Albums

Nick Granata and Dawn Terry are the latest artists to feature on Jacken Elswyth’s The Betwixt & Between series. The series has thrown up a wide array of vital, surprising new folk music, and the latest release is one of its best yet.

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.

Come Slack Your Horse! is a true landmark release from Goblin Band. While their music may be rooted in the past, Goblin Band represent a vibrant, exciting, and more accessible future for all who enjoy British folk music.

Canada’s The Deep Dark Woods return with another fine selection of folk songs – Broadside Ballads Vol III. It’s a quietly intoxicating album featuring the warm-voiced Ryan Boldt, his band, and special guest Erin Rae.

The one apparently simple thing that has always made Six Organs of Admittance stand out from the crowd is his ability to create cerebral music that’s brimful of soul, and ‘Time is Glass’ is a perfect example of that winning combination.

Northwest & Nebulous is the most layered, complex thing Luce Mawdsley have created to date. It provides an almost utopian glimpse of a particular corner of England, but more importantly, it shows a way of getting there by embracing queerness and unique personal expression.

Scott Ballew has created something that rivals the work of John Prine, Townes VanZandt and even Mr. Zimmerman himself. Rio Bravo keeps sneaking up on you, mixing music and metaphors in the most amazing ways. If it’s not a masterpiece, it’s pretty damn close.

Toby Hay and Aidan Thorne’s ‘after a pause’ is music of sharply-defined brilliance, shot through with the light of the Welsh countryside, and brimming with consideration both for the spirit of collaboration and for the natural world.

Lately, the influence of traditional music, always there somewhere in the background, has made itself more apparent in the music of BIG|BRAVE, and A Chaos Of Flowers continues this trend – a visceral, moving, complex and gloriously heavy piece of work.

With ‘Willson Williams,’ one might be tempted to conclude that Kathryn Williams and Dan Willson are bringing out the best in each other. Despite the melancholy that both typically lean into, there is a feeling of dual purpose and fun resonating through all these tracks.

While The Lostines’ eclectic yet familiar musical influences connect with the listener across their debut album, there is far more going on beneath the surface that makes this duo’s lyrical tales all the more alluring. It’s definitely time for more people to meet them.

Japanese sound artist FUJI||||||||||TA returns to Hallow Ground with his second full-length MMM for the Swiss label, his most complex so far–a masterpiece of conceptual and formal rigour.