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Album:The Awarkward Recruit

Website: http://www.myspace.com/mawkincausley

There's a fuller review of this album in our review section. If you only buy one folk orientated release this year, shame on you, but if it is only one, this is it. Jim Causley's Devon tinged baritone, combined with the musicianship of Mawkin, not to mention their support vocal. Songs drawn from over five hundred years of England's great musical heritage. Love, war, journeys and revolutions are just some of the themes that exude themselves from the recording into your consciousness. It's production values postively sparkle on an album you'll come back to time and time again. Practically faultless.

Website: http://www.myspace.com/hideftv

Hi-Def T.V. didn't have to wait for a downturn to cut things right back. Like the previous EP 'Cut It Loose', 'Leave Behind' is sparsely populated with notes and vocals. Deceptively simple guitar tantalisingly supports the voice as much in the way they fade as the moment they are struck. The voice has the same quality to hit, at times hanging almost impossibly as the actually words fade off into the distance. In a strangeway it sort of leaves you looking at parts of a bigger picture and wondering how you were drawn there. It almost ephemeral in it's nature, tantalising and enchanting.

Website: http://www.myspace.com/thevisitorsuk

Whilst alt. country sits at the heart of Pompey base The Visitors sound, there's also something of the West Coast about it, at times giving it a California rock/pop appeal. Both the name of the band and the album title, 'Travelling' give clues to a theme running through the ten tracks that make up the album, that of the journey. Songs are a great way of winding your way though life, taking inspiration from the places you visit, both physically and emotionally and going through the cathartic process of getting them down. The result is an album that takes you out of yourself.

Website: http://www.myspace.com/mattpark

Matt Park drifted into the world of being a solo artist when his band Platen were forced to pull out of a gig. Like a lot of artists, he put together a short set of songs so that he could get a gig or two, judging from what he sent through to us, Matt should be picking up more than a gig or two as his demos have began bothering the unsigned charts. Matt has a layed back blues style, a rough around the edge vocal style that sounds lke it's been honed on whisky and cigarettes. The result is an EP that has the potential to become a collectable as his career takes off, if you can find a copy that is.

Album:Songs Of Distance

Website: http://www.swelter.nl

There was a time when the word pop was quite well respected. It used to mean well written songs, good tunes and an uplifting feeling. Then it drifted into being used to describe something that was balnd, manufactured, but radio friendly. Well maybe it's time to reclaim the word. Dutch band Swelter would be one of the bands to step into the breech. Hints of indie to give the sound an edge, but at it's heart good honest melancholic guitar pop. That doesn't mean sacrificing content for style. "Songs Of Distance" contains well written pieces on how society no longer communicates with it's self.

Kiss The Mistress

Website: http://www.myspace.com/kissthemistressuk

A scintilating collection of tunes and songs, both traditional and self penned. The first thing that hits you is the tightness of the arrangements, sympathetic and dynamic, they infuse the pieces with just the right amount of drama. The album appears to have been appraoched very much like a set, given the balance of timing and textures right across the album. It surprised me that Kiss The Mistress are a trio, the sound appears much fuller, but cello, accordion and bodhran can do that to you, specially in the hands of people prepared to push the envelope. "About Time" I'd say so.

Website: http://www.myspace.com/sundaydriverinuk

We really rated "The City Of Dreadful Night", Sunday Driver's debut cut when we reviewed it a couple of week's back. Well if you really aren't sure about the whole hog and plumping for the album, why not treat yourself to the this single and see if it gives you the taste. Sunday Driver really are the distilled spirit of Imagined Village, but as a proper band, rather than a concept. Even across the two tracks on this single you really do get a chance to understand how well east can meet west in a very musical sense. It's not one or the other, but a genuine fusion of sound that is something new.

Website: http://www.myspace.com/barbarajhunt

"Play My Heart" comes with the caveat that it's been out a while, but none the less worthy for that. Barbara J Hunt has fashioned a sophisticated pop album that seems to ask more questions than it answers. It's almost like an aural mind map as it seeks to provoke the thinking process as much as the listening process. There's also a spiritual dimension to the release, not the god bothering priase the lord type of thing, more that internalising, contemplation or most yogic expression of one's self and how it relates to the world around it. Barbara J Hunt has done herself proud.

Eric Brace & Peter Cooper

Album:You Don't Have To Like Them Both

Website: http://www.myspace.com/ericbraceandpetercooper

The title "You Don't Have To Like Them Both" and 'Wallace & Gromit' approach to the album artwork hint that maybe this is a folk album that's going to come in from the left field, a little bit quirky, a little bit off the wall. For once the cover doesn't lie. Eric Brace & Peter Cooper have put together a collection of songs with more than a sideways glance at life. It's an album out of the American Songbook tradition with about a quarter of the songs off their own pen. For me though the stand out track a sea shanty, "Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still", featuring Tim O'Brien guest appearance.

One String Loose

Website: http://www.myspace.com/onestringloose

I really didn't get "Kumquat" the first time I heard it, but then I was relaxing with a cup of coffee and the whole thng sounded a little hasty, a little rushed, a little too frantic. You could hear that One String Loose knew their way around their instruments, but almost seemed too keen to get to the end of the tune. The next time I listened to the album was with a few friends, a wee dram or two and a load of space, it was like being back in music and movement. There was just so much energy in the room. Call it acid croft, call it Celtic fusion, call it a good time on a silver disk.

Single:Traffic Music

Website: http://www.myspace.com/hjaltalinband

Like a Victorian jet mourning broach, bunished silver at the edges dark and intricate in the middle, Iceland's Hjaltalin knows how to get the most out of sweet melancholy. They've developed a style of art house pop that celebrates the bizarre without becoming self indulgent just for the sake of it. The result in a single that delivers so many different things depending on the mood you're in when you listen to it. There's a surprising amount of order in a sound that first gives a perception that it's going to thrive on chaos. It's difficult to pin down, but then why would you.

Album:The Radio Kings

Website: http://www.myspace.com/theradiokings

As a genre, blues has always liked it's titles, Dukes, Lords, Counts etc and it's good that The Radio Kings are interested in carry on that tradition, but it does raise expectations somewhat. There's not a lot wrong with the bands self titled album, they can obviously play their instruments and put pen to paper for a song or two, but there's not a lot to lift it above a pack of other good blues artists. It's not quite being done to a formula, there's some really nice individual moments, just not enough of them to make you think 'The Radio Kings, yep they probably are...'