Welcome to the first of our new ‘We Got Sent This’ section, featuring music that somehow finds its way to us from outside the usual channels.

Who are they? South Walian Jon Airdrie has been mining folk seams for many years as a cog in Beyond The Bars, a producer to fellow travellers like Pamela Wyn Shannon and sporadically as a solo dude. The Shelleys are his many-headed backers, sometimes only given first names but all lending deft and unshowy touches from the background. ‘…And What…’ is their fifth album.

What’s it like? The first thing to hit novice ears is Airdrie’s voice: slow and viscous, it shares a little of Leonard Cohen’s weight, but has its own arched quality, ranging over these songs, rich like a fruity uncle. An acquired taste for some maybe, but there’s a lot of enjoyment to be had in the mix of playfulness and determined control. Musically it’s a fine stew with guitar or piano as the base. Opening track ’24 Hour Man Flu’ is a pretty good signpost: quiet meditations that stretch out in the chorus, female backing vocals creeping in further and lovelier each time around. A certain amount of gently ragged rock intrudes on a few songs – both ‘Checks And Balances’ and ‘Glass For You’ fuse meandering verses to nicely compact choruses – but on the whole extra instrumentation is added sparingly; some tinkling mandolin or desolate recorder on bleakly ace closer ‘Winter 1981-82’. Overall, it’s an album that creates a dense and enigmatic atmosphere, a little overripe and heavy on the purple ink at times, but always shot through with genuine emotion and love of the knotty drama of life. A sweetly inclusive triumph, and plenty to get into your bones.

Available from http://www.jonairdrie.com