Folk /
Frowny Frown
EXCLUSIVE ADVANCE RELEASE! A could-have-been classic from John Terrill, cofounder of Bloomington's the Dancing Cigarettes. Unlike the wiry art-punk of his late-'70s band, "Frowny Frown" is a far more intimate set of homespun pop-psychedelia, recorded between 1989-99 and only hand-pressed for close friends. A halcyonic journey with rich layers of vocal harmonies (perhaps a sly nod to "Smiley Smile") that fans from Bobb Trimble to Galaxie 500 will find much to love. Includes a bonus track from '84…
A Taste of Ra II
 The mysterious pseudonym remains, in this, the second release in the Taste of Ra trilogy. The accompanying information describes the music as such: "When your ears are gates and they're wide open. Levels of sound will chase you down, collide, kiss and fight. In the yard that you now found; The past will meet the present, you're paying past with present. When you finally hear her voice that makes you leave your body behind and meet as gods...Sound will evolve and something that was once heard…
Snaketime Series
This really is a treat, a re-issue of the incredibly rare debut LP from legendary blind outsider Moondog. Originally released back in 1956 on the musician's own Moondog Recordings imprint, this incredible album showcases the man at his way-out best, blending Eastern instruments and ethnic music with American exotica to come up with a sound which is impossible to categorise. A mostly self-taught musician, Moondog (real name Louis Thomas Hardin) performed in the streets of New York City for most o…
Playing Moondog\'s Music
this rare 1955 set of recordings features the composer in collaboration with a brass section, although one of its defining aspects is the extensive influence of Native American musics on its rhythmic makeup. From the irrepressibly unconventional jibber-jabber of 'Rabbit Hop' to the tribal weirdness of 'Single Foot', this could only have come from the pen of Moondog. 'Dog Trot' is a more conventional swingtime piece, offering an oasis of accepted logic in an otherwise wildly outside-the-box set o…
The Viking Of Sixth Avenue
re-released on its original label, Honest Jon's, with new and improved gatefold card wallet sleeve packaging. Poet, composer, street musician and cosmologist Moondog (Louis Thomas Hardin, 1916-1999) learned rhythm from American Indians and counterpoint from J.S. Bach. Many of his recordings feature instruments he built himself: trimba, yukh, tuji, oo. Sometimes you can hear in the background the streets of New York, where Moondog often slept. In addition, he was blind, due to an accident when he…
The Mill Pond EP & Collected Paintings
The Mill Pond was originally released in 1997 as a double 7' that went immediately out of print. For it's 10th aniversary we're issuing it on compact disc housed in a deluxe letterpressed jacket and including an extensive booklet collecting John Fahey's paintings for the very first time. Limited edition. The Mill Pond is all over the place stylistically, so it should confuse those who try to pigeonhole Fahey into any one category. The Mill Pond further proves that there is only one category into…
Tomorrow, Tomorrow
With the renewed interest in Bill Fay's past work, the reissue of his first two albums, Bill Fay and Time Of The Last Persecution, and recently made-available pre-Decca demos (From The Bottom Of An Old Grandfather Clock), it's surprising to discover that twenty new songs have remained unreleased for over two decades. Fay has been portrayed as a mysterious figure who somehow created two brilliant albums and then vanished. But as Fay himself has said, "It wasn't me who left the music, it was the m…
La norma del cielo
Always influenced by eastern doctrines (he later became a Hare Krishna), Rocchi was also active in anti-war movements and always present at various italian pop festivals during the early 70's. His second album, released in 1971 and titled "Volo magico n.1", is usually considered as his best effort, in much the same style as Alan Sorrenti's "Aria" with a side-long title track and softer tracks on the other side. "Volo Magico n.1" features a 18 minute long title-track starting with a soft introduc…
Bleecker & MacDougal
Last copies, reduced price. Japanese pressing of his 1965 folk classic from the Elektra period, his second album for that label. Neil has been seriously ignored in the CD era and this is highly in demand. Originally from Florida, Neil was heavily factored in the early days of the East Village folkie boom (Bob Dylan played harmonica for him at Cafe Wha? in 1961). His recording career went from 1964 to about 1971, peaking with Everybody's Talking on Capital (featured in the film Midnight Cowboy). …
Space Chanteys
Matt Valentine creates, has created, and will continue to create from inside of a continuum that unspools from a source that is also so distant as to be invisible. Mysterious Translucence is not just the name of his shoe. Space Chanteys is really the first honest solo album that Matt Valentine has created. There have been others that are somewhat like it, or are related to it, in shape, or in style, but they are not it. This alone is it. It is Space Chanteys. Recorded live, back in October ’00, …
Leaves From Off the Tree
Bo' Weavil is so excited to be releasing Leaves From Off The Tree: a three-way project of Sharron Kraus, Meg Baird (Espers) & Helena Espvall (Espers). This is a beautiful recording of traditional folk material, with the most stunning singing and arrangements of some of England and Appalachia's finest songs. 'The songs on this record were recorded after many an evening swapping songs (and beers!) in Fishtown, Philadelphia, where Sharron had moved from her native England, and Meg and Helena were a…
Judee Sill
Judee Sill's first album is now available in special miniature replica gatefold LP style packaging. This album heralded a major new talent in the airy, contemporary folk world of the early '70s. Featuring all original compositions, many of which relied on Sill's unique cosmological imagery to make their point, Judee Sill is a remarkable debut. There is a cohesive feel to the album; her lyrics are exceptionally poetic and her smooth voice gives every song a shimmery feel. The essence of the music…
Dreams Come True
Subtitled: Hi -- I Love You Right Heartily Here -- New Songs. Singer/songwriter Judee Sill died of a heroin overdose in 1979 before she completed her third album that was, like her first two, to be released on David Geffen's Asylum Records. The eight songs intended for that album are included here, freshly mixed by Jim O'Rourke (Wilco, Sonic Youth). This 2CD set also includes many Sill rarities from the '60s and '70s, including a 12-minute five song live video clip on enhanced CD. This replaces …
Melodii Tuvi: Throat Songs and Folk Tunes from Tuva
Recordings from 1969 of Tuvan folk music and throat-singing with liner notes by Dr. Pekka Gronow of the University of Helsinki. With the advent of the folk music revival in the 1960s, a new interest in Tuvan music swept through Asia and Eastern Europe. Capitalizing on this appeal, these 16 recordings were issued in 1969 in the Soviet Union. Dust-to-Digital is proud to reissue for the first time on compact disc these traditional performances including several khoomei songs plus one modern take on…
Later On
The third Jandek album from 1981, reissued for the first time ever. "Another installment in the digitization of the Jandek back catalog, and for those who have never heard his earliest records because of their scarcity, you can now own another piece of the Corwood catalog without having to fend off those cutthroat members of the Jandek 'community'. This record, like Jandek's first (Ready for the House), is comprised of not just basically one chord throughout, but as far as I can tell he barely e…
Six and Six
2005 remastered version. The 2nd Corwood album, reissued on CD. Originally issued in 1981, this was the first actual album to be entitled to an artist named Jandek (the first Corwood album, 0739, was credited to the Units -- although that practice has been abandoned in the CD domain, an epic travesty in the minds of a few hardliners). The cover features a crude black & white photobooth-style portrait of the man we've come to assume as the singer, depicted at his most youthful, ready to accompany…
Ready for the House
There were plenty of significant events in 1978, ("You're The One That I Want" by John Travolta & Olivia Newton John was quite a popular track, for example), and one of the most low-key yet significant events was the debut LP release on the Corwood Industries label out of Houston, TX. Mysteriously enough it came out under the name "The Units", but it was obviously a singular vision and not a band. That individual would come to be more commonly known as Jandek, and a total of 40+ albums have been…
Kabiyé Orchestras & Lithophones
Rhythm is paramount to the Kabiyé of Northern Togo. This recording presents a selection of music played by the tribe's orchestras consisting of percussive instruments, flutes, whistles and trumpets. Also heard is the rare pichanchalassi lithophone ('the sound of the stones') -- an instrument played for entertainment and in initiation rites of young boys. These fascinating ethnic music recordings were made in Togo between 2001 and 2004 by Lorenzo Bianchi and Daniele Segre Amar.
Burkina Faso: Lobi Country
The Lobi people of Southern Burkina Faso and Northern Ghana and Ivory Coast were fiercely resistant to colonization and remain a relatively close society today. This has aided the continuing existence of marvelous xylophone music to accompany funerals and initiation ceremonies. This album is of music played on buur xylophones, buur also being the name for the closing ceremony of the initiation of diviners. Recordings from 1998.
Central Africa Musical Anthology of the Aka Pygmies
The Aka are one of the three groups of Pygmies found in Central Africa today. They are monogamous and settle in small family encampments that comprise parents, children, sons, and daughters-in-law and offspring, groups of thirty to forty persons organized in democratic communities. Pygmy music ,in the image of all their social activities, presents very similar characteristics, that is to say, relative autonomy of each participant within implied but strict structures. The recordings of this antho…