Folk 123 Items

England / Ohio’s Mat Sweet presents his latest album under the Boduf Songs moniker via The Flenser! Stench of Exist is at once his most accessible and most esoteric work to date; from the opium flow of the tracks, running headily into one another like tributaries to river, to the muted-industrial-electronic-effected drums underscoring the spiraling melodies and fluttering drones, to the clean and rich guitar, abstracted cycles and feedback walls, its whispered doom metal masquerades as a lullaby. Stench of Exist unfolds languorously, laced with mysterious electronic filigree. Gorgeously intimate, it transforms the minimal into maximal with layers of electro-detritus wreathed in lush guitar strums, street-side field recordings, reverberating pianos and softly crooned vocals. It is a record of rain and cities and nighttime. The collision of arabesque tonalities with electronic sound and ambience brings to mind the promise of Blade Runner—half-asleep at 4:00 A.M. and slightly medicated, with pyramids and flame-spewing cityscapes in downpour glowing against the fluttering eyelids in the almost-dreaming consciousness. A record for saturnine commuters, on headphones, after sunset.

Matana Roberts is one of the most acclaimed, socio-politically conscious and aesthetically intrepid avant-jazz practitioners of the 21st century. Following the critical accolades that the first two Coin Coin chapters have thus far received, the past year has been marked by further career-defining recognition for her body of iconoclastic work: Roberts was a recipient of both the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts and the Daisy Duke Impact Award in 2014.

Roberts has long employed the phrase “panoramic sound quilting” to describe the process surrounding her Coin Coin work. The third chapter in her Coin Coin series finds Roberts implementing this metaphor most explicitly, constructing a sound art tapestry from field recordings, loop and effects pedals, and spoken word recitations, alongside her saxophone and singing voices. Coin Coin Chapter Three: river run thee could arguably be considered first and foremost a vocal work, and notwithstanding its experimental and esoteric structure, a deeply narrative work as well.

36th studio album!

Limited edition for Record Store Day 2015!

Reissue of German cassette release as vinyl after nearly 40 years. The songs are from the various singles and the debut LP. The title song 'Yuh Yuh' is from Selda's 1977 'Dostum Dostum'/'Yuh Yuh' single. Most of the songs are performed with the Anatolian Rock super group Dadaslar who are known for their works with Ersen. The group consists of Fehiman Ugurdemir (guitars and synthesizer, former Cem Karaca & Kardaslar guitarist), Ozkan Ugur ((bass, former Baris Manço guitarist) and Mehmet Gözüpek (former drummer of Bunalim) and creates a powerful groove with their psychedelic arrangements.

This American cult legend has turned his laidback style into a trademark. J.J. Cale has forged an inspiring career that spans four decades. Collected is an essential J.J. Cale compilation on three 180 gram LPs chock full of rootsy Americana songs that will stay in the back of your head long after you turned off the record player.

180g vinyl.

Limited edition of 500 only vinyl only release comes with download in beautiful letterpressed jacket. On his 3rd album "Blood Moon Boulder", Chuck Johnson reaches a compositional peak in a nod to the picturesque naturalism of the American landscape. His precision & tone recall Ry Cooder's "Paris, Texas", & his delivery is a melodic melancholy with an every-note-placed-perfectly aesthetic. "...music that has both an engaging, rustic familiarity & a hypnotizing tonal richness." - Chicago Reader

A truly unique Gospel stylist - Isaiah Owen's plays guitar and sings in his own very distinctive and otherworldly way. Isaiah plays loud and with quite a bit of dissonance, his voice floating above beautifully. This LP features some of his finest performances captured from his radio broadcasts in Montgomery Alabama and from studio recordings. Mississippi is very proud to present this material. Liner notes by Kevin Knutt (of the greatest radio show of all time, Sinners Crossroads, as well as the Case Quarter label).

Stunningly beautiful, poignant music from Bilād al-Shām — ‘the countries of Damascus’, known nowadays as Syria, Lebanon and Palestine — including performances from the very first recording sessions in the region. The legendary, moody Beirut singer Būlus Ṣulbān is here — some historians have him singing before Egypt’s Pasha Ibrāhīm Bāshā during his military campaign in Syria, in 1841 — and Ḥasība Moshēh, Jewish ‘nightingale of the Damascene gardens’. Thurayyā Qaddūra from Jerusalem; Yūsuf Tāj, a folk singer from Mount-Lebanon; Farjallāh Baiḍā, cousin to the founders of Baidaphon Records... Musical directors like the lutist Qāsim Abū Jamīl al-Durzī and the violinist Anṭūn al-Shawwā (followed by his son Sāmī); such virtuosi as the qanun-players Nakhleh Ilyās al-Maṭarjī and Ya‘qūb Ghazāla, and lutist Salīm ‘Awaḍ. Even at the time, notwithstanding such brilliance, public music-making was frowned upon as morally demeaning, especially for women. Musical venues were generally dodgy. Ṣulbān once cut short a wedding performance for the Beiruti posh, after just one song, he was so disgusted with his audience. ‘If I had to tell you about the catcalls,’ one commentator wrote about the musical theatre of the time, ‘the stomping of feet, the sound of sticks hitting the ground, the noise of the water-pipes, the teeth cracking watermelon seeds and pistachio nuts, the screams of the waiters, and the clinking of arak glasses on the tables, I would need to go on and on and on...’

The 78 Project is on a journey across America to make one-of-a-kind 78rpm records with musicians in their hometowns using a 1930s Presto direct-to-disc recorder. With one microphone. With one blank disc. In one 3-minute take. Along the way, a kaleidoscope of technologists, historians and craftsmen from every facet of field recording—Grammy-winning producers, 78 collectors, curators from the Library of Congress and Smithsonian—provide insights and history. In Tennessee, Mississippi, California, Louisiana, the folk singers, punk rockers, Gospel and Cajun singers in the film share their lives through intimate performances, and find in that adventure a new connection to our cultural legacy. With musical performances by: Reverend John Wilkins (Como, MS), Louis Michot, Corey Ledet & Ashlee Michot (Arnaudville, LA), Victoria Williams (Los Angeles, CA), John Doe (Fairfax, CA), Dawn Landes (Brooklyn, NY), Holly Williams & Chris Coleman (Nashville, TN), John Reilly & Tom Brosseau (Pasadena, CA), Gaby Moreno & Adam Levy (Los Angeles, CA), Jaron Lanier (Berkeley, CA), Ella Mae Bowen (Franklin, TN), Dylan Leblanc (Franklin, TN), Coati Mundi (Murrieta, CA), The Bo-Keys with Percy Wiggins (Memphis, TN), John Paul Keith (Memphis, TN), Ben Vaughn (Wonder Valley, CA), Sea Of Bees (Sacramento, CA), The Easy Leaves (Santa Rosa, CA) and Little Wings (Topanga Canyon, CA). Special edition DVD with over 30 minutes of bonus materials including complete musical performances and never-before-seen interview footage.

Compuma, a.k.a. Koichi Matsunaga, reaches back through time to 1970s Hawaii to perform a mind meld, his old-school Roland drum machines and present-era compumagic vulcanizing and reshaping Haku's original home-grown analog synth madness. Not merely a remix, this a synergistic reconstruction, a transformation at the molecular level in which Haku's source-code DNA is reborn in 2015.

Steve Gunn and The Black Twig Pickers are key figures in the current resurgence of American traditional and folk music. Gunn's songwriting and inventive guitar playing are driven by his restless mind, having released 9 solo and collaborative albums and appeared as a guest on nearly as many since his debut in 2007. The Black Twig Pickers play a fervent form of traditional music from their Appalachian homeland. The group performs often forgotten traditional songs, especially from their Virginia stomping-ground, creating a living history of old time music. They also have an ongoing residency at the legendary Floyd Country Store.

For over twenty years Theodor Bastard have been known for their amazing serious attitude to the world beyond that very frontier. The band's 2015 re-issue of 'Vetvi' is set out to take listeners to unexplored and other worlds!

Described as “slow, hypnotic folk and/or loud, trance-inducing art-rock” by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Annie Girl AND THE FLIGHT’s intense, almost psychedelic live performances have been making a mark on the San Francisco rock scene. Four-song EP.

Steve Von Till, best known as Californian heavyweights Neurosis' singer and guitarist, is due to release a new solo album, A Life Unto Itself on his main band's Neurot Recordings Von Till enlisted Randall Dunn, production supremo and Master Musicians of Bukkake founder, to helm the desk, as well as bringing in Eyvind Kang on viola and percussionist Pat Schowe. 'A Life Unto Itself' also showcases J. Kardong on pedal steel, texturising Von Till's baritone gravel and sun-bleached skeleton of...

This vinyl compilation consists of 26 tracks not 40. Selda is the most well-known Turkish female singer and folk guitarist in the world. Her voice is coming out of this world. You feel how deep, how soulful voice even though you don’t understand any single Turkish word. Her vibing vocals makes the song more dramatic. You may regret why you have not listened to this legendary vocal so far. This compilation will be an exciting experience for you.

Neşet Ertaş is a Turkish folk poet, the last great representative of Turkish culture and musical tradition. He is also known as the "Bozkırın Tezenesi ". On the albums he released from the 1950’s onwards, he recorded Central Anatolian folk songs and dance tunes as well as the folk songs he learned from his father Muharrem Ertaş. Starting in the 1960’s, he began to write both lyrics and compositions. He used the pseudonym "Garip", and from the 1970’s onwards, his folk songs were interpreted by many artists of the period. In 2009, he was deemed worthy of being included in UNESCO's Living Human Treasure inventory. This album contains 10 songs performed by the great master in 1998. "Güzel Ne Güzel Olmuşsun", "Hapishanelere Güneş Doğmuyor", "Neredesin Sen" and "Zahide" are the most remarkable tracks on the album

Part 2 of the Abdoul El Omari trilogy. For the first time on vinyl.

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.

Unreleased recordings of future members of Aktuala and I.P.Son Group.
The history takes us back in the alternative Milan of the early 70’s, to the flavour of the first jam-blues of that era when musicians from different parts of the world (India, Africa or South-America), of disparate background and culture were used to gather to experiment just with an authentic sense of stay together. In these four tracks seem to retrace the path of that spirit with which great pioneers such as John Mayall and Alexis Corner ferried from overseas the essence of the Afro-American music masters. Here, the devotion to the blues roots remains strong but leaks in the compositions an aerial and wandering component that is coloured as if by magic of exotic and spiritual accents. Hypnotic patterns of guitars flowing almost like raga-grooves slowed, free-jazz horns blowing winds of the ancient seas of the south, while voices and percussions span distant horizons now Latinos or Africans. Gruppo Afro Mediterraneo throws his eye on a cultural dimension more extensive and composite and therefore constitutes a fundamental historical document for a crucial period of Italian underground.

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.

Tommy Peltier was born in New Orleans and came out to Los Angeles with his mom on his 13th birthday. A decade later he was a regular playing cornet with his group the Jazz Corps at the famous jazz club, The Lighthouse. In 1966 the Jazz Corps cut an album for Pacific Jazz and featured the fantastic Roland Kirk. In 1970, due to an injury, Peltier could no longer play the horn and looked for other means for expression.

Not one to be undone, he took a few chords that he had learned from friends like Jude Sill - who became occasional collaborator, sometime lover, and lifelong friend - and set out as a singer-songwriter. None of that music saw the light until It was collected together as Chariot of Astral Light. They worked together on a lot of Peltier's material, and Judee pops up on half of the disc handling backing vocals, guitar and organ lines.

He had a house in Echo Park where he held weekly Saturday recording sessions in his front room that a number of peripheral scenesters would attend (Lynn Blessing, Wolfgang Melz, Dave Parlato, and Barry McManus - all of whom appear here). Aside from the few takes done at actual studios, the bulk of the stuff was recorded in that tiny room.

A three-disc studio album from Bob Dylan, Triplicate, will be released on March 31, featuring 30 brand-new recordings of classic American tunes and marking the first triple-length set of the artist’s illustrious career. With each disc individually titled and presented in a thematically-arranged 10-song sequence, Triplicate showcases Dylan’s unique and much-lauded talents as a vocalist, arranger and bandleader on 30 compositions by some of music’s most lauded and influential songwriters. The Jack Frost-produced album is the 38th studio set from Bob Dylan and marks the first new music from the artist since Fallen Angels, which was released in early 2016.

For Triplicate, Dylan assembled his touring band in Hollywood’s Capitol studios to record hand-chosen songs from an array of American songwriters including Charles Strouse and Lee Adams (“Once Upon A Time”), Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler (“Stormy Weather”), Harold Hupfield (“As Time Goes By”) and Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh (“The Best Is Yet To Come”). The titles of the individual discs are ‘Til The Sun Goes Down, Devil Dolls and Comin’ Home Late.

The debut-EP of this Anatolian psych-pop sensation consists of four heart-melting gems in which Turkish folk music meets groove and electric action! Singer/multi-instrumentist Derya Yildirim teams up with fantastic drummer Greta Eacott (G-Bop Orchestra, One-Take Records) and three-quarters of Orchestre Du Montplaisant (Antonin Voyant, Graham Mushnik and Andrea Piro). With members originating from Turkey, Germany, France, Italy and Great Britain, Grup Simsek encapsulates the Outernational generation. Unlike in western pop culture, Turkish pop music is often focused on traditionalised songs and endless ways of reimagining these. Grup Simsek take the righteous and rich Turkish poetry to the future whilst not losing awareness of the past.

Part 3 of the Abdoul El Omari trilogy. For the first time on vinyl.

Tara Jane O'Neil describes her latest album "Self Titled" as a "singer songwriter" endeavor.

At the invitation and by the design of Mark Greenberg (The Coctails), half of this record was recorded mostly live at Wilco’s Loft Studio in Chicago with a band that included James Elkington, Gerald Dowd, Nick Macri, and Greenberg himself. Another half was made in TJO’s home studio in California with Devin Hoff, Wilder Zoby, Walt McClements and string supervisor Jim James. This album also features the voices of Chris Cohen, Carolyn Pennypacker-Riggs and Joan Shelley. Tara Jane ONeil plays guitar, bass, keyboards and percussion.

As a solo artist she has released eight full-length albums internationally. O’Neil was a founding member of Rodan, the Sonora Pine , amongst other ensembles. She has collaborated on recordings and stages with Papa M, Michael Hurley, Little Wings, Marisa Anderson, Catherine Irwin, Mirah, Mount Eerie, and many many others. She has also performed at clubs, galleries, and DIY spaces around the world and venues such as the Centre de Pompdou, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and All Tomorrow’s Parties. She starred in the cult classic film Half-Cocked. Her visual art work has been shown in cities including London, Tokyo and Portland and has been published in three monographs.

Mega Manço is Barış Manço’s third album which was recorded without Kurtalan Ekspres. The arrangements are by Garo Mafyan the veteran keyboardist of “Turkish Chicago” called İstanbul Gelişim. The album is first time on vinyl. While some songs reflect the modern synthe pop age of Manço, some songs have strong references from his Anatolian rock group music period. Süleyman reflects his singles period with Moğollar such as İşte Hendek İşte Deve. Diral Dedenin Düdüğü reminds us of 1981-83 era of Manço which reflects an Anatolian Rock attitude with Arabic influences. Hemşerim Memleket Nire has also important references to the legendary 2023 album, as the song is based on the critical bass lines of the electronic music hit, 2023. The album also contains an instrumental track called Rüya which is a composition of Manço in a Yanni style new age based on piano and strings. In the album you can also hear a significant electro pop hit of Manço named Ayı which had a great popularity among children at that time period when Manço was a fabulous figure for children because of his TV shows. Türküola is once again in place to make such an important album available on vinyl for the first time.

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.

The highly anticipated full-length record is the first new music from Stapleton since 2015's breakthrough double Platinum solo debut Traveller and will be followed by From A Room: Volume 2 coming later this year.

Produced by Jack White, includes a Bob Dylan cover.

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.

Niandra LaDes And Usually Just A T-Shirt is the first solo record by John Frusciante. Between 1990 and 1992 the guitarist made a series of 4-track recordings, which at the time were not intended for commercial release. After leaving the band Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1992, Frusciante was encouraged by friends to release the material that he wrote in his spare time during the Blood Sugar Sex Magik sessions.

Originally released on Rick Rubin’s American Recordings label in 1994, Niandra LaDes is a mystifying work of tortured beauty. Frusciante plays various acoustic and electric guitars, experimenting with layers of vocals, piano and reverse tape effects. Channeling the ghosts of Syd Barrett and Skip Spence, his lyrics are at once utterly personal and willfully opaque.

Frusciante’s rapidfire, angular playing shows how key he was in the Chili Peppers’ evolution away from their funk-rock roots. His cover of “Big Takeover” perfectly deconstructs the Bad Brains original with laid-back tempo, twelve-string guitar and a fierce handle on melody.

The album’s second part—thirteen untitled tracks that Frusciante defines as one complete piece, “Usually Just A T-Shirt”—contains several instrumentals featuring his signature guitar style. Sparse phrasing, delicate counterpoint and ethereal textures recall Neu/Harmonia’s Michael Rother or The Durutti Column’s Vini Reilly.

On the front cover, Frusciante appears in 1920s drag—a nod to Marcel Duchamp’s alter-ego Rrose Sélavy—which comes from Toni Oswald’s film Desert in the Shape.

This first-time vinyl release has been carefully remastered and approved by the artist. The double LP set is packaged with old style tip-on gatefold jacket and printed inner sleeves.

Jozef van Wissem's 2017 album is inspired by a Vanitas painting by the Belgian artist Cindy Wright, which also graces the cover of the album. This inspiration is beautifully reflected in the music of the album as Jozef's lute arrangements sound fragile and his sparse vocals delicate. as if the vanity, the temporality and senselessness of everything has been rendered audible. Each song title refers to the painting, making each track a memento mori on its own. This is counterbalanced by the strong and deep sound of the album.

Limited edition for Record Store Day 2017!