The new eves album is great. It has that scratchy urgent postpunk thing along with some excellent and really weird harmonies. The slits in a blender with the modettes and the incredible string band. theneweves.bandcamp.com/album/the-ne...

I don’t know if Far Closes is typical of the new Craven Faults album, but it feels lighter and airier than previous work. Less dense, the occasional shaft of with watery sunlight limping through the grey. I really like it. cravenfaults.bandcamp.com/album/sidings

I can honestly say this is one of the most powerful, moving songs I’ve heard in a very long time. Lisa O’Neill is an absolute treasure and some sort of musical genius. Great video too. youtu.be/Nbm-pNGPuo8?...

1989 you say?

Phenomenal sets by Henry Parker and Joseph Allred tonight…

Now playing: Robin and Barry Dransfield looking extremely cool on the sleeve of Lord of All I Behold from 1971.

Now playing: Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill - Triona (1975). Another gorgeous album from the 1970s Irish folk scene with a great line up of contributors. Turlough Og O’Boyle is an amazing track. Cheap vinyl copies can still be found.

Now Playing: Mick Hanly - As I Went Over Blackwater from 1980. A gorgeous album and a who’s who of the 70s Irish Folk scene: Donal Lunny, Andy Irvine, Matt Molloy, Noel Hill, Declan Sinnott and Paddy Glackin all play on it.

Listening to Diamond Grove by Weirs on @dearliferecs.bsky.social - it’s a *really* good album. If you want your traditional music to sound like it’s channeling a site-specific environmental sound installation (and increasingly I do) this beauty is for you. weirs-nc.bandcamp.com/album/diamon...

Succumbed to a very strong urge to play the mighty Steel Pulse. Oh, and fuck Robert Jenrick. youtu.be/A3LFvaAD2-Y?...

Just finished To Keep a Bird from Singing by @caoimhindoyle.bsky.social - a really good, pacy, multilayered crime novel with great characters and bags of intrigue and skullduggery. I always knew anarchists would make the best crime writers! Recommended.

Spotted in Margate

Imo more heavy bands need to bring out albums that are one sprawling 43 minute track. This progressive doom epic from Gevaudin is really good. Lots of room to grow and breathe; just the right level of bonkers grandiosity gevaudan.bandcamp.com/album/umbra

Music from the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle is my answer to the current thing, if anyone is asking

Very disappointed this refers to weightlifting rather than mind altering sounds

Can @georgemonbiot.bsky.social or @jonathan-watts.bsky.social who are asking us to financially support @theguardian.com’s green journalism break journalistic omertà & comment on @theguardian.com’s editorial decision to publish finance editor @nilspratley.bsky.social’s pro-fossil fuel piece?

How does a 59 year old song still sound so fresh? youtu.be/pHNbHn3i9S4?...

Now playing. A couple of the chirpier tracks aren’t so great but when it’s good it’s sublime

Please send a letter to the home office in the link (which takes under a minute) and share.

This is brilliant - a very entertaining interview at @nqra.bsky.social with Lowell ‘Banana’ Levinger of the Youngbloods about their label, Raccoon Records, interspersed with a bunch of excellent tracks from the label, including a couple from the mighty Snock. Highly recommended!

"We didn't come here to listen to a load of stuff about famine and colonialism and genocide and being forced into exile, we came to hear some Irish folk songs!"

This is an excellent conversation. Really looking forward to getting a copy of the book

This is an absolutely gorgeous album - highly recommended.

Cool Playlist Alert: "A Field Guide To Ambient Folk" by Folk Police Recordings head Nigel Spencer, in partnership with Whitelabrecs/Driftworks fan community Inner Echo.

Thank you to Harry from @whitelabrecs.bsky.social for trusting me with his blog! I really enjoyed putting this mix together

This week’s post is a special 2 hour mix looking at the Ambient Folk genre through the eyes of Nigel Spencer of @folkpolice.com This came about via our private community Inner Echo! #ambient #folk #ambientfolk

I put together a playlist and a blog post for Harry Towell’s @whitelabrecs.bsky.social, A Field Guide to Ambient Folk. Two hours of gorgeous sounds, here: whitelabrecs.com/blog/b/field...

Love this clip of the best folk group ever youtu.be/xsMjvaTE-HA?...

Now playing: White Oak Blues (2020), an absolutely gorgeous album of early Windham Hill flavoured guitar soli (with the odd dip into banjoism) from Paris-based musician @julienledru.com. Highly recommended.

This is something well worth donating a few quid to and it’s very close to reaching its target. As a bonus, if Dick wins it potentially opens a door for all the other older folk artists whose recordings are stuck in the Celtic Music vaults. gofund.me/2b1f2424

Now playing: Matthew J Rolin - The Dreaming Bridge on Feeding Tube. An incredible album from one of my favourite guitarists. I overdid the guitar soli stuff for a while and had to step away from it but this one’s a keeper

Now playing: Willow by Daniel Hecht from 1980: his third album, his first for Windham Hill. Really gorgeous fingerstyle guitar soli.

I somehow missed this fab album by Joseph Allred from a couple of years back on the excellent @centripetalforce.bsky.social label. I love his guitar soli releases, but with a full band he is INCREDIBLE. Really hope I can still track a copy of the vinyl down poorfaulkner.bandcamp.com/album/new-je...

The Big Butterfly Count 2025 is here and butterflies need our help 🦋🚨 This isn't just a survey, it's a rescue mission, and we need everyone to get involved. No lab coats. No science degrees. Just 15 minutes of your time. ⏱️ Get out for the count 👉 bigbutterflycount.org

‘If we truly care about nature & the climate, we must stop funding failure & invest in healing: in carbon-binding peat, wild & wonderful nature, healthy landscapes that breathe life. Our uplands need a healthy future, and that future starts with change’ Good stuff by @chrisgpackham.bsky.social

Finally got round to checking out Skylarks, the new Haress release. It’s an incredible, moving, immersive, magical psychedelic journey of an album. One of my albums of the year already. haress.bandcamp.com/album/skylarks

My alt text rating score is 100.00% Get your Bluesky alt text rating here: cred.blue/alt-text

A jam band called Rip Advisor

RIP Dave Cousins. In Amongst the Roses, a psych-folk beauty from the Strawbs’ 1971 album, From the Witchwood remains one of my favourites of his songs. youtu.be/WzJu0vNzWgM?...

Now Playing: Going for Home by Elizabeth Still. I love this 2023 solo album by the Haress singer/multi instrumentalist. Produced by the excellent Nick Jonah Davis too. Rural psychedelia meets ambient folk. In a glade. By a brook. Very nice.

Quote with a photo of yourself in the 80s

It sometimes feels odd to self promote my music while the world is on fire and our country is being overrun by authoritarians. But then I remember that creation is itself an act of resistance. Creation is the enemy of fascism. Keep making your weird art. Share it with folks. We need it. 🖤

Listening party for Escape Now tonight. Come ready to join a lonely probe as it travels off planet, discovers new and better worlds, keeps secrets, disobeys its orders, finds love and community, learns to dance and holds the fate of humans in its hands. quietdetails.bandcamp.com/album/escape...

One of Manchester's most important cycle routes is under threat. Please take 5 minutes to help us save it. mailchi.mp/30355a932330...

Very much enjoying Sentinel of the Moors by High Peak based artist @philfrodsham.bsky.social aka Deccan Traps out now on @whitelabrecs.bsky.social - warm ambient electronica. Lantern Pike is the high point for me. whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/album/sentin...

They’re terrible lo-fi photos, but I went to see Black Uhuru tonight at the Band on the Wall for an evening of top class retro roots reggae. Highly recommended!

Get your cis friends to read this. It reveals how the anti-trans hate groups are really part of a web of extremist right-wing hate groups…

So the UK Met Office is inviting people to suggest up to 5 names for storms. And apparently lots of people have been suggesting "Storm Bigoil", along with BP, Equinor, Exxon & Shell... This is obviously appalling & definitely not to be emulated via this link: www.metoffice.gov.uk/forms/name-o...

This is an excellent soundtrack for a Thursday morning. Or any other time for that matter