Honest, in-depth album reviews by KLOF Mag – championing and curating intelligent, uncompromising voices in contemporary and experimental music since 2004.
Albums
by Dave McNally
Featuring several special guests, including Cathal McConnell, Liz Knowles, Brían Mac Gloinn, Anaïs Mitchell and Will Oldham, Nuala Kennedy and Eamon O’Leary’s Hydra features an excellent selection of superbly sung songs and handsome melodies. It doesn’t get much better.
by David Pratt
Bluenose B, aka Stephen Lawson, speaks for itself. With top-drawer production values, Minstrel Of The Wasteland is often compelling, always accomplished and polished, but, above all, a most satisfying, rewarding and enjoyable listen.
by Bob Fish
It’s not often one comes across a musician of the calibre of David Berkeley or an album as pure as A Pail Full of Fire. It springs from a place of honesty where words and music still matter. This is an album for the ages.
by Mike Davies
Jamie Sutherland describes his second solo album, The World As It Used To Be, as songs with the sense that things aren’t black and white; laced with memories, hope and regret, it ultimately sounds the simple affirmation that “we will rise above the darkness”.
by Thomas Blake
Masayoshi Fujita’s latest work, Migratory, is defined by its sense of flux and of growth. Comforting ambience meets melodic exploration, with the vibraphone and marimba fleshed out by subtle electronics and the sparing use of guest vocalists.
by David Pratt
Not A Flower On The Dogwood Flats is a fitting tribute to Jack Bunch and the enduring music of his Uncle Henry, which also serves to bring to a wider audience the raw, authentic sounds that have, for generations, reverberated around the Laurel County hills.
by Devon Léger
Les secrets du ciel, the solo debut of Québécois singer Yann Falquet, is a tour-de-force of his artistic vision on which he proves himself worthy of these great old songs, an interpreter of French-Canadian ballads with a remarkable voice and powerful artistry on the guitar.
by Mike Davies
Cheer Up is a journey through darkness, self-loathing and doubt into the light and salvation…John Blek’s voice has never sounded better; it’s unquestionably his finest work yet.
by Dave McNally
Brilliantly preserved and imbued with a shared, democratic performance ethos, The Complete Friends of Old-Time Music Concert, featuring the Georgia Sea Island Singers and guests, is so vital and powerful that it feels almost like being there.
by Mike Davies
As the song says, when the nights grow dark and the days overcast, we all need dreamers to shine a light and strike a spark to help us see the path; with Dreamers, the Wild Ponies shine their brightest.
by Thomas Blake
On the latest Folklore Tapes Ceremonial Counties release, a fuller picture of the hidden history of England emerges as Rob St John covers strange beasts of Durham and Preston duo Powders cover Staffordshire’s ceramic industry, both hitting the sweet spot between ambience and narrative.
by Dave McNally
On their self-titled new release, Ballaké Sissoko & Derek Gripper’s sparkling improvisation pushes the kora tradition into a brand new musical space.