There’s something unsettling to the point of being disturbing about Taylor Kirk’s current and eponymous Timber Timbre album, his first since signing to Arts & Crafts. From the ghost train soundtrack of I Get Low through to the rootsy blues folk of No Bold Villain, this is an album which will haunt you between listens.

It’s not simply the graveyard spook of the music or the voice that makes you look over your shoulder. It’s the lyrics. When, in Until The Night Is Over, Kirk borrows the first line of the House Of The Rising Sun he makes the problems set out in the original lyrics seem like a night out with the Temperance Society. ‘There is a house in New Orleans, where you woke from a coma and they bit your cheek and they cleaned you out when you went to sleep,’ he sings, and you can almost see the sinister smile on his lips. By the time he gets round to singing ‘Is your mind mistaken, is your conscience not at ease? – We’ll find out’ in the song We’ll Find Out, you are certain not only that he will find out, but also that the methods he might employ to do so may be more than a little unpleasant.

Grant Wood’s American Gothic painting is, on the face of it, a picture of a farmer and his wife. But then you look into their eyes and that pitchfork he’s holding takes on a menacing new presence. Taylor Kirk’s songs are much the same; sparse, bluesy folk with simple melodies. But then you look into their eyes…

Timber Timbre is available now through Arts & Crafts.

Visit Timber Timbre’s MySpace here.

Junkboy’s fourth album, their first since a move to Brighton and one which harnesses elements of the local Willkommen Collective, confirms the town as being at the hub of a rather special little scene.

Essentially Koyo is a folk album (opening track Firth comes over like a lost Nick Drake track from the Bryter Layter sessions  with its flute, picked guitar and strings) albeit folk with the edges blurred. Home is a blessed out fuzzy guitar driven affair complete with murmured vocals which hovers between shoe-gaze and Howdy era Teenage Fanclub. Dr Rendezvous, in contrast, drifts through various incarnations including a brush with Blue Note style trumpet, though happily without veering anywhere near the terrible F word. Nope, don’t fret, there isn’t even the merest hint of anything which could be termed ‘fusion’ here.

Koyo is a measured and perfectly poised blend of sounds which is difficult to pin a label on. Perhaps the band themselves have summed up the album best – the Japanese word of its title translates as ‘gentle sunlight’. It’s a perfect fit.

Koyo will be released on May, 17th on Enraptured Records

To hear more, visit Junkboy’s MySpace

Avi (very) short for Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg is the pivot around which Avi Buffalo, well, pivot I suppose. Impossibly young, at just eighteen, Avi and his friends have taken the tunes first laid down on a laptop and piece of free music software (Audacity, if your inner-geek really needs to know) and transformed them into the collection of songs which has just marched to the head of the queue marked ‘Albums of The Year 2010’

Scratching around for something to do with the rest of his life that didn’t involve a skateboard, Avi took up guitar and discovered a knack of writing pop songs so compelling that he might just have found the solution to his problem.

Although he professes a love of out-and-out noise, the kind which he himself terms ‘really tasteless brutal speaker gargling’ noise, hence the Long Beach Police Department’s decision to no longer permit him to rehearse in his own garage, there’s none of that in evidence here. What you get instead are ten sometimes wonky, sometimes frayed pop gems. Recent single What’s In It For? sounds like ghost of Galaxie 500’s Oblivious; not a bad benchmark to start from. Elsewhere, the guitar switches from the meandering solos of Galaxie 500’s Dean Wareham to the melodic shine of Felt’s Maurice Deebank on songs like Can’t I Know? – which, fans of DIY psychology may be interested to learn, is one of three songs which the young, hormone-ravaged singer has written ending in a question mark.

Largely a study on sexual tension and frustration – Avi (I’m aware that referring to him as Avi sounds a little over familiar but you can’t expect me to roll out Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg  every time, so Avi it is) even invited his muse Rebecca Coleman to join the band and share vocal duties. Whether this did anything to alleviate the problems he so candidly highlights in his lyrics is unknown, but at least it improved the dynamic of his band. ‘I’ve never written a love song’ he sings on Remember Last Time and while that may be true, he certainly knows how to write a lust song.

Avi Buffalo by Avi Buffalo will be released by Sub Pop, April 26^th.

Visit Avi Buffalo here.

The Spacemen 3 of folk are back with a new EP. and they’re gonna kick out the jams, or, more likely, hypnotise them and sort of usher them out of the door.

Picking up where their Christmas single, Sleep The Winter, left off – which is unsurprising as both records came out of the same recording sessions -title track Into The Fold captures perfectly their smouldering slow-burn sound. There’s something epic about the noise they make; something which suggests wide windswept landscapes, silhouetted leafless trees and rocky outcrops.  Already commissioned by the Edinburgh International Film Festival to soundtrack footage from the Scottish Screen Archive, it’s surely only a matter of time before further film score work materialises.

Everything moves at a very slow pace here, vocals are murmured and strings drawn out and stretched to their limits – it’s a lot like the starkly beautiful work of Hildur Gudnadottir on her Without Sinking album – only Morpheus, coincidentally the EP’s shortest track breaks into a trot. The rest of the tracks are allowed to materialise and fade with equal elasticity, Into the Fold comes in at over six minutes and closing track No Conjunction is just five seconds short of ten minutes in length.

But what’s the rush anyway? Listen to it and watch the sky grow dark. I just did and it fitted perfectly.

eagleowl, and yes their laid-backness does extend so far as to deem the use of capital letters unnecessary, launch Into the Fold at the Roxy Room in Edinburgh on Friday, April 30^th before releasing it through selected independent record stores or to order through their website and label (details below) from May 3^rd. They also play The Flying Duck in Glasgow on Saturday, May 1^st.

Into The Fold is available from eagleowl’s website which is here and kilter records can be found here.

Currently out on tour with Owen Pallett (dates below), the wonderful Snowblink have put together a video for the song Ambergris with their friend Terri Loewenthal. Ambergris is taken from the album Long Live which is still officially unreleased, though if you like the song, and you will, you can buy it here.

If you were to tell me you’d heard a more beautiful song today, I’d probably call you a liar…

Snowblink – Ambergris from Terri Loewenthal on Vimeo.

Dates with Owen Pallett

APR 22 NEW YORK – WEBSTER HALL

APR 24 BALTIMORE – METRO GALLERY

APR 25 PHILADELPHIA – FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH

APR 27 ATLANTA – THE EARL

APR 29 DALLAS – GRANADA THEATER

APR 30 AUSTIN – THE MOWHAWK

MAY 05 SAN FRANCISCO – THE INDEPENDENT

MAY 08 SEATTLE – THE CROCODILE

MAY 11 PORTLAND -ALADDIN THEATER

MAY 13 SALT LAKE CITY -KILBY COURT (without Snowblink)

MAY 14 DENVER  – LARIMER LOUNGE (without Snowblink)

Actors make terrible pop stars. Anyone who has watched through their fingers as Keanu Reeves strutted his stuff (and we’re talking about his acting and his music here) or felt their toes curl at Juliette Lewis’ efforts to paint herself as a kerrazeee rocker will understand this implicitly.  Zooey Deschanel however, is the exception which proves the rule.

Deschanel, who forms the She half of She & Him avoids the pratfalls of her peers by keeping it simple. Partnered by the He side of the band, M. Ward (who keeps things so simple he only has an initial as a forename) her songs – and they are her songs – don’t try to do anything other than be great pop songs; nobody is massaging an ego here, no one is pulling on a pair of leather pants with a banana stuffed down the front.

Volume Two – even their album titles resist any temptation to do anything other than focus on the music within – manages to pull of that most difficult of tricks of sounding brand new and yet like you’ve been listening to their songs for the last forty years. There’s something naggingly familiar about them but you won’t be able to put your finger on it because nothing is derivative or generic. There’s a nod to Carole King and the Brill Building, a dash of Patsy Cline, a huge Glen Campbell reverb-drenched guitar but nowhere does the album sound anything other than a She & Him record. – which has to be a good thing.

Volume Two by She & Him is out now and recent single In The Sun will be followed in June by the album’s opening track Thieves.

She & Him play a handful of British dates in May:

07/05/10: London – Koko

08/05/10: Minehead – ATP Festival

09/05/10: London – ULU

For further information visit their MySpace here.

Woodpigeon are set to launch their third album, Die Stadt Muzikanten this week in Europe and the UK after releasing it to critical acclaim in Canada and the US earlier in the year. Below, the album is reviewed and frontman Mark Hamilton tackles questions set by The Beatles, Neil Young and Aretha Franklin – who says you can’t get the staff these days?

Around eighteen months ago, when I first stumbled upon Woodpigeon by clicking a link from Edinburgh band Eagleowl’s website, all that was available was the free six track e.p. Houndstooth. It was a delicate collection of tentative folky songs and I loved it right away. Now, a year and a half later, the song count on my i-pod has reached 125 and I’ve seen them live more times than is probably sensible or indeed plausible given the thousands of miles of land and ocean stretching between their home and mine. To say that Woodpigeon’s Mark Hamilton is prolific would be a serious understatement.

Die Stadt Muzikanten is Woodpigeon’s third album and is the sound of a band growing in confidence and enjoying exploring the parameters of their own music. At the core of this record is the same sound and feel as that on the Hounstooth e.p. but now the music is stretched and pushed in all sorts of different directions. There are brass brands, plucked strings, loops, drones, fuzz and distortion, rich orchestration, accordions, ethereal backing vocals, speeded up tapes – this is an ambitious and expansive record, by turns stark and lonely and pulsating and intense.

After the disarmingly frank autobiographical content of their first two albums, this collection of songs is a little more third-person, inspired as it was by Hamilton’s ancestors’ journeys from Europe to a new life in Canada. His vocals are no less heartfelt though. What marks Woodpigeon out from the rest of the indie-folk pack is Mark Hamilton’s voice which has a bleeding quality more reminiscent of Chairman Of The Board’s General Norman Johnson or Al Green than Simon & Garfunkel.

Q&A with Mark Hamilton.

What’s Your Flava?

Last night, I ate my way through a piece of celebratory triple fudge layer cake. The boyfriend had carrot cake.

Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear, Every Time You Are Near?

I smell of Canada, which reminds them of the forest, and home. Also, I’m tall like a tree.

How Soon Is Now?

Not soon enough. This day at work is one of the slowest days of the year.

Are Friends Electric?

Depends if they’re plugged in or not.

Who Put The Ram In The Ram-a-Lama Ding-Dong?

Alberto Tomba.

If A Picture Paints A Thousand Words, Then Why Can’t I Paint You?

I hate wasting time just sitting. IE. work.

Why Does Your Love Hurt So Much?

You get used to it.

Why Don’t We Just Do It In The Road?

That old chestnut?

Who’s Zoomin’ Who?

Above and beyond.

Are You Ready For The Country?

Get out of cities and return to the trees.

Is She Really Going Out With Him?

“You’re not our friend boyfriend material.”

Who Let The Dogs Out?

My bass player’s neighbour, apparently.

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?

Call me around noon and we’ll discuss.

Woodpigeon release Die Stadt Muzikanten this week, click here for further information.

Last week they released the Spirehouse e.p., click here for more details.

Icelandic volcano permitting, they play the following European dates shortly.

April 29th – Reykjavic @ Sódóma

May 1st – Leeds, UK @ Holy Trinity Church/Live at Leeds Festival
May 2nd – Edinburgh, UK @ Cabaret Voltaire
May 3rd – Manchester, UK @ The Deaf Institue
May 4th – Brighton, UK @ Hanbury Ballroom
May 5th – Manchester, UK @ BBC In Session
May 6th – London, UK @ Union Chapel
May 7th – Paris, France @ ESpace B
May 8th – Brussels, BG @ Le Botanique/Nuits de Botanique
May 9th – Turnbridge Wells, UK @ The Forum

After a hiatus of four years since his last full length album, Kieran Hebden returns as Fout Tet with There Is Love In You.

Much of the sampling which saw him labelled as folktronica in his early days has been pared back, leaving a more full on dance sound. What hasn’t changed however is the importance of melody to the Four Tet sound. The bleeps and beats which make up the backbone of the record are laced with melody, lifting this album way above your average dance output.

Intelligent, immediate and in places ambient (Circling has the feel of a minimalist, pastoral piece, despite actually being a very busy tune) There Is Love In You transcends the dance floor and makes essential and irresistible listening anywhere.

There Is Love In You is available now on Domino and Four Tet will be performaing at a fistfull of festivals across the U.K. and Europe this summer.

With songs pouring out of him like a burst pipe, Woodpigeon’s Mark Hamilton is never satisfied to sit back and relax. Accordingly, Woodpigeon have released a surprise e.p. ahead of the U.K. and European launch of their third album Die Stadt Musikanten next week.

The title track, a lilting country-folk ballad with a strangely fitting oompah coda,  which also features in a remixed format, is lifted from the album but the e.p also boasts three new tracks, including the soundtrack to the movie of my life Music For The Naturally Unhip, a duet with Hampus Noren.

The outstanding treat on the e.p. though is Don’t Fret, My Pet which, musically if not lyrically, echoes Mark Hamilton’s finest moment to date An Entanglement Of Weeds and proves again that he isn’t afraid to tuck some of his best songs away on b-sides or give them away as freebies.

Woodpigeon – Spirehouse from Boompa Records on Vimeo.

Woodpigeon head to the U.K. and Europe in support of their new album for the following dates:

May 1st – Leeds, UK @ Holy Trinity Church/Live at Leeds Festival
May 2nd – Edinburgh, UK @ Cabaret Voltaire
May 3rd – Manchester, UK @ The Deaf Institue
May 4th – Brighton, UK @ Hanbury Ballroom
May 5th – Manchester, UK @ BBC In Session
May 6th – London, UK @ Union Chapel
May 7th – Paris, France @ ESpace B
May 8th – Brussels, BG @ Le Botanique/Nuits de Botanique
May 9th – Turnbridge Wells, UK @ The Forum

For more details on the Spirehouse e.p. and all things Woodpigeon, click here.

We’re back on-line, and what better way to do it than with the second instalment of The Leisure Society Q&A. Following on from Nick Hemming’s answers to the regular Suitcase Orchestra Q&A, which you can find here, Christian Hardy attempts something new. This time, the questions are set by Paul Weller, Morrissey, Neil Young and, erm, The Baha Boys…amongst others.

What’s Your Flava?

Mashed Potata.

Are Friends Electric?

Yes. In Japan.

What Time Is Love?

If you’re looking at your watch then it isn’t really love.

Just Who Is The 5 O’clock Hero?

John Craven.

Have You Ever Had It Blue?

Yes, in France.  Turns out I prefer it pink.

What Difference Does It Make?

All the difference, since you ask.

Who’s Zoomin’ Who?

I don’t know what this means.

Are You Ready For The Country?

We just got back, but I’m already ready to return.  We’ve been making a record don’t you know.

Is She Really Going Out With Him?

She seems to be, I don’t see it lasting though.

Who Let The Dogs Out?

The people responsible for Loose Women.

Can You Dig It?

No I can’t.

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?

I barely know you, but you seem nice.

Visit The Leisure Society here.