KLOF Mag

To mark Dylan Thomas' Birthday, we revisit “The village of Llareggub Awakens”, a Mixtape. It includes readings from “Under Milk Wood” by Richard Burton, plus music from Nick Drake, Georgia Ruth, Julie Murphy, Huw M, The Gentle Good, Little Arrow, Cate Le Bon, & more. klofmag.com/2026/10/the-...

Toronto-based cellist and songwriter Kyla Marlena has shared “In Paint”, the latest single from her forthcoming debut album “Hold Time”. Watch the accompanying video she co-directed with Jo Hirabayashi. klofmag.com/2026/10/kyla...

Chuck Roth’s “Texture Songs” is a highly accomplished album that expertly blends experimental guitar playing with lyrics and singing that feel intrinsic to the sound, like a pulse or a beating heart. klofmag.com/2026/10/chuc...

Watch Brìghde Chaimbeul’s first Tiny Desk Concert for NPR, which has already clocked over 340k views. Shahzad Ismaily joins her on synths, which lend the performance a stronger experimental feel. We look back on her rise, from winning a BBC Young Folk Award in 2016. klofmag.com/2026/10/watc...

A new Monday Morning Brew playlist (and some recommendations) to ease you into the week featuring Blair Coron, Ballaké Sissoko, Buck Curran, Neil Young, Jeffrey Silverstein, Nicole Mitchell and Joe Westerlund and more. klofmag.substack.com/p/the-monday...

For our latest “Off the Shelf” feature, Good Habits’ Bonnie Schwarz and Pete Shaw, whose new album “Better for Now” is a KLOF Mag Featured Album of the Month, choose ten objects from home to talk about. klofmag.com/2026/10/off-...

With “Everything in Readiness”, Shovel Dance Collective have combined vision and virtuosity to create the best folk album of the year. Read Alex Neilson's album review: klofmag.com/2026/10/shov...

Dublin-based songwriter and poet Christian Wethered has released “The First Thing”, the opening track from his new album “From The Balustrade”, due in 2027 via LVP Records. klofmag.com/2026/10/chri...

Declan O’Rourke talks about “Oceanic”, his eighth studio album, recorded in Sydney with Jim Moginie of Midnight Oil. Give an artist a palette of colours, he says, and “you can’t expect them to stick with yellow or red.” klofmag.com/2026/10/decl...

Spitzer Space Telescope shares the sea shanty single “Bound For Calais-O” a day before the Broadside Hacks Roster Tour begins in Lewes. Dan MacDonald calls sea shanties “a well of inspiration”, and this is the jolly “foc’sle” variety, with Mareva Lindo singing harmonies. klofmag.com/2026/10/spit...

Darren Hayman completed “I’m Your Team” in 2022, and it sat on the shelf for four years...it sees him at his most undiluted and emotionally stark, delivering some of the best songs of his career. @audioantihero.bandcamp.com klofmag.com/2026/10/darr...

Enjoy our latest Monday Morning Brew Playlist, featuring new music from Norway’s Reolô, The Furrow Collective, Brigid Mae Power, Johanna Warren and lots more. Plus: tips on discovering new music and a rundown of my favourite record stores (physical and online). klofmag.substack.com/p/the-monday...

New Mixtape ft. Mali Obomsawin's new album, Ana Lua Caiano’s combustion of Portuguese folk tradition and electronics, Allison de Groot and Rich Ruth tender and cosmic collaboration, plus Emily A. Sprague, the French experimental folk duo Adiciatz, Don Cherry and more. klofmag.com/2026/10/klof...

Thomas Blake interviews Peyton Pinkerton, the guitarist who played on the Silver Jews’ 'The Natural Bridge'. He offers a rare glimpse into making one of the most beloved albums of the 1990s and sheds new light on the genius of the late, great songwriter David Berman. klofmag.com/2026/10/inte...

Reviewed: claire rousay - on holding. We know from past work that every note she commits to tape serves a purpose; here, that feels, at times, self-reflexive, giving us a valuable glimpse into a highly original process that is always sonically rewarding. klofmag.com/2026/10/clai...

Radie Peat’s debut solo album, “No Human Tongue Can Tell”, is due on Rough Trade Records on 13 November. Her new single is “Hares on the Mountain”, a traditional folk song she learned from Shirley Collins. klofmag.com/2026/10/radi...

Richard Thompson’s “Hippies, Thugs and Heroes” pushes the envelope much further in studio craft and arrangements than its predecessor. Six decades in, this cornerstone of British folk-rock still has the capacity to evolve. klofmag.com/2026/10/rich...

Powtes’ “Destroying A Living” is a sonic monument to the common folk dispossessed when the Fens were drained. A six-piece band helmed by Gus Beamish, they bring the ecstasy of group improvisation to the austerity of the drone. klofmag.com/2026/10/powt...

Arborist’s “Looking For Love” explores love and its absence, using Belfast as a microcosm for the wider world. McCambridge sets an extraordinarily high bar for composition, songwriting, and arrangement. klofmag.com/2026/10/arbo...

Gwenifer Raymond signs to Fat Possum & shares new single “Bird Songs for Atomic Skies”. "...a mutant rag, a blues gone awry, with lyrebirds in irradiated nests and foxes whose barks are all wrong." She supports Geese across America/Canada, followed by a UK headline tour. klofmag.com/2026/10/gwen...

To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the Silver Jews’ masterpiece The Natural Bridge, Thomas Blake takes a deep dive into David Berman’s complex lyrical world. klofmag.com/2026/10/the-...

Two side-length pieces of mysterious beauty, “Cooked” takes Oren Ambarchi's mutant blues further through the looking glass, with an international cast of master abstractors. klofmag.com/2026/10/oren...

A new Monday Morning Brew playlist & new album recommendations. Ft Geir Sundstøl, Laurence Crane, Benedicte Maurseth, Miles Davis, Erlend Apneseth Trio, Lena Willemark & Ale Möller, Sara Parkman, BITOI, Mariam Wallentin, Zodiacs on the Wing & more. klofmag.substack.com/p/the-monday...

New folk/experimental Mixtape: ft. Ohtis, Martin Simpson, Good Habits, Garefowl, Shovel Dance Collective, Charlie Parr, Macdara Yeates, Powtes, Esther’s Mood Ring, Tomáš Niesner and Aldana Duoraan, Adela Mede & Štefan Szabó, Cathal Caulfield and more. klofmag.com/2026/10/klof...

Martin Simpson talks to KLOF about “Some Kind of Jubilee”, the double album that marks fifty years since his debut. He talks about hope through nature, the power of instrumental music and more. klofmag.com/2026/10/mart...

Ahead of her first UK/EU shows, Avery Friedman shares her new single and video “You Move”, a song about savouring the unexpected fruits that reveal themselves amid times of uprootedness. klofmag.com/2026/10/aver...

Hirta is literally present in Garefowl's "Things That Vanish": field and hydrophone recordings, drones made by X-ray diffraction, and a seabird behind every tune. Read their Track by Track. klofmag.com/2026/10/trac...

Shovel Dance Collective’s “Everything in Readiness” is due 23 October on Glitterbeat’s tak:til imprint. “Jer the Rigger” is their third single, out today, accompanied by a video for the album's opening suite, featuring footage from the Doc Rowe archive. klofmag.com/2026/10/shov...

Kahil El’Zabar’s “Sketches For Trane” is an astonishing suite in tribute to John Coltrane. Alex Neilson calls it one of the best albums he's reviewed for KLOF. klofmag.com/2026/10/kahi...

Reviewed: The Leaf Library’s “Library Music: Volume Two”. Each release from the band feels like an exploration of pop music’s possibilities, and this archival collection is the perfect way to experience their range and sonic versatility. klofmag.com/2026/10/the-...

This week's Mixtape explores the outer margins and includes releases from Glasgow label Greater Lanarkshire Auricular Research Council, Australia's Burgan Triangle Tapes and more. klofmag.com/2026/10/klof...

Good Habits’ “Better for Now” pushes outwards, from festival-ready trance-folk to intimate acoustic balladry. Their blend of virtuosity and sheer vitality makes them one of the most exciting bands on the British folk scene, and one of the most technically accomplished. klofmag.com/2026/10/good...

Verdin Brothers’ “The Crooked Serpent” stitches together blues, Creole, bluegrass and drone into something all their own, with a healthy dollop of the weird. A singular work of high art and painstaking detail. @debaclerecords.bandcamp.com klofmag.com/2026/10/verd...

New Artist of the Month: Glenn Kimpton reviews Martin Simpson’s “Some Kind of Jubilee”, a seventeen-song double album, made in the US and the UK, marking half a century since his debut. A career highlight. klofmag.com/2026/10/mart...

James Yorkston announces “La Magnifica”, a career-spanning double album. It draws from his 15 Domino Records albums, from his early Athletes days to his most recent Swedish collaborations with Nina Persson and Johanna Söderberg. New track and video out today. klofmag.com/2026/09/jame...

Ten full, back-to-back days in a converted garage in rural Portland, with shag rugs and lava lamps. Biita Houdei's "This Bed Was Made For Me" makes the case for taking your time. Danny Neill reviews the solo debut: klofmag.com/2026/09/biit...

Jason McNiff talks through his latest album, Ten Blue Songs, influenced by Italo Calvino, Raymond Carver, Ernest Hemingway, guitar legend Davy Graham and more. “This album is evidence of our working life and couldn’t exist without the gigs”. klofmag.com/2026/09/trac...

RÓIS, aka Rose Connolly, has signed to Domino Records. Her critically acclaimed 2024 album, MO LÉAN, will be reissued globally – remastered with a brand-new track, “PORT NA H-EALA”. Watch her performing “WHAT DO YOU SAY (LIVE FROM A WAKE)”. klofmag.com/2026/09/rois...

Smithsonian Folkways will reissue Michael Hurley’s 1964 debut “First Songs” on vinyl on November 6th. Mike Monseur has remastered it, and it comes in the original black gatefold. Watch the video for ‘The Werewolf Song’, animated by Hurley’s friend Drew Christie. klofmag.com/2026/09/mich...

Mayo Thompson’s “Quiet Days in Cliché” is his first solo guitar album and his first solo record in fifty-six years. Out December 4th on Drag City. Listen to the lead single K-Pook. klofmag.com/2026/09/mayo...

We caught up with @marisamusic.bsky.social at End Of The Road and chatted about her latest album, The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music, and more. klofmag.com/2026/09/mari...

Digressions #4 – Living Slow EP is the latest in John Blek’s series of download-only releases available via Bandcamp. From the minstrel-folk-mottled opener to the piano-waltzing closer, it’s a sublime and moodily atmospheric offering. klofmag.com/2026/09/john...

Jake Blount’s “Single-Footing Horse” has him coming full circle, returning to the old-time mountain music played by Appalachian string bands that first nurtured him. It’s a joyous and technically brilliant batch of tunes, every bit as potent as his earlier work. klofmag.com/2026/09/jake...

Alex Neilson reviews The Owl Service’s new album “Tied to the Land”, a joyous rendering of traditional songs, instrumentals and an adaptation of a Cornish folk tale. Revolt from the monolith and come back to the village, people. klofmag.com/2026/09/the-...

Declan O’Rourke has shared a thought-provoking video for 'Earl Grey and Edwin', his third album single. About two kindred souls brought together by a love of music and art, it’s one of the most beautiful videos and songs I’ve seen/heard in a long time. klofmag.com/2026/09/decl...

Twenty albums into a celebrated career, Charlie Parr may have delivered his masterpiece. klofmag.com/2026/09/char...

Gaspar Claus will release his new album Cells this Friday (September 25th) via InFiné. On the surface, his final album single, Ecstasy, seems like the most obvious departure into electronic territory. But it’s less about departure and more about transformation. klofmag.com/2026/09/gasp...

Toria Wooff announces her new album, Aleister. Lead single ‘The Morrigan’ takes its name from a powerful figure in Celtic mythology, inspired by an old belief surrounding voices heard in the woods. The video draws on 1970s folk horror to chilling effect. klofmag.com/2026/09/tori...

Joshua Burnside has shared a powerful new video for the title track of his latest album, I’m Not Going to Be Okay. Directed, shot, and edited by Jake Duncan, it stars Sy Tuck and Grace Gallagher. Watch it here: klofmag.com/2026/09/josh...

Backstage at End Of The Road’s 20th anniversary, Kiran Leonard sat down with KLOF. He first played the festival in 2014, just before he turned nineteen. He talks about his interest in structure and trying things that supposedly don’t belong in songs, and more. klofmag.com/2026/09/kira...