Folk Magick

Hear the Call of the Highlands for Powerful Magick, Healing, and Divination

Wrought from estuary accented lichen, scrabbled from brine and moss, love and loss, wheezing synths and knackered harmoniums; The Cold Spells' full length debut is a record for people who filter nature through distortion pedals.

Passed Normal Vol. 6 & 7 is a two-volume, two compact disc compilation released in 1993 by the Fot label, an adventurous label from Bloomingdale, Illinois. Some of the artists featured include Pere Ubu, Ron Geesin, Maestro Subgum & The Whole, Amy Denio, Frank Pahl, Henry Kaiser, Tone Dogs, and many more.

While checking out a music video for one of the lead singles to Elvenking‘s latest record, Reader of the Runes – Divination, I stumbled across a comment that deeply resonated with me. To paraphrase: “This is pretty good, but I still feel like a Pagan Manifesto widow.” It’s rare for a band to drop their best album seventeen years and eight LPs in their career, but 2014’s The Pagan Manifesto was precisely that. That record’s focus on power metal bombast was retained in 2017’s Secrets of the Magick Grimoire, but ultimately that record struggled in replicating its predecessor’s success. Unsurprisingly, Divination also fails to match Elvenking‘s high water mark; this time, however, the quality gap has lessened significantly. A comprehensive overview of everything that makes Elvenking‘s trademark folky power metal so uniquely charming, Divination comes across as one of the most confident records in the band’s lengthy catalog.

Singular blues journeyman Lonnie Holley returns, flanked by acolytes Moor Mother, Michael Stipe, Bon Iver, Sharon Van Etten, Rokia Koné, and Jeff Parker for a significant new album.

There was a time, a long, long time ago, when rock musicians were allowed to be more than just rock musicians. Many forget in fact that the first generation of such artists sprang from backgrounds that took in blues, jazz, classical and even the avant garde. London's early '60s venues rattled to the sounds of trad jazz and chicago blues as well as folk, rock 'n' roll and skiffle. Jack Bruce was most definitely a product of this era.