Honest, in-depth album reviews by KLOF Mag – championing and curating intelligent, uncompromising voices in contemporary and experimental music since 2004.
Albums
by Ben Garland
Ben Howard’s latest album ‘Collections From The Whiteout’ found the singer-songwriter at his most experimental. As part of his four-date stripped-back UK tour, the Bristol audience were offered a different perspective of that album’s songs alongside the bonus of enjoying them in such rare intimate settings.
by Thomas Blake
As songwriters go, nobody puts quite as much on the table as Neilson. In a live setting such raw experiences are both valuable and, in this case, hugely rewarding. Memory, Speak is a moment in time, a document of Alex Rex at their most formidable and fragile.
by Thomas Blake
The debut winter-themed EP by Milkweed is something of an outlier…They seem intent on reviving the more outlandish, eccentric traditions of folk music, where old and new religions intermingle and where strange, bewitching sounds proliferate. This can only be a good thing.
by Bob Fish
Aisha Badru doesn’t teach and doesn’t preach, she simply sings her truths. That we can learn from the lessons of “The Way Back Home” only serves to make her messages that much more important.
by Mike Davies
While London-based Treetop Flyers stay comfortably within their established sound for their fourth album Old Habits, it is veined with affecting understated new tricks to produce a sublime experience.
by Mike Davies
There’s an affecting tenderness to Ken Pomeroy’s words and delivery that touches on emotions we can all relate to. It’ll be interesting to hear how she develops her craft over the next few years, but her lights shine brightly enough for now.
by Mike Davies
In the wake of the experience of the past two years, ‘The Beat Goes On’ is clearly an album Sean Taylor needed to make, and, as we emerge back into some sort of light, it is very much one we need to hear.
by Billy Rough
Spell Songs II is a timely and beguiling listen. It is a collection to share and reflect upon. So, gather round, cherish the songs, Macfarlane’s words and Morris’s imagery and steep yourself deep in the natural world that surrounds us and prepare to be spellbound.
by Thomas Blake
Based around the one constant figure of Stephen Cracknell, The Memory Band’s sixth album Colours, again features a number of special guests. Existing on the margins of folk and electronica, they manage to bring a touch of the sublime to these liminal states.
by David Pratt
Analog Africa really is a gift that keeps on giving. Essiebons Special 1973- 1984, celebrating the legendary Ghanaian producer Dick Essilfie-Bondzie, is yet another powerhouse release. Whether you are new to Afrobeat/Afrofunk/ Highlife or already an aficionado, this album is well-worth seeking out.