Genre in Review: Modern Folk

A long time between drinks, but I am back, to talk about a genre I've really started to enjoy a lot; modern folk. Everyone and their dog likes Dylan, Cohen and Drake, and rightly so, they are brilliant. But enough has been written about them. I'm going to focus on folk artists I can almost guarantee you haven't heard of, artists that deserve the spotlight shone on them.

Entertainment for the Braindead

Entertainment for the Braindead is Julia Kotowski, from Cologne, Germany. She mainly sticks with acoustic guitar and her voice, but adds in random sounds like paperclips, staplers and the like. Basically, her album Hydrophobia is one of my favourite folk albums, but due to her managing herself and not having the resources to make many CDs, all I can find is this link to her album free online. If anyone finds out some way to buy this album, let me know, but until then, enjoy her live version of "What You Get".

Tamerlan

Once again, Tamerlan is just one individual; Timur Iskandarov, from Serbia. Tamerlan focuses on what you can term more 'dark folk', with lots of tribal drumming, mysterious guitar and a general atmosphere of darkness. He's also a nice guy to boot, as I discovered whilst talking to him on Myspace. He just released a new album called "Worlds of Eternal Creation", which I recently bought and would encourage you to do the same. His first album "The Anti-Existence" is really good as well, even thought he told me it was an 'interesting beginning'. Well, artists are their own biggest critics, and you can view his Myspace page here.

Helen Shanahan

Helen Shanahan is actually from Perth, and it's great to see such talented people appearing from my home city. Her style is more pop folk, and as such her songs are extremely catchy. I've had the pleasure of helping make her a music video for her song "Mirror" and have been to several of her gigs, and can say without a doubt that she is a terrific person, both on stage and off it. She has an EP out called "Girl in Love" which I highly recommend, and it can be purchased from here.

Circulus

Circulus are out there. Like, really far out. Someone described them as 'Britain's leading nine piece medieval prog/folk/space/rock ensemble', and I can't really dispute that. They believe in fairies and pixies, dress up in clothes from five hundred years ago, and play medieval music to crowds who sit on the floor at their shows. On top of that, they just sound cool. There's all kinds of flutes and lutes in their music, it's the real 'traditional folk', if you will. I've only heard their first EP "Giantism", so who knows what the fuck they are sounding like now. Their Myspace is here.

As I keep searching for music online, I'm sure I'll add to these bands as time progresses. Who knew there was any good modern music?