Dave Scanlon’s ‘Taste Like Labor’ Is Quietly Intense
Dave Scanlon’s Taste Like Labor straddles a line between dark folk and fractured indie pop on his first solo album in more than two years.
experimental folk
‘One Way Or Another’ Robin Holcomb Will Take One Back to See What’s Ahead
On One Way or Another, Vol. 1, Robin Holcomb follows American modernist classical keyboard tradition mixed with an alto voice using folk and jazz intonations.
Edith Judith Perform a Beguiling Style of Indie-Folk on ‘Bones & Structure’
Chicago experimentalists Edith Judith combine unique arrangements and beautifully crafted songs on their debut album, Bones & Structure.
Inside ‘Modern Folk One’ lurks one strangely fascinating Americana album.
Modern Folk One rings from serenely pastoral to shockingly different, making it a terrifically new twist to some sounds that are, on their own, not that surprising.
Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer Build a New Sense of place on ‘Recordings From the Åland Islands’
Recordings From the Åland Islands goes beyond soundscape ambience and utopian visions of isolation and delves into the living connections between people, place, and sound.
The Weather Station Silently Grapple with the End on Their Devastating New Record
On the companion piece to last year’s Ignorance, the Weather Station creates a piano-based record just as existentially anxious but anchored by quietude.
It’s All About the Mood on Birds of Passage’s ‘The Last Garden’
Electronic minimalist music comes in many forms, but Birds of Passage’s The Last Garden could be the most minimal electronic music I’ve encountered so far.
Jeff Parker’s Music Is a Shared Consciousness on ‘Forfolks’
Chicago jazz/post-rock guitarist Jeff Parker channels ancestry and our sense of communion on the expansive Forfolks.
Claire Cronin’s ‘Bloodless’ Is Pure Catharsis
Claire Cronin’s music plays like the ghostly sounds someone lost in the woods in winter, hungry, beyond tired, and bordering on frostbite might make.
Wendy Eisenberg’s Approach is Bold, Bright, and Direct on ‘Bent Ring’
Innovative guitarist Wendy Eisenberg’s new album Bent Ring is sparse with its instrumentation but bold and unique in its execution.
Satomimagae’s ‘Hanazono’ Is Full of Organic, Melancholy Folk
Like nature itself, Satomimagae’s Hanazono is by turns stormy and serene indie folk, as meditative as it is simmering with dormant, primal power.
Adeline Hotel’s ‘Good Timing’ Is Therapeutic, Revelatory, and Uniquely Beautiful
Dan Knishkowy's alt-folk collective Adeline Hotel is whittled down to a party of one, with improvised acoustic guitar taking center stage on Good Timing.
