Melanie McGovern
Fragmented, scrapbook recordings documented at his mother’s house, Mike Hadreas’ debut Learning is the kind of angst-ridden poetry that succeeds by being so shrouded in mystery and a tender incoherence that we are left intrigued rather than irritated. These lo-fi recordings echo the Woods, his vocals Sufjan Stevens’ girlish whisper and Neil Young’s pained falsetto.
Folk-shoegaze five-piece A Weather have been quietly lurking around since 2006, releasing The Feather Test 7 inch in 2007, followed by debut LP Cove the year after. This year’s Everyday Balloons, in keeping with the previous releases is out on Conor Oberst’s record label Team Love, and was produced by Adam Selzer who has worked with the likes of Norfolk & Western and M. Ward.
Wig Smith is the other half of folk duo The Hand which comprises Bristol singer-songwriter Rachael Dadd. At the end of April he announced the release of his solo debut A Means of Escape Through a Hedge. There was little background information I could track down on this album other than the plentiful insights from the artist himself – the best we could have hoped for! Much like the lyrics …
Portland, Oregon sextet Blitzen Trapper released their fifth LP Destroyer of the Void this week. Following on from predecessor Furr (2008) and the Black River Killer EP (2009) their latest is again released on Sub Pop. The recording took place in an attic studio in the Januarys of 2009 and 2010, where frontman Eric Earley and bandmates worked alongside studio engineer Mike Coykendall (Bright Eyes, M Ward) to create their …
A tiny sticky-floored venue which I had shamefully never been to before, hidden somewhere between the fast-food chains of Notting Hill Gate, lies this shabby-chic club: battered leather couches and a stage area that is more akin to a garage practice space…but perhaps is it this that gives the venue and the on-going night Communion its cosy, homely feel. From the minute we stepped down the stairs to the Mumford …
Described by Gilles Peterson as “a great artist” Matt Sage started out in a band with musicians who moved on to find success working with Faithless and Dido, after which he turned his efforts to solo projects while holed up on a canal boat in Oxfordshire. Since then he has played at WOMAD, started up a hugely successful acoustic night in Oxford called Catweazle, and created a platform called Big …
Duotone’s debut Work Harder and One Day You’ll Find Her is the work of Barney Morse-Brown; best known for his work with The Imagined Village. The collection of eight tracks incorporate layered vocals and looped string arrangements over which it is ultimately the cello that conducts and controls the ebb and flow of these atmospheric pieces.
Touring in support of her fifth LP The Calcination of Scout Niblett, British born Emma Louise “Scout” Niblett plays a toned down grunge that has her frequently likened to PJ Harvey or a messy Chan Marshall. Reverting back to her traditional style characteristic of earlier albums such as I Am, she was a sparse clatter of emotion at The Borderline, London. Like an exuberant child she came on stage in …
Born to folk-musician parents in Brattleboro, Vermont it’s hardly a surprise that Sam Amidon is continuing down the folk path trodden for him at the age of six when he was first taken on stage by his parents: both successful musicians of the Appalachian folk revival. Like a game of Chinese whispers, Sam takes those murder ballads and traditional folk songs his father would sing to him and passes them down …
Bristol based Rachael Dadd’s feet pretty much only touch ground when she hits the stage. For the past two or so years she has been touring almost constantly; playing shows in England and further afield Japan, whilst in-between times; stitching craft things and painting personalised record sleeves for sale at gigs. After the Ant Fight (2009) is a collection of piano ballads and more heavily instrumented tracks with rootsy folk …
Following up 2007’s debut Hopey; Rhode Island-based Allysen Callery released her second album Hobgoblin’s Hat in February this year. The LP’s title tips its hat to Finnish author Tove Jansson, of Moomins fame, who happens to be one of Callery’s favourites. In keeping with this fairytale Moominland, her songs are a collectively dark form of storytelling, with the singer songwriter often reworking her self-written poetry (“Vincenzo Part 1 & 2”). …
Joanna Newsom has come a long way since her 2004 debut The Milk Eyed Mender: a collection of short heartfelt songs, almost nursery rhymes telling of mollusc weddings and dragons. Written by an Elfin-like creature who appears to be a modern incarnation of the Pre-Raphaelite painting The Lady of Shallot, she sings in a shrill accapella voice, commonly likened to that of a child, much to our singer’s dislike. All …