Underground music & arts magazine with a penchant for the more obscure
Words by Grey Malkin Burnt Paw (Birmingham native and Edinburgh resident Andy Green) has quietly but consistently been releasing a series of beautiful EPS and albums filled with adventurous and dexterous acoustic guitar work, and with songs replete with psychedelic, visionary lyrics and tales, since 2016’s illuminating ‘The Sparrow’s Scrapbook’. Later long players, such as … Continue reading Album review: Burnt Paw – Levitation Songs
Words by Lady Godiva Stemming from Alessio Ferrari’s vivid imagination and bucolic surroundings, The Golden Pond is Upupayama’s new release following his promising self-titled debut from last year. As the artwork may manifest, Upupayāma (literally mountain hoopoe), a semi-fictional bird, still flies over the most outstanding and lush greenery. A mere glance at the sleeve … Continue reading Album review: Upupayāma – The Golden Pond
Album artwork Words by Grey Malkin Minstrels for Sleepless, or multi-instrumentalist Nick Palmer (of Directorsound and The A. Lords) along with friends such as psych folk artist Sharron Kraus, vocalists Ellen Harris and Grainne Nestor, cello player Chris Cole (Third Eye Foundation) and percussionist Ian Holford (Nectarine No.9), initially presented the long awaited My Father … Continue reading Album review: Minstrels for Sleepless – My Father the Sea & Other Fables
Words by Rhys Jones Under the guise of Trappist Afterland, Adam G Cole has carved out an uncompromising and often exciting back catalogue of acidic spiritual folk that weaves Eastern time signatures, ethereal drones and meditative audio journeys, which resulted in 2020’s Seaside Ghost Tales. The double album culminated in a series of songs that … Continue reading Album review: Adam Geoffrey Cole – The Tracks of the Afterlander
Album artwork Words by Grey Malkin East Sussex’s Sairie, featuring Emma Morton on vocals/autoharp, Jon Griffin on vocals/guitar and Andy Thomas on bass, have been steadily releasing a series of beautiful and strange singles and EPs, culminating in 2020’s ethereal and haunting The Cherry Tree. Hearkening back to the early 70’s heyday of acid and psychedelic … Continue reading EP Review: Sairie – The Cinder Sheet
Source: Album artwork Words by Grey Malkin NYC/Philadelphia based Elkhorn - Jesse Sheppard and Drew Gardner - are becoming increasingly renowned for their cosmic and widescreen, yet often intimate, guitar symphonies, with their melding of Jack Rose/Robbie Basho style acoustic work with sacred Popol Vuh atmospheres. Previous albums have offered beautiful and sonically adventurous improvisations recorded whilst being … Continue reading Album review: Elkhorn – Distances
Source: album artwork Words by Grey Malkin Paul Roland should need no introduction, his position as a major mover in the underground psych scene from the 1980s onwards led fellow traveller Robyn Hitchcock to describe him as ‘the male Kate Bush’, with barque chamber folk albums such as Cabinet of Curiosities and eclectic psych jewels such … Continue reading Album review: Paul Roland & Mick Crossley – Through The Spectral Gate
Source: album artwork Words by Lady Godiva In a land across the sea lives a troubadour called Woody. His first name is bucolic and his surname is the color of his native Ireland's clover, hard to find a more pastoral moniker. He takes you on a magic carpet over forests, lakes and hamlets to his … Continue reading Album Review: Woody Green – S/T
Words by Grey Malkin Brave New World have been working creatively and consistently within the psych folk scene for the last six years, issuing two EPs (the excellent Alice and Brave New World) alongside tracks for compilations by the esteemed likes of Fruits Der Mer. Comprised currently of multi-instrumentalist Chris Twigger, his daughter Lydia on … Continue reading EP Review: Brave New World – S/T
Words by Grey Malkin Sharron Kraus is well established as one of the UK’s most fascinating and endlessly creative psych folk artists, from her solo work to that with Meg Baird and Helena Espvall of Espers, as Rusalnaia with Ex Reverie’s Gillian Chadwick, and with Tara Burke (Fursaxa) as Tau Emerald. She also recently published … Continue reading Album review: Justin Hopper and Sharron Kraus – Swift Wings