The latest releases reviewed

I've never really gotten used to the name change - he'll always be Barry Moore to me - but Luka Bloom has never been short of bottle or imagination. That said, his new album pushes the boat out and is all the better for it. He and Clare musician Simon

O'Reilly agreed to work together after Bloom heard O'Reilly's instrumental work Tidelines in 2005. Fast-forward to David Odlum's studio in France, and Bloom and O'Reilly meet to produce Tribe, a collaboration that stretches both artists. O'Reilly's moody electronic settings, redolent of The Blue Nile, provide a new canvass for Bloom's warm voice and his concerned and self-explorative lyrics. Bloom certainly rises to the challenge. Yes, it is occasionally overly self-conscious and even a tad awkward at times, but mostly there is a lovely late-evening tone to these 12 pieces. www.lukabloom.com JOE BREEN

Download tracks: Tribe, Dead of Night, Lebanon

In those three surnames there liesa serious bundle of talent. Kieran Kane is among the greatest living minimalists in Americana music, Kevin Welch is a master of the story song, and Fats Kaplin is the kind of sensitive multi-instrumentalist of whom songwriters dream. Ah yes, a supergroup. This is their third album, but if this is your first temptation step forward and enjoy without fear. Kane Welch Kaplan is the kind of dusty folk country blues that is both timeless and timely, stripped back to its essentials, but embellished with immaculate timing and stellar picking. Everything falls sweetly into place, Welch's story songs (Last Lost Highway, I Wish I had That Mandolin, Highland Mary) sitting easily with Kane's complex rhythmic mood pieces (Ain't Gonna Do It, That's What I Got, No One Told Me), while Kaplin's Renbourn-ish workout Zagnut and their cover of What Are They Doin in Heaven Today? leave a listener eager for more. High class and lonesome. www.deadreckoning.com  JOE BREEN

Download tracks: Aint Gonna Do It, Zagnut, Last Lost Highway