Candidate

Oxengate, SNOWSTORM

On the impressive Oxengate, the British trio Candidate return to the nu-folk stylings with which they paid tribute, on 2002's Nuada, to the soundtrack of The Wicker Man. It's a loosely themed concept album, emulating old British vocal traditions, from church hymns and pub sing-songs, to folk ballads of heroism and tragedy. Like Midlake's The Trials Of Van Occupanther, the results blend ancient and modern sensibilities. On the one hand, bringing the past vividly into the present through Candidate's use of subtle sound-beds of guitar, piano, harmonium and percussion, and their deft combination of drone and detail. And on the other, using archaic modes to depict modern realities such as the "pylons striding through the broken corn" in "Cast Into the Storm", and the low-budget holiday celebrated in "Amsterdam", a journey seemingly fraught with untold lurking dangers: "One day they'll find us/ And bury us in sleeping-bags". It's a well-crafted, engrossing work of the imagination, for which Candidate offer their own rationale in "The Sky": "We're wasting our time again/ But we make beautiful stuff/ And that might be enough."

Download this: 'Furlough', 'Tiny Tim', 'Cast Into the Storm', 'Amsterdam'