New releases last eight weeks: Folk/Americana

Review: Something in the Eastern European house and dance music proclivity has always struck us as enduringly authentic, perhaps due to its interest in folk music fusions; the label Sad Fun have surely played a key part in doling out this impression. Now they offer their latest addition to the fantasy with a label-described "true Estonian lowkey gem" in the form of duo Ajukaja & Edith Karlson, aka. Vana, whose combined efforts frankly, dustily and ironically toy with the pop music cliches native to their homeland. A-and-B-siders 'Vimme Ratsu' and 'Kuu Maa' are said to rework an '80s Estonian coastal folk-pop favourite and perform a "pseudo-reggae" pastiche respectively. Both have that effortless murmured charm on the vocals, recalling a nostalgic time of European make-do, A10-mic-from-the-junk-store, bottle episodic, rickety recorded goodness.

Review: Japanese psychedelic pop singer-songwriter Ai Aso hails from Tokyo and has an almost impossibly wispy thin folky style to her singing that makes her utterly unique. She has been active since 2000 and has worked both solo as well as with the likes of White Heaven members You Ishihara and Michio Kurihara. Her solo album arrived back in 2014 and now a decade on gets a vinyl press via Ideologic Organ. It is beautifully delicate and whimsical, with lullaby-like guitar melodies and her own vaporous vocals drifting gently with a real sense of innocence in the sparse tracks. Lo-fi and intimate, this is a quiet gem.

Review: Diane Birch returns with that spellbinding voice - a transportive powerhouse packing a timeless quality that resonates through her music. The American recording world doing what it has always done so well, creating huge, heartbreaking, hopeful, and captivating mini operas disguised as pop. Or, if you want to get technical here: soft rock, country, folk, r&b and soul. OK, so there are elements of funk and jazz, too, and the result is a heady brew that's pretty inescapable. Harking back to the balladry heydays, with shades of Dolly Parton, Whitney Houston, and Carly Simon, to name but a few - in delivery and performance, if not necessarily tone - no matter where you're listening from it's going to be hard to forget this one.

Review: In the mid-80s, Svitlana Okhrimenko, Oleksandr Kohanovs'kyi, and Tamila Mazur, students at the Reinhold Glier Kyiv Academy of Music, formed the foundation of Cukor Bila Smert. Their blend of music and camaraderie led to the addition of Eugene Taran, who further helped shape the band's vision. Dubbed Sugar - White Death, their ironic moniker challenged media sensationalism and amidst endless musical exploration, they crafted two albums in 1988 and 1989. The band's unique "sugar calypso sound" emerged, a blend of Kohanovs'kyi's music and lyrics by Okhrimenko and Taran. A significant studio session in 1990 yielded tracks featured on the Mannered Music compilation which sparked international interest. Their journey concluded in 1993 with the release of "Selo" by Koka Records, and now some of the best bits make it onto this new collection.

Review: A third album of wonderfully intimate, idiosyncratic songwriting from multi-instrumentalist Stephen Gilchrist - formerly the Stuffy in the much loved Stuffy & The Fuses - in his Stephen EvEns guise. The name may be singular, but from the choir of voices singing the opening tune 'A Song For Europe' to the child's voice at the end of seafaring epic 'Hello Salty Salty', this is very much a community effort and feels like it, with Stephen's core collaborators Jimi Scandal (guitar) and Crompton Whesp (drums) joined by guests like former Curve/Echobelly bassist Debbie Smith, longtime Cardiacs keyboard player William D Drake and Hurtling/My Bloody Valentine guitarist and keyboard player Jen Macro. The mood palate is on just as grand a scale as the personnel list, from the Nick Drake-style acoustic guitar/strings interplay of 'Firefly' to the beefy hip-hop backbeat of 'BBQ Head & 7 Bells', a two part track, the first half dedicated to the joys of cooking in the garden, the second about paranoia and the threat of violence. Elements of psychedelia, some gorgeous analogue synth tones, a penchant for a quirky time signature and/or arrangement all add to what's already a very tasty concoction that anyone with an ear for a tenacious earworm or two will love.

Review: Julia Holter has subtly shifted focus on new album (her sixth in total) Something In The Room She Moves, moving away from exploring memory and dream-like states to instead focus on (in her words) "the complexity and transformability of our bodies". To create this rather distinctive (and rather good sound world), she added her own ethereal vocals to self-created backing tracks rich in electric fretless bass, warming wind and reed instruments, and distinctive synth sounds plucked from a Yamaha CS060. The results are predictably immersive and soul-enriching, with highlights including stunning opener 'Sun Girl', the percussively inventive 'Spinning', and the pastoral, dreamy 'Evening Mood'.

Review: Julia Holter's sixth album Something in the Room She Moves might just be the Los Angeles songwriter's best work. In the past she has often explored memory and dreamlike futures but on this new outing she is very much more in the moment throughout. She explains herself hat "There's a corporeal focus, inspired by the complexity and transformability of our bodies." Musically the album mixes fretless electric bass pitches with her unique vocal melodies. The recognisable sounds of the Yamaha CS-60 interweave with more organic wind instruments and add up to a fluid, watery sound that flows smooth and carries you along with it amongst the gorgeous harmonies.

Review: Inner Cop Avoidance is a cult supergroup that is already surrounded by plenty of discussion and conspiracy despite only having played their first gig in 2022. Made up of Krisitan Poulsen on guitar, Mathias Saedrup guitar, Sebastian von der Heide on drums and percussion, Max Stocklosa on synth, xylophone and vocals, this self-titled album from the group lands as the inaugural drop on their own label. It is a brilliantly cacophony of electronics and percussion with twisted rhythms, post-rock guitars and a fiercely experimental approach that results in brilliantly beguiling music that somehow combines the futuristic and avant garde with bird calls and ancient shamanic ritual.

Review: The widely adored jazz and pop crooner Norah Jones is back with another super soothing new album. Vision arrives on the legendary Blue Note and is the ninth full-length from the singer-songwriter but the first in collaboration with Leon Michels who is an instrumental maestro behind the El Michels Affair. He brings plenty of musical richness and charming hooks and melodies to the smoky and soulful vocals of Jones. All 12 tunes are vibrant and joyous as Jones sings about feeling free, wanting to dance, making it right, and acceptance of what life brings. It's a more uplifting work following on from the melancholic vibe of her last outing Pick Me Up Off The Floor which was released early in the early pandemic days of 2020.

Review: Despite her superstar status, gained in the years following her 2002 debut, Norah Jones has refused to stick to the same musical script, instead choosing a wide range of collaborators while applying her song writing talents to a variety of genres. On Visions, she's once again evolved her sound further in cahoots with producer Leon Michels - founder of revivalist funk-soul stable Big Crown Records and long-time member of the Dap-Kings. What's on offer is pleasingly fuzzy and nostalgic in tone, with the pair conjuring up songs and sound worlds rooted in late 60s garage-soul, psychedelic dream pop, and a brand of Americana rooted as much in black American music as country. For proof, check superb recent singles 'Running' and 'Staring at the Wall'.

Review: Following her acclaimed 2021 album, Star-Crossed, which topped Billboard's Top Albums Sales chart, Deeper Well now arrives from Kacy Musgroves. Prior to this, her groundbreaking 2018 album Golden Hour not only debuted at #1 on Billboard's Top Country Album chart but also earned her the Album of the Year at the Grammy, CMA, and ACM Awards. In 2023, Musgraves achieved her first #1 on the Hot 100 with 'I Remember Everything,' a duet with Zach Bryan, marking the first country duet in 40 years since Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers' 'Islands in the Stream' in 1983. At the recent 66th Grammy Awards, the song won Best Country Song, solidifying Musgraves' unprecedented feat of winning in four major country categories.

Review: "No-one knew the songs or what the plan was. We kept it loose and fun. This was the spirit of the sessions. No headphones, no playback, minimal overdubs, or bleed. Fast and loose," says Sam Evian of his latest record, the first to grace his new imprint, Thirty Tigers. If that's not enough to make you balk with jealously at not being invited, then the idea of Big Thief's Adrian Lenker and Sufjan Stevens, among others, debasing to Evian's house in the Catskills to examine a revamped studio, complete with vintage tape deck and console, then going wild swimming at midnight, just as snow fell, might seal the deal. The following day, work began on Plunge, a record with no real fixed direction or plan. In the end, it will - or, at least, it should - be remembered among Evian's finest offerings. A stunning collection of folk-leaning rock 'n' roll, Americana and jangly indie, you can almost smell upstate New York.

Review: "This LP is a compilation of songs from five different digital-only demo collections I released on Bandcamp between 2021 and 2023. I relied on the ears and judgment of my old friend Dom at Feral Child to curate this comp, allowing him to choose his favorites from over 60 songs," James Toth says of Demon Stations. "While I might have chosen an entirely different batch of tunes, I was happy to defer to Dom, as I've never had much perspective when it comes to assessing my own material." With every track recorded at home, many on the same day they were written, and mostly first takes used, there's an audible quality to this collection of archive material that's every bit as honest as the artist's own explanation as to how the final package came about. An atmosphere entirely befitting the open-hearted folk and Americana dominating the release.

Review: Much contemporary and so-called cosmic American music lacks true cosmic essence, appearing more as imitation than innovation. Trummors' fifth album, 5, defies this norm with refreshing originality and exquisite execution. With lyrics akin to Robert Creeley's poetry and melodies that feel timeless, songs like 'Hey Babe' captivate with fatalistic beauty. Lerner and Cunningham's harmonies, complemented by skilled musicianship, create a captivating atmosphere and subtly blend genre conventions. Despite its rapid creation amidst uncertainty, 5 exudes both weight and airiness, ancient resonance and contemporary charm. Trummors' achievement in transcending tradition with confidence and immediacy is truly remarkable.

Review: Resurfacing from obscurity after 58 years in the Louis Wayne Moody Pictures vault, this unearthed soundtrack unveils a treasure trove of melancholic melodies, mournful guitars, and eerie echoes. It is another of the seemingly endless gems to come from the great folks at Number Uno and is laden with themes of abandonment, shattered dreams, and existential ponderings. The album, titled They Move in the Night, weaves a narrative of moral ambiguity and tearful farewells, set against the backdrop of lukewarm diner coffee and the relentless pursuit of society's shadows. Fascinating stuff.

Review: Discovered after 55 years, the previously unreleased soundtrack to the 1964 noir film You're Not From Around Here finally emerges from the Louis Wayne Moody archive. Laden with twangy tremolo and reverb-drenched revenge, it navigates themes of alienation, paranoia, and existential echo. Packaged in a replica film canister with rusted varnishes and a debossed logo, it immerses you in a world of moral ambiguity. This Cabinet of Curiosities release by Numero delves into the esoteric possibilities of curation, weaving threads of intentionality and psychic connections through music history. It's a tribute to the DIY museum and the emotionally charged artifacts of post-industrial consumerism.

Review: Waxahatchee is emerging, butterfly like, from a cocoon that has kept her safe for most of her career. There was nothing ugly or hidden about Katie Crutchfield's older output. But it was intimate, quiet, thoughtful, vulnerable and, at times, almost a little nervous. At least some of those adjectives became irrelevant with the last LP, Saint Cloud, and now she follows up that ten-foot-tall 2020 triumph with Tigers Blood, continuing in a similar vein. Having significantly increased the size of her audience with the preceding, infinitely rousing record, Crutchfield simultaneously looks to please those newcomers and win even more over here. The tracks are similarly open armed, proud and accessible, but the razor sharp songwriting - dealing with everything from trying to stay still without being bored, to self doubt - has lost none of its impact, and the instrumental arrangements have arguably never been stronger.