Albums

Stepping into the spotlight, Martin Callingham called on his friends from the Bristol scene to help create the beautifully realised statement album Tonight, We All Swim Free.

Alasdair has produced an album that conjures, through its own uniquely relaxed, quiet and inclusive intimacy, an earthly and worldly – and yet almost unearthly and otherworldly – magic, of a very special kind.

A good looking CD, Dan Webster’s The Tin Man also sounds fabulous as his newly learnt production skills make the most of some great playing and his literate songcraft and superb voice.

Working on a grand scale with incredible musical skill Treacherous Orchestra’s second album Grind is a masterpiece of symphonic invention and seat-of-the-pants virtuosity.

Suzie Ungerleider’s vocals sweep you up and carry you gently from one wonderful melody to another, such that regardless of the subject-matter, you want to hear it again and again.

Absent Fathers is a clinical dissection of the damage we can do to each other without even knowing it. Together with Single Mothers, it’s a career high.

‘Save No One’ shows major promise and with a sense of vision and an intelligent ear for arranging, Simon Bertrand could very well be a diamond in the rough.

As a music-obsessed teenager in southern France, Franz Robert Wild gradually learned to turn his passion into his own songs and The French House proves the merit of living your dream.

Based in London, there’s strong traces of his Irish background to both Niall Kelly’s vocals and the melodies of his Celtic-soul tinged Americana of his latest release Not Sleeping.

If you ever wished there had been a whole album to go with ‘Fairytale of New York’ then ‘Middle Aged Love’ is your perfect unhappy ever after.

Laura Smyth and Ted Kemp are part of that rare but thriving band of musicians who are influenced by traditional material while developing their own distinct style.

FRUK catches The Barr Brothers at a sold out Bush Hall on their fifth visit to the UK in less than a year. Read our special live feature review from Paul with photos from the night by Di Holmes.