Browsing Tag

UK Folk

The UK-based artist, Bobby Bluff is set to make his bleak smitten-worthy avant-folk debut

Posted on 11 January 2022
Bobby Bluff

If any new 2022 release can help you turn a smile, it’s the eccentrically enamouring release, The Cat of Cruickshank, by the UK-based singer-songwriter and artist Bobby Bluff. With fleeting reminiscences to Billy Bragg, The Residents, The Legendary Pink Dots and John Cooper Clarke, the gritty yet sonically exuberant vignette is the ultimate existentialist’s playlist staple.

Paradoxically, The Cat of Cruickshank is elevated in its Avant-Garde style and as rough as the plot to a Ken Loach film. Coming across it almost felt like an act of serendipity in our dystopic world-weary times. The Cat of Cruickshank leaves you with that rare sense of eagerness to find out where Bluff will take his innovation next. Even if the rest of 2022 disappoints, you can place your faith in the stout-hearted ingenuity of Bluff.

The Cat of Cruickshank is just one of the singles on Bobby Bluff’s debut album, Introducing Bobby Bluff, which will release in April 2022.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Only the soulless won’t be spellbound with Mark Lewis Heavenor’s artfully lamenting folk single, Young Boy.

Posted on 2 November 2021

Scottish songwriter, composer and guitarist, Mark Lewis Heavenor has released his most poignant work to date with his morosely gruff art-folk single, Young Boy. While the soundscape paints a quaint sepia-toned ramshackle town in your mind, the music video juxtaposes it by using a soul-sucking British ghost town as a location to place two dancers as they find inspiration despite the lamentable landscape.

Like many artists, Heavenor pulls plenty of inspiration from Tom Waits to create his own artfully rich sound but in every progression, you hear Heavenor push past assimilation into the realm of authentic creation.

The weight of the heavy yet bright vocals crawls under your ribs as you listen to the art-folk instrumentals quiver, rattle and angularly blossom from the fretboard. With the gentleness of Elliott Smith, the lyrical conviction of Kurt Cobain in his more melodious work and the cinematic pull of his Flamenco/Americana Folk guitars, you’d have to be soulless not to be spellbound.

The official video for Young Boy premiered on October 20th; it is a stunner; go check it out on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

The Far North makes compassion worth having with his debut album, Songs for Gentle Souls.

Posted on 1 October 2021

There are far too many things in this world that will tear away at the more affable side of mankind, but The Far North made compassion worth having with the release of their 2020 acoustic folk album, Songs for Gentle Souls.

The standout single, Branches, is a blues-folk serenade that all too efficaciously pulls you into the shimmering accordance of the minimalist soundscape that the 70s style folk-rock vocals soulfully resound within.

While you’d be forgiven for thinking that this sound manifested in Mississippi, The Far North is the solo project of singer-songwriter and guitarist Lee Wylding, hailing from Chester, England. His ethos as an artist is rooted in the roots of folk; his commitment to ensuring every lyric resonates shines through in Branches. We can’t wait to hear more from The Far North.

The Far North’s debut album is available to stream in full on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Nathaniel Graham takes us to ‘Sky Valley’ with his classically-inspired folk single

Posted on 28 September 2021

The breaking folk singer-songwriter, Nathaniel Graham, made light work of establishing himself as one to watch when he made his lockdown debut in May 2021. You only need to listen to his latest ambient work, Sky Valley, to see why so many found comfort and escapist refuge in his timeless, classically inspired composition style.

The simple yet masterful guitar-driven melodies canter along at a tranquil pace as the bright, sun-kissed tones epitomise the serenity of summer days away from the chaos of modernity. Around the classical Spanish guitar influences, you’ll find intermittently bluesy folk twangs that add an incredible dynamic to the Newcastle-born, London-based artist’s soundscape.

With a debut album in the pipeline, it is safe to assume that Nathaniel Graham’s career will be just as bright as his optimistically light singles.

Sky Valley is now available to stream on Spotify.

The Fullers welcome you to the ‘Unreal City’ with their classical folk single.

Posted on 13 August 2021

The brutalist architecture in the single artwork perfectly captures the bleak tone in the Fullers’ latest semi-orchestral single, Unreal City, which comes with 70s melancholic pop-rock nostalgia and a sorrowful indie post-punk edge.

The Fullers have been in formation since 2018; they garnered the attention of BBC Surrey and Essex before transforming their rock sound to make the most of songwriter Peter Neilan’s classical training. The evolution in their sound allows classical motifs to coalesce with folk elements; any fans of Ben Folds will want to pay attention.

Unreal City was officially released on August 13th; you can check it out for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The rain pours in Tew’s stormy seminal release, ‘Vessel’

Posted on 12 July 2021
New

Up and coming UK-based singer-songwriter Tew is set to release his seminal single, Vessel; the stormy yet simultaneously delicate semi-orchestral single offers a profoundly captivating atmosphere, amplified by the cutting timbre of Tew’s vocals.

It is one of those increasingly rare singles that is artful as it is sonically enticing; the alchemic experimentalism retracted none of the emotional potential. Instead, Tew used it to reflect those feelings that you can never really find the words for, those moments of absolute chaos that make it feel like the ground exists at the mercy of your perception.

Vessel is due for release on July 21st. You can check it out for yourselves on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Folk meets Britpop in River Knight’s latest single, She Came Round, featuring Ralph Walling.

Posted on 5 July 2021
https://soundcloud.com/river-knight-613028707/she-came-round-1

Americana meets UK Britpop in River Night’s alt-folk single, She Came Round, featuring Ralph Walling. While instrumentally, the semi-orchestral folky instrumentals run in the same vein as Dylan’s did in the 70s, there’s a touch of Oasis and the Stone Roses to the vocals that contrast with the accordant tones of the acoustic guitar progressions.

She Came Round is just one of the authentically original singles from the Southampton-based duo’s lockdown-born album, Grow, which released on June 25th. With plenty of tour dates in their diary, 2021 could very well be the year of River Knight.

She Came Round is now available to stream via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Strap yourselves in for the sonically celestial ride Suris will take you on with their psych-folk album, ‘Bonehouse’.

Posted on 29 April 2021

UK-based husband and wife duo Suris released their third album, Bonehouse, on April 29th. After a six-year gap in releases, anyone previously acquainted with their arcane sound will want to adjust their expectations accordingly for the evolution in their expression. During lockdown, Suris have taken their sound to an artfully transcendent level; strap yourselves in for the smooth celestial ride.

The album starts with ‘Argus’, a spacey ambient feat of psych-folk that carries reminiscence to Bowie through the argonaut-inspired instrumentals and Kate Bush through Lindsey’s vocals which switch from evocative vibrato to chorally ethereal and back again. It perfectly sets the tone for the record that never allows you to get comfortable.

Instead, with their soulfully pretence-less writing and production style, Suris meld elements of jazz, folk, progressive rock, psych-pop and avant-garde pop in compelling arrangements that breathe with the new age freedom of a Fleetwood Mac record, yet, there is always something striking, and indulgently unsettling waiting for you in the next progression.

With the more atmospheric singles such as, ‘Wanted’, and ‘Eclipse’, the self-recorded and produced record feels so spiritual that it almost becomes metaphysical. Bonehouse is an incredible testament from Suris. If you appreciate true aural pioneers, you’ll want them on your radar.

Bonehouse is available to stream from April 29th, 2021. You can check it out for yourselves on SoundCloud.

Keep up to date with new releases from Suris via Facebook and Instagram.

Dylan Walker drops his debut single, the chilled love-song ‘All I Need Is You’

Posted on 10 April 2021

It’s not often that bible quotes spring readily to mind when reviewing new music, but “when I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things” could easily be the tag-line for ‘All I Need Is You’, Dylan Walker’s debut self-penned single.

An ex-childhood tennis prodigy and professional player turned musician and songwriter, 20-something Dylan Walker’s opener is a beautiful, gentle mellow little acoustic-guitar-and-vocal-led ballad to love, loss, and the understanding that the important things in life aren’t – as he puts it – ‘…fancy things/ like fast cars and grand clothes and diamond rings’, but the love and support of those close to us. Dylan Walker’s voice is soft, lilting, almost falsetto at times, carrying the message of the lyrics beautifully over the chilled melodic backing. It’s a strong, confident debut, and bodes well for Dylan Walker in the future, with two more singles – ‘Life Began With You’ and ‘We Are Meant To Be’ slated for release later this year on Happy Sloth Records.

‘All I Need Is You’ is out now across all major streaming platforms; you can check it out on Spotify now.

Review by Alex Holmes

The Home Stretch made a seafaringly sweet debut with their album ‘Ocean Boy’

Posted on 1 March 2021

Discernibly, it isn’t just the artwork for The Home Stretch’s album ‘Ocean Boy’ which Neutral Milk Hotel inspired, the same lo-fi psych folk sound resounds right through the debut album from the Birmingham-based newcomers.

The seafaringly sweet album starts with the title-track which allows you to wade into The Home Stretch’s cathartically panoramic signature sound which will undoubtedly be a hit with any fans of Deerhunter.

There’s nothing ambient about the intricate art rock guitar progressions which pop with bluesy pronunciation, but you’ll feel serenity wash over you as you let this mellifluously stunning soundscape arrest your rhythmic pulses and offer indulgent aurally-derived escapism.

Ocean Boy is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast