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
Words by Grey Malkin João Branco Kyron, known for his role within the formidable and innovative Beautify Junkyards, also has solo pedigree, having previously released 2022’s alluring ‘Ascending Plume of Faces’, an eerie and psychedelic piece of experimental electronica influenced by the occult artist Austin Osman Spare. Whilst Beautify Junkyards gear up for their fifth album … Continue reading Album review: Kyron – Dreaming Eden
Words by Lady Godiva Shangri-La : a remote beautiful imaginary place where life approaches perfection. Sheffield based Rose Love (Sister Wives) lets us into her own shangri-la, as a sassy northern lass. A parallel universe where this modern Alice in Wonderland glides in technicolor portals, encompassing psych, pop and glam. These different realms fit into … Continue reading EP Review: Shangri-Lass – Over & Over
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
Album artwork by Stephen Titra Words by Lady Godiva Far far away, down the rabbit hole, lives a mystic bard named Constantine. This storyteller has been sharing his epic wanderings in magical lands filled with castles and spells. After the fall of the kingdom he narrated at the tail end of his previous effort, he … Continue reading Album review: Constantine – Fables
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 Alexandra Rose With a sonic panorama incorporating rays of psychedelia, folk rock and melodic jazz, the hotly anticipated debut album by Oracle Sisters, Hydranism, is full of songs imbued with poignant prose and melodic tranquillity. Reflecting a world temporarily suspended in time during the global health pandemic, Hydranism was composed and recorded during … Continue reading Album review: Oracle Sisters – Hydranism
Words by Grey Malkin Elkhorn (Jesse Sheppard and Drew Gardener) have previously blown minds and gathered devotion with a series of staggeringly inventive and deeply immersive releases, from the adventurous psych folk of 2019’s ‘Sun Cycle/Elk Jam’, to the wind-torn improvisations of ‘Storm Sessions’ (literally recorded whilst holed up during a winter ice blast), to last … Continue reading Album review: Elkhorn – On The Whole Universe In All Directions
Words by Lady Godiva Based in London but symbolically originated in Barcelona, Index For Working Musik is Max Oscarnold and Nathalie Bruno's (from Drift) prodigal brainchild. Dragging The Needlework For The Kids at Uphole is the title of this triumphant debut on Tough Love Records. A convoluted name that allows different interpretations, ominous at first … Continue reading Album review: Index for Working Musik – Dragging The Needlework For The Kids at Uphole
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