Gold or Dust

This is the third album from the alt-folk, world music-infused eight-strong collective from Kent, and was conceived at the band’s record label’s Smugglers Festival in Kent, and recorded at Wicker Studios, where Kate Bush made her first records. It’s a set of songs that engages with the anxieties of the second decade of the 21st century – the apocalyptic environmental and economic fears that stalk the land as potently as any traditional haunting or curse. But it’s far from sombre, and can’t help but optimistically keep sieving for the gold in the dust. Drawing on African, Celtic, classical and psychedelic influences, with an instrumental line-up of mandolin, banjo, acoustic and electric guitars, violin, flute, saw and percussion, Cocos Lovers write songs whose kernels come from traditional folk but whose imagery is a mixture of allegorical, mythic and personal. They’re a popular and acclaimed festival band, and while there are plenty of live acts mixing up folk, world and rock, often indifferently, Cocos’ sound has real charm. There’s something of Tunng’s oddness and exploratory whimsy, only less studied, more entertaining and with catchier tunes.