I'm aware that a lot of these things get called hyphen-folk of one kind or another, but I still can't see why. I'm not saying anything about whether it's worth hearing - I think cLOUDDEAD's first album, the Faust Tapes and the Goldberg Variations are well worth hearing, and will go on about them at some length given a chance, but I don't feel the urge to call any of them 'folk'. I just don't understand the dynamic of taking something that doesn't appear to be folk and insisting that it is folk... only it's a new and different kind of folk... What's the point?

Part of what I don't get is that the word "folk" seems to be being used in a heavily value-laden way. If I say "this is a folk album" I don't mean "this album is really important because I feel it contributes to a diffuse ongoing project which I can't define but I know it when I hear it" - I generally just mean is "this album consists wholly or mainly of traditional material".

Perhaps the difference is that I started with folk, then dropped it completely in favour of jazz-rock, krautrock, punk, post-punk, indie, baggy, drum and bass, electro, Julian Cope, GYBE! and Scott Walker, then got back into folk; I never felt that what I was into at any one time was or ought to be called 'folk'. And still don't.