Folk /
Newocean
Since their first album in 1995, Japan's Nagisa Ni Te has created an enchanting and deeply personal sound world woven from elements of folk, psychedelia and rock along with wistful melodies and gentle arrangements. Centered on Shinji Shibayama (Hallelujahs) and Masako Takeda's partnership, the group has created intimate, emotionally resonant music that floats and breathes with an ease that can only come from a sort of telepathic chemistry. Released in Japan on the group's 25th anniversary, Newoc…
There Is No Hunger in Your Shame
Tip! Builenradar is the new moniker under which Belgian visual artist and musician Wouter Vanhaelemeesch performs his damaged post-apocalyptic bikerfolk. Previously known as Urpf Lanze, he’s been producing trance-like guitar boogie that takes inspiration from disparate influences since the early 2010s. Builenradar plays in a self-developed unorthodox style with a resophonic guitar on his lap and a voice ranging from messy grunts to eerie whistling and absent murmurs. Once, after Vanhaelemeesch o…
Všechno Dobré
Stoned To Death delivers what might just be one of the most unexpected and beautiful records of the year, Šimanský Niesner's "Všechno Dobré". Created by the Czech Republic based acoustic guitar duo of Jakub Šimanský and Tomáše Niesner, within cascades of tonality emerges a profound meditation on place and time, binding elements traditional folk and drone, with American primitive guitar playing and thrilling attitudes toward experimentalism. It's a stunning thing to behold.
Distances
*Limited edition of 400 copies.* "Brilliant new instrumental fork-bending from the always amazing Elkhorn, presented here in a quartet setting I had not heard before. The basic band remains Drew Gardner on electric guitar and Jesse Sheppard on acoustic, but as often seems to happen with these guys, there are a couple more faces in the studio. This time it's two drummers. One is Ian McColm, a Virginia tub monster who has played in many excellent situations, including a 2012 Feeding Tube duo casse…
Diva of Deva Loka
Kadef Abgi came together in a serendipitous way. Devin Brahja Waldman was walking up St. Laurent borough in Montreal when he heard an otherworldly voice emanating from the venue Divan Orange. He walked in and listened to the singer on stage. When he was done, Devin walked over to him. After a short exchange about playing a house show in a couple of days, Ziad Qoulaii told Devin that he was available for all his projects. Shortly thereafter, Devin and Ziad met up at Mathieu Pelletier-Gagnon’s stu…
White Island
*CD edition* 'The Nanai people have their songs and instruments. Some of them were used by composer Alexander Lavrov and singer Kola Beldy who is of Nanian descent in their music on this, Kola Beldy’s fourth album. Just as all his records from the 1980s, this is extremely rare and originals in good shape can cost a small fortune. Just in case they ever turn up somewhere outside the vast Russian country. Now for the very outstanding music that as mentiond above is based on centuries old folk tune…
Maison Rose
*2022 repress.* An album such as this obviously owes a lot to the atmosphere in which it was recorded, which we can imagine was magical. We know it took place in Fromentel, Normandy, in a farm converted into a studio by the producer Jacques Denjean, known for his work with Dionne Warwickor Françoise Hardyas well as having been a member of the Double Six. It was also at Fromentel, that Denjean would record two fantastic albums with Albert Marcoeur. When Emmanuelle Parrenin followed in his footste…
Stone
Tip! *2022 stock.* Maine’s finest lonesome folkie back in the days of Woodstock was Bill Stone, who released one album on his own back in 1969. This classic ballad structure sounds like the voice of Tom Rapp and the quiet desolation of Leonard Cohen with more elevated psych guitar moves oscillating in and out of the mix.
"The psychedelically inclined folksinger Bill Stone recorded his lone album, “Stone,” in 1969, singing through a walrus mustache inside a Maine pottery studio. It may seem as if…
Magic Lady
*In process of stocking* Spriguns Of Tolgus (later shortened to just Spriguns) were a British folk-rock group formed in 1972, who have long been admired by connoisseurs of that era. Having made two self-funded albums, they attracted a major label deal with Decca for two further LPs, which demonstrated their growing originality, and caught the attention of some significant figures in that world.
After two Decca albums Mandy decided to form her own label and rebranded as Mandy Morton and Spriguns …
Mistérios da Amazônia
*2022 stock* Underground musician Carioca left behind his electrical past in Progressive Rock in order to search for new expressions in Brazilian music. His first album is a fully acoustic, instrospective voyage into the world’s greatest Rainforest, featuring 12-string guitar, mandolin, zither, tabla, flute and self-made percussion instruments. Carioca is the term used to describe those who originate from Rio de Janeiro. But, in fact, there’s only one Carioca in the music scene in Brazil: Ronald…
Since There Were Circles
Singer-songwriter Bob Lind will forever be immortalized by his 1965 hit, »Elusive Butterfly«, but his career is so much more interesting than the fading wonder of that one hit. Once a hard-partying buddy of Charles Bukowski, Lind was the inspiration for the character »Dinky Summers«, a down-on-his-luck folk singer in Bukowski's 1978 novel Women. Lind also doubled as a writer, penning a number of novels and plays as well as serving as a long-time staff writer at the lowbrow tabloid Weekly World N…
Hölderlins Traum
"Debut album by this legendary German folk outfit centered around the family core of brothers Christian and Jochen Grumbcow and including Christian's wife, Nanny, as the band's lead singer. Another sample of Dieter Dierk's talent for turning otherwise average folk albums into something else, their album for Pilz was a refined and complex work which included such remarkable guests as Bröselmaschine's Peter Bursch on sitar or Walter Westrupp on flute. A German progressive folk master opus which to…
Het Vuil Volkske
Ghent-based wanderer Benoit Monsieurs has been exploring the many routes paved by the primitive folk guitarists of legend and is now carving out his own path as Venediktos Tempelboom. These seven tracks straddle the Eastern and Western codes that so infused the hazy Americana pioneered by the John Faheys and the Robbie Bashos of this earth, with the always-haunting Flemish landscape unmistakably lining the contours.
The Manson Family Sings The Songs Of Charles Manson
Recorded at the infamous Spahn Ranch in 1970, while their leader Charles Manson was facing trial for the murder of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, The Manson Family Sings is a highly disconcerting listen. Beneath the harmonic brilliance and folksy innocence of these campfire-styled recordings are the hallmarks of Manson’s twisted worldview, rendering a dystopian edge to what is otherwise compelling singalongs. Squeaky Frome, Brenda Gold, Gypsy Share and Sandra Blue all feature, with Clem Grogan fron…
Mesourania/Wendy's Wedding
* Edition of 70 copies * Compiling two EP's (Mesourania (2019) and Wendy's Wedding (2016) by Seirios Savvaidis (who also plays in The Dead Ends), one of Greece's best kept secrets. Some mind expanding songs that reflect deep knowledge of traditional Greek music by way of sixties and seventies pychedelia and cosmic folk troubadours. Savvaidis's relaxed Greek vocals make you float all the way up Mount Paggaio.
Kosterläge
*2022 stock* First ever vinyl reissue of rare and sought after Swedish psychedelic / progressive / folk underground treasures from the early 1970s. From Swedish folk to epic full tilt fuzz guitar jams it’s all in here. Originally released in 1972 on the obscure Swedish Gump label with many talented musicians of the time on board. Led by Mats Glenngård on guitar and fiddle, the album shows an interesting musical transition period before he joined the legendary Kebnekajse. One time only limited pr…
Café Türk
Café Türk, an inimitable Turkish-Swiss band formed in the 1980s, whose genre-bending sonic palette draws from Anatolia, the Caucasus and Western Europe. The group’s frantic trajectory connects Switzerland and the Turkish city of Kars with a background story as rich and unexpected as their sound. After three decades since they disbanded, Zel Zele Records have collaborated with Turkish crate-digger Grup Ses to give the music of Café Türk a new lease of life. This eponym compilation features origin…
Wounds Of Love: Khmer Oldies, Vol. 2
A second volume of late 50s and early 60s Cambodian slow rock, pop and R&B tracks - following the first volume's featuring as compilation of the week on Lauren Laverne's BBC 6Music show. From the late 1950s onwards a music scene developed around Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh, inspired by the prevalence of imported rock & pop records arriving in the country from US & UK and also chanson and bolero records from France & Latin America. This collection documents some of these early home-grown slow r…
Wounds Of Love: Khmer Oldies, Vol. 1
From the late 1950s onwards a music scene developed around Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh, inspired by the prevalence of imported early rock & pop records arriving in the country from US & UK and also chanson and bolero records from France & Latin America. This collection documents some of these early home-grown slow rock, pop & rnb 45 recordings from the early 60s, prior to the further embrace of US psych & garage rock-orientated sounds in the mid 60s and into the Vietnam war era.
Long Way To Go Home
** 300 copies ** Kath Bloom is a quietly legendary artist. From her early work with Loren Connors, to her appearance in Richard Linklater’s 1995 film Before Sunrise, to international tours, and accolades from some of music’s biggest names, Bloom has truly had a stellar career. Yet she somehow still alludes widespread notoriety, culling instead a cult following of dedicated fans. In 2017 she began collaborating with guitarist David Shapiro, who is known for his work under solo moniker Alexander, …