Folk 28 Items

No Obi. Cover has damage on spine. Red vinyl is full of marks.

A long-lost Japanese acid folk gem, Niningashi’s 1974 private press debut Heavy Way shimmers with originality, deft song writing and a dream-like groove.

Although he was training as a pharmacist, Kazuhisa Okubo was much more interested in prescribing musical medicine.

A coming-of-age album, Heavy Way captured a turning point in Okubo’s life, and Japanese society more widely as a nostalgia for the pastoral calm of the traditional life, met the cosmopolitan thrill of coffee, sex and cigarettes in the big city.

Intoxicated by Tokyo, driven by a passion for music and surrounded by a thriving acid folk scene, the young student filtered his experiences through a psychedelic cocktail of soulful influences from the US and Japan.

Niningashi was his first band, and Heavy Way was their only album. It was honest and raw, deep and strangely funky, in an off-beat kind of way. Across nine tracks, Okubo and the 6-piece band put their own spin on the new folk sound of Japan, combining witty lyrics with electric guitar-driven solos and crisp, understated grooves.

Melancholy and profound, opening track ‘Ameagari’ feels like a synthesis of Harvest-era Neil Young and Haruomi Hosono’s Happy End. Then there’s the whimsical washboard country sound of ‘Semai Boku No Heyade’; the moody, low-lit charm of ‘Restaurant’; and ‘Hitoribotchi’, a sensitive portrayal of childhood, steeped in memories of rainfall that will resonate with fans of Woo and Mac Demarco.

While Okubo would go on to taste success with psychedelic folk bands Neko and Kaze, the latter of which scored three #1 albums, little is known about his mysterious debut with Niningashi.

Self-released by Okubo in 1974, and featuring album artwork by his brother, it has slowly generated a cult following online, intrigued by its soft and enchanting sound. So few records were ultimately pressed that those remaining have fetched up to £1,500 online.

Featured on Time Capsule’s era-spanning collection Nippon Acid Folk, Niningashi’s Heavy Way is a deep-cut grail of a vibrant time in Japan’s musical history, where even the pharmacists were making jams.

Japanese pressing without OBI, with insert. Cover closer to VG+

Japanese pressing without OBI, with insert. Cover close to NM

Copy closer to NM. Japanese pressing without OBI, with insert

Winner of Best World Music Album in the 1994 Grammy Awards. The illustrated booklet [from the CD edition] contains four pages of notes describing the equipment used for the recording and background on Ry Cooder & V.M. Bhatt, Bhatt's mohan vina (an instrument he designed himself, featuring twelve sympathetic strings, three melody strings and five drone strings, played -like Cooder's guitar- with a slide), the recording and the circumstances that brought them together. The second drummer, Joachim Cooder, is Ry Cooder's son. NB: In the book that came with the 1993 [i]Trance Europe Express[/i] 2CD compilation, Alex Paterson of The Orb included this release among his top 12 ambient albums of all-time, adding "I only wish we [The Orb] could have produced some of this record. It would be a match made in heaven."

Vinyl with a couple of light scuffs. Cover with hype sticker on the front and slightly bumped corners

Vinyl with a couple of light scuffs. Cover with slightly bumped corner

Cover with slightly bumped corner. Etched vinyl

Still in shrink, but opened, with hype sticker. Vinyl with a couple of light scuffs

Vinyl with scuffs and hairlines

Kassa belongs to the long tradition of melancholy raconteurs with a decided gift of gab. And the unique embrace of his deep voice heightens the emotion generated by the hum of his lyrics. For Ethiopians he is, along with the other great traditional voices of the post-war period such as Assèfa Abatè, Fréw Haylou, Asnaqètch Wèrqu or Kètèma Mèkonnen, a perfect example of the culture of the word: poetry and freedom of expression, with an impressive verve that hits the mark, quiet vehemence and merciless loquacity, lovelorn despair and self-deprecation. It must be underscored – to invoke some notion of a virtual scale of values – without exaggerating that there is a certain similarity between Ethiopians’ perception of Kassa Tèssèma’s “music” and the rapture Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou’s piano playing inspires in non-Ethiopian audiences. Each in his own way, both these artists are able to captivate their listeners. Music that demands to be listened to.

2015 reissue. Still in shrink, but opened, with hype sticker. Cover with slightly bumped corner, closer to NM

Gatefold cover. Vinyl is close to NM.

Dive into the spiritual depths of Carnatic Music(Southern Indian classical music) - An enchanting journey of devotion and transcendence pulsates with raw sincerity and profound spirituality, casting a spell that transcends boundaries of belief.

2024 new vinyl repress with different track list on the side B

Reverse Cut Vinyl

This record plays from the inner groove to the outer groove.

comes with hype sticker.

Neil Young’s extensive tour with Crazy Horse in 1976 comes after the release of On The Beach in 1974 and two albums, Tonight’s The Night and Zuma, the following year. The first live appearances with the new Crazy Horse with Frank (Poncho) Sampedro replacing the deceased Dan Whitten consist of four shows in ten days in little clubs and bars in northern California, dubbed the “Rolling Zuma Revue.” An extensive world tour was booked, called “The Year Of The Horse,” beginning on March 3rd, 1976 in Nagoya. This was Young’s first visit to Japan and he played seven shows in Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Tokyo.

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.

"Are Possible" is a spark-throwing, undulating fusion of styles played (mainly) on banjo, upright bass and drums, made possible by the individual perspectives of Nathan, double-bassist Casey Toll (Jake Xerxes Fussell, Mt. Moriah) and drummer Rex McMurray (CAVE) work together in an easy-rolling manner, but one that contains an expansive, ass-shaking confabulation of ideas.Music is time in redux: Are Possible"s many moments in time carry details from all over the place. Rex brought a rhythm to the table after drumming on buckets at work, Casey provided a bassline that redirected a previous jam, Nathan brought in a song he"d been fucking with forever and they figured it out together. Their diversity of sources moves easily within the arrangements, rendering a far-ranging set of feels, from transcendental to new country funk to good ol" jazz and the folk-rock, even - all of it drawn out exquisitely when they mixed at Electrical Audio in Chicago with the delicate hands of Cooper Crain upon the faders. The Nathan Bowles Trio have done their due diligence, passing their music through time and space on their way to now.

This is a live album that was taken from the tour for Ytilaer. Songs tend to mutate after they"ve been recorded. These songs were mutating faster than usual. Like whatever happened to Bruce Banner in the lab - I knew these songs were about to get superpowers. As far as I was concerned, this change needed to be documented. The best thing about documenting something is that it gives the creator permission to move on should they wish to move on. I usually prefer to move on. These songs were recorded in Chicago, America"s heart. And at one of the best clubs in the country - I try to only work with venues that are not entangled with LiveNation/Ticketmaster. Thalia Hall, baby. Stay free. The date was mid-point in the tour, so I knew we"d be as hot as we were going to get. Not too green, not too brown. There was the thought, "let"s take this op to make it something special." So we took advantage of Chicago"s easily accessible players - we got Nick Mazzarella to add alto sax to one song, and from the opening band, Pascal Kerong"A to sing on a song, and Nathaniel Ballinger on piano on one song - and I couldn"t pass up the opportunity to invite Joshua Abrams and Lisa Alvarado to play on "Natural Information." The hardest part of making the record was cutting songs out - it could have been a triple album. But I don"t know, maybe the show should have been this short?" - Bill Callahan