Less than a week before tonight’s shimmering performance by Beth Jeans Haughton and her Hooves of Destiny, I watched her set fall apart in Stockton. Beset by technical problems she struggled through a faltering set while being repeatedly encouraged to ‘Fuck Off!’ by a couple of silver tongued charmers pressed up against the stage. On the plus side, the use of a battered old suitcase as a bass drum is something which obviously sits well with a website called Suitcase Orchestra. One day, all instruments will be made of discarded luggage.

Tonight’s set is a world away from all that, with Beth’s ethereal voice floating over her own sparkling brand of space-folk (imagine Joni Mitchell as a character in 2001 A Space Odyssey). Previous single ‘Golden’ gets the full band treatment and several songs from her forthcoming e.p. are previewed including ‘I Will Return, I Promise’ and there is a glorious soaring rendition of ‘Night Swimmer’, complete with looping live samples of Beth’s breathy vocals. There’s even some duet action with Mark Hamilton from Woodpigeon.

There’s a fragility and a prettiness to her music which belies the humour behind some of it. I doubt anyone has ever looked so glamorous, she’s wearing a blonde wig, a tasselled swimsuit and has huge Venus Flytrap eyelashes, while singing a song about running out of petrol and having to take a crap by the side of the motorway.

Beth Jeans Houghton is a superstar in waiting. Get on board early by getting her new single ‘I Will return, I Promise’ in early September. In the meantime, you can vote for it in Radcliffe and Maconies ‘Pick n Mix’ by clicking here but you’ll have to be quick sharp.

Otherwise, you can check out Beth’s cosmic-glam-folk at www.myspace.com/bethjeanshoughton

Grace Maxwell – ‘Falling & Laughing – The Restoration of Edwyn Collins’

This is the story of two fights. Edwyn Collins’ fight to recover from two massive brain haemorrhages in 2005 and his wife’s fight to ensure that he had the best chance of doing so.

The fact that Collins survived his strokes is remarkable enough given their impact. That he should have been able to return to performing is pretty unbelievable.

Following his haemorrhages, Collins was left unable to walk and talk, let alone write and perform songs. Maxwell’s account of their battle to recover is honest, warming and by turns harrowing and funny.

Through the early days of his illness the helplessness and the desperation is palpable but even in those times, Collins’ stubborn determination is clearly evident and his wife goes on to describe his slow and often unsteady (set-backs included post-operative infections and contracting MRSA) recovery.

As he recovers, the Edwyn Collins we remember gradually emerges; articulate, eloquent, and possessed of a razor sharp wit. His return to playing music is documented in detail but most fascinating is his determination to follow his other passion in life, drawing. Unable to use his right hand, he painstakingly taught himself to use his left hand, the results of which have recently been exhibited in London and Glasgow.

An uplifting book, Grace Maxwell has in effect written a touching love letter to her husband.

Does this count as a debut? Depending on what you read, either Luke Temple wised up to the fact that the current overload of tiresome singer-songwriters can impact negatively on any artist trading under their own name and changed the name of his act to Here We Go Magic, or he decided enough was enough with his solo work and formed a group instead. It doesn’t really matter as he’s come up with a blinding album which ever way you look at it.

I am a bit late with this one actually. It was released back in February and it’s been lying dormant on my hard drive for a while after being downloaded in an effort to use up some spare eMusic credits but that seems ok as it has a very summery feel and now seems like the perfect time to be delving into it.

Inhabiting the same sort of territory as Department of Eagles, Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective, the basic pattern of the album is one of simple repetition. A catchy hook is repeated and a tune is built up in layers around it. It sounds loose and spacious and it works effortlessly. Opening with ‘Only Pieces’ , a mantra set over an African rhythm, the album really kicks off with the second track ‘Fangela’. This song is so damned good it’s hard to believe that it wasn’t written sooner. It’s basically Simon and Garfunkel’s greatest hits all played at exactly the same time – glorious stuff.

‘Ahab’, which contains, dare I say it, prog influences, chugs along nicely and would sound equally at home on Stuart Maconie’s BBC 6Music ‘Freakzone’ show and nestled on a compilation on early nineties pioneering mod label Acid Jazz.

Throughout the record there is a very evident ambient element to the music and this really comes to the fore on the second half of the album. The aptly titled ‘Ghost List’ is the most gentle of these, a single chord which reverberates for four and a half minutes, growing from a whisper to , well, a slightly louder whisper. The prettiest of the ambient tracks is ‘I Just Want To See You Underwater’, which I curiously read as I Just Want To See Your Underwear on first scan of the tracklisting. (There’s a remix title for you there fellers.)

Then, just as you think the album is fading away in a series of pulsing tones in ‘Babyohbaby – Ijustcan’tstanditanymore’ and ‘Nat’s Alien’, the album finishes with the absurdly catchy waltz ‘Everything’s Big’, which sounds like it came from a sadly abandoned attempt by Ray Davies to write the soundtrack to the classic children’s tv shows ‘Camberwick Green’ and ‘Trumpton.’ Ahh, what a record that would have been…

The title of New Found Land’s debut album, ‘We All Die’ hints at the melancholy contained within but this is by no means a miserable record. The songs are wistfully sad but beautifully presented and almost instantly familiar.

There’s a strong folky feel to the album but nowhere does the influence take over and even on ‘Come To Me’, complete with hand claps and banjo, there isn’t a hint of hey-nonny-nonny to be found. In fact, there’s even the odd bit of well placed jazz in there with the haunting vibes on the opening track ‘It Would Mean The World To Me’ and the saxophone with ends the album on ‘Life’s In Your Site’, a song which trails out sounding like something off Nick Drake’s ‘Bryter Layter’, and that’s not a comparison it’s often possible to make.

As a collection of pretty songs about longing and doomed love affairs, ‘We All Die’ is a beautifully understated record. You really should own it.