320 kbps | 102 MB | LINKS
By the time Cornwall-based Sam Kelly, originally from Norfolk, released his second EP, Spokes, in 2015; the preceding debut EP (Your Way Home) had marked him out as someone to watch, and he’d already been touring extensively with future fellow Lost Boys Jamie Francis and Evan Carson. Sam and friends soon realized they had something special, and they weren’t alone. After quickly establishing an enviable reputation for charismatic live shows, his first album, The Lost Boys, lit the blue touch paper and set off the fireworks – earning him a session spot on the Radio 2 Folk Show and the Horizon Award for emerging artists at the 2016 Radio 2 Folk Awards. For that album, Sam enhanced the live trio by enlisting the services of Ciaran Algar (fiddle) and Graham Coe (cello). After enlisting the expertise of Toby Shaer (woodwind) and Archie Churchill-Moss on melodeon, Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys were born, and on October 6th their new album, Pretty Peggy, is released.
It’s immediately clear that fireworks are something Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys do very well indeed, as Pretty Peggy opens with the first of a fine collection of traditional songs – The Greenland Whale. The delivery of these songs, although firmly and honestly rooted, moves well beyond the tradition. Greenland Whale is a dynamic, confident opener with an acoustic guitar beat and The Lost Boys in fine voice for the chorus. There’s a rousing blend of banjo and fiddle to expand the sound for the chorus, with banjo providing harmonies through the verses alongside a quiet wail of the fiddle. In the quietly steadfast fiddle rhythms, though, there’s something more; there’s a pang of hunger that grows to a rock-inspired fiddle-frenzy for an energetic closing sequence. That assertively adventurous approach comes across full force when the band open Bob Dylan’s Crash On The Levee with atmospheric strings and an inspired beat that provides ample space for Jamie and Evan to let rip on banjo and drums. Sam does a good job of convincing us he’s easily capable of a rock vocal too. Moving beyond cover versions and traditional song, Jamie’s own song, When The Reivers Call, is a Borderland tale of action and adventure where a cello inspired beat contrasts with Sam’s almost whispered vocal. A clever change in timing leads to a bass-driven battle scene that closes with the sound of a hundred bow-strings.
320 kbps | 107 MB | LINKS
Originally from County Mayo on the west coast of Ireland, Seamus Fogarty now resides in London, and the capital provides the canvas for The Curious Hand. It’s there in the starkly heartbroken ‘Seems Wherever’, written from the perspective of the tube system and the deep well of the city’s troubled soul, and in the stony-faced rush hour commuters in ‘Van Gogh’s Ear’, pouring onto train carriages “bound for Egham or Whimple or West Ham”. But The Curious Hand also reaches back to Seamus’ homeland and past in charmingly simple and direct ways. Midway through the title track, for instance, a sampled conversation between neighbours back in Mayo takes centre stage as the musicians set off down yet another new musical path. Elsewhere, on ‘Tommy the Cat’, a skeletal instrumental becomes a bed for a recording of a shouting competition in the West of Ireland.
Fogarty’s method of lifting sounds wholesale from his environment and tucking them into the folds of his songs like keepsakes, renders himself at once, artist and archivist as well as twisting the notion of the folk singer’s role as collector and custodian of stories, traditions and cultural curio.
The Curious Hand was produced by Seamus and Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, Wild Beasts) who also plays on the album. Other notable players include Emma Smith on a plethora of instruments (violin, clarinet, bass to name a few), Rozi Plain (backing vocals), Aram Zarikian (drums) and Seamus’ brother John Fogarty (accordion).
320 kbps | 120 MB | LINKS
It’s not typical for an artist to self-title their fifth album. That’s normally meant for debut records. But, while Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Ayo has four records under her belt, it’s actually quite fitting that she chose the eponymous title. The 14-track record, which exquisitely blends folk reggae and pop with soul influences and a dash of hip-hop, marks many firsts for the artist and serves as her musical rebirth. The musical mission is crystal clear on Ayo: make beautiful music seeped in positivity, love, and light and that makes people feel something. Written over the past three to four years during a sea of personal and career changes, the 14-track album takes the listener on an emotional ride from the self-reflection of “Nothing” to despair and desperation in “I Pray” to the innocent hopefulness of young love in the first single, “I’m a Fool.”
320 kbps | 103 MB | LINKS
New album from veteran Australian alt-rock band. Another Century, another dream, another album from a band that’s in too deep to go anywhere but ever closer to the other side. Man Woman Life Death Infinity is the 26th album by The Church, and their second with the rejuvenated line-up Steve Kilbey, Peter Koppes, Tim Powles and Ian Haug. The epic return of 2014’s critically lauded Further/ Deeper blossomed into a road-hardened beast over four tours of the USA, two back home in Australia, and a new career high in front of 20,000 Spanish fans on a lap of Europe. Man Woman Life Death Infinity is where the revitalized quartet’s freshly tuned chemistry reaches a new potency and precision: ten songs, 45 minutes, and a quantum leap into unexplored territory as strange as it is irresistible. “This is The Church’s water record,” says Kilbey, singer, lyricist and bassist. “I guess water is my element. I’ve always marveled at the sea and rivers and rain. It wasn’t conscious at all but on reflection, it definitely is a preoccupation on this record. What that means, I don’t know.”
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