KLOF Magazine

1 I fell in love with Cornwall from the first time I went there. With its labyrinthine hedgerows, ancient worship sites, unimpeachable artistic heritage and frothing ale, it seemed like England as it was promised to us in fairy stories. It’s fostered some great bands over the years, from Aphex Twin to Angeline Morrison (see also Red River Dialect, Wizz Jones, C.O.B, Luke Vibert, Ralph McTell, Gwenno, and the peerless filmmaker/musician Mark Jenkin).

1 Aside from the obvious – the great albums, the thriving live scene – one of the best things about the folk music coming out of Dublin right now is its variety. Its artists display an admirable willingness to change and to embrace new forms: experimentation is the order of the day for groups like Landless, OXN and Lankum, all of whom have, to some extent, embraced drones or discordance.

1 Every Monday morning, for the past three-plus years, I’ve been sending out a playlist called ‘The Monday Morning Brew’ via our Substack – it’s one of the perks of supporting us (details below). The music is eclectic, covering folk, psych, ambient, jazz and more. As well as new releases, we also delve into the past. As it’s human-curated, it doesn’t sound like an algorithmic echo chamber, and you can expect some unexpected twists and turns. It’s perfect for music discovery.

1 When Purling Hiss’ Mike Polizze released his second solo album, Around Sound, in 2025, KLOF Mag’s Danny Neill declared “Where he travels next may be as hard to predict as ever, but if the results are as fine as this, then we must follow him.” Well, the first stop-off after that review was Philadelphia, PA at the Pageant: Soloveev gallery.

1 There’s a lot to enjoy on Le Ren’s Don’t Be Funny Without Me: many musical delights, which I will get to shortly, and sounds filled with a desire to be uplifted and feel the positive side of life. I must also give you a heads up because, as the song cycle’s underlying subtext picks apart the period after a relationship has ended, it inevitably arrives at the point where the pain is confronted head-on. That arrives with the penultimate song on the album, which is also the title track.

2 Djuphjärtad (Swedish for deep-hearted) is a collaborative EP between the ambient project Ship Says Om (Jenny Gillespie Mason) and Emma Lucia. Jenny tells is that Emma, a fellow musician in the Bay Area, invited her to help shape several of her songs into a more atmospheric, exploratory form; the result is Djuphjärtad, a four-song EP.

1 If I hear the phrase “I contain multitudes” smugly delivered by an Instagram-addicted arts professional one more time, then I’m gonna sing my own body electric with a cold bath and a plug-in heater. However, Baby Dee is the one person that I have met on Earth who does contain multitudes. Baby Dee has had more lives than the Dalai Lama.

Fortepan / UWM Libraries / Harrison Forman This week’s Monday Morning Brew playlist clocks in at over two hours with all new releases. There is so much great music being released at the moment that the playlists and mixtapes I create are often the only way I can cover a new release. We open with one that we have covered: a track from Elanor Moss’ debut “The Knife, The Needle”, an album that balances a quiet, subtle mode of expression with a searing intensity of feeling.

1 The first detail that really stuck and felt particularly relevant when I began sessioning Derbyshire guitarist par excellence Nick Jonah Davis’s new album, Rose Delta Rising, is the recording location. Black Bay Studio is situated in the Outer Hebrides and overlooks the staggering landscape of that area: windswept hills and clear bodies of water. There is something magical and otherworldly about the Hebrides; a starkness and raw beauty that Nick manages to distil into his set of songs.

1 Our Song of the Day comes from The Male Pattern, a project by Will Schwartz, a songwriter, novelist, and English professor from Queens, NY. “Charlie (The Robbery)” is a refreshingly original take from his forthcoming album, I Was Shot in the Heart!, out on September 25th via Barely Out Recordings.