strong and warm and wild and free

It may have the most ridiculously pervy/sexist cover since The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, but I'm enjoying the lush electro sounds of the new Sebastien Tellier album



...and, talking of Sexuality, I'm looking forward to Monday. As well as the new Billy Bragg, the new Nick Cave album sounds great, and I'll probably get hold of Malcolm Middleton and Duffy as well. Before that, I've got Jane Birkin for a bit more anglo-gallic loveliness, tomorrow night in Camden.

not solid enough for the office

Listening to Martin Simpson being interviewed and playing on Simon Mayo's show this afternoon, and looking back on the Radio Two Folk Awards last week, I'm left thinking what a great year for folk music 2007 was. I went on at length at how great Cambridge was - given that I saw Lau, Bellowhead, the Winterset, Martin Simpson, John Tams and Julie Fowlis (albeit the last two as part of the Under One Sky collective), of the major winners only The Imagined Village was absent (it was being launched under two feet of mud at Womad that weekend). Some of the choices were close to impossible - how to pick between Lau, The Winterset and Bellowhead for band of the year, but, sticking to the nominated artists, this would have been my choice:
FOLK SINGER OF THE YEAR: Julie Fowlis (no argument there)
BEST DUO: Show of Hands. The bridesmaids again; their two cd retrospective was one of the releases of last year.
BEST GROUP: Rachel Unthank & The Winterset. Impossible choice. Lau are probably better live (though not as good as Bellowhead).
BEST ALBUM: The Bairns (no surprises at all).
BEST ORIGINAL SONG: Never Any Good - Martin Simpson. Bitter Boy is also good, but Kate Rusby's nod is yet to come.
BEST TRADITIONAL TRACK: John Barbury - Kate Rusby. Awkward Annie is Kate's best album for a very long time, and this was a delight.
HORIZON AWARD: Bella Hardy. The worst decision of the night. They had to give Rachel an award, but how can you give a newcomers award to someone whose debut album was Mojo's folk album of 2005? And I really like Bella.
MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR: Martin Simpson. A great album, including a couple of really outstanding songs from one of the country's great guitarists.
BEST LIVE ACT: Bellowhead. Can't disagree at all, though again a great shortlist.

I've been haunted in my sleep, you've been starring in my dreams

Couple of nods towards free music - The Fabric podcast invites producers, record label owners and the like to put together music that has inspired them. Five sessions so far - I particularly enjoyed the Andy Weatherall and Doc Scott mixes. And whilst I should maybe be irritated that Erol Alkan has made freely available an album I hunted down and paid well over the odds for, his Bugged In remix is now available for download. As I said...gosh,is it really three months since I posted here....and I've picked up a lot of music since then...that is one of my favourite compilations. Highly recommended.