Folk /
Metempsychotic Melodies
Raw picked acoustic guitar drones dominate here as the instrumental fades into the waking dream soliloquy of observation. A long waltzy drone w/ enough spooky atmosphere for one to think that it could have been recorded at Sunshine studios as there is a heavy Vogel vibe to the whole thing.
Sarod recital / live in Peshawar
Three beautiful extended ragas recorded last year in Peshawar: "Asad Qizilbash is the only Sarod player in Pakistan since 1992, keeping this traditional instrument and its music alive. Asad was born in 1963 to the famous violinist K.H. Qizilbash, who was responsible for closing the gap between western and eastern classical music. After attending a concert performed by his future Master, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Asad decided to devote himself to the instrument. Today, Asad Qizilbash has the honour t…
I Don't Wanna
LP version. After nearly a year on the assembly line, we're tickled to unveil the 5th in Locust Music's ongoing archival releases of Henry's work. He's made his mark with his brand of ecstatic North Indian Raga inspired minimalism on C Tune (Locust3), the full bodied experimentalism anthologized on Raga Electric (Locust6) and the avante-hillbilly bumpkin fiddle joyride on last year's Back Porch Hillbilly Blues Volume 1 & 2 (Locust 16 & 14). Now it's time to make a place in your heart for I Don't…
Back porch hillbilly blues vol. 2
LP version. Avant-hillbilly master fiddler Henry Flynt scuffles through a most peculiar set of electrified and acoustic bumpkin fiddle howls and screeches circa early to mid 1960s. From the enviable opening 'echo rock', in which Flynt does his best to compete with the electro-echo buzz of a Jorgen Ingmann or Link Wray to the beauteous instrumental glow of the extended modal country jam of 'Jamboree', Flynt proves once again that his is not a music simply rooted in the taut belt of New York isms,…
Back porch hillbilly blues vol. 1
LP version. A remarkable collection of hillbilly minimalism, by one of the forgotten heroes. These are blocks of generic material subtly changed by reiteration and lack of development. Like Beefheart, Henry Flynt is one of the rare examples of musicians who fearlessly experimented with the blues and folk forms in the face of all contemporary and experimental music orthodoxies. An important recording and a great listen.
Stalemate / Fear Not For Man
Originally released in 1977, this is a studio recording so it has a more polished sound than on the recent Best Best. BTW, none of these tracks are on Best Best... Stalemate and Fear not for Man are the stand outs, but the rest of album is good too. It's another intoxicating organic mixture of African harmonies, bebop, and James Brown. Listen to the samples!
Shakara / London Scene
These percolating, horn-heavy grooves simmer while Fela lays down his trademark rants, often in deliberately skewered pidgin English....totally unstoppable in its mix of music and message. His voice, interlocking guitars and percussionist Tony Allen turn grooves that often have 1 or 2 chords into complex statements - minimalism made for dancers.
Roforofo Fight/Fela Singles
This is essentially a CD reissue of Fela Kuti's 1972 album Roforofo Fight, with the addition of two previously unreleased tracks from the same era. It's true that Kuti's early-'70s records tend to blur together with their similar groupings of four lengthy Afro-funk jazz cuts. In their defense, it must be said that while few artists can pull off similar approaches time after time and continue to make it sound fresh, Kuti is one of them. Each of the four songs on Roforofo Fight clocks in at 12 to …
Original Suffer Head/I.T.T.
Nearly every one of MCA's twofer reissues of the best albums in Fela Kuti's discography is worthwhile, and this pairing of 1980's I.T.T. and 1982's ORIGINAL SUFFER HEAD is no exception. By the early '80s Fela had already honed his intensely polyrhythmic Afrobeat sound to perfection, and these two recordings feature all of the extended vamps, roiling rhythms, searing horns, call-and-response vocals, and political invective he was known for. ORIGINAL SUFFERHEAD marks the debut of Fela's Egypt 80 b…
Be Glad For The Song Has No Ending
A television special on the I.S.B., made circa 1968/69, but never seen until now. This 80 minute DVD vividly encapsulates the intensity of The Incredible String Band in the late 1960's. Live sequences show the band at the height of their powers, casting a spell on the audiences with their unique blend of theatrical and musical metaphysics. Originally designed for the BBC's Omnibus Arts Programme, 'Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending' was never broadcast, but it enjoyed an independent cinema relea…
Vanguard Visionaries
Sandy Bull may have been the first man in the '60s folk renaissance to foreground modal drones in his music and thereby forge a link between Scottish ballads, jazz, and sitar meditations. The results are seismic, and when seen in the light of the millennial freak-folk scene, they cast Bull as one of the genre's primary father figures. VANGUARD VISIONARIES seeks to introduce neophytes to Bull's finest noodlings, covering ground that's similar to the previous Vanguard best-of, RE-INVENTIONS. The d…
Arbete Och Fritid
Much needed reissue of this long-lived Swedish band's fourth album, from 1973, with an excellent 20' bonus track from 1974 tagged on. Terry Riley's 1967 visit to Sweden and his work with these musicians when they were still just young ones in High School resonates here, and you get a weird and vibrant mixture of Riley, the Third Ear Band, bits of free improvisation and ancient Swedish folk music all blended into an excellent, droney whole.
Taradiddle
RECENT. A new journey down similar terrain, searching out something new in a landscape that's been visited before. Take TUMA's capable hands & add the fantastic percussive talents of WEIS (ZELIENOPLE) & it's like the wheel reinvented. These two play off one another beautifully, w/ Weis creating layers of havoc beneath Tuma's pastoral missives. Weis is the perfect foil for Tuma's brittle sound world. Archaic drones spit bombastic blasts of fire while the resulting sparks flicker into a million di…
Teeth Mountain
Driven primarily by neo-tribal drums, which would seemingly put them in league with the rumbling sound of Bmore's Thank You. But "12 Plus Harsh Tanz" in particular is much more reflective. The guitar brings to mind the cracked post-1960s dream-psyche hangover of Pink Floyd, I'm thinking here of an instrumental interlude that might have been on Obscured by Clouds, or perhaps the contemporaneous Eastern-infused lines of Popul Vuh's Daniel Fichelscher. It's headspace music, to be sure, but in some …
The Jonah
A cornucopia of sonic delights, traversing the spectrum from delicate folk to sprawling progressive rock. Richard Youngs' progressive rock project Ilk provided the impetus for the band to make a "Prog Album" so they started with the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink opus "The Jonah". Running the gamut from delicate acoustic guitar to Sunn 0))) style doom metal & back again, it's an extraordinary feat of the imagination. Around this central track, a range of shorter tracks orbit, typically acoustic…
Long Lost Tapes 1970
Hi quality, previously unreleased recordings from 1970 from the great raga-guitarist, Peter Walker (whose 2 essential Vanguard albums remain criminally unavailable). Peter's group includes: Maruga Booker (trap and frame drums, bells), Perry Robinson (clarinet), Badal Roy (tablas), Rishi (bass), Mark Whitecage (flute and alto sax). "One cold late fall weekend I put a session together. I found housing for the out of town musicians and invited my friend Maruga Booker who came all the way from Detro…
Ancestral Swamp
Ancestral Swamp is the 20th full-length album by legendary rambler, cartoonist, outsider folk singer, and guitarist Michael Hurley. It arrives just in the nick of time for the rabid Snockophile. A batch of new vittles and encores of some of his classic tunes, Ancestral Swamp bubbles with laid-back ease and tremolodic goodness. Most songs have the simplest of arrangements: Hurley singing solo, accompanied by his guitar, Wurlizter organ, or fiddle. Tara Jane O Neil helps lend a nice touch to El Do…
House Of Sticks
2009, House of Sticks is the third release by the Indie folk duo Arborea. Following closely on the heels of their 2008 critically acclaimed self-titled record, it is a verdant, personal collection of singles, drawing the best tracks from their highly praised debut cd Wayfaring Summer and several new songs recorded between 2007 and 2008. Arborea also offers up new versions of their songs Dance, Sing, Fight and Beirut. House of sticks is a continuation of the musical journey of Shanti and Buck Cur…
Songs From The Red House
Limited 250 copies. Skilled in the black-art of ecstatic improvisation, Alex Neilson and Lavinia Blackwall continue their journey into verdant fields of free-psych-drone and traditional UK folk.
The High High Nest
Stephanie Hladowski recorded the four ballads on The High High Nest while a member of the Glaswegian ecstatic jazz and folk collective Scatter. Listening to her lean, vulnerable voice, alone or with sparse instrumental accompaniment of drones and shimmers, is a directly affecting experience ... the communicative power of the human voice remains a current truth - delicate power in Hladowski's case, but nonetheless real.