The Magpie Arc – The Mantle

I wrote about this band on these pages for my Ely Folk Festival review last year, an event in which I was dazzled by their brilliant re-ignition of the electric folk rock style pioneered in the late sixties by bands like Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. At the time they were blessed with the guitar wizardry of Martin Simpson who has since left the ranks, but the evidence heard in their new material here proves that they remain a band plugging an essential shot of voltage enhanced energy into the folk scene. They also have a couple of big names on board too with Steeleye Span’s Maddy Prior helping out on vocals and Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson on flute. With or without the folk glitterati though, the Magpie Arc remain a band worthy of your attention. This is a preview single from their forthcoming album.

Muck And The Mires – Tripping Out On Love

This slice of frantic guitar pop, infused with a real garage rock sensibility, is released as a new seven inch single on the Rogue Records label. They have been around for twenty-five years now, releasing music that has caught the attention of anyone possessing a love of that sixties British Invasion guitar band sound and building a favourable reputation thanks to the raw power of their live shows. They were even named the number one Garage Band by the E Street Bands Steven Van Zandt once, a man who knows a thing or two about that primitive sound. So, you know what to do, get out and enjoy the visceral delight of buying a hot new 45 and get this one sailing up the charts.

Amy LaVere & Will Sexton – Time Warp

It has been six years now since Amy LaVere released her superb last album, ‘Painting Blue’. In that time new music has been scarce although she has continued to play live in the US alongside her partner Will Sexton. I am always keeping my ear out for new Amy music simply because every album since her 2005 debut has been a high end example of the best that modern country and bluegrass inflected songwriting has to offer. She is a musician with a fine ear and an easy to connect with writing style, not to mention a sublime voice and deft double bass touch. The end of the concert clip suggests a live album is forthcoming at least and, as heard with this new song, a couple of fresh numbers have crept out with little fanfare. I am certain there are many other than me still waiting eagerly for a new album of Amy LaVere songs, this excerpt hints that the wait might not be in vain.

Peter Gabriel – Been Undone

On the subject of artists who keep their audience waiting a long time between LP releases, well Amy LaVere could take another fifteen years to make a new record and she would still be no slower than Peter Gabriel between the release of 2023’s ‘i/o’ and the preceding ‘Up’ album. So the fact that this month has seen him begin another series of monthly, new moon adjacent, track drops that will, sometime later this year, form the content of another new album is a huge, very welcome, surprise. He hasn’t released a new studio album within three years of the previous one since the 1980s. My position remains unapologetically pro-Peter, my justification for the snails pace between albums always being that at least, when new music did finally arrive, it was always something worth hearing. Despite the relative speed, that is still the case with ‘Been Undone’, a dream state hymn that proves the mans soulful voice still pulls some emotive punches. When it gets its proper full length release, the new album will be called ‘o/i’.

Hen Ogledd – Scales Will Fall

We move from a man who used to make his bandmates stare awkwardly at their instruments when he took to the stage dressed as Britannia to a group where no such problems exist, it looks like everyone is raiding the dressing up box with uninhibited enthusiasm. They have been around for a few years now, building a reputation as an unpredictable shape-shifting unit wherein ancient Celtic themes and prog aesthetics are married to avant-folk electronics and experimentation. Hen Ogledd are a perfect outlet for the national folk music treasure Richard Dawson to fly his freak flag but his bandmates Rhodri Davies, Dawn Bothwell and Sally Pilkington all offer crucial ingredients to the far-out mix. This rousing tune is taken from the album ‘DISCOMBOBULATED’, out on 20th February 2026 on Weird World.

Nevaris – Ninth Sun

The key personnel in this live studio session, part of the Nevaris Project, are DJ Logic, Peter Apfelbaum, Jojo Kuo, Will Bernard, Lockatron, Angel Rodriguez, Jonathan Maron, and Matt Dickey. The newly released ‘SoundSession’ EP was recorded in a single day at Orange Sound studio in New Jersey. Playing and interpreting music written by percussionist Agustin Nevaris (who also led the nine piece ensemble) and Bill Laswell, the session was originally planned as a live stream but the sound of the live ensemble was so deep and inviting that the decision was, correctly I believe, taken to capture the sound on disc and release it to the world. The combination of dub, funk, Afro-Latin rhythms, turntablism and improvisation is an intoxicating one for sure.