I’ll apologise at the start for the lack of updates from me for the last month. Hectic doesn’t even come close to summing up the last few weeks. There was the end of exams, followed by trying to earn some quick cash, followed by one amazing loved up week in Ibiza, then graduation. It’s been tiring. Anyway, enough of the excuses. This compilation has been finished for a couple of weeks but I just haven’t had time to upload all the tracks, which meant I couldn’t let share it with you all.

Onto the music.

Here we’ve got a compilation of tunes, mostly quite summery and breezy, and with often folk influences, although I don’t really want to limit its breadth to just that. Folk is the soundtrack to my summer (that and some fucking awesome tunes that have been slamming my stereo since Ibiza but more on that in my next electro post), it just lets me sit back and relax in the sunshine during a period when looking for jobs or contracts is the reality I’m now entering. Oh, and yes there are quite a few bands here with pretty damn ridiculous names, I like them, but that doesn’t make them any less ridiculous.

Some of these bands are on the cool smaller labels like Moshi Moshi or Young & Lost which are both doing an amazing job of finding very talented new bands to come through that are accessible and yet just slightly outside mainline pop, with lyrics a little more clever, emotions a little deeper or sweeter. Yeah I love them just a little bit. Also, as ever I have to tip my hat to Derek over at GWFAS, and Matthew at Songs, by Toad for finding a few of these.

Florence you can imagine strumming and serenading from the corner of a bar, with her all jazz/blues-styled singing and blues guitar strumming that have strong folky roots. She is aggressive as much as hypnotic.

Emmy The Great sings whimsically at times and pointedly at others along with soft drums and a variety of instruments from guitars, to violin to what sounds distinctly like a xylophone. She is a modern blues raconteur and yet still a sweet girl-guitar combo.

Marina and the Diamonds sings to an offbeat tune in a way that reminds me of early Regina Spektor. Piano – tick, unusual vocal melodies – tick, and yet she offers something new to pique your interest.

This track from Drew Helsinki reminds me of a raw Jamie T, with a little more of a raggae rhythm to it. Once you get through the opening short vocal rambling you get through to a chirpy summer tune that even brings in some claps later on in case you managed to forget the smile that has found its way to cover your face, which is pretty odd when you actually listen to the lyrics.

Jay Jay Pistolet has created a ballad, with a sad drone of vocals, reminiscing on a past friend and recanting her story from an outside admirer. Delicate and enchanting.

Noah and the Whale have been featured here on TBW on more than one occasion as leaders of the supposed new folk movement in London. This song is more of a ballad than some of their other tunes and doesn’t contain the usual change of pace – but still stands as a beautiful song in its own right.

Slow Club have created cutesy twee folk pop that reminds me of Noah and the Whale, with harmonising duet vocals and a simple guitar melody. They have kept to simple melodies and stripped down structures, but have mastered it and created cute chemistry.

Kid Harpoon first appeared on my radar from friends that were loving Jamie T’s rise to fame last summer. He has come a long way from those rough demos that were kicking about back then. He has honed his skills on piano and guitar but the tunes have stayed along that dark folky indie theme and live continues to impress all who see him.

Thos Henley creates defines the hazy, dreamy, happy folk that is defining my summer, with other songs utilising the traditional folk accompaniments of accordians and eukaleles. This song sounds like Thos is singing about a rural english country idyll where we all want to be able to escape to, even if that may be along the Thames…

Kimya Dawson has found a lot of fans recently off the back of the Juno soundtrack, but that was not before time. She is apparently “anti-folk,” but I’ll take that to be her often politically charged lyrics, as “Like Giants” sounds very much like folk to me, and awesome folk, if at a little quicker pace than it would traditionally be. She describes a magical mystery world of ginats and lemmings and bettering one’s world view. It is a world I want to find myself in.

Frank Turner defines post-punk after his move into folk after the demise of his band Million Dead. Here he turns my ideas of folk being based on rural or imaginary idylls on its head to sing about averse to everything that that world holds dear. But singing it with smooth melodies over gentle strumming and a harmonica juxtaposes the two worlds of city and village dwellers perfectly.

Lucy and the Caterpillar’s music is dreamy nostalgia, and yet imaginative and upbeat. It is cute, very cute, but she manages to wash that down with a melancholy tone that lift her way above the cute popstars that are finding success at the moment in the charts.

Kay Kay and his Weathered Underground have created a true mish-mash of a sound here. Parts sound like they’ve been stripped from a victorian fair or circus, and with that pulls some distant memory of something from the Beatles magical Mystery Tour, but with a vocal  melody that almost branches into Oasis, and then a ending tha could have come from a Cat Empire song. I never thought those three would get into on song that sounds even remotely fluent, but it seems I have been proved wrong and happily so.

Tahiti Boy leads what is basically a french collective of chaotic musicians that somehow come together. Their songs keep some of this chaos as thy change pace, but keep the adoration flowing through. I really don’t know how to describe this lot, but listen to “1973” and get on their myspace to see how varied the music of one band/collective can be.

Not being content with a bit part on Casualty and doing voiceovers for Ikea, Johnny Flynn is being promoted as the poster boy of the current folk resurgence going on in England. Touring with his four piece backing band, The Sussex Wit, which sums up his clever lyrical style rather well, and with his debut critically acclaimed album A Larum out now on Vertigo Records, he is one of those leading the movement along with Laura Marling and Noah and the Whale.

This Submarines song doesn’t exactly fit with the folk and acoustic sound of most of the rest of this mix, but I have been loving its upbeat, foot-tapping summer perfection and just need an excuse to share it. It may have a political message about how we should not follow the easiest but the best path, but it is just so damn catchy.

The Swedish Lykke Li has been dominating the music blogs for quite a while now, and that is due to her daunting talent. It’s apparently pronounced lu-key loo for those struggling. She is what pop was designed for, with her album, Youth Novel, coming out in June that sounds like Feist’s should have. Delicate, clever, pop music, packaged to perfection.

01 Florence and the Machine – Girl with 1 Eye
[Buy] [Homepage] [MySpace]
02 Emmy The Great – Secret Circus
[Buy] [Homepage] [MySpace]
03 Marina & The Diamonds – Simplify
[Buy] [Homepage] [MySpace]
04 Drew Helsinki – I Wish
[Buy] [Homepage] [MySpace]
05 Jay Jay Pistolet – Holly
[Buy] [Homepage] [MySpace]
06 Noah and the Whale – If I Die Tonight (live)
[Buy] [Homepage] [MySpace]
07 Slow Club – Biology Hearts
[Buy] [Homepage] [MySpace]
08 Florence & Kid Harpoon – Going Down
[Florence MySpace] [Kid Harpoon/MySpace]
09 Thos Henley – Summer on the Thames
[Buy] [Homepage] [MySpace]
10 Kimya Dawson – I Like Giants
[Buy] [Homepage] [MySpace]
11 Frank Turner – The Outdoor Type
[Buy] [Homepage] [MySpace]
12 Lucy & The Caterpillar – Beans On Toast
[Buy] [Homepage] [MySpace]
13 Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground – Hey Momma
[Buy] [Homepage] [MySpace]
14 Tahiti Boy And The Palmtree Family – 1973
[Buy] [Homepage] [MySpace]
15 Johnny Flynn – The Box (Live)
[Buy] [Homepage] [MySpace]
16 The Submarines – You Me and the Bourgeoisie
[Buy] [Homepage] [MySpace]
17 Lykke Li – Breaking It Up
[Buy] [Homepage] [MySpace]

You can also download the whole mix as a zip file:
Summer days through the folkish haze

I will say right upfront now that I won’t be making any updates for the next 5 or so weeks as I am travelling around the Middle East. Off in about 24 hours and cannot wait – as per last year’s travelling if anyone has any thoughts on where I should go in particlular in Iran (hopefully), Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and possibly Israel then please let me know – post a comment – it would be much appreciated.

I will be picking up my emails, albeit sporadically, but any new music I am sent I will listen as per usual, there will just be a slightly longer backlog than normal.

Either way, enjoy these tunes in the meantime.