New releases this week: Folk/Americana

Review: Japanese psychedelic pop singer-songwriter Ai Aso hails from Tokyo and has an almost impossibly wispy thin folky style to her singing that makes her utterly unique. She has been active since 2000 and has worked both solo as well as with the likes of White Heaven members You Ishihara and Michio Kurihara. Her solo album arrived back in 2014 and now a decade on gets a vinyl press via Ideologic Organ. It is beautifully delicate and whimsical, with lullaby-like guitar melodies and her own vaporous vocals drifting gently with a real sense of innocence in the sparse tracks. Lo-fi and intimate, this is a quiet gem.

Review: The debut solo album by David Crosby of Crosby, Stills & Nash fame, If I Could Only Remember My Name is an ironic title for an artist first striking out on their commercial own. But despite its faux-amnesiac title, this freak-folk opus is actually a striking claim to, not a loss of, personal musical identity. Following the success of 1970's Deja Vu with Stills & Nash, Crosby sought to expound on that album's methodology - hard psychedelic drugs, brushes with insanity, copious studio time - to produce a crisp, profound and multifaceted vision on the intersection of blues, folk and collective music-making, with every legend from Neil Young to Joni Mitchell to Graham Nash in tow. The highlight has to be, above all, 'Tamalpais High (At About 3)'.

Review: Clem Alford's one-shot project presents a captivating fusion of Westernized ragas, featuring Alisha Sufit's enchanting vocals and Jim Moyes's psych-leaning guitar elements. Tracks like 'Alan's Christmas Card' and 'Black Cat' showcase the unique blend of Indian instruments with Western touches, while 'La La' and 'Take Away Kesh' delve into more traditional compositions. This album serves as a fascinating historical piece, highlighting the skill of Alford and Moyes in blending Indian and Western sounds. Recommended for fans of indo-prog and world music, it captures a technical zeitgeist at the intersection of cultural influences. With its creativity and historical significance, this album earns high marks for cultural reasons as much as musically.