A very fair point, I've just re-produced the blurb from our own mailing list which is aimed at a very different audience in many regards (Wire magazine types, really).

Despite his family heritage, in Appendix Out Alasdair started out doing frayed transatlantic lo-fi influenced by Sebadoh, Pavement etc. His solo-records have obviously all had a heavy folk leaning, but have been increasingly focussed on faithful-but-modern presentations of traditional material, with a particular fascination with the darker, bloodthirsty side - the 'reclamation' comes from the treatment to which he subjects the material, and the contexts within which he tends to play (it's changed a lot recently but he generally plays for experimental promoters, for audiences lacking an automatic folk grounding or understanding).

In terms of his own lyrics, the use of 'gnostic' is a bit glib and hyperbolic but I was trying to quickly encapsulate his demonstrable interest in both pre-Christian systems of belief (pagan and hermetic) and post-enlightenment modes of enquiry - not wishing to over-state this, but that puts him in a continuum of artists like Blake, Yeats, etc. I think that that paradox of the savage ancient viewed through the purifying prism of the modern is the defining character of his work.

This is how I feel, but it is also embarrassingly pseudish to publicly state this - the bottom line is that he plays dramatic, beautiful, potent songs with a thoroughly gripping focus and sensitivity. He really has come into his own as a performer in the last 18 months, and we're hoping for something special from him on the 30th!