Hailing from Sheffield, R. Loomes has spent years shaping a sound somewhere between dark folk, slowcore and atmospheric rock. Her music connects with the new folk revival, drawing on tradition not out of nostalgia, but to explore identity, memory and how we relate to ourselves. In that sense, she sits alongside artists like Lisa O’Neill and Lankum, though Loomes pushes that sensibility into denser, more electric and more physical territory.
The Self Demands a Reckoning opens almost bare, with clean guitars, huge pockets of space and Loomes’ voice right up close. Then it starts to swell. The guitars darken, the weight creeps in, and by the end the song feels physically bigger than where it began. That move from fragility into something dense and bruising brings Emma Ruth Rundle to mind.
Loomes takes a more ritualistic route, though. The song feels less tied to a classic verse-chorus structure, leaning instead on repetition, drone and a slow, deliberate pace that pulls it toward the darker, more ceremonial side of folk.
The lyrics bring nature, the body and the spiritual into the same space, all tied to the idea of shedding inherited burdens and reconnecting with something more instinctive. Water, wind, leaves and skin become part of that process of letting go and finding a more intuitive way back to oneself.
It’s a sort of personal prayer, attempting to split off from the intellectual mind and move into the body allowing it to be the main source of reason. Attempting to shed the generational load and navigate the world a free spirit.” (R. Loomes)
Loomes never rushes the transformation. She lets the song gather weight at its own pace, until something that began almost weightless is pressing against your chest. Another Sip of the Divine Specific arrives on 30 September, and if this is where she is heading, her debut could land with some serious force.
Live Dates
29th/30th August – Sheffield – Cosmic Vibrations festival
3rd October – Sheffield – Delicious Clam
14th October – Manchester – The Peer Hat
Find R. Loomes on Instagram | Bandcamp | YouTube