Honest, in-depth album reviews by KLOF Mag – championing and curating intelligent, uncompromising voices in contemporary and experimental music since 2004.
Albums
Aoife Nessa Frances may have been caught in the wonder of the moment, trying to figure out where she fits in, yet Protector is a most generous gift, where she plays not to the crowd but to the sound and swirl of her own heart.
Only a few albums warrant being designated genre-defining and/or so important that they changed music…The Watersons’ Frost & Fire is one of them; it remains a revelatory and seminal album and this vinyl reissue by Topic Records is an essential purchase.
With A Tarot Of The Green Wood, Burd Ellen successfully tread entirely new ground. It is a suitably bewitching, disconcerting and often profoundly moving experience from the most innovative duo in folk music.
Eliza Carthy’s Queen Of The Whirl is all top-drawer…the element that fires listeners up the most is that voice. As far as natural-born instruments go, it is one of the best and wow, does she know how to use it.
Shot through with threads of resilience, Samuel James Taylor’s ‘Wild Tales and Broken Hearts’ is an album that reignited his love of music and songwriting.
On ‘Edyf,’ Cerys Hafana’s sound is simultaneously ancient in feel yet intriguingly modern with a vital 21st-century edginess. On each listen, new layers reveal themselves…it doesn’t follow any recognisable path or template, but then aren’t these the records that endure the longest?
On ‘Time Was Away’, the perfectly matched Emily Portman and Rob Harbron have delivered an elegant and understated gem that’s beautifully atmospheric and gently beguiling. Take time to savour this treat; you’ll be much rewarded.
On The Cinder Sheet, the delicate psych-folk sound of Sairie is delightfully unpredictable. They steadfastly avoid well-trodden routes with remarkable results. Anticipation grows for where they can take their open-eared psych-folk vision next.
As a songwriter, part of what makes Robyn Hitchcock so unique is that he doesn’t write songs like anyone else – ‘Shufflemania’ is no exception as it teases, turns and twirls to its own muse – we are all the richer for it.
VRÏ’s ‘islais a genir’ is an album that honours variety and positively revels in its own complex, colourful identity, by turns thoughtful and celebratory. A formidable artistic and cultural statement.
With ‘His Last Letter’, Geoff Muldaur has curated a behemoth of a project with packaging that befits the ambition; this is undoubtedly the most annotated and sympathetically presented new music release of 2022 – it’s a deep joy on every level.
