Buck Curran’s ‘One Evening and Other Folk Songs’ is an album of hidden depths. His talent is an alchemical one: seemingly quotidian musical ingredients are turned into rare metals in his hands, and with this eclectic but hugely talented band, the results are doubly impressive.
The Burning Hell were so impressed by Nev Clay, one of Newcastle’s best-kept secrets, that Mathias Kom asked to review Nev’s new album, ‘So Little Happened for So Long’ – “It’s my record of the year, and the remainder of 2024 is irrelevant”.
Halocline, the debut album from Malin Lewis, our Artist of the Month, is a highly creative and singular forty minutes of music that’s unique in its character and emotion. Clever in its approach and balanced in its execution, in short, it’s quite exceptional.
Martin Simpson’s Skydancers is a beautifully packaged album. The music exudes class and quality, but what impresses most is the restraint. No notes are wasted and all instrumental flourishes land, enhancing each song. It is an excellent record from a master of his craft.
Jenny Sturgeon and Boo Hewerdine’s Outliers revels in the beauty of the remote. While conceived and recorded entirely online, it feels astonishingly close. The attention to detail and clarity of sound are incredible, and their contributions are clearly defined yet entirely in accord.
At sixteen songs, Eliza Carthy & Jon Boden’s “Glad Christmas Comes” is, appropriately, like a big Christmas lunch that you won’t want to finish. Beautiful music from two of our very finest and most valuable artists, it is a very easy album to love.
Harry’s Seagull shows how old songs sung with affection and skill can sparkle like new. Georgia Shackleton’s solo debut is light as a gull’s feather but flush with ideas: it’s one of the freshest and most appealing folk albums of the year.
On ‘Look Over the Wall, See the Sky’, John Francis Flynn unropes songs from their historical moorings and lets them barrel downstream…Refreshing and vividly utopian, these songs exist in liberated states that have the feel of radical statements.
The Furrow Collective are simply one of the most formidable combinations of musicians in today’s folk music scene, and in “We Know by the Moon”, they have created one of the year’s outstanding albums.
Honey & the Bear’s “Away Beyond the Fret” is a remarkable album, especially for capturing profound personal moments alongside folklore, history, nature, superstition, and awe-inspiring tales. They live it like they sing it, with open minds, ears and hearts.
Chris Brain’s ‘Steady Away’ is an introspective and reflective offering. Intelligently written and considerately handled, it’s everything a second album should be; an excellent album by a musician really starting to bloom.
Catrin Finch & Aoife Ní Bhriain’s ‘Double You’ goes beyond virtuosic; it’s also layered with emotion, appreciation for style and tradition and the freedom of just playing. You are left feeling that this partnership was inevitable and absolutely necessary…an essential release.
