Thomas Blake

On Au Cube is a buoyant rebuke of musical conservatism on which Alasdair Roberts is joined by Glasgow-based instrumentalist Neil McDermott and French traditional group Tartine de Clous.

Thomas Blake shares his Top 10 Albums of 2018 including releases from Xylouris White, A Hawk And A Hacksaw, Joshua Burnell, The Furrow Collective, Jack Hayter, Kitty Macfarlane, Cunning Folk, Toby Hay and more.

As well as offering an insight into his new album Constant Companion, Cunning Folk talks to us about his influences, traditional music and more…‘Traditional music is living history. I’m joining in.’

There is a weight of history and a longing for a better world on The Young’uns’ The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff – it contains the past and it contains the future. It is a special achievement by an extremely talented group.

It is rare for an album of predominantly traditional material to sound as fresh and inspired as this, and feel both thrillingly contemporary and utterly timeless. Cunning Folk is making some of the finest acoustic music to come out of this country in years.

Reg Meuross has achieved something rare and important: he has reanimated a valuable piece of history, and he has done so with great sincerity and emotional depth.

The Furrow Collective are right at the very top of the game when it comes to traditional music. No-one else is as innovative and it is no exaggeration to say that if the future of folk music sounds like Fathoms we are in safe hands indeed.

Through the Wild is an album that is full of emotional peaks and troughs that marks the wholly triumphant return of The Willows, one of the most exciting, fresh and talented bands around today.

On A Problem Of Our Kind Katriona Gilmore and Jamie Roberts have produced an album capable of making you dance, cry and think. And what is more, they do it straight from the off. This album is a masterclass in songwriting.

For listeners unacquainted with Quebecois folk music they have created an eloquent document of a musical form that is very much alive, but just as importantly they have put down a feisty, foot-stomping collection of unusual and highly rewarding tunes.

Kitty Macfarlane’s Namer Of Clouds sets her apart as a singular songwriting talent. It is an album to savour, a debut full of old wisdom and bubbling over with new ideas.

With Many a Thousand, Aldridge and Goldsmith have created a record whose songs are immediate and politically necessary, and whose melodies will remain in the memory for years to come.