Folk /
Rag Miya ki Todi / Rag Bilaskhani Todi
2024 Stock. Ustad Imrat Khan hails from a great tradition of musicians called the Imdadkhani Gharana, named after his grandfather. It has produced great masters of the sitar such as Ustad Vilayat Khan and his son Shujaat Khan, Shahid Parvez and Budhaditya Mukherjee. This renowned gharana specializes in gayaki; the vocal style of sitar playing, which is obvious when listening to this recording, as I can't help singing along with the Ustad's beautiful lyrical playing. Imrat Khan is the master of t…
Rag Lalit
2024 Stock. The Nimbus recordings of Hariprasad Chaurasia are among the best of his recorded repertoire. Hariprasad Chaurasia's hauntingly beautiful interpretation of Raga Lalit probably is the best introduction to that raga for listeners unacquainted with Indian music. Lalit is a serene raga with a devotional mood to be performed at dawn, before sunrise. Most sandhiprakash ragas (to be performed at dawn or dusk) feature komal swaras (flat notes), which give them a certain dreamy, longing, even …
Rag Darbari / Rag Chandra Kanhra
2024 Stock. The album presents a deeply meditative world, resonating with the mysteries of India. When it comes to sarangi - a forgotten Indian instrument that has been overshadowed by the violin in terms of popularity and accessibility - nobody can compare to Ram Narayan. Both Ram's growth and the ragas performed on this CD are deeply emotional. Additionally, the tabla playing is both powerful and precise. To experience the ethereal sarangi sound, this is a must-have.
Ram Narayan (1927-) is a…
Rag Ahir Bhairav
2024 Stock. The Nimbus recordings of Hariprasad Chaurasia are among the best of his recorded repertoire. Hariprasad Chaurasia (born July 1, 1938, Allahabad, United Provinces, British India [now in Uttar Pradesh, India]) is an Indian flutist in the Hindustani classical tradition whose performances and compositions brought global recognition to the bansuri, a simple side-blown bamboo flute.
Unlike most other noted musicians of his generation, Chaurasia was not born into a family of musicians. Alth…
Rag Madhuvanti, Rag Misra Tilang
2024 Stock. Shivkumar Sharma's contribution to the Indian classical tradition is that he introduced the Santúr (hammered dulcmimer) to the classical Indian repertoire. That is no small feat, considering the conservative attitude that these performers take towards musical performance. "Sharma is credited with bringing this folk instrument, normally associated with the Sufi music of Kashmir, into Indian classical music. Indian music involves several of the elements I’ve been discussing in this lis…
The Hygrades
Sleeve Records & Dig This Way teamed back to bring to light the history and the tracks of this iconic early 70' Psychedelic Afro-funk East Nigeria group. The Hygrades's album will include all 4 rare 45"s united in a single LP with an insert of their story told by a true Uchenna narrator.
Sun Also Rises
* 2024 LP Reissue * Released in 1970 on the british cult label The Village Thing (owned by singer/songwriter Ian A. Anderson), the sole album by couple Anne and Graham Hemingway is a superb acid folk manifesto. Coming all the way from Cardiff, the duo has been described as a mystical, magical hippie small family. Alongside classic guitars, they played dulcimer, glockenspiel, vibes, bells, kazoo and small percussion, joined throughout by label-mate John Turner (bowed and finger-picked string bass…
Repertoire
Edition of 500 copies. Shane Parish is a member of the Bill Orcutt Quartet and Tzadik Recording Artist. Solo guitar arrangements of various jazz /avant garde/electronic/etc. tunes. Imagine: It’s sometime in the back half of the 19th century, America. You’re sitting in the parlor of your mansion, or in the only room of your shack; things are dusty and smell like sweat and hair, no matter how wealthy you may be. You don’t own a phonograph, and you don’t know who Tony Hawk is, but you have an inkli…
Na Tango Ya Covadia 1964-70
The compilation ‘Les Belgicains – Na Tango Ya Covadia 1964-1970’ (‘Les Belgicains’ during the time of Covadia 1964-1970) tells the remarkable story of the first Congolese student orchestras in Belgium. During that time Congolese referred to countrymen living in Belgium as ‘Les Belgicains’. The Congolese Rumba presented on this compilation blew a new, fresh wind through the musical landscape of Congolese popular music under the supervision of the legendary editor and producer Nikiforos Cavvadias …
Live
A veteran of the great Malian orchestra, the Super Biton de Ségou, Mama Sissoko is an accomplished musician. His music traverses Mandingo, Bambara, Sarakolé, Songhai, Bobo, Peul, Malinke and Bozo traditions, all while flirting with jazz. On stage, Mama Sissoko is a purist who engages with the audience bringing his energy, urgent vocals and truly inspired guitar solos throughout the concert. ‘Live' brings together recordings from a concert given in Paris at La Villette in 1998 and takes us back t…
Diré
2024 reissue. ‘Diré’, Idrissa Soumaoro new album, comes as a surprise to Malian and international audiences. Composer, singer, guitarist and master of the kamalen n’goni Idrissa Soumaoro presents here a beautiful collection of songs on his third album, Diré, named in honor of the town where he met his wife and where his first daughter, who is no longer with us, was born. In 1971, after his studies at the INA in Bamako, Idrissa was transferred to Diré to teach music at the lPEG (Pedagogical Insti…
Bayawan
"Bayawan" is the common name for Muqam music used by the Dolan people. Bayawan, or Dolan Muqam, is a unique form of folk music and one of the most important cultural heritages of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China. Generally speaking, Muqam is a form of large-scale suites which include songs, dances, and instrumental sections, in which the development of music often features a significant degree of improvisation. The Muqam of the Uyghurs is characterized by its diversity of musical styles. Apart fro…
Sherter Solo
*2024 stock* "On the night of December 18, 2021, Mamer and his newly formed psychedelic folk band Mask were about to record a live album at Shenzhen B10 Live, a few audiences were invited. Before the recording, Mamer improvised on sherter for nearly 40 minutes. This album was therefore born. Xêrtêrmin / Sherter Solo may be, or should be the world’s first sherter solo album—although we don’t want to overemphasize it for the sake of sales. Most of the time, this ancient Kazakh instrument is used a…
Why Be Free
*2024 stock* "The antennas that grow in your ears and hide in my head. In 2019, Dan and Li's live performance at the OCT-LOFT International Jazz Festival of their album "Mutually Chanting Cipher" was a stroke of genius, and the two of them put together a memorable performance with little advance communication.
In November 2021, Dan traveled to Yunnan to meet Li with Tang. In Dali, they experimented with a wide range of compositions, from acoustic to plugged-in instruments, from Chinese to Wester…
Mehrpouya Sitar
*2024 reissue* This - somehow - mythological album from one of Iran’s top sitarist lurches between traditional Eastern forms and more modern Western styles, blending the two into a fascinating fusion of cultures and flavours. Similar to the work of Indian rare groove master Ananda Shankar, the record brings to life the ultimate marriage of funky drums, lush horns, wah-wah guitars and Eastern harmonies. A necessary re-discovery !
Osondi Owendi
*2024 repress* "Osondi owendi. What is cherished by some is despised by others. One man’s meat is another man’s poison. Different strokes for different folks. To each their own. Osondi owendi. It’s a conventional aphorism in the Igbo language but if you utter the word “osondi owendi” in Nigeria today, the first thing that comes to anybody’s mind is the cucumber-cool highlife music maestro Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe and his legendary album that takes its name from the adage. Released in 1984, Os…
Colours Of The Night
Tip! *2024 repress* Hive Mind Records are proud to present Colours of the Night, the final studio recordings of deep, hypnotic Gnawa songs from the late, great Maalem Mahmoud Gania. The recordings see their first release outside of Morocco on 8 September 2017, and are available as a double vinyl LP and digital download. The release has been licensed directly from the Gania family and comes with the support of all who were involved in the original recordings. Colours of the Night is his first alb…
Jaipongan Music Of West Java + Reworks
*2024 repress* "Mind-melting West Javanese gong pop, recorded in 2007 at Jugala studios in Bandung, based on a Javanese secular village music and dance tradition known as ketuk-tila, which was transformed into a popular studio music in the early 1960s by the producer Gugum Gumbira, founder of Jugala. With vocals by Idjah Hadidjah, one of the key historic voices of jaipongan, the situation here is disorientatingly heavy, low bpm gong pressure coming straight from the originators. It is a much les…
Ma Délire — Songs Of Love, Lost & Found
Myriam Gendron Ma Délire - Songs of Love Lost & Found It has been a while since the release Myriam's acclaimed 2014 debut album, Not So Deep As a Well. The intervening years have brought a smattering of live performances, a bouquet of children, Trump's Pandemic, and much more. For someone who likes to read and ponder as much as Ms. Gendron does, there has been plenty to mull over. Different concepts for a new album were broached, but the seed of Ma Delire was planted when Myriam recalled a pape…
Relics Of Our Life
*300 copies limited release* "Sometimes it’s hard to resist the feeling that there was a crucial turn in life out of which everything else flowed. Maybe in our more reasonable frames of mind we can dismiss that thought and take our plans and intentions very seriously. But, there’s often a lurking conviction that, like the oak from the acorn or the movie from its opening scene, it is already all there. In the first moment of Relics of Our Life, anything could happen, anything could come next. But…