Browsing Tag

UK Folk

Jack Cade – The Glitter Around Your Eyes: Achingly Affecting Americana

Posted on 21 February 2024
Bewilderland by Jack Cade and the Everyday Sinners

If you always turn to Cohen, Waits and Nick Cave for sonic solace, redirect your quest for sanctity toward Jack Cade’s folk-meets-alt-country LP, Bewilderland.

His gruff baritone notes against Helen Muggeridge’s glassy-with-soul harmonies create a heart-wrenchingly sentimental dynamic in the standout single, The Glitter Around Your Eyes. Like all of the most affecting love songs, the alchemic feat of Americana lyrically locks into the minute details of affection to elucidate how deep in the veins the affection runs.

Around the bluesy guitar bends, honkytonk piano keys that give the track a touch of the 70s and the roots-wrapped tones as a courtesy of the slide guitar, the two vocalists portray a hesitant yet fervent testament of passion which reaches the epitome of compelling. Slow dance to it, cry your heart out to it as you mourn lost loves, or make it a playlist staple; whatever you do, don’t pass up on this timelessly touching serenade from the UK-hailing conduit of candour.

The Glitter Around Your Eyes was officially released on January 26th; stream the single and Jack Cade’s seminal LP, Bewilderland, on Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Dreams and reality blur in Baz Edmondson’s artfully alternative folk single, The Shepherd’s Lullaby

Posted on 10 February 2024

Baz Edmondson’s sophomore release, ‘The Shepherd’s Lullaby‘, is an ornately tender foray into a euphonically artful world where dreams and reality blur into a harmonious symphony.

This single, beating in the heart of Bournemouth’s folk scene, is a testament to Edmondson’s stripes as a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. It is an intricate blend of traditional folk and art rock, showcasing Edmondson’s unique ability to take feelings and transform them into musical experiences that resound like no other.

The gentle piano keys, placed at the forefront around the orchestral strings and other folk synthetics amplify the sentiments in the sleep-dusted serenade which sees the instrumentals ebb and flow into crescendo, bringing a sense of grandeur while never overpowering the release.

Edmondson’s vocal delivery is reminiscent of Thom Yorke’s fervour, imbuing the song with a raw, emotional depth that is both captivating and haunting. The navigation through the highs and lows of the melody is a journey you will want to take with Baz Edmondson time after time.

For those seeking to rediscover the feeling of their soul being whole, Baz Edmondson’s intricately artful folk world is a journey worth embarking on.

The Shepherd’s Lullaby was officially released on January 31; stream the single on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

River Knight extended empathy for politically derived malady in their orchestral folk-rock score, Green and Gold

Posted on 7 December 2023

River Knight’s latest single, Green and Gold, is a socialist orchestral folk-rock masterpiece; with a reprise of “the system is broken and there’s no way back” as a lyrical opening, there’s no deliberation before immersing you into the infectiously empowering assault on late-stage capitalism.

The modern iteration of everyman’s blues keeps an upbeat tempo as the everyday atrocities unravel over the zeal in the instrumental arrangement to create an emotionally well-rounded score that unifies the disenfranchised while vindicating the anger that is breeding within the social tapestry.

With an ear for a compelling melody, an empathy for politically derived malady, and the technical prowess to construct a soul-sating earworm you’ll be humming for days, the UK duo who banded together in 2017 after Darren Knight’s wife passed away have become as essential as the Manic Street Preachers were in the 90s.

Green and Gold was officially released on November 24; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Mark Ben Wilson is searching on the other side in his compassionately warm folk-pop single, Horizons

Posted on 22 September 2023

Some tracks allow you to fall in love with a three-minute experience; others allow you to develop a deep kinship with the artist through their inviting warmth. After listening to Mark Ben Wilson’s single, Horizons, it is safe to say that he puts his listeners in the latter camp with the evocative resonance in his guitar work that is only matched by the compassionate honey that drips from his vocal lines.

His humble yet highly assured approach to passionately pure acoustic folk-pop is intoxicating from the first melodic breath; as Horizons continues to unravel, you’re taken along for the emotive ride as he searches for meaning on the other side of the kind of storm that leaves you alone holding up an umbrella. It’s a stunning vignette that will easily enamour any fans of Ben Howard, John Butler and Fink.

Horizons will release along with Wilson’s LP, Roots & Wings on September 22nd. Stream it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The UK orchestral folk duo River Knight is on melodious form in their sanctuary spilling single, Unsprung

Posted on 25 December 2022

The folk duo River Knight has been fairly quiet since their 2021 album, Grow. They are back on melodious form in their latest orchestral folk single, Unsprung, which borrows fractions of the melody to Take on Me, but with such a stunning orchestral string ensemble and hints of the Verve and 90s Britpop in the verses, who is complaining?

The earworm brings the ragged and rough timbres through the acoustic guitar strings and percussion while the smooth can be found in the gloss of the orchestral crescendos, which are as close to heaven as the impious are likely to get.

Each new progression is a brand-new opportunity to fall in love with the duo who banded together in 2017 as a form of therapy for Darren Knight after the tragic passing of his wife. Stone River was there for unwavering support and to offer the Ying to Knight’s songwriting Yang. The duo are well known on the London, Portsmouth and Southampton live circuit, but it’s only a matter of time before they take their international-level approach to indie folk rock to the status it beckons.

Unsprung officially released on December 16th. Catch it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Joshua. orchestrated the ultimate Lynchian love song with ‘WALK BY LOVE’

Posted on 6 December 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-CwO_7iXLo

Mike Patton walked so the ethereally scintillating alt-folk artist Joshua. could ‘WALK BY LOVE’ in his latest music video.

Only an artist as iconic as he could get away with a mononym *and* allowing haunting tones to creep out of a ukulele in the production that wouldn’t be out of place in the Eraserhead soundtrack. He could never be accused of writing ‘just another love song’.

The disconcertingly cinematic single allows his sonically ephemeral vocals to drift atop the minimalist instrumentals that envelop you in their wistfully nostalgic sepia tones. In the space of just two minutes, the originator made an ever-lasting impression that definitively proves everyone’s interpretation of love is as individualistic as they are.

The official music video for WALK BY LOVE is now available to stream on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Bluebyrd weaved a timeless folk pop serenade with their latest single, Crystals

Posted on 12 October 2022
https://open.spotify.com/track/1XiRaPhOvTz3HK1LNc9OfO?si=23885357f8c34394

The Folk-pop visionary duo Bluebryd entwined modernism with an air of 70s and 80s folk in their latest single, Crystals, mused by a fragile soul traversing a chaotic world with spirituality as a guiding force.

With reminiscences of Ralph McTell and Richard Thompson and melodic echoes of Cash’s Ring of Fire, the lyrically delicate protest to unsettling times will undoubtedly resonate with anyone that has felt at a loss in the current climate of ennui and disillusion. It’s a touching serenade from the folk-pop duo, who are fresh from supporting The Christians and Ian McNabb; they have also been in regular rotation on UK and international radio, with over 200 plays across 2021 and 2022.

Crystals was officially released on October 3rd; check it out on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Michael R Shaw is set to release his feat of dark-folk redemption ‘Lord of All’

Posted on 6 May 2022
Michael R Shaw

Lancashire singer-songwriter Michael R Shaw has teased the humility and ornate originality in his upcoming album by giving us a preview of the short and profound dark-folk single, Lord of All.

Straight away the Nick Cave, Guy Garvey, and Richard Hawley influences start to resound around Shaw’s art-folk ingenuity which carries a touch of tenderness, poetry exhumed from a plaintive soul and a bold alchemic appeal that almost takes this folk track to a celestial level. It certainly wouldn’t be out of place on the Peaky Blinders soundtrack. Lord of All could have been the track to prevent the criminally excessive use of Red Right Hand.

Lord of All is the intro to Shaw’s upcoming album, which is due for release on September 1st, 2022. Check out Michael R Shaw via his website and SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

London folk hero, The Guv gave neo-folk an exotic twist in ‘December in Istanbul’

Posted on 5 April 2022

Istanbul-born, London-based folk singer & songwriter, The Guv hasn’t lost sight of the muse since making his debut in 2020 – especially on the basis of his most successful single to date, ‘December in Istanbul’. Today, he’s back with new release ‘Love and Joy’.

A decidedly loving and romantic ode to life, and the potential it gives all of us to truly be happy in our relationships with ourselves, ‘Love & Joy’ was mastered by Andy Baldwin / Metropolis Studios who also worked with The Who, UB40, Pet Shop Boys.

While the classical strings cause a drop in the temperature in December in Istanbul, the easy accordance from the acoustic folk guitar progressions will envelop you in the warmth of the timbre. With a chorus that could rival the euphonically anthemic feel of Mumford and Sons paired with the Eastern folk nuances and roots-deep western folk sensibilities, December in Istanbul is an instant timeless classic.

Fans of Queen, Tori Amos and Tim Buckley will want to pay attention to the modernist multinational spin on folk, as well as lovers of high caliber, Decemberists-leaning sensibilities.

As The Guv will be launching new music twice weekly, the Istanbul-born, London-based artist is well worth a spot on your radar. You can check out December in Istanbul without grabbing your passport by heading over to Spotify, where you will also find The Guv’s already-extensive collection of affable neo-folk.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Bluebyrd cut through the static in their latest alt-folk single, Too Much Noise

Posted on 5 February 2022
Too much noise by Bluebyrd

The Wolverhampton, UK-based alt-folk duo, Bluebyrd, has aurally triumphed once again with their latest single, Too Much Noise, which cuts through the static in our cacophonous existence.

For anyone that acquired a new level of overwhelmed anxiety as a parting gift from the pandemics and other chaos that leaves us feeling powerless, Too Much Noise should be considered an essential release. Not only do Bluebyrd deliver resonance hand over fist, but they also create a cathartic indie-folk soundscape that sits somewhere between Cohen, Billy Brag, Semisonic and the Levellers. I couldn’t think of a better new release to drown out the world to.

Too Much Noise was officially released on January 28th. It is now available to stream and purchase via Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast