Underground music & arts magazine with a penchant for the more obscure
Words by Alex Neilson Grande Dame? National Treasure? Folk Royalty? These are just some of the appellations routinely tacked onto the name of Shirley Collins. And while they basically fit, they imply a distant fondness of personality from someone who’s best work is behind them. None of these things apply to Our Shirley. She’s warm, funny and … Continue reading Album review: Shirley Collins – Archangel Hill
Buck Curran, previously a part of the critically acclaimed and influential psych folk duo Arborea alongside Shanti Deschaine, has been diligently and individually pursuing his own rich and inspired path, weaving Robbie Basho inspired raga with American primitive fingerpicking throughout albums such as 2020’s superlative ‘No Love is Sorrow’, which combined a Popol Vuh-hued sense of the sacred with a … Continue reading Album review(s): Buck Curran – The Long Distance, Delights and Dangers of Ambiguity, and Solstice – A Tribute to Steffen Basho-Junghans
Words by Grey Malkin Now here is a curious, and wonderful, discovery. From an era of creative and whimsical psych and acid inflected folk, and of private press albums that now command thousands of pounds for their scratchy yet deeply inventive takes on the musical counterculture, appears a first-time release for an early 70’s sixth … Continue reading Album review: Saphron – Red Amber
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 Gareth Thompson On her first solo album since 2015’s Don’t Weigh Down The Light, Meg Baird delivers a spiritual and musical watershed. Furling is the sound of someone who has gained serene knowledge, aware of their deepest feelings and thoughts. Baird’s hymns to mysticism have often danced on the fringes of understanding and … Continue reading Album review: Meg Baird – Furling
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
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
Words by Grey Malkin Cardiff’s Marc (Zeuk) Roberts continues his exploration of the wyrd and wonderful corners of both psych folk and baroque pop with Ghost of Clone, an ambitious and highly satisfying book and album pairing that exemplifies Robert’s uniquely creative and distinctive approach. Following on from recent Zeuk missives Crow Spanner and Minutes (where … Continue reading Album review: Marc Roberts – Ghost Of Clone
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