late18th century in the South Tyne area of Northumberland.

This has-to-be-definitive reissue of Pearls Before Swine’s of One Nation Underground is something of a benchmark. The sturdily-packaged CD edition is sure built to last; it sports full lyric sheet and new notes giving a historical perspective from both Rapp and Alderson.

Letters Never Read presents a further ten helpings of Dori Freeman’s stunning singing voice and keenly-observed songwriting that proves an ideal companion to her eponymous debut album that had her hailed as “the new voice of Appalachia”.

There is a Place is the latest offering from husband-and-wife duo The Left Outsides, a truly sumptuous listening experience, totally engrossing from the first note, and each separate track refuses to let your ears go. Virtually every track sounds different, yet together they form a sequence of enviable, unexpected and yet almost disembodied unity.

Ye Vagabonds possess a strong and distinctive musical identity that celebrates its own individuality and certainly stands out from the crowd. There’s food for thought aplenty here in this stimulating debut album. We look forward to seeing where they lead us next.

If there are any listeners who might harbour the thought that the presentation of “one man and his box” would by now be sounding a touch tired, then this thoroughly refreshing new John Kirkpatrick album should convince them otherwise. It finds him in splendid voice and both nimble and sparky in his perennially expert squeezeboxery.

The Rails’ ‘Other People’ has a supremely classy feel, and the music is pure gold. In terms of both writing and execution, its ten original songs exude an even more finely honed classiness than those on their well-received debut ‘Fair Warning’.

Bright Phoebus is a strange but wonderful beast of a record: a collection of entirely self-penned material from Lal & Mike Waterson who were previously known exclusively for performing traditional folk songs acapella via The Watersons. A splendid package that will restore the album to its rightful place in the permanent catalogue.