Albums

Trá Pháidín travel South Connemara’s 424 bus route, creating a musical map that incorporates elements of Irish traditional music, earthy psych, ambient, kraut, free jazz, post rock, field recording and just about anything else you care to mention.

‘When I’m Called’ is Jake Xerxes Fussell’s finest set and his most delicately arranged. Let this one bed in after a few listens and allow its delicate layers to slowly emerge; you’ll feel grateful for such beautifully performed and arranged music.

Irish duo Rezo’s new album, The Age of Self Help, applies the lessons that need to be learned in an era where being heard has never been more challenging. Watch their new video for Circle Closed.

On Midsummer, London, Kate Carr is content to let the streets do the talking, observing the pulses and rhythms which otherwise go unnoticed: the fluvial gulping of the Thames, the polyrhythmic interactions of commuters’ footsteps, the industrial ambience of roadworks.

Natalia Beylis is an artist uncommonly in tune with the physicality of her surroundings and extremely attuned to the politics and history of these landscapes. With Lost – For Annie, an unexpectedly moving album, she demonstrates examples of all of these qualities.

Celebrated Scottish fiddle player Laura Jane Wilkie’s debut album ‘Vent’ screams confidence from start to finish. There are surprises and delights throughout its nine tracks that will demand many listens, each bringing something new.

While Small Medium Large, the exploratory kosmische jazz debut from SML (Anna Butterss, Jeremiah Chiu, Josh Johnson, Booker Stardrum & Gregory Uhlmann) contains unexpected multitudes, even at its most complex moments, it remains bright and airy, reflecting an impressive and sincere unity to their playing.

The overall sound of The Key tends toward a hard-edged, rocky sub-species of post-punk, but in Chris Corsano’s hands, everything is up for grabs, and those genres become mutable and malleable…not a moment of it is anything less than engaging, and it is frequently astonishing.

With What Is Not Strange? Tashi Wada has announced himself as a truly distinctive voice, capable of creating experimental music on the most human level.

Gabriel Birnbaum’s ‘Patron Saint of Tireless Losers’ is haunted by subtilty, shade and shadows, he seems to know the landscape and the landmarks well.

Theoretical in its conception and yet broadly humanist in its appeal, Black Decelerant’s Reflections Vol. 2 serves as a timely reminder that music of resistance doesn’t have to be overly simple or one-dimensional. This is art as nuanced argument, challenging and often beautiful.

Tor Invocation Band’s ‘Medicine’ travels through a borderless realm of traditional folk, ambient, heavy psych, noise and free jazz. But it hangs together admirably under Jake Blanchard’s guiding hand, proof that the most uncompromising music can also be an absolute pleasure to listen to.