Folk 251 Items

Mantra Moderne' is a stunning, contemporary masterpiece that fuses Anatolian Psychedelia, Brazilian Tropicalia, 60’s European pop and American jazz. A must for fans of Khruangbin, Portishead, Arthur Verocai, Goat, Caetano Veloso, Tom Zé, Os Mutantes, Cortex and co.
The duo is formed of Kit Martin, who lives between London and France and plays all instruments on the album, and Merve Erdem, vocalist and multi-disciplinary artist from Istanbul, now based in London. This is their debut album.
The album explores universal themes such as love, loss, decay, language and ideology, mixing three different languages: English, Turkish and French. Written and recorded by the duo - Kit composed all the songs and Merve wrote the lyrics - in rural France during 2018, each song was completed within a 12-hour window, pawning contemplation for spontaneity.
Dubbed by Kit and Merve as ‘lo-fi-hi-fi’ in reference to the high-end tube equipment that helped it find its way to 8-track cassette tape. The style owes its sound to narrow tape width, valve distortion, spring reverb, the mixture of high end gear with lo-fi equipment as well as a disregard to the norms of hi-fi studio techniques. All instruments were analogue and no samples were used. The instruments that are used range from tablas to darbukas, balalaikas to ouds, MS20 synths to Farfisa organs and a lot of cuica. The mixing techniques were done on-the-fly, tracking immediately to tape: compression, EQ, delay and reverb; meaning mixing could not be revisited!

A reissue full LP of the legendary Palm wine guitarist S.E. Rogie’s early work. Truly beautiful songs from the 1960s ranging from sweet acoustic solo numbers to blazing full band electric music. SE Rogie had a very long and pioneering career in Sierra Leone. His songs are some of the most beautiful ever—gentle and lilting timeless melodies. One of the greats. A co-release with our friends at the Domino Sound label.

Puzzling collage of Tibetan Buddhist rites

Rare cosmic Lao synth pop recorded in Paris 1980. This 12" includes the original remaster and edited versions by Parisian producer Shelter. Everything comes with a reason: the record was edited in 1981 under the title Sothy Productions yet produced in France by the Parisian label Oxygène (famously known for its unforgettable first French punk compilation '125 grammes de 33 1/3 tours'). 'Chansons Laotiennes' still remains hard to classify. And then who's Sothy? Along with the unverifiable identity of the seemingly Laotian singers, skepticism gains ground concerning the man behind the pseudonym. Is he an escaped musician from one of the first Cambodian rock bands of the 1960s? A surviving producer from the 1980s Paris? Or a composer in transit in one of the many places of the Laotian diaspora? Sothy eludes any researches and disappears behind his numerous homonyms.

Sebastián Wesman, a composer and performer born 1980 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Currently living in Estonia. His two earliest works Antes del Olvido (2001) and Invento (2006) were recorded and produced independently in Argentina under the artist name Isabelasnacho. Since 2008 his creative work continues in Estonia, giving solo violin concerts in different places like galleries, museums, libraries, churches and concert halls.

For their 40th anniversary, legendary psych-folk band CAEDMON wrote seven new songs and found unreleased archive material from the ‘70s to make the album “RARE”
500 copies limited edition (parallel story to the '78 album) in a full colour matt sleeve. Includes insert with lyrics.

Metqal Quenawi, born in 1929 in Luxor, Egypt, (also known as a.o. Met'qal, Metaqal Kinawi Metaqal and Awlad Metqal, and active with his Metaqal Rebab Ensemble), developed a style based on folk traditions from southern Egypt. Recovering the traditions of the Said (the southern region around Luxor), Metqal was brought up with the customs of the Fellahin (agricultural labourers who passed on the age-old traditions of Egypt) he mastered the rebab, an violin-like, Bedouin instrument made out of coconut shell, wood and animal skin that's played with a horse hair bow. His many recordings from the '70s and '80s (relesed on various cassettes) disseminated and rescued in the '70s and '80s made Metqal into a key reference in Egyptian music. Thanks to this LP, pressed in an edition of 500 copies, Metqal's music is now also available to western audiences.

In early November 2014 we went to Kalmykia. Our goal was the local “Dzhangar” epic. The epic genre, as one of the most archaic, can be called a basis for Kalmyk music culture. Not so long time ago among Kalmyks there were their own professional epic storytellers - Dzhangarchi who as a socio-artistic institute today are practically absent: repertoire of modern folk singers mostly consists of late folk art of the Soviet era.

Follow up to Melissa's debut on No Format "Camphor And Copper"!

Musicians and gaming nerds Gaijin Blues (Naphta and Playstation Yoga Music) continue to leave their controllers aside and pay respects to the greatest video games ever made...but this time they're going one step further into the adventure..with a full-length 8 track concept LP.
Inspired by Japanese Role Playing Games and a love of all things Super Nintendo and of course Japanese pop culture, Gaijin Blues brought you their debut EP in early 2019. After touring in the Far East and some serious hours playing games such as Dragon Quest V, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, VII and IX, the Shin Megami Tensei series and Phantasy Star IV, the boys concocted an EP of samples, live instrumentation and programming as a love note that you'd never find inside a game box...until now.
Gaijin Blues II takes you a step further. With this LP the guys have created their own fictional JRPG and then devised an end to end narrative with the music weaved around it all. You can buy the disk but what you don't get is a controller...you'll need to use your ears instead.
In the words of the creators themselves: "This is a sequel to a story you've never experienced. You are the protagonist who is coming back home to see his world completely changed by seemingly harmless technology. Each track is a chapter in this tale. Collect the items, gather a party and use your wit and imagination to find out the truth. Because technology usually comes at a price…"
This about as conceptual as it gets: where a brand new story matched with an audio narrative meet together in a fictional world. In terms of electronic music that doesn't happen often. Gaijin Blues II is a truly unique record whether you've ever owned a console or not.

Millions Brazilians formed in Portland, Oregon in 2006. Founding members Grant Corum and Suzanne Stone have been central to the band since it’s inception, while a rotating line-up backs them depending on the latest vision for the sound. TIP!
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The band carry out their own interpretation of a genre bending ethos that has evolved throughout the American underground. Drifting between boundless compositions, focused energetic improvisations and experimental collaborations that embrace a weird sort of transcendence.

Their next installment Red Rose and Obsidian was recorded in Maine and engineered by Big Blood’s Caleb Mulkerin. Both he and the band deliver a powerful yet fragile and personal release. The mythical and evocative recordings are inspired by Maine's rugged coastlines; mournful ripples of sound wash up on the shore, whilst a lonesome, at times harrowing saxophone drifts through the rolling mountains, providing unsettling melodic interludes. Electronic treatments veil organic sounds, a fleeting whistle meets spontaneously with spacey flutes, mutated rock rhythms are topped off with the soaring vocals of Suzanne Stone who leads the listeners into the magical world of the Million Brazilians.

The seventh solo-album by the Norwegian vocalist of Midnight Choir fame. The selection of Townes van Zandt's songs that can be heard on 'Come Tomorrow' is drawn from the period 1968 to 1978, and bears witness to a profound understanding of the artist and a great deal of research. The songs are presented in arrangements that preserve their poetic and melodic power with acute sensitivity.

1000 only. Long out of print, Howe Gelb's debut solo album `Dreaded Brown Recluse' is re-imagined on for RSD on brown vinyl. Back then, circa 1991 Howe's main squeeze Giant Sand were nothing short of prolific, songs were oozing from every pore, their creative id was effervescing, overflowing. With Giant Sand's colossal new album of '91 `Ramp' imminent what to do with those further outpourings? An idea: Disguise the band as Howe Gelb solo and produce a song cycle that, on repeat, melds into an eclectic stew that's easy to dip in and out of but still remains potent several hours in the oven. It's music as soundtrack to your day, a playful, anarchic piece of situationism that unfolds like all the best dramatic prose. `Dreaded Brown Recluse' includes a rethunk `Warm Storm' with strings (it also appeared on `Ramp'). It also features songs about faxing (how quaint), blankets and the insect world, as it straddles territory lost somewhere between psychotic ramshackle punk and slimmed down acoustic reverie.

Over the past decade, the visionary musician ARTHUR RUSSELL has entered something close to the mainstream. Sampled and referenced by contemporary musicians, his papers now open to visitors at the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center in New York, and his name synonymous with a certain strain of tenderness, Russell is as widely known as he’s ever been. Thanks to Russell’s partner Tom Lee and to Steve Knutson of Audika Records, who have forged several records from Russell’s vast archive of unfinished and unreleased work, the world now hears many versions of Arthur Russell. There’s the Iowa boy, the disco mystic, the singer-songwriter and composer, and the fierce perfectionist deep in a world of echo. While all of these elements of Russell are individually true, none alone define him. Now, after ten years of work inside the Russell library, Lee and Knutson bring us Iowa Dream, yet another bright star in Russell’s dazzling constellation. Blazing with trademark feeling, these nineteen songs are a staggering collection of Russell’s utterly distinct songwriting. Features contributions from downtown NYC musicians ERNIE BROOKS, RHYS CHATHAM, HENRY FLYNT, JON GIBSON, PETER GORDON, STEVEN HALL, JACKSON MAC LOW, LARRY SALTZMAN and DAVID VAN TIEGHEM, along with PETER BRODERICK, who makes a contemporary addition to this list: more than forty years after Russell recorded several nearly finished songs, Broderick worked diligently with Audika to complete them, and performed audio restoration and additional mixing. At once kaleidoscopic and intimate, Iowa Dream bears some of Russell’s most personal work, including several recently discovered folk songs he wrote during his time in Northern California in the early 1970s.

Mega Bog is the fluid musical moniker of songwriter Erin Elizabeth Birgy, who has spent the last ten years channeling, capturing, and releasing her unique bouquet of fragrant, sci-fi pop experiments with a handful of bicoastal collaborators. She is joined on her fifth and finest album (and first for PoB) by members of Big Thief, Hand Habits, and iji, who help her spin a manic web of emotions into beautiful, abstract future poems and thrilling genre perversions.

'You Made It This Far' is the sophomore album from New Orleans songwriter, Esther Rose. Inspired by the honest writing and timeless melodies of American greats such as Hank Williams Sr. and Joni Mitchell, Esther Rose's songwriting has been called 'The happiest saddest music.' With the release of her 2017 debut recording 'This Time Last Night', the album caught fire as her listeners tuned-in to a storied chronology of this soulful, heart-worn artist. This Time Last Night quickly spread to all corners of the country through fellow travelers and musicians on the touring circuit.

Fifty years before this release, Harry Taussig and Max Ochs were featured on the sampler LP 'Contemporary Guitar - Spring '67', alongside John Fahey, Robbie Basho and Bukka White. Both guitarists were "rediscovered" by Tompkins Square in 2005, and have since released new recordings for the label. 'The Music of Harry Taussig & Max Ochs' features newly recorded material, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Takoma sampler they first appeared on.

Produced by Jack White, includes a Bob Dylan cover.

Much of this album was recorded in Iceland. Breath warm from singing rises into frozen air. Atomized. A million bright blue crystals _ the fractal branching of the lungs _ drift back to earth. Radiant, refracting. Clear notes melt like perfect soft snow. Straight lines curve and curve again. Much of this album was recorded in Iceland, but Joan Shelley wrote these songs in Kentucky. That's the dirt clinging to their roots. The wind blowing through Osage orange and pine trees is the joy and ache and urgency of these songs. It's the silence and the music. It's the space between time and words and the stillness in Joan's voice. The world spins more slowly. Moss overtakes a fallen tree. Kentucky is where we plant seeds of regret and stay to watch them flower. Maybe Mark Twain said that Kentucky (always five years behind the times) was the perfect place to ride out the apocalypse. Maybe it's twenty years. Maybe it's apocryphal. That doesn't mean it isn't true. "And oh, Kentucky Stays in my mind it's sweet to be five years behind That's where I'll be When the seas rise Holding my dear friends and drinking wine..." Maybe the world outside has already vaporized. Maybe we're already living on borrowed time. Nathan Salsburg's guitar pours out clean as water through his fingers, turning over every smooth stone. Bonnie "Prince" Billy's harmonies stretch time tight enough to break without breaking. Joan's voice calls us back. Birds are singing outside. Insistent. Don't miss what's right in front of you.

Superb album revisiting the traditional and early psychedelic Arabic music, all through distorted paths and instruments, remashed and deconstructed sounds, recreating patterns with diverse instruments to give a different perspective of the sound itself.