In a decade which has seen a wide ranging and fruitful revival of interest in folk music, Stephen Cracknell's The Memory Band has established itself in that fine English tradition of slightly schizophrenic projects pointing in several directions at once which manage to find their place in the ever exciting independent music scene, popping up at several influential moments and though the marvels of technology finding audiences all around the world.

From the outset The Memory Band has embraced change and for its third album, "Oh My Days", the ever-fluid line-up of The Memory Band has shifted once more, with a fresh emphasis on rhythm courtesy of the powerhouse team of bassist Jon Thorne from Lamb and drummer Tom Page of Rocketnumbernine, as well as an all-new vocal frontline featuring Jess Roberts, Jenny McCormick, Hannah Caughlin and Liam Bailey (whose debut album is out on Poyldor later this year). Sam Carter, winner of this year's Horizon award at the Radio 2 Folk Awards, plays and sings on a number of songs, while there are contributions from names new and old; Nancy Wallace, Dot Allison, Sam Genders on vocals, guitarists John Smith and Pete Greenwood, bassist Jonny Bridgwood, string players Quinta, Rob Spriggs, Jennymay Logan and Laura Moody, Sarah Scutt on accordion and recorder, and Serafina Steer on harp.

"Oh My Days" is a warmly-textured, delicately-balanced blend of the best elements from its predecessors. Low-key electronic pulses and loops purr away gently beneath material that radiates a quiet strength, having expanded its palette to embrace soul, gospel, Laurel Canyon rock and country blues alongside the folk and jazz elements of the earlier albums. It's a beautifully-poised piece of work, with the usual handful of inspired covers – Sandy Denny's "By The Time It Gets Dark", Graham Bond's "Love Is The Law" and Jeff Alexander's "Come Wander With Me" (from the TV series The Twilight Zone) – nestling amongst ten originals, several of which are already live favourites.

The Straw Bear Band is the main focus of attention for Dominic Cooper - member of the Owl Service collective and inhouse graphic designer for the Rif Mountain label (of which he is also a co-founder). The Straw Bear Band play a kind of 'garage-folk'; stripped down, raw, earthy, and concerned with the darker, more grim aspects of our aural heritage. During a break from recording their second album (a mammoth 26-track concept album which is an A-Z of songs about British eccentrics), the band cut these 2 sides in the studio of producer/multi-instrumentalist Gerry Diver (best known for his work with Lisa Knapp). The songs are both traditional re-workings, and both are elevated to new levels from any previous recorded versions. A Lyke Wake Dirge is performed as a driving, chorus-led stomp-fest, while Nottamun Town is presented in a stark, angular arrangement which suits the dream-like lyric perfectly - the portentous percussion and Diver's wild, bewitching violin used to stunning effect.

The band are named after a folk festival which takes place in the town of Whittlesey where Dominic Cooper grew up. Each year since at least the mid-19th century, a man dressed as a straw bear visits all the ale-houses in the town to entertain the patrons before being torched in a breathtaking finale (sadly, this event has lost much of it's charm since the intervention of health and safety executives).

For fans of Alasdair Roberts, The Owl Service, Cath & Phil Tyler.

‘No man is an island’ wrote John Donne, but what about bands? Well, they’re probably not islands either, but like most things in life, you need exceptions to prove the rule. That’s why it was so remarkable when The Phantom Band, with their legion of musical references, still managed to sound quite unlike anyone else when they released "Checkmate Savage" in 2009, a debut that earned mass critical applause and made them the cult success of the year. Twelve months later, they’re still in a movement of one, and their follow-up, "The Wants", looks set to cement their reputation as one of the most inventive and vital units at work today.

If "Checkmate Savage" was the product of a band mulling over the human race’s inexorable slide into oblivion, then its follow-up found them turning feral and heading for the hills to ride out the storm. Holing up in Chem19 (Chemikal Underground’s studio in the wastelands of Blantyre), The Phantom Band immersed themselves in a primordial soup of influences before emerging six months later, emaciated and squinting in the pallid sunlight, cradling "The Wants": a nine-track musical folly and the soundtrack to their own personal apocalypse.

Charged with creating a second album more or less from scratch and in situ - an album upon which their creative and material survival depended - they contracted a virulent strain of cabin fever and promptly set sail into the mouth of madness. Keyboardist Andy Wake elaborates: 'As you know, The Phantom Band was built on the site of an ancient Indian burial ground, so every time we record it's like an emotional exorcism. It's painful, prolonged, confusing; at times it's hard to tell what's happening outside of this other-world'. Guiding them through this tortuous birthing process was the chimerical figure of Mungo Bang, 'a spiritual adviser of sorts who came highly recommended. He also added vibes'.

Their madness had method, because a lot came out in the mix: a forest of tuned percussion, poly-rhythmic group vocals, fuzz guitars and medieval electronics. Musical inspirations included David Lynch and John Carpenter soundtracks, German kosmische music of the 70’s, Tom Waits, digidub rhythms, R&B harmonies, doo-wop and rock'n'roll. Lyrical inspiration emerged from lycanthropy, vampires, doppelgangers and the Salem witch trials. That’s also Teenage Fanclub’s Wurlitzer organ you can hear on "Everybody Knows It’s True", alongside a host of other instruments, both homemade and hard-bought. Various bits of furniture, wood, a toy drum machine, some home-made drum triggers and FX pedals (aptly named the Phantosizer), shelvaphones, a dulcimer and the studio fire extinguisher - all had roles to play on the final recording. 'Sink [Greg Sinclair] appeared at rehearsal one day with what looked like a body bag containing at least one corpse. It turned out to be a full size vibrophone with all the trimmings', explains Wake. If any more evidence of creative initiative was required, the album opens with the sound of a baliphone being sawed into tune in preparation for a take.

The end product represents a major leap forward for the band, a sound more of their own. Juxtapositions are more apparent – arcane folk melodies and gothic lyrical imagery straddle vintage analogue synths and primitive drum machines. 'Where Checkmate Savage was varied, we've intensified those elements, because we've got no reason to be subtle with them', says Wake. 'It's much more concentrated, more skilfully executed and with more decoration. It’s "Checkmate Savage" - On Ice'.

The Phantom Band was pulled together from all four corners of Scotland, settling on Glasgow as PB HQ. Duncan Marquiss (guitar), Gerry Hart (bass), Andy Wake (keyboards), Rick Anthony (vocals) and Greg Sinclair (guitars) are a volatile cabal of creative contradictions: a disorientating amalgam of music, art and performance that defies categorisation and provides an object lesson in how to forge something distinct and unique from well-worn sources. "Checkmate Savage" won plaudits from the mainstream music press and the indie blogs alike, finding famous fans in Peter Buck and comic artist Frank Quitely, while the influential music emporium Piccadilly Records named it their album of the year. Their new album may be "The Wants", but what do The Phantom Band want for? 'Survival. For this album to lead to another after it, that's all. We think it's better than the last one, and if anyone agrees with us then brilliant, they can hop aboard. Those who disagree can hop aboard too, but they're sailing at the stern'.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: The mighty Phantom Band return with a superb follow up to their debut album, which was our Album Of The Year in 2009. "The Wants" picks up where "Checkmate Savage" left off adding more and more layers to their already complex sound. It's less motorik than their debut, but still with their distinctive pulsing rhythms at the heart of it. There's more analogue synth action and knob twiddling going on this time around and on each listen, you're plunged deeper into their world.
The first band to get a Piccadillly Album Of The Year in consecutive years? The competition is pretty stiff this year, but it's definitely in the running.....

TRACK LISTING

1. A Glamour
2. O
3. Everybody Knows It's True
4. The None Of One
5. Mr. Natural
6. Come Away In The Dark
7. Walls
8. Into The Corn
9. Goodnight Arrow

While it has only been 18 months since Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band's self-titled debut, they have traveled what feels like thousands of miles. "Where The Messengers Meet" is in real time, an expansion of the sound of the band's eponymous debut. They take the same frantic and skewed elements and stretch them out, giving them room to breathe and blossom.

Thematically, "Where The Messengers Meet" is an exercise in contrasts: the delicate and gentle, the dark and furious. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band collects powerful compositions into one cohesive whole held together with lush production and a haunting atmosphere. They are imperceptibly inching away from an angular style influenced by Modest Mouse and Wolf Parade, instead incorporating an epic sound recalling both the modern masters such as Arcade Fire, and classic pioneers, like Pink Floyd.

Ralfe Band are based around the talents of British songwriter Oliver Ralfe. Here they have created a magical, inventive and atmospheric soundtrack, with enchanting melodies and beautiful instrumentation including piano, guitars, mandolin, accordion, strings, brass and electronic elements.

From Fluxus and performance-art pioneer and Two Virgins to chart-topping dance-music heroine(inspiring punk rock along the way), Yoko Ono has been an innovative and influential force on music and art, while simultaneously campaigning for peace on the world's stage. At 76 years young, Yoko continues to kick ass. "Between My Head And The Sky", a career-defining album made with her new Plastic Ono Band. The record is a gorgeous, mind-melting blend of styles, restating and sharpening themes while plunging into the always-mysterious future. Band includes Keigo 'Cornelius' Oyamada and his band members Yuko Araki and Shimmy Shimizu, Sean Lennon, Yuka Honda (of Cibo Matto) as well as NYC improvisers Erik Friedlander, Shahzad Ismaily, Michael Leonhart, Daniel Carter and Indigo Street. Raw rockers, electronic pulse glimmers, dark late-night improvisations and heart-breaking elegiac ballads- Yoko takes a variety of textual approaches on this beautifully balanced collection of work. A career-defining album by one of contemporary culture's reigning geniuses.

From their first gig in April 08, The Hayley Faye Band have garnered a loyal following. This debut single features two tracks: "Babysleepmode", which is driven by a propulsive snare drum beat and the upbeat stomp of "Kings And Queens", with both tracks being defined by Hayley's distinctive, charismatic vocals and perceptive lyrics.

Creating your own genre of music is not for the faint hearted and this is exactly what this album uncompromisingly sets out to do. Despite strong influences from the Mediterranean and the Middle East, it admirably keeps its feet firmly on the ground of Manchester and British Indie. Following in the footsteps of British bands Asian Dub Foundation and Transglobal Underground, the album layers exotic sounds like darbuka, saz and bouzouki over a strong, driving back beat. From electric guitar to the haunting Turkish çümbüş, each song holds small surprises from the unusual array of instruments arranged with loving attention to detail.

A mixture of Darwish's songs in English and modern rearrangements of Turkish and Kurdish songs, this album successfully fuses lyrics in English, Turkish and two Kurdish languages. Anatolian folk songs, some thought to be over 300 years old, sit comfortably next to some of the most biting English lyrics to have been written in recent times. The whole album has a meaningful weight to it but never becomes trite or pompous like so many of its world music counterparts.

The country and eastern sound is both uplifting and adventurous, never more exemplified than in the stomping cover of Dolly Parton's classic song "Jolene". Every listen reveals a new detail from the many intricate layers that go together to set this album in a world of is own. With anthemic and poetical comments on immigration and the Iraq war it is firmly set in the 21st century but the breathtakingly original mixture of languages and sounds from east and west takes you to a world where the only borders really are in your mind.

Limited 7" from this hot Sydney three piece, bursting on to the music scene with a fuzzed out guitar sound, the simplicity of a three piece format and the haunting vocals of Sarah Kelly. This is distorto dream pop, that reminds me of Juliana Hatfield and Lush a bit too. Sisters Sarah and Lizzie Kelly form the core of the band and record with the addition of a boy drummer / vocalist.

This is Anticon co-founder Sole's official follow up to 2005's "Live From Rome" LP, and first release with his new band, Skyrider. It's the label's finest hip hop album since Sage Francis' classic "Personal Journals" way back in 2002. In some ways, this is a record of return - a return to rhyming for one, particularly the complicated rhyme schemes that marked Sole's early work, a return driven by his seeming, but not actual, discordant love of both Lord Byron and Lil' Wayne. It's a record where the lovely analog of "Shipwreckers" (where Sole jacks the hook from the Guy Debord film Refutation Of All Judgements) comfortably co-habits with the grinding, anthemic opening track "A Sad Day For Investors".

A new Joanna Newsom record already? Don't rub your eyes and ears just yet —it's 'just' an EP. But with all new arrangements and performances of two already-classic Joanna songs and the debut of a brand-new song, it's a solid short-play record at least — and another inspiring slice of Newsom at best! The EP was performed by Joanna's road-tested band: Kevin Barker, Neal Morgan, Dan Cantrell and Ryan Francesconi, with Joanna Newsom singing and playing her harp. Recorded and mixed in its entirety by Tim Green at The Plant Studios in Sausalito, California, it's an all-new, live and lively look into the world of one of today's fastest-growing young artists. Both formats feature "Colleen", "Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie" and "Cosmia".

One of the most enigmatic, mysterious, and defiantly anti-commercial groups to emerge from the New York loft scene during the 90s, the No-Neck Blues Band formed in 1992 around a consistent core of multi-instrumentalists who have stubbornly and admirably insist on individual anonymity. Incorporating elements of folk, drone, psychedelia, free jazz, noise, and just about everything else, NNCK have nevertheless carved out a distinctive sound from complementary and disparate component elements. "Letters From The Earth" was NNCK's first digital output and is a document of their first ever outdoor Orthodox Easter concert in 1996. This double CD outputs 111 or so minutes worth of this group's dizzying array of sonic blattage, cable disruption, tribal tranceadelics and trip or drone aesthetic.

The 1966 debut from the forward-thinking furry folkies. Recorded as a trio before their inspiring trips to Morocco and Afghanistan, it's a straight-ahead blend of traditional and original material, played in a mix of American and Celtic folk styles.

This third album from Silver Mt. Zion, is by far the most melodic album released by any Godspeed You Black Emperor project. On this release, they expand on their core six piece line-up, to include guests on drums and a couple of dozen folk on choral duty! Dense layers of strings collide, blend and differentiate against a backdrop of ragged repeating guitar figures and noise treatments. Their long instrumental passages are there as ever, but there's a much stronger vocal presence than before.

This platter is all you need to throw your own Northwest-style teen-dance party! After hitting big with the Kingsmen's "Louie, Louie" Jerden Records unleashed a passel of Northwest pounders (over 125 records from '63-'66, including the original battle of the bands LP), chronicalling what might have been the hottest U.S. teen scene of the '60s. Sonics, Counts, Bandits, Don & the Goodtimes, Live Five, Mercy Boys, Dimensions, Bards and many more.

Some of the raunchiest '60s rock and roll to ever peel the paint from your walls came screaming out of the Northwest in the mid-'60s, and Jerden Records was there to capture the top acts on tape, with the Sonics and Don and the Goodtimes leading the charge and hundreds more following fast behind. With 25 more tracks from the Jerden vaults, all in that inimitable savage, guitar and organ driven '60s Northwest fuzz-punk style! Features stellar fidelity from the original master tapes, ultra-rare photos, and liner notes by Northwest music expert Neal Skok. The Sonics, the Scotsmen, Don and The Goodtimes, the Raymarks, the Jesters, the Nu-dimensions and many more.

From the Floydian Mellotron ballad of "In My First Mind" to the seagulls and wavesounds on "The Beauty of Time Is That It's Snowing" the first Steve Miller Band album from 1968 is full of suprises, each track segues into the next and can be termed a concept album, there is a blues feel about it but there are also moments of psychedelia and progressive rock that make you really sit up. A minor classic.

The Souther, Hillman, Furay Band was one of those supergroup creations of the 70s. Chris Hillman was an original member of The Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers, Richie Furay was one of the founders of Buffalo Springfield and Poco, and JD Souther worked with Glen Frey of The Eagles. In 1974 they formed this outfit and recorded this eponymous album of counrty tinged soft rock with Manassas style guitar and plenty of classy songwriting.

Souther-Hillman-Furay was the offspring of just about every notable country-rock band. Richie Furay was a founding member of both Buffalo Springfield and Poco, Chris Hillman had been with the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Stephen Stills' Manassas and JD Souther formed Longbranch Pennywhistle with Eagle Glenn Frey. Although the band received a great deal of promotion their career was short lived. Their debut sold reasonably well, but the aptly titled "Trouble in Paradise" never took off and the band split shortly after its release. It's an album of soft rock with the country embellishments that made them worth listening to.

A double CD edition of Henry Rollins and the Rollins Band, one enhanced including videos and stuff, and you know what to expect. Rollins is as confrontational as ever, age has not wearied him or blunted his polemical style.

Well orchestrated pop tunes from vocalist / multi instrumentalist Chris Adolf, incorporating a whole host of unusual instruments - marimbas, glockenspiel and even a musical saw!

A collaboration between The Melvins, and Mike Patton's Fantomas. Recorded live in San Francisco, December 2000.

Second album that finds the band expanded to a six member core. The addition of cello, second violin and second guitar has allowed them to develop a much broader sound with more vocals and guitar. Think of a sound somewhere between Godspeed.., Spiritualized and Rachels. Fantastic stuff!!!!!

Remembered primarily for the 1968 smash #1 hit "Judy In Disguise." Seventeen tracks include "Judy In Disguise," "Leave Her Never," "Anges English and more. Pure psychedelic bubblegum.