To put it bluntly, some ideas work much better in theory than in practice.

Take Howie B’s inspiration for his new song, ‘Tap Dancer’. In theory, the track stems from the “concept of a symbolic dance/fight between Scottish workers.” In practice, it’s merely two people (Howie and collaborator Jon Hassell) bashing drumsticks against their microphones. It sounds like… pretty much what you’d expect.

This is the basic problem with Howie’s fourth record, Folk: digital flourishes, electronic noodlings and fragmented vocals fill up ten tracks with lashings of style/ ‘ideas’ but precious little substance. Actual tunes seem to be an additional extra which Howie and his partners-in-crime have decided to forgo.