Featured Albums of the Month

The Gentle Good’s latest album, Elan, is a concept album of sorts, a study of the Elan Valley in Powys through music, recorded off-grid in the Cambrian mountains. An admirable creation, it’s a broad and generous soundscape for a beloved area of Wales, containing both music and singing that is diverse, adventurous and rich in character. Gareth Bonello’s most ambitious album so far, this bumper collection is a triumph.

Glasgow-based singer Quinie’s ‘Forefowk, Mind Me’ may have been several years in the making, and it may draw heavily on the songs of the past, but it feels like the perfect snapshot of a type of folk music that is unapologetically and gloriously present.

Iona Lane’s Swilkie is a masterful album full of heartfelt emotion and breathtaking songwriting, and the additional disc of live recordings casts the whole album as a journey from solo endeavour to collaboration, from the bud of an idea to a fully-realised work of art.

Throughout ‘Uncharted’, the new album from Rachael McShane & The Cartographers, the music sounds fresh and vibrant alongside Rachael’s bright vocals. It’s perfect for spring and hugely enjoyable to listen to. And for that, we can be grateful.

A special Artists on Artist interview between multi-instrumentalist experimental alt-pop artists Shugo Tokumaru (Japan) and Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra (Australia/Taiwan) covering influences, childhood, creativity and more.

Gigspanner Big Band’s ‘Turnstone’ is a great example of how traditional song can provide a template for exciting new musical discovery. It’s also a career-defining release from one of folk’s most powerfully creative groups.

With Hinterland, Gerry Diver and Lisa Knapp wanted to create something ‘raw and real and unrestrained,’ something that flies in the face of the notion that folk music is a static form…this gloriously free-spirited album is the perfect example of folk’s potential for reinvention. 

Jim Ghedi’s ‘Wasteland’, for all its anger and anguish, provides us with many moments of beauty. It is a timely reminder of the potency of art in a world that seems to be turning uglier by the day, and it might just be Ghedi’s masterpiece.

Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra’s ‘Forest Party’ and ‘Noodle’ are fearsomely eclectic albums. Genre boundaries dissolve, and everything is suspended freely, creating its own universe with all the randomness and beautiful chaos it implies. He proves that home can exist wherever there is hope and community.

Sam Amidon’s Salt River is an album whose full kaleidoscopic experience is revealed through repeated listens. Eclectic is an easily applied word, but here we have an artist releasing a groundbreaking, spirited and adventurous album that is genuinely worthy of the description.

The true genius of Ross Ainslie’s ‘Pool’ lies in how it reconciles its stylistically varied individual tracks with an overall mood that remains consistent—and consistently engaging, something he pulls off with panache, originality, and an often breathtaking range of musical invention.

In terms of lyrical content and musical atmosphere, To Warm the Winter Hearth is a winter (rather than a Christmas) album. Along with Windborne’s almost supernatural grasp of harmony singing, this an impressive, evocative work of art.