Durrant y Ledesma

Durrant y Ledesma (The Burning Deck)

5/5

DURRANT and Ledesma are an Englishman and a Paraguayan who’ve crafted a selection of tunes so beautifully structured that it has you cocking your ears in disbelief. Guitar and harp? Surely not. Provenance some dive in Asuncion? Wrong again.

These engrossing melodic patterns, rooted in their respective folklores, are meditative yet invigorating.

The shifting tempos from the gifted hands of Durrant (guitar) and Ledesma (harp) lead and support in turns with perplexing ease.

Durrant’s tender solo in Amazonas dazzles before he retires to lend rhythm to Ledesma’s reflective andante.

In A Mi Pueblo (For My People), Ledesma’s nostalgia soars elegantly on the back of a guarania but it is in the allegro of El Vagabundo where their kindred spirits combine with extrovert gusto, while the beguiling Greyfriars Strathspey is Durrant’s crowning glory.

Hats off.

Michal Boncza

Kathryn Williams

Songs From The Novel Greatest Hits (One Little Indian)

4/5

ENGLISH singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams’s 12th solo record is an intriguing collaboration with bestselling novelist Laura Barnett.

Her new book concerns the fictional singer-songwriter Cass Williams — imagined as the British Joni Mitchell — who found fame in the early ’70s before mysteriously retiring. With the songs co-written by Williams and Barnett, and ably assisted by two of The Magic Numbers, the album’s a soundtrack to the novel.

Like Mitchell’s diverse work, there is a smorgasbord of musical styles, from the whimsical folk ditty Just Us Two to the driving ’70s rock of Road of Shadows. Best of all are the lush acoustic guitar-based numbers such as opener Common Ground and the Neil Young-sounding Living Free, reminiscent of Williams’s Mercury Music Prize-nominated 2000 Little Black Numbers.

Full of enticing melodies and hooks, the partnership is a high watermark for Williams.

Ian Sinclair

Ulrika Spacek

Modern English Decoration (Tough Love)

2/5

BRITISH five-piece Ulrika Spacek are the quintessential art rocker magazine band. Formed in Berlin and based in east London, their new album of alternative guitar music was recorded and produced in a former art gallery. And, to top it all off, their press release is printed out like a low-budget fanzine.

Full of lo-fi guitars and vocals that drift in and out of the songs, the music matches this DIY aesthetic.

US post-punk band NYC hipsters Television are cited as an influence, while the droning work of Velvet Underground also seems a key touchstone, as does the 1990s Liverpool-based indie outfit Clinic.

Everything, All The Time rocks pretty hard, with frontman Rhys Edwards’s vocals particularly distorted, while the title track is a tired, spaced-out break from all the noise.

A band that seems to have more attitude than substance — or decent songs. 

Ian Sinclair