Folk Tape 57 Items

Originally released in Turkey 1973, Özkent’s masterpiece creation of an all instrumental Turkish Psychedelic Funk album filled with classic beats and breaks still inspires long time fans and first time listeners. The funky rhythms, hypnotic percussions, and heavy break beats makes this a holy grail amongst DJ’s and music fans alike. The original concept was futuristic and eluded categorization: traditional folk songs mixed with rock, jazz, blues, funk and psych, reconstructed for the new “hip” generation. (The monkey on a microphone album jacket also eludes categorization too.... or comprehension). The album was recorded live in just one day with some of the best studio musicians in Turkey. Lacking a multi-channel recording deck, Özkent used microphone techniques to emulate a total stereo effect and capture the heavy psychedelic effects and close-miked beat breaks. Özkent created his own unique guitar sound by adding extra frets and a clutch of effect pedals in order to create quarter notes and emulate turkish traditional scales. Mustafa Özkent has since made arrangements for hundreds of other artists in Turkey, but this unique album documents his most revered work—and the world is still just discovering this gem. The fact that only a handful of copies from the original pressing are known to still exist partly explains why, making this reissue a welcome addition to any record collection.

This is a limited edition, one-time color pressing of this classic live record from Austin City Limits. Celebrate 50 years of this iconic TV show with a green and black marbled record.

This is a limited edition, one-time color pressing of this classic live record from Austin City Limits. Celebrate 50 years of this iconic TV show with a silver & gold record.

Love Raid is first in a series of cassette-only mixtapes with the cult Wfmu show and blog Bodega Pop collecting assorted digs from across New York's bodegas and cell-phone stores. This first edition is focused on leftfield, novelty, and protest 45s from across the Arabic world recorded between 1960 & 1974.

"A series of random discoveries in the mid-1990s led me to abandon American and British pop and focus on non-English-language music, predominantly Arabic, for the next two decades.

Feeding my ears required biking down to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, or hopping on the subway to Steinway Street in Queens, where I would pop into a handful of the local bodegas and immigrant-run cell-phone stores, some of which offered music from North Africa and the Middle East on cassettes and compact discs.

When CDs spiralled into obsolescence in the mid-2010s, I reluctantly made the switch to vinyl, concentrating on 45s and intentionally filling holes not well represented in the digital era – more artists than not hadn't made the transition from analog in the 1980s. This meant focusing on singles by a lot of artists I'd not heard of, and it quickly became evident just how much of the era – from approximately 1960 to 1974, when 7" records were all but abandoned in Egypt and Lebanon – had been forgotten.

What also became evident was the breadth of popular music issued by even hegemonic titan Sono Cairo. The consensus is that state radio and music publishing ignored traditional folk, shaabi, and other lowbrow pop in favor of the exalted art song we associate with Oum Kalthoum, Abdel Halim Hafez, and Farid al-Atrash.

While this active neglect of the broadest Arabic pop spectrum is mostly true, I accumulated a not inconsequential number of what I can only describe as "novelty" records by mostly one- and two-hit wonders. From catchy gimmicks like the "doktor, ya habibi" of Maha's "Doktor" and the "boom boom boom" of twins Thunai Badr's "Love Raid," to the Monty Python-level silliness of Sayed Mandoline's fake Italian crooning and maniacal laughter in "I Present to You the Mandolin," these were sounds I was genuinely surprised to hear.

Even more remarkable were the songs recorded in English: Karim Shukry's celebratory "Ramadan" and Motyaba & Nada's civil-rights plea "No Black No White" are two of my favorites, and thus included in the present collection.

The tracks compiled here are often as beautiful as they are beguiling, but while the intention was to absolutely put together a solid listen, it was also my hope to slightly expand our understanding of Arabic music of this period beyond not just the usual suspects, but also subjects – and treatment of same."

--Gary Sullivan.

Several of these tracks first appeared on the music blog Arabic Singles Going Steady (arabicsinglesgoingsteady.blogspot.com).

Muireann Bradley is a young blues, ragtime, roots and folk guitarist and singer based in Ballybofey in County Donegal Ireland. Tompkins Square actually signed her when she was 13, but because of Covid and just “growing up", the process of recording took place over three years. She will be 17 in December, 2023. "This is my first album. Most of these tunes were originally recorded by the great blues men and women who were making records from the 1920s and 1930s right up in some cases to the early 1970s. I have also found inspiration for the renditions recorded here in the playing of some of the musicians who began recording this music in the 1960s and later, and who in some cases learned at the feet of the greats. Many of these guitarists played pivotal roles in the 1960s blues revival and subsequent 'rediscovery' of many of the greats of country blues. I grew up steeped in these old blues in the hills overlooking the valley of the River Finn just outside the town of Ballybofey in County Donegal. My father would play this music constantly at home and wherever we went in the car and talk about it endlessly whether anyone was listening or not, telling stories about the lives of these musicians as if they were legend, mythology or the evening news. My father could of course play all this stuff on guitar, I remember watching him when I was very young and thinking 'I want to be able to do that'. When I was nine he agreed to teach me and bought me my first little travel guitar. I worked hard to learn how to play but as time wore on I seemed to have less and less time to practice as I became more and more invested in the combat sports I was regularly training and competing in. Then in March 2020 the first Covid lockdowns happened and all contact sports were shut down. I was lost for a while but soon found my way back to the guitar. I was now listening, playing and practicing with a new intensity and focus. In a very serious moment I wrote out a list of tunes I was going to learn. The first tune on that list was Blind Blake’s 'Police Dog Blues'. I’m not sure now how long it took to get that arrangement together but when it was ready we videoed me performing it and posted it on YouTube. It ended up getting a lot of attention, I remember my parents being quite shocked and soon after that Josh Rosenthal got in touch… and here we are! Each individual track on this album was recorded live in the studio and represents one entire take with me singing and backing myself up on guitar simultaneously. Most are either first or second takes. Nothing has been added or taken away, no overdubs or modern recording tricks of any kind have been used at all so at least in some respects this album has been recorded in the same way as those classics of the 1920s and 1930s. I hope you enjoy the record."—Muireann Bradley May 2023

"Scanning the horizons of Americana from its old weird beginnings, Opry outliers and cosmic cowboys through to today’s residents of the honky tonk at the end of the universe. Bobby LEE plays high lonesome folk songs, slow moving outlaws, Nashville oddities, cocaine cowboys, choogling rural rock and ambient country zoners."

Monastics was active in New York City in the late 2000s / early 2010s. While the trio of EJ Fry, Don Chase, and Jeremy Hurewitz have scattered to different parts of the country, they have remained close and during the pandemic connected through the isolation of quarantine and began swapping tracks. With tape loops, beats, electronics, and guitar (which listeners might recognize from Jeremy’s Rootless project), “World Island” reflects a changing world that is being eclipsed by darkness but where fragments of light emerge, beguiling and beautiful. The voices of south Asian children on “I come from nowhere,” the soft rain loops recorded on a hutong on Beijing on “For K, Parts 1&2,” and the stark ache of “contactless delivery” strangely offer a feeling of global solidarity for a moment in time when everyone was experiencing some version of the same thing, a “World Island” that we were all temporarily placed on.

What Circus Is This? is the debut LP from Cornish songwriter/producer R. D. Thomas. Produced remotely in 2021 between home studios in London, Cornwall and Sweden.

The record features collaborations with Mickey Smith & Nat Wason (Ben Howard, A Blaze Of Feather) and Rob Hall (Catfish And The Bottlemen) on drum duties. For fans of Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Phosphorescent. What Circus.. skirts the dreaded singer-songwriter genre, with a mixture of sincerity and self-deprecation whilst making room for a playful dose of irony.

‘Paint By Numbers You’ takes a wry smile at modern concerns. ‘Sugar Coated Brain’ rattles through a 60’s style strum, with tongue in cheek to balance more trademark vulnerabilities of moments such as ‘This Bloom’ and ‘Salt’.

The penultimate track ‘And I’m Gone’ would have made for an obvious bookmark to the LP, but it is perhaps more telling that ‘Numbers Game’ should be the lingering sentiment ; a musing over the contradiction of modern meritocracy, suggesting ‘a sense of humour’ as a suitable tonic.

Originally released on Philips Ethiopia in 1973, this seemingly impossible to find LP is available once again to the lucky humans of the world. With a mix of modern and traditional instruments these fourteen songs go through the progression of an Ethiopian Amhara wedding sung in Amharic. With the trio of singers, Lemma G. Hiwot, Zenebech Tesfaye, and Selamawit G. Selassie, alternating turns at the microphone, and sharing call and response duties, a relentless frenzy of hand clapping incites dancing and smiles. The consumption of tedj (honeywine) and the swirling love of a wedding was captured in the studio with euphoric energy to take away to play over and over again when the festivities are over. A co-release with Mitmitta Musika of Addis Abeba, Ethiopia.

Aspidistrafly, the Singaporean duo comprising April Lee and producer Ricks Ang, return with Altar of Dreams, their first studio album in a decade.

While their last album A Little Fable introduced the world to their bucolic and wispy brand of folk songwriting, Altar of Dreams sees the duo – also the founders of Kitchen. Label – harness their experiences over the past decade to create a wholly new and inspired vision. In this new and third album, they drew upon a rich palette of shapes, sounds and movement: straddling between the visionary photography of Serge Lutens and Dora Maar, 80s Japanese ambient pop, musique concrète and the mournful strings of Béla Bartók.

The world in which Aspidistrafly once inhabited was foggy and awash in faded memory. A feeling of being suspended in time felt inescapable with each listen. In Altar of Dreams, the fog is clearing up. At nine songs under 35 minutes, the album possesses all the defining hallmarks of Aspidistrafly – poetic lyricism, cosmic introspection, lush strings, surrealism, tenderness and texture. But what was once seemingly inscrutable has now been explored with astounding clarity, the duo maneuvering through a space-time continuum with delicate leaps.

‘How To Find A Marblewing’, the opening track, is a heady sound collage of early internet sounds, film, anime, and chopped-and-screwed 90s J-pop. It’s a presence deeply embedded throughout the record, a method Lee describes as “a form of environmental/tape treatment”.

The compositions glimmer with sincerity, addressing all at once destruction, mystery, uncertainty, hopes and dreams. The resulting music is backed by an opulence only possible with a line-up of guest musicians. ‘The Voice of Flowers’ is stirring in its balance of flute, clarinet, tenor saxophone and piano, bolstered by a string quartet. Kitchen. Label artist haruka nakamura features on the track alongside Kyo Ichinose (who arranged the strings for the album) and wind instrumentalist Araki Shin.

‘Interlude: Chrysalises and Larvae’ takes the heavy path downward, adopting its name from the 1973 surrealist odyssey The Hourglass Sanatorium. It leads into ‘Companion to Owls’, a gothic pop paean to mortality inspired by the Book of Job.

Before the namesake centrepiece of the album, another interlude arrives in ‘A Ceremonial Ode’, both of which were stirred by a series of regal Shiseido ads from the 1980s starring model Sayoko Yamaguchi. ‘Altar of Dreams’ is haunted by the lucid dreams that once provided escapism for Lee. Its tranquility belies a simmering tension, just as how a lucid dream would offer control in the face of the unknown. “In one of them, I was floating in a vast darkness safe and secure, and then I fell into a turbulent mirage where I willingly allowed myself to be swept away further and further from reality, hoping that I would never wake up,” she says. “Needless to say I did, and ended up writing this song on one of these dead nights.”

If the title track replicates the feeling of falling deep into that spiral, ‘Silk and Satins’ is a direct analysis of the phenomenon. Warped frequencies collide with nature and television sound effects – the latter sourced from 80s Singaporean horror series Mystery – within an inter-dimensional music world. The track was made with featured artist Sugai KEN, whose own work is an endless scroll of intoxicating found sounds.

‘Quintessence’, the sweeping closing track, distills all the elements scattered across the album into a coda that beautifully refuses to resolve. At first an exercise in guitar looping, the song was then written without a beginning and end in mind. “I’d like to think of it as poetry that’s sung,” says Lee.

In Altar of Dreams, Aspidistrafly are renewed and hopeful. They’ve emerged from a decade spent reframing the world they see through vivid dreams and memories. Now, it’s all yours to experience.

First ever official reissue of Nancy & Lee’s classic 1968 duet album
Definitive reissue with Nancy’s involvement
Includes the bonus tracks, “Tired Of Waiting for You” and “Love Is Strange,” from the album sessions
Newly remastered from the original analog tapes by GRAMMY®-nominated engineer John Baldwin
Vinyl pressed at RTI
Q&A with Nancy & GRAMMY®-nominated reissue co-producer Hunter Lea
Never-before-seen photos from Nancy Sinatra’s personal archive

Light in the Attic is thrilled to announce the first official reissue of Nancy & Lee: the highly-influential 1968 duet album from Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood. This definitive edition of Nancy & Lee features newly-remastered audio by the GRAMMY®-nominated engineer John Baldwin and includes an array of exclusive content, including a new interview with Nancy, never-before-seen photos, and two bonus tracks from the album sessions: an ethereal cover of The Kinks’ “Tired of Waiting for You” and an uptempo version of “Love Is Strange” (first made famous by Mickey & Sylvia in 1956). This release marks the official debut on vinyl for both tracks.

Nancy & Lee can be found in a variety of formats, including vinyl, cassette tape, CD, 8-track, and digital. The vinyl LP, pressed at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI), is presented in an expanded gatefold jacket and features the iconic, original cover photo by Ron Joy. Inside, a 20-page booklet offers an array of photos from the legendary singer, actress, and activist’s personal collection, as well as an in-depth Q&A with Sinatra, conducted by the reissue’s GRAMMY®-nominated co-producer, Hunter Lea (also available in the CD package). In addition to the classic black vinyl pressing, a selection of colorful variants can be found exclusively at NancySinatra.com, LightInTheAttic.net, independent record stores and select online retailers.

In celebration of the release, Nancy Sinatra and fellow musician and longtime friend Don Randi (The Wrecking Crew) visited Record Technology, Inc. (RTI) in Camarillo, CA to take a tour of the plant and get a sneak peek at the Bootique-exclusive pressing of Nancy and Lee. A short video piece documenting the day, including new interviews with Sinatra, Randi, and RTI plant manager, Rick Hashimoto is available here.

MORE ABOUT NANCY & LEE

When Nancy – the eldest daughter of Frank Sinatra – first met Lee Hazlewood in 1965, she was a demure, 25-year-old divorcée, who was struggling to find her place as an artist amid the changing musical landscape. At the urging of her label, she was introduced to the Oklahoma-born songwriter, Lee Hazlewood, who had found success working with guitarist Duane Eddy. While Sinatra and Hazlewood hailed from vastly different worlds, they were about to embark on a partnership that would change the course of their lives. Just months after meeting, Sinatra scored her first No.1 hit with “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’.” Written and produced by Hazlewood, the song became Sinatra’s signature tune – transforming her into a confident and commanding feminist icon.

Initially, Hazlewood maintained a behind-the-scenes role with Sinatra, enlisting arranger and composer Billy Strange, as well as other members of The Wrecking Crew (the famed Los Angeles session musicians) for the singer’s best-selling 1966 debut LP, Boots. But when they returned to the studio later that year for Sinatra’s sophomore effort, How Does That Grab You?, Hazlewood joined the singer for a duet of his song, “Sand.” Over the next year, as Sinatra’s star rose, the artists continued to collaborate in the vocal booth, finding success with “Summer Wine,” “Lady Bird,” and the cinematic “Some Velvet Morning” (all penned by Hazlewood). In 1967, just months after Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash scored a country hit with “Jackson,” Sinatra and Hazlewood released a pop version of the offbeat song, landing in the Top Ten across Europe and peaking at No.14 in the US.

Recalling her duets with Hazlewood, Sinatra laughs, “we used to call it beauty and the beast!” Voices with no blend.” Indeed, no one could have predicted that these two contrasting voices (and personalities) would work together quite so well. Praising the duo’s “sonic alchemy,” Hunter Lea writes, “rarely in music has there been such an unlikely collaboration: Nancy, the sassy and sweet songstress contrasted by Lee, the gruff, psychedelic cowboy. A harmonic partnership that defies conventional logic yet yields so much beauty.”

Before long, it seemed only natural for the artists to release an entire album together. In addition to compiling their recent duets (many of which appeared on Sinatra’s solo LPs), the duo recorded several new covers and Hazlewood originals. Billy Strange and The Wrecking Crew provided lush orchestral arrangements, as the two artists performed a range of material, including folk, pop, and country songs, with a twist of psychedelia.

Throughout the album, a palpable chemistry can be heard between Sinatra and Hazlewood – from the frisky banter on “Greenwich Village Folk Song Salesman” to the tongue-in-cheek delivery of “I’ve Been Down So Long (It Looks Up To Me).” But the artists also reveal their softer sides – particularly in the romantic balladry of “Sand.” Their languid rendition of “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” meanwhile, is downright erotic, despite the lyrics. But, as Sinatra asserts, her decades-long relationship with Hazlewood was always platonic. “We had sort of a love/hate relationship,” she explains. “Maybe it was a sexual tension because we never had any kind of affair. I don’t know exactly what it was, but it worked.”

That je ne sais quoi certainly did work. Upon its release in the spring of 1968, Nancy & Lee became a critical and commercial hit on both sides of the Atlantic, peaking at No.13 on the Billboard 200 and No.17 in the UK. By 1970, the album was certified Gold by the RIAA. Over the decades, however, the appeal of Nancy & Lee has only grown, while the album has amassed an enduring cult status that few titles achieve. Multiple generations of artists, including Sonic Youth, Lana Del Rey, and the Jesus & Mary Chain, have cited Nancy & Lee as an influence.

In recent years, Nancy & Lee has also inspired a groundswell of recognition from such outlets as Rolling Stone, which ranked the pair at No.9 on their 20 Greatest Duos of All Time list. Pitchfork included Nancy & Lee in their “Best Albums of the 1960s” roundup, hailing the record as “a document of a flawless collaboration.” The UK’s Far Out Magazine declared Nancy & Lee to be “a masterpiece that still ripples in the sonic waves today.” NPR, meanwhile, noted that “Sinatra and Hazlewood masterfully marry sunshiny orchestral elements with lyrics that dig at something darker about the human condition.” They went on to praise Sinatra’s work on Nancy & Lee as “some of the best that she’s ever recorded…it proved that she would hardly allow herself to be pigeonholed into one-hit wonder territory. Here, she made it clear that she was capable of so much more.”

Today, Sinatra reflects fondly on her time with Hazlewood. “The most fun was when there were two mics in the studio, and Lee was on one and I was on one,” she recalls. When asked about the lasting appeal of Nancy & Lee, the artist credits much of its success to her partner. “Lee has a following that continues to this day. He’s beloved; people love him all over the world.”

Sinatra’s legacy, meanwhile, continues to grow, as new generations discover her impressive catalog (which boasts nearly 20 studio albums – her duets with Hazlewood among them – and dozens of charting singles, including the theme song to the 1967 James Bond film, You Only Live Twice). In 2020, Sinatra was recognized by her peers when “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’” was inducted into the GRAMMY® Hall of Fame. That same year, Sinatra partnered with Light in the Attic Records for Nancy Sinatra: Start Walkin’ 1965-1976, a definitive survey of her most prolific period. At the end of 2021, LITA reissued Sinatra’s classic debut, Boots, while the label will continue to celebrate Sinatra with a variety of special releases, exclusive merch, and more.

Kadi Yombo, published in 1989, is the most successful album in the quest for a fusion between tradition and modernity in Bwiti harp music of the Tsogho people of Gabon. Combining beating rattles with a layer of synthesizers, Papé Nziengui blends in a contrapuntal dialogue characteristic of harp playing: male song in appeal and female choir in response, male voice of the musical arc and rhythms of female worship. But above all it's Tsogho ritual music and modern studio orchestration. The result is an initiatory itinerary of 10 musical pieces which are all milestones likely to be simultaneously listened to, danced, meditated on, and soon acclaimed. In the years since, Nziengui has traveled he world from Lagos to Paris, from Tokyo to Cordoba, from Brussels to Mexico City to become a true icon, the emblem of Gabonese music. Like Bob Dylan, "electrifying" folk and Bob Marley mixing rock with reggae, some purists have criticized Nziengui for having distorted the music of harp by imposing a cross with modern instruments. They even went so far as to claim that Nziengui was just an average harpist covering his shortcomings with stunts that were only good for impressing neophytes; like playing a harp placed upside down behind his back or playing two or three harps simultaneously. Sincere convictions or venomous defamations, in any case, Nziengui never gave in to such attacks, imposing himself on the contrary to pay homage to the elders (Yves Mouenga, Jean Honoré Miabé, Vickoss Ekondo) while instructing the maximum of young people. He is thus the promoter of many young talents, the most prominent of which is certainly his nephew Jean Pierre Mingongué. In a conservative society where the sacred is confused with secrecy, exposing the mysteries of Bwiti in broad daylight can be punished by exclusion or even execution. Papé Nziengui has always claimed that he faces such risks because he never felt enslaved to a community that governs his life, that regulates his conduct, that has a right of censorship over his activities. Like Ravi Shankar, the famous sitarist, Papé Nziengui is a man of rupture but also of openness, a transmitter of culture. As proof, he has established himself in Libreville, Gabo's capital, as the main harpist for sessions and concerts, accompanying the greatest national artists (Akendengué, Rompavè, Annie-Flore Batchiellilys, Les Champs sur la Lowé, etc.) as well as foreign artists (Papa Wemba, Manu Dibango, Kassav', Toups Bebey, etc.). In 1988, he was the first harpist to release an album in the form of a cassette produced by the French Cultural Center (Papé Nziengui, Chants et Musiques Tsogho). At the same time, he created his own group (Bovenga), combining traditional music instruments (musical bow, drums, various percussion instruments, etc.) in the framework of a true national orchestra, which gave the first concert and the first tours of a traditional music that was both modern and dynamic, thus "democratizing" the harp, to the dismay of certain purists. On the other hand, in modern music, dominated by the logic of profit or even commercialism, artistic creation must often be adjusted for a specific audience based on reason rather than heart. But instead of allowing himself to be distorted, Papé Nziengui has always tried to produce music that is not a caricature, worthy in its expression as in its content, of the sacredness and transcendence of the music of the Origins. This is what makes Nziengui-not only the musician, but the man-someone whose age hasn't altered any of his freshness or authenticity.

The Blind Date Party hosted by Bill Callahan and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and featuring Azita, Matt Sweeney, Alasdair Roberts, Matt Kinsey, Sean O’Hagan, Bill MacKay, George Xylouris, Dead Rider, David Pajo, Mick Turner, Meg Baird, Ty Segall, Emmett Kelly, Cory Hanson, Six Organs of Admittance, David Grubbs, Cassie Berman, Cooper Crain and Sir Richard Bishop happened online in the fall and winter of ’20–’21 — but the party planning dated back to the spring of 2020. Stuck at home, with no gigs in the foreseeable future, Bill, Bonnie and Drag City needed an outreach program to keep themselves busy, not to mention sane. In the absence of any company or anything on the calendar, playing songs they loved was an idea; playing with people they loved, the desire. And making it fun — so pairing someone with someone else having no say in the matter, the essence of the blind date, was the plan. Favorite songs were chose; players from around the Drag City galaxy were messaged. Pretty soon, songs were flying back and forth — music in the air! And thus, they were entertained throughout the summer of 2020, when so much else in the world seemed so completely wrong. By the fall, the songs started to appear online: Bill and Bonnie singing a song by someone they loved and admired; each song cut by another another artist they loved and admired, then sent to Bill and Bonny to provide the finishing touches. The spotlight pointed in every direction each week: toward the singers and writers who’d originally played the songs (Yusuf Islam, Hank Williams Jr., Dave Rich, The Other Years, Billie Eilish, Steely Dan, Lou Reed, Bill Callahan, Jerry Jeff Walker, Robert Wyatt, Lowell George, Johnnie Frierson, Air Supply, Will Oldham, Leonard Cohen, David Berman, Iggy Pop and John Prine), toward their featured collaborators, the artists whose artwork adorned each digital single and videos made by still more collaborators. And you, the listener. Like the best parties, it turned out to be everything and more than they’d even hoped for. So many more people were involved in the process that we can get on the page here. Suffice to say, making records over the years has required a broad sense of community and an always-surprising mix of independence and unity, inspiration and utility. Some of our best memories are those where as many of our folks as possible were together in one place at one time. In those moments, it was just a great thing just to be there. And with others looking in . . . this was a joy one could only be infinitely lucky to feel and to take for granted, as well. The Blind Date Party was one of these, maybe the most improbable one yet. It’s for everyone who’s here and it’s in the name of everyone who’s gone but will never go and will always live with us here. This album will too. And thus, we are entertained.

In the native tongue of the South American tribe Mapuche, there exists the word ‘MENOKO’. Deep within the Andean Forests there are sacred places, springs of purity known as Menokos. Hidden and untouched by man or animal, they are whispered, home of virgin water. Womb of the natural cycle from which plants and herbs of extraordinary medicinal abilities are nurtured.

Barrio Lindo feels a strong bond to the native tribes of his Argentinian home. Ancestral cultures are of great importance, providing a wealth of inspiration. An instrument maker by trade, using his bare hands he constructs many ethnical instruments like Andean flutes, African harps, string instruments from India and so on. This fascination with indigenous sounds is reflected within his music and themes with the use of samples and tribal instrumentation. While understanding his work is far from that of the native cultures, he finds ways to incorporate these influences through fusions of sounds. Drawing a parallel, worlds both old and new align.

‘Menoko’ comes on limited purple double vinyl (including download code) as well as a limited handmade and handpainted purple cassette edition (including download code).

Oowets, a beatmaker based in Kagawa Prefecture, creates lo-fi, ambient, and electronica music inspired by the harmony between nature and instruments. He has provided music that seamlessly integrates into everyday life for numerous companies, including fashion brands and in-store playlists. Not only has Oowets released works in Japan, but he has also gained international recognition with releases on labels in Brazil and Taiwan. His latest album, Fantastic, is set to be released on both LP and cassette! This album features a perfect blend of a diverse range of instruments such as synthesizers, pianos, and samplers, along with natural sounds from rivers and forests, all balanced harmoniously. It offers a warm, immersive experience that feels truly "fantastic" throughout. The album cover showcases artwork by Ichiro Yamaguchi.

"We are delighted to be able to bring you these gorgeous field recordings from the Sumedang Province of West Java which, over their 50 minutes, present two distinct sides of Sundanese musical and devotional culture.

Although West Java is a Muslim country, these recordings highlight currents of pre-Islamic animist beliefs and practices that continue to flourish in the small towns and villages of the highlands of West Java. The recordings showcase two forms of trance music that are essential to the spiritual life of the Sundanese people in the highland regions.

Tarawangsa trance music is a traditional ceremonial genre known for its deep spiritual and hypnotic qualities. This music is made using only two instruments, the tarawangsa, a two-stringed fiddle, accompanied by the jentreng, a seven-stringed zither, creating a unique blend of resonant, droning sounds. Historically, tarawangsa music has been performed as part of sacred rituals and agricultural celebrations to honor local deities and ancestors, particularly associated with the Sunda culture. The minimalist, repetitive melodies gradually build, guiding participants and listeners into a meditative, trance-like state, during which dancers can be possessed by the spirits of ancestors or deities from the spirit realm, the music serving as a link between the two worlds.

In stark contrast to the calm, medititive sound of tarawangsa, we also present here two long pieces from Panca Buana Reak Group. Sundanese Reak trance music is like the punk rock of Sunda folk music, combining powerful and driving rhythms played on a number of hand drums and percussion instruments with the buzzing sound of the tarompet, a double reed wind instrument often amplified through whatever mobile speaker system might be at hand. Sometimes the group will play gamelan gongs, as heard on the first piece on the album, although this remains a music that is popular mainly with the working class youth of the rural villages, many of whom will also be fans of Indonesia's burgeoning metal and punk scenes. Reak performances are often wild, anarchic events that feature masked dancers, costumes, public trancing and spirit possession.

These recordings were made by Xenia At during her travels through West Java earlier this year. The tarawangsa recordings were made in a home in the village of Rancakalong on the evening of 17th January 2024, while Panca Buana Reak Group were recorded during rehersals in the village of Cinunuk on 19th and 20th January 2024."

Limited edition of 100 copies.

The musicians: Overture (played by Panca Buana Reak Group, musicians: Rian Hidayat, Daffa, Rendi, Haswa, Doni, Aconk, Bayu, Zidan, Iwan Uwak, ⁠Mahadewa Sehu, ⁠Bebet, Adi, Bebet). Reundeu - Master Yayat (kacapi), Tedi Kurniadi (tarawangsa). Degung - Master Yayat (kacapi), Teguh Permana (tarawangsa). Pamapag__Gelar Mataram__Panimang__Limbangan - Akbar Nendi (kacapi) & Tedi Kurniadi (tarawangsa). Reak Lugay Pusaka Pajajaran (played by Panca Buana Reak Group, musicians: Aconk (tong), Rendi (brung), Hendrik (tarompet), Ade (kecrek), Riki (bedug), Doni (talingtit), Adi (badublag).

Xenia would like to extend gratitude to: Master Yayat, Tedi Kurniadi, Akbar Nendi, and Teguh Permana for their incredible talent that turned this recording into a magical experience. Ibrahim Adi Surya for technical support. The Juarta Putra and Panca Buana Reak groups for explaining the cultural significance of local traditions. Anggun Tresnasari for sharing her deep knowledge of regional music traditions. Igor Moskalenko, Kate Snap, Stasya Frolova, Roman Gold, Misha Maltsev, Ilona Popychko, Galih Muhammad, Wildan Wiliansyah, Rizalu Ramadhan, Rahi Rahmat, Fahmi Solihin and Muhammad Ismael whose unwavering belief made this project possible.

Hive Mind would like to thank Luigi Monteanni (Artetetra) and Palmer Keen (Aural Archipelago) for their invaluable work and research in this region.

THE Dekits is a folk quartet in which all members are Vocal & Guitar! To celebrate the band's relaunch, the first album released in 2011 is being re-released on cassette! A total of 12 songs that you will want to listen to and dance lightly to in various scenes of your daily life!

Classicus, a two-piece unit led by Kenji Okayama of ex.andymori, will be presenting a cassette on Cassette Store Day 2024, a compilation of two mini-albums that they have been working on since around 2017! "zero #1,” previously released digitally in March 2020, and the new ‘zero #2’ are combined into one cassette work for the first time in their careers!

This is a limited edition, one-time color pressing of this classic live record from Austin City Limits. Celebrate 50 years of this iconic TV show with a black & blue marbled record.

This is a limited edition, one-time color pressing of this classic live record from Austin City Limits. Celebrate 50 years of this iconic TV show with a baby Blues Eyes Crying record.

Strange Power!, the fifth record from Durham, NC-based songwriter and poet Anne Malin Ringwalt, emerges from the darkest waters of the self into a world remade. Releasing inconjunction with her second book of poetry, What Floods (Inside the Castle, Oct. 2024), Strange Power! overflows with Ringwalt's teeming and sensuous personal symbolry: glowing lilacs andgentle queens, dolphins wild and girls who grew up brave _ T.S. Eliot sung by Cat Power, backedby Mount Eerie. She sings: "I rose up from water."Ringwalt writes and performs with the authority of a lifetime spent harnessing the alchemy of storytelling; her belief in the power of words to heal and transform is palpable in each achingly- delivered lyric. Made amidst profound inner and outer change, Strange Power! also sees Ringwalttaking up the role of self-producer for the first time, mirroring and supporting the record's Orphic quest by gathering contributions from a coterie of friends wielding an electric range ofAmerican instruments. Violins, vibraphones, drum machines, electric guitars dappled with springreverb, wind-blown shells, and a host of other numinous sounds form an unfurling and shadowy world which was then carefully honed during the mixing process (shepherded by MichaelCormier-O'Leary and Lucas Knapp) _ settling the final record in an eerie meridian betweenspareness and verdancy.The result is a beguiling and darkly blooming realm: the sound of a personal cosmos beingremade, piece by piece. Ringwalt is at the height of her spirit as both songwriter-poet and singer, her willowy voice by turns conjuring and keening as she reckons with her deep past and thestories told since. Opening track "The Pines" sets the stage for a record of truly life-long scope: "I was a child, now Ihold her / I was asleep for many years." Some songs, like the gorgeous "North Carolina" and "TheSaint," were written as early as 2013 but, Ringwalt says, "insisted upon being remembered" as therecord took shape; in its final form, they serve as inc...

Isabell Gustafsson-Ny joins Warm Winters Ltd. with Rosenhagtorn, a suite of short pieces for piano, violin and voice. Absorbing in its profound focus on listening, this collection is a striking exploration of these sound sources; their repetitions, harmonics and oscillations. Conceiving of the release as a house, a different song is playing in each room, Gustafsson-Ny was able to explore the rawness and fragility of each instrument with incredible freedom and sensibility. She describes the album in the following words: "In the music there is both repetition and flow, but also the creak of the pedal organ. Here are Radigue traces and slow slow piano. Here is the violin again, resumed after many years of almost fallow. Here are the overtones and the scratchy strings. Here I dare to open the door to the voice." A unique kind of dusty, intimate folk music.

To write the songs on their second album, Annie Schermer and Channing Showalter, who record together under the name West of Roan (members of Doran), spent time in collective imagination, journeying to their respective inner worlds and under worlds. As they simultaneously discovered and created a psychic landscape of story, song, archetype, and image, a figure emerged: The Queen of Eyes.

Schermer and Showalter recorded Queen of Eyes themselves, in a small one-room, off-grid cabin on Waldron Island off the coast of Washington State. They ran their ear trumpet condenser microphone off an extension cord connected to the main source of solar power. This recording session—with one microphone, one computer, one cord, and one bench the two sat on—captures the emotional intimacy of their music, along with occasional pops from the fire that heated the cabin, instrument creaks, and breathing sounds. This feels especially fitting for West of Roan’s approach; when you hear them sing you get the sense that they are first singing for and to each other, and emboldened by each other’s presence, together they make their offering to you, the listener.

O Morto, aka Mestre André now presents the full length version of his Lila composition, a collaboration with Moroccan musicians Ayoub ElAyady and Khalid Boulhamam.

Lila is the Arabic word for night and is also the name of the liturgic ceremony manifested in a trance, as a process of healing and therapy, through a ritual of sensory immersion conducted by music (gnawa), incense, colour and dance. From sunset to dawn, seven colours are revealed, associated with different rhythms and stages of ecstasy.

In Lila, Ayoub ElAyady, Khalid Boulhamam and O Morto summarily travel through the seven colours of the nocturnal ritual in all its scope – using both the form of tradition and electronic manipulation.

Limited to 100 units with artwork by Desisto.

"28/4/23" captures the atmospheric live performance of Swedish composer Mats Erlandsson at Fylkingen, Stockholm on the 28th of April, 2023. With exceptional delicacy, Erlandsson guides the audience through his signature electro-gothic soundscape of continuous tension; 40 minutes of processed field recordings, zither, feedback and Serge modular synthesizer.

Cyanotype prints and woodcut by Håkan Jonson. Released in an edition of 90 copies.

Returning with his second solo album, Scott Thiessen continues to explore the space where ambient and country coexist, showing this is an ever-expanding horizon. The lonesome cowboy sound of his previous release, 'toy', plays a crucial part in the new 'An Indifferent Sea' as well, but here is a starting point for surprising routes through pop melodies, clattering rhythms, and most importantly, balladeer vocals. These elements never dominate though, carried in on an ocean swell and then leaving again just as mysteriously, creating a sense of songs almost heard. Creating what the artist calls his version of a surf record. Not one that sounds like a party on the shore, but one translating the feeling of Thiessen experiences being in the ocean. Where once deserts were seas, here the sea is not yet a desert. 'An Indifferent Sea' is a surf album, cowboy songs, spread as wide as the eons of time it takes for water to turn into land and back again. The resulting record delicately defies category; a true poetry of the West Coast. Thiessen was a member of the noise rock group rRope. Featuring beats by Back To The Future The Ride. This album was recorded and produced at his home studio in Berkeley, CA.

Michael Chapman (1941-2021) released his debut album Rainmaker in 1969 on Harvest. He went on to release over fifty albums and influence many with his evocative songwriting and guitar prowess. From heady jams to expressive ballads to experimental noise, Chapman’s work continues to inspire. Tompkins Square recruited Henry Parker to curate a collection of covers by working musicians from Chapman’s home turf in Northern England. With stunning artwork by local artist Bunty Marshall mapping the important places in Michael’s life, this 12th volume of Tompkins Square’s Imaginational Anthem series is the ultimate tribute to a very dearly missed artist. Features tracks from Parker, Dean Mcphee, Katie Spencer, Bobby LEE, Holly Blackshaw, Andrew DR Abbott, Hawthonn, and Chris Brain.

It's been a little over ten years since Hailu Mergia reemerged on the international music scene. Following the first in a series of his classic recordings reissued in collaboration with Awesome Tapes From Africa, Mergia assembled a band and began performing live again after many years driving a cab in Washington, DC. His first show back appeared on the front page of the New York Times along with a stellar review and he took off from there performing his flavor of Ethiopian jazz all over the world in the years since, including Radio City Music Hall and Montreal Jazz Festival. Finally, we have a recorded document of the keyboard player's powerful DC-based trio _ which practices each weekend in his basement _ featuring Kenneth Joseph on drums and Alemseged Kebede on bass. Beautifully captured at one of their fiery live shows at the venerable Brooklyn non-profit cultural center Pioneer Works on July 1, 2016, the concert was recorded by PW staff and mixed by Ted Young with mastering by ATFA's expert audio extraction collaborator Jessica Thompson. The performance clarifies what many people across the globe already know: in his fifth decade of music-making Hailu Mergia continues to push the boundaries of his remarkable abilities. Mergia and his veteran band energetically and playfully unpeel layer after layer of harmonic and rhythmic interest out of a spectrum of Ethiopian repertoire. Modern jazz demands constant reinvention and improvisation, night after night creating new works out of known modes and classic standards. This band is unstoppable when it comes to turning age-old melodies (like "Tizita" or "Anchihoye Lene") upside down and inside out until they emerge as molten new works, often spontaneously. Mergia's original compositions (like "Yegle Nesh") shine brighter than ever here as well. Moving from keyboard to organ to accordion to melodica, he deftly switches instruments _ often during the same song. Mergia at 77 years old seems to be working harder than musicians half his age. "Pioneer Works Swing (Live)" brings into focus the kind of onstage group improvisation and deadly solo passages that reach for places Mergia and the band have never gone, on festival and club stages across four continents. Now that Mergia has released two new recordings along with four classic reissues, he is eager to let everyone hear what he's been doing on the road since he re-took the global stage for his victory laps. So much more than an old act from yesteryear, Mergia balances his legendary Ethiopian recordings with good old fashioned sweat-soaked live concert triumphs such as the one we have here.

Edna Martinez pays a heartfelt tribute to her birthplace in Valledupar with another entry of Cintas Elefandes- a colorful showcase of Vallenato, the passionate, accordion-driven genre that spreads from the tributaries of the Cesar river in northern Colombia. A bittersweet mix that sits just right with an open bottle of rum, or the soul remedy of your choice.

A debut album of effortless, grounding folk-pop from St. John’s-based Portuguese-Canadian artist Nico Paulo. Filled with concepts of time, water, flowers and family, Paulo’s songs have a way of lending heavy themes a buoyancy, her vocals feeling equally warm and direct. In the tradition of singers like Gal Costa, Nico, Feist or Victoria Legrand, Paulo packs profound strength into songs that spare no tenderness or nuance. Along with beautiful arrangements that pull out the finer details of the compositions, Paulo’s songs are captured here by the expert production team of Joshua Van Tassel and Tim Baker.