The unlikely offspring of former Killing Joke bassist and Orb collaborator Youth and equally erstwhile unlikely Verve bassist (must be something to do with the four string connection) Simon Tong musters up another selection of the finest original contemporary English folk music.

Whether this is seen as an attempt to give this much-maligned musical genre some credibility is arguable; what this serves to do is provide a glimpse into a genre neither dead, nor dying by degrees, but very much alive and a refreshing antidote to the Brit school / X Factory mewlings. Mixing modern tuneage with classic reworkings of old folk favourites, What The Folk lives up to and expands on the template set out by Volume One's high standards.

Part Native American Marcia Mello reworks the traditional English folk song Gypsy Davey into a breathy intimate take on a young wife lured into leaving her family for the promise of a life and love on the road with the gypsy. Not your average tale but infidelity is timeless. Lisa Knapp presents a more frail reading more in keeping with the bucolic folk of Fairport Convention. Following in this vein comes the acid-folk flecked The Liefs who lean on the more folky elements of early Led Zeppelin

Splicing this album into five segments are four interludes that keep the tunes segued together and cheekily features some of the oft-derided instruments (jew's harp, hurdy gurdy) to breaks things up nicely and allows breathing space between the tracks.

The second grouping features more of the male troubadour side of folk starting with the Bert Jansch- inspired guitar pickings of Scots-born Erland which twinkles fresh and clear as a bell. The Dilletantes present a good-natured instrumental meander that is a pleasant distraction but wouldn't sound out of place in some Gaelic-insipid (sic) theme pub.

Far better is the suggestive Nic Dawson Kelly who sounds like Antony and the Johnsons lured down a ramble-strewn potting shed for innuendo-hued naughtyness. The sci-fi inspired folk of The Owl Service with its equally saucy narrative of The Two Magicians shape-shifting pursuit of each other as one changes into a superior animal/object redolent of the pagan musings of The Wicker Man.

Tom Farrer tackles a minimal piano ode and could be compared to Hunky Dory Bowie or a lovelorn Dylan. On Piano. Before things get too glum here come the fantastic Attic with the undeniably jaunty Fishbone. Teaming up with bluesman Duke Garwood it tells of the darned misfortune of finding a fishbone in his cherry pie. It's a Canned Heat tribute with a spring in its step as the guitar licks over a frantic beat putting smiles on faces that thought it not possible from folk.

Samantha Marais takes on a Canadian folk song / fairy tale but its ethereal other-worldly quality wouldn't sound out of place on a Bats For Lashes album. Likewise the Nico-esque shimmer of Chapel Of Dreams closer Always Tomorrow closes another intriguing chapter from What The Folk to prove that folk is still very much a living breathing genre that can surprise by thinking outside the box.

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