Toby Hay & Aidan Thorne
after a pause
(Cambrian Records)
★★★★

WITH spring edging in with the promise of warmer and brighter days, Toby Hay’s & Aidan Thorne’s first album as a duo seems particularly timely. 

The instrumental set of contemporary folk was recorded over three days in between lockdowns in summer 2021. I’ve long been a huge fan of Radnorshire-based acoustic guitar virtuoso Hay, and it’s a real pleasure to hear him work so well with bassist Thorne, who has recently moved to mid-Wales himself. 

On the pastoral sounds of Bard and She Who Causes Auspicious Things, Thorne’s performance brings to mind the hazy summer vibes of Dave Pegg’s celebrated bass playing on Nick Drake’s Bryter Layter album, while the wonderful Careful and Burden craft a more moody atmosphere. 

Coda, with its birdsong and tentative piano, provides a fitting end to another exquisite release from Cambrian Records. 

Julia Holter
Something In The Room She Moves
(Domino)
★★★★

IN 2015 Julia Holter was awarded the best of the album of the year by Mojo and Uncut magazines for Have You in My Wilderness, an unconventional, entrancing set of chamber pop songs.

The new record from the LA-based singer-songwriter and classically trained composer is similarly engrossing, and perhaps even more experimental.

“There’s a corporeal focus, inspired by the complexity and transformability of our bodies,” she notes. I can’t say one way or another – there is so much going on I haven’t really got to properly listening to the lyrics, made beautifully unintelligible by Holter elongating and twisting words and lines. Musically the ’70s-sounding fretless bass, played by Deb Hoff, is prominent, as is piano, synths and electronics.

Mesmerising and ambitious, Holter, like Kate Bush and Bjork, continues to push the envelope with Something In The Room She Moves.

Pernice Brothers
Who Will You Believe
(New West)
★★★

HAVING consistently worked outside of the mainstream, you could be forgiven for not having heard of Pernice Brothers. 

Formed in 1998 out of the ashes of the altcountry Scud Mountain Boys, the US indie outfit kicked off with two near perfect albums in Overcome by Happiness and The World Won’t End. Largely dormant since 2010, they are back with Who Will You Believe.

Moreishly melancholic, 56-year old frontman Joe Pernice remains one of the most literary lyricists out there (he is also a poet, novelist and sometime TV writer). “I remember when you spoke with gravitas, with care and eloquence/It’s so embarrassing to hear you now,” are Not This Pig’s cutting opening lines.

Combined with the set’s lush power pop, it makes for a welcome return. And don’t miss the delightful duet with the US singer-songwriter Neko Case.