Albums

★★★★★ Cocos Lovers are a band of huge scale and huge sound whose compositions are a heady concoction of something for everyone. Read our Elephant Lands review.

★★★★★ Martin Simpson’s latest album, Purpose and Grace, is in many ways the epiphany of his career. It features a stunning array of artists including Richard Thompson, June Tabor and Dick Gaughan. A classic! You can preview the whole album for one week on Folk Radio UK!

★★★★★ Benjamin Francis Leftwich’s latest release Last Smoke Before the Snowstorm feels like an album better left for background listening; moments of beauty and odd lyrical observations that grab but never quiet hold for long enough.

★★★★★ Johnny Boy Would Love This…A Tribute To John Martyn is a new compilation of covers featuring Beck, Snow Patrol, Beth Orton, Lisa Hannigan, Vashti Bunyan, Bombay Bicycle Club and more.

★★★★★ Black Coffee & Stephee Pie is a collaboration between a guy (Black Coffee & Cherry Pie) from France and a girl (Steffaloo) from California. Their Spin EP contains great dreamy electronic rock.

★★★★★ Stephen Malkmus and his current band, known as the Jicks have released their 5th album titled Mirror Traffic. Beck is on-board as producer and with 40 odd years experience between them something good had to come of it all.

★★★★★ 100 mile house are husband and wife duo Peter Stone and Denise MacKay and multi-instrumentalist Scott Zubot. Hollow Ponds, their second album, is about escape, finding home and settling down.

★★★★★ 100 Acres of Sycamore sees Fionn Regan returning to his acoustic folk roots but with a greater depth and intimacy on this album. A definite winner.

Sam Brookes’ debut album has echoes and intonations reminiscent of Tim Buckley and John Martyn, while his intricate finger-picking style is instantly recognisable as his own, standing far above his peers.

Lanterns on the Lake’s debut LP ‘Gracious Tide, Take Me Home’ has considerable focus on the sea and the beautiful and terrifying expanse of ebbing and flowing tides also stands as a metaphor for disparate emotional states, situation, memory and hope.

North Carolina born Jonathan Wilson’s latest release, Gentle Spirit, rekindles music from a bygone era of the 70′s Laurel Canyon music scene, infused in gentle psychedelia bringing solace in a maddening world seeking Shangri-La.

Manchester based David A Jaycock’s last release was his debut 12 track vinyl LP titled Preset. The album image of a headless ghost like woman in black with her leg tied to a table leg should leave no doubt in your mind that this LP is a very deep and surreal excursion.