Thomas Blake

The Burning Hell’s ‘Ghost Palace’ may sound like an acceptance of Earth’s fate, but there are subtle signs that life…in a way, the diversity that artists like Kom bring to the world is one of the things that make it a future worth fighting for. 

Gigspanner Big Band’s ‘Turnstone’ is a great example of how traditional song can provide a template for exciting new musical discovery. It’s also a career-defining release from one of folk’s most powerfully creative groups.

Teeth of Time is Joshua Burnside’s most rounded, complex and layered work to date. That said, the jagged edges and black depths that have characterised his music for a decade are still there, only now they are illuminated by a fragile beauty.

With Hinterland, Gerry Diver and Lisa Knapp wanted to create something ‘raw and real and unrestrained,’ something that flies in the face of the notion that folk music is a static form…this gloriously free-spirited album is the perfect example of folk’s potential for reinvention. 

Frog’s Daniel Bateman is (still) one of the world’s finest, most singularly gifted songwriters. 1000 Variations on the Same Song might dip liberally into America’s grimy gutters or get its sustenance from heartbreak, but I still can’t listen without a giant lunatic grin.

Jim Ghedi’s ‘Wasteland’, for all its anger and anguish, provides us with many moments of beauty. It is a timely reminder of the potency of art in a world that seems to be turning uglier by the day, and it might just be Ghedi’s masterpiece.

Given the solitude in which it was written, Midsummer Tideline is a surprisingly sociable album, full of warmth and the vigour of shared creativity, and it adds yet another string to Ian Humberstone’s already impressive bow. 

Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra’s ‘Forest Party’ and ‘Noodle’ are fearsomely eclectic albums. Genre boundaries dissolve, and everything is suspended freely, creating its own universe with all the randomness and beautiful chaos it implies. He proves that home can exist wherever there is hope and community.

End of the Middle, as its name suggests, might mark the closing chapter of a particular phase in Richard Dawson’s career, but it does so with panache and potency, proof that he is still the most gifted and generous of songwriters.

The latest Folklore Tapes Ceremonial Counties series features a satanic brew from dbh and The Dark Pool that most contemporary stoner rock bands would sacrifice their grandmothers for and a satisfyingly devilish and wholly fitting companion piece from the Primitive Percussion Youth Orchestra.

The abiding characteristic of Speilstillevariasjoner is its sense of wholeness. This is music that constantly has its eyes wide open, both in wonder and in anticipation of the next new and interesting path. Stein Urheim has again proved himself to be Norway’s premier musical explorer.

For all its apparent familiarity, The Purple Bird is a country record that nobody else could have possibly made. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy is still doing things entirely his own way, and he sounds as good as ever. Long may it continue.