01) Lankum - False Lankum
Contemporary Irish Folk from Dublin.
A captivating mixture of soft, tender tones, the often blunt, insistent and demanding vocals, and the powerful, overwhelming, pulsating, clanging and groaning drone sound with its humming and rumbling.
Despite all the experimental elements in this music, Lankum give it a strange, driving quality that swallows me.
02) Lisa O'Neill - All of This Is Chance
Irish singer-songwriter with her fifth album. For me, however, this is her premiere.
Very moving with thrilling stories. And a very unique vocal coloration, at the same time rough and sometimes harsh, but then again melodic and warm.
Reminds me a bit of Cinder Wells' album "No Summer" from 2020, also due to the drone-like violins used at times.
Captivating record!
03) Vincent Neil Emerson - The Golden Crystal Kingdom
Produced by Shooter Jennings.
I had incomprehensibly labeled Vincent Neil Emerson as irrelevant to me until now. But the new album grabs me: quiet, but intensely simmering with laconic, restrained vocals. Sometimes, the stories told are quite tough, but don't turn into bitterness. Very accessible instrumentation throughout the record, everything played with great naturalness. Great.
04) Rose City Band - Garden Party
Another great new album from Ripley Johnson.
Psychedelic Cosmic American Music with wonderfully wailing pedal steel and Wurlitzer, evoking a sense of the great wide open and free spirit. Carefree and casual, like a trip to sunny California in the late 60s, which is of course a romanticized image, but one that I can't escape.
05) Lauren Barth - Stormwaiting
California Folk from Santa Barbara.
Her second album, following "Forager" from 2017 which hd passed me by. A beautiful West Coast album, influences from David Crosby, Joni Mitchell and Tim Buckley can be heard, but British folk is also peeking around the corner. Surprisingly, however, the mood reminds me a lot of Bert Jansch's 1974 album "L.A. Turnaround".
06) Kassi Valazza - Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing
A beautiful mixture of country and Cosmic American Music with a slightly psychedelic touch. Wonderfully subdued instrumentation with Telecaster twang, Wurlitzer, pedal steel, cornet and trumpet. Kassi Valazza's vocals on this album sometimes remind me of Karen Dalton.
Includes a very nice cover version of Michael Hurley's "Wildegeeses" at the end of the record, in which acoustic guitar, fiddle and Kassi Valazza's voice come together just wonderfully.
07) P.G. Six - Murmurs & Whispers
Pat Gubler's first record since 2011.
Somewhere on the edge between folk and psych with a clear nod to the English weird folk scene of the sixties and seventies. The guitar is often replaced by the Celtic harp. Subtle electronics provide slight drone effects, yet a feeling of lightness prevails.
08) Cinder Well - Cadence
Amelia Baker's new album is good again, but doesn't grab me quite as immediately as "No Summer" from 2020. Somewhat more lushly arranged than its predecessor - the string arrangements are by Lankum's Cormac MacDiarmada - more elaborate and perhaps also more complex, the record a bit lacks the stormy doom urgency and atmosphere of danger that were all over the place on "No Summer".
09) Spice World - There's No "I" in Spice World
Jangle pop group from Fremantle near Perth with their debut album.
Slightly psychedelic undertones, playful, quirky, sometimes charmingly wobbly. With an unmistakable Down Under sound.
10) Buddy & Julie Miller - In the Throes
A surprisingly snotty and urgent new record with a wonderful, forward-moving drive.
