Album: The Imagined Village, Bending the Dark (ECC)

English folk buoyed on a current of ethnic rhythm: tabla, sitar, cittern, dhol, electronica ... It's not an easy trick to pull off without sounding self-conscious and contrived – and in truth contrivance is close to the essence of the project.

But that doesn't mean it doesn't work as music. Eliza and Martin Carthy and the bell-like Jackie Oates are the recognisable voices, but it's the drift, eddy and thrust of the whole ensemble that tells the main story.