Folk 207 Items

NYC’s 75 Dollar Bill began its prolific career in 2012, after percussionist Rick Brown—a veteran of the indie underground (Fish & Roses, Run On, V-Effect)—and noise scene guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Che Chen—connected via MySpace. Since that initial jam session, when Brown began experimenting with his signature plywood crate drum rhythms, they have released three LPs and a clutch of self-released cassette and digital releases. Last year’s double album I Was Real received serious critical acclaim—The Wire calling it 2019’s Album of the Year. On their first live album, Live At Tubby’s, 75 Dollar Bill assembled a unique “little big band” [Sue Garner on bass, Cheryl Kingan on sax, Steve Maing on guitar, Jim Pugliese on percussion and Karen Waltuch on viola] for the small Kingston, NY club show. Recorded on the last day of their spring tour, the record puts a new perspective on themes from their body of work: a little more intimacy, a little more freedom, a little more controlled chaos. Brown’s idiosyncratic rhythms are all the more hypnotizing in Tubby’s cozy setting, and Chen’s furious guitar work cuts and hums with sounds seemingly only attainable on stage. It’s an album both challenging and immediate. The expanded 75 Dollar Bill’s affinity for improvisation and the avant-garde even leads to a rousing take on the Ornette Coleman classic, “Friends And Neighbors” that feels right at home in their own repertoire. The listener can’t help but feel present and part of the communal joy and catharsis being shared here in this room. This performance at Tubby’s turned out not only to be the last show of their tour, but the last show possible as the pandemic hit. Originally offered as a digital-only release on 75 Dollar Bill’s Bandcamp, Live At Tubby’s now documents a highlight and closure of sorts; this kind of musical improvisation and community interaction being on hold for the foreseeable future. This double album on Grapefruit will have to tide everyone over until it can all happen again.

Over a period of 20+ years Adam Gibson has forged a unique career, his blend of spoken word songs with music gaining him a deeply reverent following for his tales of love, longing and the wide open road, in Australia and beyond. Bringing together a collection of his best tracks, this release shines a light on this underground Australian icon.

Really an amazing atmospheric and psych-influated album by Afet Serenay. Mind-blowing tunes by the players, band members were famous musicians and the band called "arilar" (which means The Bees). Some hard-hitting rhythm section blending into a prime example of the swingin' sound of the cool influences of Psychedelic Folk.. Most of the songs are from traditional Turkish folk songs with groovy arranges, drum attacks, percussions, saz and absolutely superb moog sounds going there and here.. Lovely and tasty Turkish Delight..! Enjoy the sound!

Before his prolific activity in the field of music therapy, Agostino Nirodh Fortini also embarked on his own path in electronic music. In the early eighties he was a close collaborator of Walter Maioli and Fred Gales, at the time of the pioneering label Sound Reporters. “Suoni Immaginari”, released only privately on cassette in 1988, contains a wide range of keyboards and lots of ethnic field recordings assembled with an absolutely modern praxis ahead of its time. Nirodh imagines his planetary odysseys as a complex of harmonic devices, nebula storms, glassy explosions and gravity-free falls. His operational horizon reflects further cultural ideas and suggestions; not only the artifice between natural sounds and the programmed machine but also the intrusion of arabesque dreams and jungles contaminated by invading insects and mad pipers. These are spectral symphonies which can have analogies with the fourth world of Hassell and Eno.

On the eponymously titled final song of her debut album Land Of No Junction, Irish songwriter Aoife Nessa Frances sings “Take me to the land of no junction / Before it fades away / Where the roads can never cross / But go their own way.” This search, indeed the heart of the album, recalls journeys towards an ever shifting centre—a centre that cannot hold—with maps that are constantly being rewritten.

She writes: “The album title is a result of a mishearing. Cian Nugent (Aoife’s musical collaborator and co-producer) was telling me about childhood trips he made to Llandudno in Wales, passing through a station called Llandudno Junction… Land Of No Junction later became a place in itself. A liminal space—a dark vast landscape to visit in dreams… A place of waiting where I could sit with uncertainty and accept it. Rejecting the distinct and welcoming the uncertain and the unknown.”

The album is shot through with this sense of mystery—an ambiguity and disorientation that illuminates songs with smokey luminescence. Yet, through the haze, everything comes down to what, where and who one is. With Land Of No Junction, she has built a universe full of intimacy and depth, with lyrics written through a process of free thought writing. It lends the record fluidity, each song in dialogue with the next not only through language, but the way each musical choice complements or threads into another: “I would write without putting pressure on taking the song in any particular direction. It all carried itself naturally and instinctively with melody coming first and then structure later.” Written over several years, the songs traverse and inhabit this indeterminate landscape: the beginnings of love, moments of loss, discovery, fragility and strength, all intermingle and interact. Some songs—like lead single “Blow Up”—date back to university days, where Frances studied film. Borrowing its title from the 1966 Antonioni picture of the same name, it indirectly provided the catalyst for Frances’s broader considerations about being a woman and self-determination—”Blow Up” and “Less Is More” were written before the abortion referendum was passed in Ireland in 2018—during time when women were forced to travel abroad during crisis pregnancies. They are both songs about being a woman and finding strength in a forever changing world.

Good Aderegechegn is now available in a Limited Edition Blue Vinyl Pressing Ayalew Mesfin stands aside the likes of Mulatu Astake, Mahmoud Ahmed, Hailu Mergia and Alemayehu Eshete as a legend of 1970s Ethiopia. Mesfin’s music is some of the funkiest to arise from this unconquerable East African nation. Mesfin’s recording career, captured in nearly two dozen 7” singles and numerous reel-to-reel tapes, shows the strata of the most fertile decade in Ethiopia’s 20th century recording industry, when records were pressed constantly by both independent upstarts and corporate behemoths, even if they were only distributed within the confines of this East African nation. Though Mesfin was forced underground by the Derg regime that took control of Ethiopia in 1974, he has returned almost 50 years later with this triumphant set albums – the first time that his music has been presented in this form. These albums give us a chance to discover a rare and beautiful moment in music history, in anthologies built from Mesfin’s uber-rare 7” single releases and from previously unreleased recordings taken from master tapes. Good Aderegechegn gives us a chance to discover a rare & beautiful moment in music history, in an anthology built from his uber-rare 7” single releases. Contains an oversized 11” x 11” 16 page book that tells the story of modern Ethiopian music and Mesfin’s role within it.

NOW Available IN A Limited Edition RED Vinyl Pressing Ayalew Mesfin stands aside the likes of Mulatu Astake, Mahmoud Ahmed, Hailu Mergia and Alemayehu Eshete as a legend of 1970s Ethiopia. Mesfin’s music is some of the funkiest to arise from this unconquerable East African nation. Mesfin’s recording career, captured in nearly two dozen 7” singles and numerous reel-to-reel tapes, shows the strata of the most fertile decade in Ethiopia’s 20th century recording industry, when records were pressed constantly by both independent upstarts and corporate behemoths, even if they were only distributed within the confines of this East African nation. Though Mesfin was forced underground by the Derg regime that took control of Ethiopia in 1974, he has returned almost 50 years later with this triumphant set albums – the first time that his music has been presented in this form. These albums give us a chance to discover a rare and beautiful moment in music history, in anthologies built from Mesfin’s uber-rare 7” single releases and from previously unreleased recordings taken from master tapes. Mot Aykerim gives us a chance to discover a rare & beautiful moment in music history, in an anthology built from his uber-rare 7” single releases. Contains an oversized 11” x 11” 16 page book that tells the story of modern Ethiopian music and Mesfin’s role within it.

One of Bert Jansch's later recordings, 'Crimson Moon' is some of his finest work and sees the musician at the top of his game, with appearances from Johnny Marr, Bernard Butler and many more. Earth Recordings revisits the album on its 20th Anniversary with its first standalone cut to vinyl. Originally released in 2000, there is a brooding resonance in 'Crimson Moon' centred around his accomplished guitar style that brings his contemplative songwriting to the fore. Traditional ballads have touches of jazz and blues adorned by contributions from guitarists Johnny Marr, Bernard Butler and Johnny "Guitar" Hodge along with guest vocals from Bert's wife Loren Auerbach ('My Donald'). The addition of electric guitar subtly compliments Bert's percussive fingerpicking bringing new depth to his compositions. Title track 'Crimson Moon' is a take on traditional song 'Omie Wise' and was written about his wife Loren, 'Caledonia' conjures pastoral images of Scotland alongside covers of The Incredible String Band's 'October Song', Guy Mitchell's 'Singing The Blues' and Owen Hand's 'My Donald'. Otherworldly tale 'Neptune's Daughter' sees a mermaid-like creature recount the death of her relatives from a poison in the sea. Passionate about nature, the song carries an underlying ecological message. Released in his 60s, 'Crimson Moon' proves Bert Jansch to still be an innovator and a unique talent. "Stunning" - NPR // "Irrevocably Bert" - Mojo // "Genius" - Metro

Beynelmilân is delivering some funky turkish sound to your ears. A drumbreak in each track, psychedelic vibes and funky groove revisited classic turkish folk songs. If you like 70's anatolian Rock/Pop, Yeralti Oyun Havalari (Underground Belly Dances) is for you for sure. He recently contributed 2 tracks to the new Arşivplak record 'Mirror', which is a compilation of turkish disco folk with the typical psychedelic touch.

After it was only released on tape finally with the slightly different vinyl version of Yeralti Oyun Havalari, there is a full length LP containing 10 delightful tracks to take you on a trip to the turkoholic mekka of 70's anatolian psychedelic rock. Beynelmilân knows how to bring some heat to the dancefloor with tunes like 'Adam Mi Oldun' but also brings you down to a hypnotizing trip with tracks like 'Yaniyorum' which is topped with some melancholic vocals. Never missing the heavy drum breaks and intense melodies topped with some discoid flavour. Limited edition of 500 copies!

For his first record in….uh, well, just a little over a year (!), Bill Callahan Bill Callahan’s given us his first Gold Record Gold Record . They can’t all be gold, and they’re not all six years apart either — all good! You could probably call the album “ Gold Records Gold Records ,” too: all the songs have a standalone feel, like singles, meant for you to have a deep encounter with all of a sudden, from the start of the song to the finish. And what do you got when you have a record full of singles — and let’s face it, hit singles, at that? That’s a Gold Record Gold Record for you. From the top, it’s clear this is music with an affection for people, as Bill Bill immediately slips easily and deeply into his characters. Among them: a limo driver, a watcher of television, a suitor, a man in a broken-down car, a reader of books, a Ry Cooder Ry Cooder superfan, and in the closing number, a wanderer who “notices when people notice things”. The voices of the people, with their ups and downs, their loss and laughter. You can feel the love. For Bill Bill, preparing to tour for Shepherd In a Shepherd In a Sheepskin Vest Sheepskin Vest meant considering being away from home for long stretches of time — maybe up to a year, who knew? Feeling his oats, Bill Bill pulled out a few sketches from over the years and touched them up. Before he knew it, he was recording them, and in the shuffle, newer songs started popping up. It happened fast. Basics were recorded live with Matt Kinsey Matt Kinsey playing guitars, guitars, guitars and Jaime Zurverza Jaime Zurverza holding it down “and then letting it go” on bass. Drums and horns were brought in for a couple songs. Spirits were high! Six out of the ten were done first take; overdubs, when needed, came equally quickly. Listening, one hears their intuitive cohesion coming together richly behind Bill Bill’s titanic voice spread across the stereo spectrum: the gentle conversation of Bill Bill and Matt Matt’s guitars, the subtle percussion of the bass and drums, and odd appearances of trumpet, woodwind and synth, striking notes both decorous and discordant, sounding for all the world like the naturally occurring sound meant to accompany and express lives lived everywhere. These are in fact songs meant for other people to sing — but until they do, Bill Bill’s got this. He’s got a secret on this one, and before we go, we don’t mind sharing it with you: he’s figured out how to perfectly place his voice in proximity to your ear. It’s based on the distance from your heart to your brain. Simple! Why don’t more people think like this?

Supersuckers original Sub Pop Demos 1989, for the first time on vinyl. Remastered by Mikey Young in 2020. Recorded by in late 1988 in Tucson, AZ (tracks 1-2) and late 1989 at Word Of Mouth by Jack Endino, Seattle, WA (tracks 3 to 13) Black Supersuckers on these recordings: Eddie 'Spaghetti' Daly, Dan Bolton, Dan Seigal, Ron Heathman, Eric Martin

Türküola releases maybe the most outstanding piece of Cem Karaca & Apaşlar in their adventure in Germany. Cem Karaca was a new born Anatolian Pop star from rock’n’roll roots and Apaşlar was a surf band when they united in 1967. In the end of 1967 they toured Germany and began to record with Ferdy Klein Orchestra (which was a version of Werner Müller Orchestra) between 1968-1969. “Gılgamış-Ayrılık Günümüz” is one of the singles recorded as a cooperation between the band and the “big band” . Therefore the A side of the single “Ayrılık Günümüz” (Our Day of Departi reflect this cooperation between Werner Müller Orchestra and CK & Apaşlar with a feeling of mod scene, a rock ballad with polyphonic arrangements. On the other hand the flip side of the single gives out the band’s own groove and performance with the instrumental psychedelic rock peace “Gılgamış” (Gilgamesh). Gılgamış is inspired by the Epic of Gılgamesh and the band plays a powerful groove with a Mesopotamian mood and riffs. The Apaşlar line-up playing in this piece was Mehmet Soyarslan (electric guitar), Seyhan Karabay (bass), and Leon Habib (drums). Beginning with Seyhan Karabay’s solid bass riffs which is followed by drums of Leon Habib serving an energetic groove; Soyarslan plays his Epiphone guitar with psychedelic effects which sometimes take the main theme to a micro tonal scale. Today we have the opportunity to hold this unique piece in compliance with the authentic cover coated with gelatine and its vinyl produced from the master tapes. Thanks to Türküola for this generous reissue for the collectors of Turkish psychedelia.

In 2016, haitian voodoo band Chouk Bwa and electronic production duo The Angströmers united to form Chouk Bwa & The Angströmers.

Chouk Bwa play traditional Haitian music; they would fit in the “Mizik Rasin” genre, alongside bands like Boukman Eksperyans, Boukan Ginen or Rasin Mapou from Azor. However, until their decisive encounter with The Angströmers, their most characteristic feature was their loyalty to the essential elements of Voodoo – therefore without any instrumental addition.

Chouk Bwa was born in 2012 in the Gonaïves under the impulsion of singer and Samba (keeper of the tradition and moral figure in the voodoo culture) Jean Claude “Sambaton” Dorvil.

Initially the band’s full name was Chouk Bwa Libète, which can be translated by “Liberty’s roots”, a reference to the famous shout uttered by Toussaint Louverture, an artisan of the Haitian revolution, who died in captivity at Fort de Doubs in 1803: “By overturning me, only the trunk of the tree of liberty fell in Santo Domingo, but it will grow again for its roots are deep and numerous”.

Following their meeting with Belgian musician Michel Wolteche in 2012, the band starts an international career that leads them to a selection for a showcase at the WOMEX 2015 and that will make them tour in more than 10 european countries (playing shows notably at the WOMAD Charlton Park, Roskilde Festival, Førde Festivalen), as well as in Malaysia (Rainforest World Music Festival), Canada (Sunfest, Vancouver Folk Festival, Calgary Folk Festival) and the USA (Savannah Music Festival). In 2015, their first album, Se nou ki la!, is released on Buda Musique.

Chouk Bwa’s music combines multiple characteristic Voodoo elements: rhythms, dances and chants. These are the roots, removed from Africa and secretly replanted in a new earth. The percussionists, going from one rhythm (and therefore one cultural reference) to another, act as collective memory smugglers, and their instruments are the material demonstration of this diversity. The dance is neither aesthetic nor premeditated, it is real; it is not about a “show” or a “choregraphy” but rather about a connexion with the drums’ spirits. On top of this, the singer’s voice ascends effortlessly above the instrumentation, which also includes bamboos and lanbi.

The setlist during a show is made up of original compositions by Sambaton as well as traditional songs rearranged by the band. As a fervent homage to the Lwa pantheon, the entire repertoire is sustained by the voodoo mystic, and throughout a song, it is sometimes the Haitian farmers’ voices, in their daily struggle for survival, that express themselves by narrating scenes of life, sometimes with the impatience of a political speech.

The singularity of this music lies in the fact that it offers a “material” very close to ceremonial music (without any significant addition) and organizes it and, in a way, concentrates it in a shape that gives it an powerful impact, accessible to a large public, however without ever distorting nor polishing it.
The Angströmers, an electronic music duo consisting of Nicolas Esterle and Frédéric Alstadt, constitute one of the artistic emanations of the label The Angströmers.

Founded in Toulouse in 1998, the label organizes events, co-produces cine-concerts with the Toulouse film library and produces one or two albums per year. In 2007 the structure is refounded in Belgium, and starts concentrating its activity on the mastering studio and the

label. Following the premature death of one of the founding members near the end of 2008, the label is put on standby, and only a few albums continue to get released episodically. The studio becomes a well-known actor of the alternative Belgian scene, specialized in vinyl mastering.

As musicians, certainly fed by their engagement in the label and the mastering, The Angströmers spread their music full of bass and echos, influenced by dub and drone music, all over the underground European stages. All along their encounter with the voodoo culture, they learn to expand their sound by immersing themselves into complex polyrhythms. They develop an electronic psychedelic music, free of all the codes of binary, 4/4 standards that dominate the club world.

Cindy Lee, the performance and songwriting vehicle of Canadian artist Patrick Flegel (who fronted influential indie group Women earlier), previously stunned listeners with Act Of Tenderness, a heart-wrenching statement informed by the noirish core of celebrity, and has continued to enchant with every album, including the startling What's Tonight To Eternity released earlier this year. Cindy Lee (who uses the gender neutral pronoun they) is a drag persona drawing on suburban closet queens and mid-century divas. In keeping with Flegel's interest in the faultlines of identity, gender expression, performance and media, Model Express delivers an intense and diverse set of unforgettable songs.

Box including a 4CD Anthology, 2LP on black vinyl, 1 LP of Macalla, a 7", a book, 4 post cards and a poster.

Damily was born in 1968 in Tongobory, a village surrounded by the great Malagasy river Onilahy. His career as a professional Tsapiky musician began in 1986; he settled in France in 2003, and since then has been developing his international career with his Malagasy musicians. This album is a compilation of his cassettes recorded in Madagascar between 1995 and 2002.

Cairo’s Dijit follows that smoked out, killer debut album for Youth with the first release on newly minted Cairo/London based label diy. Recommended if yr into Jabu, Andy Stott, Tricky, Zuli or ManonMars.

Ed Askew has been in NYC for 30 years. A few years ago he moved from Washington Heights in Manhattan to Ridgewood in Queens. And starting next month, he will be in Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn.During all this time, Ed developed a home recording method which is very nuanced and at the same time concise. Ed’s harpsichord, tiple, synth and a muscular use of Pro Tools all play a role. His lyrics are on a whole new level; and his voice is his own. 2020 Seven Songs is his most recent home recording and the first one made this year.“Starting in January, “coffee in the afternoon, chocolate cake and copper pennies” -- the album begins by looking forward to less difficult times, warm weather and days at the beach.2020 is an experimental piece that talks about young bands and continues an optimistic thread.Make a Wish evokes a certain reconciliation with lost love. You’ve experienced this. We are in February.In March, I am holed up in my apartment. I make another song; watch TV and contemplate the passing time, romance, and make some small paintings.144 is a short piano piece, I play it on my classic Alesis synth.The beginning of March brings to mind San Francisco memories as I watchquarantined musicians play from home.It seems that I am “waiting for the end of time” at the end of March. I’m working on songs and painting a bit. I remember 1967 and the time I spent in Harlem after I moved to New York as I hear late night ambulances on my street.”Ed Askew, NYC, 2020

Melancholic and mysterious, but at the same time strangely familiar. Combining surreal soundscapes with a distinct sixties-style songwriting, Emile’s psychedelic loner folk debut comes together like a weird dream. A dream that shows a side of reality, too strange to observe in any other way. Driven by acoustic guitar and haunting arrangements, the frontman of The Sonic Dawn presents a unique backdrop, on which songs about death, life, loss and fear of growing old melt together with a dystopian look into the near future of our civilization.

180g Vinyl.Continuing the work begun on her acclaimed 2019 albumThis World is Too _____ For You, Emily Wells' newest releaseIn The Dark Moving reimagines the original tracks hailed byNPR as "visionary" and "mind-blowing." Initiallycommissioned by Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's LiquidMusic Series and Metropolis Ensemble, this latest recordingoffers a thoughtful, minimal companion piece to theoriginal music in the form of Wells, her guitars, and nothingelse. Recorded solely by Wells in her Harlem studio duringthe summer of 2019, she reflects, "I'm interested in gettinganother look at a song, both in performance and recording.It keeps the song a living thing. I began working on theserecordings out of curiosity. I wanted them to be the sort ofthing a person could put on quietly at the end of the day ona little speaker and watch the light drain."