Folk 261 Items

For Francie Medosch, leader of rag tag Philly country-rock outfit Florry, the 11 songs on their Dear Life Records debut “The Holey Bible” urgently radiate a place of hard-won optimism, and pull no punches in laying out the patient road it sometimes takes to get there. “The Holey Bible” aspires to the special feeling of raucous intimacy achieved by the best records in the outlaw country canon, and strikes that rare balance between a display of careful honesty, and an invitation to a party.

With a timeless, emotive vocal quality reminiscent of the great Nina Simone, Danish vocalist Nana Rashid is proud to present "Music For Betty", her debut on April Records, this spring. Backed by critically acclaimed trio Little North, the record presents 8 gems which showcase an artist with a commanding stage presence and a knack for storytelling that belies her youth. Walking a tightrope between an homage to her idols and an undeniably modern, self-assured performance, the vocalist places herself in the present through her charged lyricism, and political/spiritual undertones.The heart and soul of everything Rashid does is rooted in the belief that music can remind us of what we have in common - our humanity. A reference to the first track "Poor Blue Betty", the album"s name is a tribute to the parts of ourselves we dismiss but still so badly desire as they are what make us whole. The eight tracks on the record were written and chosen out of a wish to make music for the dismissed parts of Rashid"s soul as a tool to reintegrate them into herself.A follow-up to her 2016 release "Sorrow In Sunlight", her use of piano trio Little North adds an extra dimension to the cohesion of the music. Appearing on the cover of Spotify"s "State of Jazz" playlist (twice!) and with a glowing review in Downbeat Magazine for their 2022 album "Familiar Places", their subtle musicianship shines a light on Rashid"s power-ful vocal and allows the lyricism and songwriting to speak for themselves.The arrangements are naked and raw, yet elegant. The piano trio has a dusty and at times almost cinematic sound to it. In other places, the trio slides into punchy, organic pression supporting the wailing messages of unfairness and sorrow. From the spacious, Scandinavian-jazz tinged "Goodbye My Love", to the world of texture and extended techniques from pianist Benjamin Norholm Jacobsen in "Johnny Guitar" to the laid-back groove of "Mother, Father" with an American attitude, the album flows through a sea of influences, grounded by i...

1971 acid folk masterpiece reissued on 180 g vinyl and remastered from the original tapes ... and limited to 1000 copies!

The Tallest Man on Earth released one of 2008's most powerful records, one that Pitchfork praised, calling Kristian Matsson "a natural-born folksinger, earnest, clever, and comforting." Shallow Grave could not have been more simple, just Matsson's commanding vocals with an acoustic guitar or banjo, recorded at his home in Dalarna, Sweden. Although the album was released on the Swedish label Gravitation without the help of widespread distribution, the story of The Tallest Man on Earth spread far and wide through word of mouth. In April 2010 The Tallest Man on Earth released the critically acclaimed album The Wild Hunt and has played dozens of sold-out shows on both sides of the Atlantic. Now, Gravitation is pleased to make Shallow Grave widely available on vinyl for the first time.

Magical UK folk-rock with psychedelic / West Coast influences. It was originally self-released by Mandy Morton in 1978, after the two Spriguns albums for Decca. “Magic Lady” was dedicated to Sandy Denny, who had just passed away that same year. It was available on black vinyl with a few copies (20 aprox) pressed on blue color. Both versions are very hard to find today.

Terrific songwriting, superb musicianship and beautiful vocals. Recorded at Spaceward Studios, produced by Mike Kemp in conjunction with Mandy, mastered at Abbey Road and featuring guest appearances by Tim Hart (Steeleye Span) and Graeme Taylor (Gryphon, Albion Band).

*Original artwork in hard cardboard sleeve + OBI *Sourced from the original masters *Insert with liner notes by Mandy Morton and photos

“…one of the best things Mandy Morton did, perhaps the very best…” –Patrick Lundborg (Galactic Ramble)

2xLP, 180g Vinyl.It's ten years since ANE BRUN marked her first decade as a recording artist with the release of SONGS 2003-13, a career-encapsulating double album. Now, with her international reputation flourishing, SONGS 2013-23 allows the distinguished, platinum-selling Norwegian singer songwriter to celebrate her second decade in the business - not to mention her multiple Norwegian and Swedish Grammy awards - while also illustrating the ongoing, fascinating evolution of her singular, compelling talent. Combining tracks from 2015's extrovert When I'm Free and the pandemic era's twin releases, 2020's richly textured After The Great Storm and the more fragile, intimate How Beauty Holds The Hand Of Sorrow, the collection also offers a possible indication of Brun's next moves with a brand new song, '...

Over 11 electrifying tracks, Amazigh Freedom Rock 1973-1983 highlights their legacy as the underground kings of Kabyle rock. Les Disques Bongo Joe return to the scorching Kabyle rock of Abranis, the pioneering Algerian band that blended traditional Berber music with western rock, folk, disco, and funk, all the while proudly celebrating their Kabyle heritage. Amazigh Freedom Rock is a comprehensive look into their discography, from the garage-rock experimentations of their early days to their lushly orchestrated North African fusion masterpieces of the 1980s.

Following on from Soundway’s 2022 compilation, Padang Moonrise, are two late 1960s tracks from Java, Indonesia. one instrumental psychedelic organ version of Classic Indonesian track ‘Bubuj Bulan’ and the other a raw funk cut sung in Arabic. Rully Djohan recorded this unique, psychedelic instrumental version of Benny Corda’s classic ‘Bubuj Bulan’ for his album of instrumental organ versions of popular Indonesian songs recorded in 1971-72. With echoes of Indian, Ethiopian and Egyptian jazz melded with traditional Javanese music this version is a shimmering, dubbed-out take on a song that has been recorded by many Indonesian vocalists. Djohan is backed by The Galaxies Band, and led by one of Indonesia’s most original band leaders and arrangers Jopie Item, who also plays sitar and guitar alongside Djohan’s electric organ. On the flip-side, Munif Bahasuan delivers a deep funk track sung in Arabic. Munif was a Jakarta-based vocalist who sung mostly in Arabic and English. Jakarta has a small population of Arabic, ethnically Middle Eastern people who settled in Indonesia via connections with Islam and Islamic culture, the dominant religion in Java, Sumatra and many other of the main islands in the Indonesian archipelago.

On 12 February 1949 an angry mob stormed into the centre of the Ecuadorian capital of Quito, burning the offices of the city’s main newspaper and its oldest radio station to the ground.

On that tragic day Radio Quito had just broadcast a local adaptation of H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds. The novel – first published in 1898 and famously adapted into a radio series by Orson Welles – is one of the earliest stories to depict a conflict between mankind and a hostile race of extra-terrestrials. The large audience - not understanding that it was pure fiction - believed that intergalactic intelligence had invaded the country as all hell broke loose. Thousands began running the streets of Quito looking for shelter, chaos broke out, causing a deadly stampede. People blamed the broadcaster for the tragedy, formed a dense crowd and stormed Radio Quito, setting it ablaze. Several musicians, who were there performing, were killed.

In the decades after the second world war, outer space was on everyone’s mind and the ‘space race’ of the 1950s and 60s not only produced groundbreaking efforts to launch artificial satellites, send space probes to Mars and land a human on the moon, it also had a huge impact on the movie and music industry which was taking advantage of the world‘s fascination with space voyages and lunar missions to create instruments capable of mimicking imaginary interstellar sounds. These synthesised space effects that captivated the imagination of a whole generation of young Ecuadoreans coincided with a period in which workers and musicians from the provinces started flocking to Quito and to the commercial port of Guayaquil, some hoping to find regular work, others looking to break into the musical big leagues by getting hired by one of the prestigious urban radio station. These artists brought riches of rhythms to the major Ecuadorian cities who would soon witness the explosion of what would be known as “Andean Cumbia”.

That fusion, of tropical electronics mixed in with Andean melodies and lyrics describing the cruel reality of migrant workers, achieved massive success. And so while budding Ecuadorian UFOlogy lead to widespread extraterrestrial sightings, Ecuadorian musicians began released various albums consisting of traditional music combined with synthesisers in order to bring their traditional music into the space age. One of these musicians is Polibio Mayorga who had travelled 160km from his hometown of Chisalata to Quito where he showcased his talent as he championed the art of modernising his region’s ancestral rhythms - Huaynito, Sanjuanito, Albazo and many others - using the latest in electronic instruments.

After 4 years with Los Locos del Ritmo, one of Ecuador’s most popular bands, Polibio joined Fadisa (Fabrica De Discos S.A) in 1973 as a solo musician and songwriter before becoming their musical director a year later. While there he would team up with saxophonist extraordinaire Olmedo Torres, and for 10 years they would compose and arrange hits, not only for themselves but also for their fellow artists in the Fadisa family. Although Fadisa had countless labels in their roster, the jewel in their crown was Rondador and it was on that imprint that Polibio would release “Ponchito de Colores” and his famous album “La Farra Está Aquí”. With their novel use of Moog synthesiser, both become huge hit records and were broadcast constantly by Cosmopolita and Marañón de Quito – the two major radio stations of the capital. This led to a surge of interest in Andean cumbia, and the subsequent record sales helped to revive the country’s flagging music industry, turning Polibio into Ecuador’s most influential musician.

Polibio has never considered his music to be “tropical psychedelia” - although he thinks it would make a good name for a band. He has the sense of humour of a genius and the ability to make anyone laugh, yet he remains discreet, eloquent and humble … but as a musician he is daring and visionary, with an intrepid, vigorous style almost impossible to imitate. More than perhaps any of his peers, Polibio Mayorga established a unique place for himself at the vanguard of tropical music.

“Authentic and personal, at times it reminds this writer of luminaries such as Jackson C. Frank, PF Sloan, Skip Spence, and Phil Orchs while never feeling derivative. The songs are melodic and haunting, fueled by existential woes, political angst, and good ol’ fashioned love. Scott’s rich voice has an unpretentious gravitas, his simple-yet-effective guitar playing ranging from delicate fingerpicking to angry bashing. Created at home on a Tascam 4-Track Portastudio, the recording features few frills and is all the better for it. Unlike most mid-80s records it sounds like it could have come from any time since the late ’60s onwards. As a testament to its greatness, and despite the late recording date, it even gets a nod on Patrick Lundborg’s “Acid Archives” compilation website, Lysergiawhere it’s described thus: “Late phase downer-loner folk and singer-songwriter trip, mostly acoustic, some tracks with a small band.” – Andrew Ure for Ugly Things.

Blisteringly groovy collection of completely off-the-radar songs by Libyan composer / producer Najib Alhoush’s group The Free Music, circa 1976. Releasing an astonishing 10 albums, all impressively strong and equally infused by soul, funk, disco and reggae, The Free Music created a distinctly infectious groove that unfortunately didn’t make an impact outside of Libya due to the complex political situation at the time. There is a reason it says “Part 1” in the title.

With Synthetic Hearts, Tubatsi Mpho Moloi, Msaki and Clément Petit issue an invitation to the listener and lover to journey to another place. Here, hearts, experiences, and sounds meet, shift and evolve across an inventive nine track album. Experimental, playful and complex, the project merges voices, instruments and sounds, across geographies and genres, creating sparse, yet lush atmospherics that spin on the universal themes of love. As skilled musical shapeshifters, Synthetic Hearts melds Msaki and Moloi"s folk sensibilities with electronic elements, as Petit teases out distinct textures from his cello across the record. On Synthetic Hearts, love, longing, confusion, sorrow, despondency and queries are opened up and negotiated in songs that vibrate with their naked, honest and tender vulnerability.

Over 19 tracks, Wayfaring Strangers: Cosmic American Music mines gold from dollar bin country-rock detritus to reconstruct events as seen from the genre's wild west - Americana's vast private press substructure. As progenitor and contemptuous poster boy for the music that came to be Cosmic American, Gram Parsons found himself mired in a recording career spent mostly in scouting the perimeters of chart success. "He hated country-rock," Parsons collaborator Emmylou Harris would later reflect. "He thought that bands like the Eagles were pretty much missing the point." Parsons had been orbiting the idea of Cosmic American Music for some time. In 1968 he'd parted ways with the Byrds and was looking to take air with a new project. "It's basically a Southern soul group playing country and gospel-oriented music with a steel guitar" he told Melody Maker, on the subject of The Flying Burrito Brothers. So it was that when A&M's Burrito Brothers debut The Gilded Palace of Sin made it to shelves in February of 1969, early adherents to the Cosmic American gospel were already echoing its message from areas flanking Gram Parsons' Southern California hills and canyons. There was F.J. McMahon in coastal Santa Barbara, Mistress Mary further inland in Hacienda Heights, and Plain Jane of Albuquerque, New Mexico, each responding by committing their own private readings to tape before day one of the 1970s. Parsons himself might've disdained them, had he even been aware of such minor ripples, shimmering at the edges of his desert oasis. But these were true believers all the same, given over fully to his roots music concept, each filling vinyl grooves with non-rock instrumentation like fiddle, banjo, and pedal steel guitar, the last undoubtedly Cosmic American Music's most distinguishing stringed signifier. Only too predictably, big labels did the grunt work of confining and defining the movement, as ABC, United Artists, RCA, and more played catch-up with Asylum's raptor rock juggernaut, via backwoods crossover also-rans with names like Gladstone, American Flyer, and Silverado. Twang reigned, the shitkickers kicked shit, and the vaguely western-sounding guitar records piled up. Country-rock became "the dominant American rock style of the 1970s," as Peter Doggett's comprehensive Are You Ready for the Country put it much later. Wayfaring Strangers: Cosmic American Music picks up and dusts off golden ingots from the dollar-bin detritus of that domination, to reconstruct events as seen from the genre's real Wild West-America's one-off private press label substructure.

Wewantsounds is delighted to reissue Fairuz"s classic album "Kifak Inta" produced by her son Ziad Rahbani in the late 80"s and only released on cassette and CD in 1991. Composed and arranged by Rahbani, who had already produced "Wahdon" (1979) and "Maarifti Feek" (1987), "Kifak Inta" features his usual blend of Jazz, funk and Arabic music, spiced up with Brazilian influences serving Fairuz"s beautiful voice. The album successfully pursue the path that made "Wahdon" and "Maarifti Feek" such in-demand albums, modernising the sound of the Lebanese Diva with contemporary arrangements. It is the first time "Kifak Inta" is released on vinyl, retaining the original cassette artwork. The album - curated by Mario Choueiry from Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris), who also wrote the liner notes (Fr/En) - has been newly remastered by Colorsound Studio in Paris.

Reissue of this classic produced by Rick Rubin on 180 gram vinyl

Strut revives a lost recording from the archives in January with a 2002 collaboration between acclaimed South African folk singer Vusi Mahlasela, singer songwriter Norman Zulu and Swedish jazz / soul collective Jive Connection. Sotho folk singer Vusi Mahlasela, dubbed "The Voice" Of South Africa, performed at Mandela"s inauguration in 1994 and has enjoyed his own long relationship with Sweden, regularly embarking on cultural exchanges and forging a strong bond with the Jive Connection band, featuring guitarist / bassist Stefan Bergman and Little Dragon drummer Erik Bodin within its line-up. Although touring regularly, the collaboration has rarely been documented beyond a lone studio album in 1994. This "lost" recording, discovered in the archives of producer Torsten Larsson, also features songwriter / vocalist Norman Zulu and showcases their natural musical chemistry together. Vusi"s songs have traditionally addressed the struggle for freedom and the need for reconciliation and, here, his lyrics are as powerful as ever, ranging from parables ("Prodigal Son") to an unflinching lament on child abuse ("Faceless People"). Jive Connection vary the soundtrack, bringing in hints of reggae, jazz and post-punk alongside traditional township arrangements.

Reissue of this classic produced by Rick Rubin on 180 gram vinyl

Less than a hundred miles inland from the capital city of Lima lies the great Peruvian jungle, an untamed land of impenetrable forests and endless winding rivers. In its isolated cities, cut off from the fashions of the capital, a unique style of music began to develop, inspired equally by the sounds of the surrounding forests, the roll of the mighty Amazon and Ucayali Rivers, and the rhythms of cumbia picked up from distant stations on transistor radios. With the arrival of electricity, a new generation of young musicians started plugging in their guitars and trading in their accordions for synthesizers: Amazonian cumbia was born.

Powered by fast-paced timbale rhythms, driven by spidery, treble-damaged guitar lines, and drenched in bright splashes of organ, Amazonian cumbia was like a hyperactive distant cousin of surf music crossed with an all-night dance party in the heart of the forest. While many of the genre’s greatest tracks were instrumental, and others were simple celebrations of life in the jungle, the goal of every song was to keep the party going.

Radio stations in Lima remained unaware of the new electric sounds emanating from the jungle, but a handful of pioneering record producers ventured over the mountain passes to the cities of Tarapoto, Moyobamba, Pucallpa – even Iquitos, a city reachable only by boat or plane – and lured dozens of bands to the recording studios of the capital to lay down their best tracks. Although many became local hits, few were ever heard outside the Amazonian region … until now. With eighteen tracks from some of the greatest names in Amazonian cumbia, Perú Selvatico is both the improbable soundtrack to a beach party on a banks of the Amazon and a psychedelic safari into the sylvan mysteries of the Peruvian jungle.

Wau Wau Collectif's second album, Mariage, is instilled with a newfound sense of purpose. Expanding upon the inspirational themes of their acclaimed 2021 debut, Yaral Sa Doom (Educate The Young), this long distance collaboration from musicians in Senegal and Sweden's Karl Jonas Winqvist is an even more stylistically expansive affair Joyful children's songs collide with fuzzy guitar solos and thumping hip-hop beats. Shimmering synths lift off from the plunky percussion of the balafon and versatile sounds of the 22-string kora. Familiar voices from the first album return with more explicitly political lyrics, while the music feels both rhythmically dense and sonically weightless, flowing from one spellbinding moment to the next. For Mariage, band members from each country were inspired to include a wider array of instrumental flourishes unique to their cross-continental collaboration. "Yay Balma" revolves around the cycling riffs of Jango Diabaté's xalam guitar, as this song's fuzzy tones and soaring sax solos open side two with a bang. "Pitchi Goubidi" provides a stark contrast, with the kora played like a harp and Gilbert Badji's gravelly lyrics about "the bird of the night" disappearing into dubbed-out chamber pop. Winqvist's omnichord hovers back into focus on "Yonou Natangue," a free-floating jam that maintains the messages of Wau Wau Collectif's debut, promoting youth education to address the social issues facing contemporary Senegal: "Peace is the better wealth / The way to wander."