Folk 233 Items

Yugoslavia - six republics, four decades, one dictator and a single record label that ruled them all: Jugoton (Zagreb, Croatia). Jugoton was by far the country's largest label with the strongest and most diverse output that stretched from Balkan roots to contemporary trends and the sound of tomorrow . The early days of Yugoslavia featured strong censorship but by the end of the 60's the Communist party views softened up by a large degree. Westernized music already had a solid presence and first James Brown influenced compositions were released. Yugo funk, a term coined by DJ’s and crate diggers from the Balkans, encompasses a wide variety of performers and genres: from the 60's merseybeat rock bands, prog rock groovers and big band jazz orchestras to the late 70's sophisticated 4x4 funk and essentially everything in between. Jugoton Funk Vol.1, a first of its kind, celebrates the pioneer years of funk infused music released by Jugoton. While in pursuit of these treasures all over the Balkan region and beyond, the compilation’s selectors, Dr. Smeđi Šećer & Višeslav Laboš, both active as DJ's and crate diggers from the sole beginnings of the ex-Yu craze, wanted to capture the authentic and idiosyncratic funk sound of Jugoton and Yugoslavia. So here it is, comb your moustache, light up a fat one, turn up the amplifier and headbang away to these amazing tunes remastered from original master tapes dug out of the Jugoton vaults (now Croatia Records). - Compiled by Dr. Smeđi Šećer & Višeslav Laboš. Here’s the exclusive interview with Dr. Smeđi Šećer: www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2020/09/jugoton-funk-vol-1-a-decade-of-non-aligned-beats-soul-disco-and-jazz-1969-1979.html

Neil Young finally releases his 1975 album "Homegrown" which was shelved back then due to him feeling uncomfortable with it being to personal.

Why you'll love it...
Much of Montevallo was deceptive in its simplicity, hiding era-defining songwriting talent and a whole new mode of country crossover behind a seemingly easy-to-replicate formula of marrying traditional country instruments with programmed beats and slick, dynamic melodies. Its velvet revolution won Hunt years of radio dominance and anticipated a tidal wave of what’s been termed “boyfriend country” — legions of imitators who took the singer’s gently flirtatious tack and R&B influences to their cloying extremes. Plenty in Nashville didn’t see Montevallo as a changing of the guard, and even after he’d become a country megastar wrote him off as either a novelty, insufficiently capital-C Country, or both. When confronted with resistance about his own mode of widening country music’s lens Hunt has tended to return to the root of the issue, which runs much deeper than a simple disdain for pop music in country or concern about preserving some of its imagined “authentic” past.

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!

Contains 12 live recordings including tracks like "Das Neue", "Citylights Forever", "LikeLikeLike" and much more! This deluxe set comes in a gatefold sleeve plus CD added!

Steve Gunn and John Truscinski's collaborations are point where experimental instrumental rock and cosmic jazz meet. This is their fourth album overall and first in three years. Gunn-Truscinski Duo fans are intense in their love of these records - they naturally spin off from Steve's solo work but also go in their own directions as well. This track - and album - will be rapturously received by the fans of this project as being cut from a similar cloth that they already know and enjoy but covering some different and previously unworn ground. The first release in the Three Lobed Recordings 20th anniversary series, this should be a title with multiple sales points (Gunn, Three Lobed, other participants in the 20th series).

Roza Eskenazi was a giant of rembetika, the urban Greek music of Ottoman origin associated with the poor underclass. Eskenazi’s life was extraordinary: born Sarah Spinazi to a poor Sephardic Jewish family in Constantinople, probably in the mid-1890s, after an itinerant childhood, she began dancing at the Grand Hotel Theatre in Thessaloniki. She eloped with the wealthy Yiannis Zardinidis around 1913, with whom she bore a son, but after his untimely death in 1917, she placed the son in the care of an orphanage and moved to Athens, where she danced with Armenian cabaret artists. Eventually, the composer Panagiotis Toundas discovered her singing and arranged her first recordings for Columbia Records in 1929, which catapulted her to fame. Cutting over 500 songs in the 1930s, she became the leading exponent of the Smyrna school of rembetika. Running a nightclub in Athens during the German occupation of World War II, she hid resistance fighters and British spies and helped many Jewish families flee the country. She finally toured the USA in the 1950s, and though her career subsequently waned, a 1970s revival led to further work. The longevity of her output is such that her song Misirlu was included on the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction; the 21 gems collected here were recorded between 1931 and 1947.

This compilation features some great examples of rebetika songs from the 20's and 30's including some well known artists like Rosa Eskenazi, Markos Vamvakaris, Anestis Delias, Rita Abadzi and others. An excellent overview of the phenomenon for anyone interested in southern European folk music history.

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

Sam Burton is a singer/songwriter from Salt Lake City, now based in Los Angeles. After several years circulating homemade cassettes on labels like Chthonic and embraced by blogs like Cassette Gods, Sam has recorded his first proper debut album with producer Jarvis Taveniere (Purple Mountains). Due in mid-2020, Sam's debut LP will be preceded by two limited edition 45s, one which will be available exclusively for Record Store Day in the UK. Sam is slated to tour the UK and Europe in 2020 with fellow Tompkins Square artist Gwenifer Raymond.

Released in 1976 Hejira is the 8th studio album from legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. The title word hejira is a transliteration of the Arabic word ‘hijra’ meaning journey which was a big inspiration for the album, as Mitchell said “the whole 'Hejira' album was really inspired... I wrote the album while traveling cross-country by myself and there is this restless feeling throughout it... The sweet loneliness of solitary travel."
Although the album was not as commercially successful as its predecessors it has been widely critically acclaimed and recognized as one of the high water marks of Mitchell’s illustrious career, with special mention to the support of Jaco Pastorious’s distinctive fretless bass.

Peter Oren's new album The Greener Pasture offers a bleak answer to the question "where will I go/ if I don't want to be/ with idle hands awaiting catastrophe/ here in the Anthropocene" posed on his title track of his previous album Anthropocene: "The greener pasture is also fenced in/ the wider trough has an asterisk/ rotate the herd every few days/ or is it every few years/ we got their tags on our ears/ standing in shit crying bovine tears." Indiana-born, everywhere-based singer-songwriter Peter Oren possesses a remarkable singing voice, low and deep and richly textured: as solid as a glacier, as big as a mountain. Similar in its baritone gravel to Bill Callahan, a hero of his, it rumbles in your conscience, a righteous sound that marks him as an artist for our tumultuous times, when sanity seems absent from popular discussions.

Altın Mikrofon (Golden Microphone) is a music contest organized in 1965 by "Hürriyet", one of the biggest newspapers of the time. The first Golden Microphone contest was organized in 1965. The qualifiers of the 2nd Competition organized in 1966 were held in 9 hours in front of a jury including the famous artist Zeki Müren. This time 7 finalists were selected and their contest tracks were released as 45 rpm singles. They gave concerts in Izmir, Ankara, Istanbul, Bursa, Bursa, Eskişehir, Samsun and Konya. The last concert was again held in Istanbul. Silhouettes won the contest with 4563 votes. Second place was Blue Lights with 2850 votes, just like last year. The third with 2382 votes was Selçuk Alagöz. The finalists Kent Yedilisi, T.P.A.O.Batman Orkestrası, Cahit Oben, Siluetler, Ali Atasagun, Mavi Işıklar and Selçuk Alagöz Orkestrası shaped the Turkish Pop Music and Anatolian Rock movement

Altın Mikrofon (Golden Microphone) is a music contest organized in 1965 by "Hürriyet", one of the biggest newspapers of the time. The first Golden Microphone contest was organized in 1965. The goal with this competition was to support Turkish Light Western Music, which is just beginning to emerge. Hürriyet explained the purpose of the contest by saying, "The Golden Microphone Gift Contest is designed to give a new direction to Turkish music by utilizing the rich techniques and forms of western music and playing it with western instruments." 78 artists participated in the first competition, which was a record among the competitions of the period. The first prize for the winning artist was to be made into a record and to play in a music hall on a regular basis. Forty-one artists submitted their works to the competition and these songs were evaluated by a jury of 80 people. Of the artists who participated, 10 made it to the finals. These 2 albums were originally released as single 45 rpm in 1965. Many of the artists featured on the album later became famous and shaped Turkish Pop Music. Among the artists featured on the album are Cahit Oben Orchestra, Silüetler, Mavi Işıklar Orchestra and the Selçuk Alagöz Orchestra became the pioneering representatives of the movement later called "anatolian Rock"

NYC satanic ska/metal band's third album from 1999 on vinyl for the first time. Ska's own Satan worshipping, hardcore and metal influenced act returned with an album that expanded its musical range, working some jazzier textures into their hyperactive ska-punk-metal circus. It's part Slayer and Metallica while still embracing their Fishbone and Specials flavors. They blur the lines between their influences, not only in the same song, but quite often at the same time. Twenty plus years later the album is enjoying a true rebirth, new fans are discovering this "lost classic" while many longtime fans are realizing they missed the goods the first time around!

Emotional Rescue celebrates its 10th Anniversary with a repress of one of its most cherished reissues, in the first ever collection of works from Spanish song writer Javier Bergia. As a member of Finas Africae his name is finally coming to prominence, now with this selection of his music from 1985 to today, the depths of his acoustic, folk and balearic writing can be heard. Born in Madrid to a family steeped in both classical and Spanish traditional music, Javier 's mastery of guitar, percussion, voice, poetry and composition is drawn from both this grounding and upon his lifelong musical inquisitiveness'. Since 1980 he has been an integral part of the ancient music group 'Atrium Musicae', while in 1984 he founded, with Juan Alberto Arteche and Luis Delgado, the groundbreaking group 'Finis Africae' as a sonic investigation into a fusion of diverse ethnic musical forms incorporating both indigenous instruments and electronic elements. As a solo artist, his career blossomed when, in 1985, he recorded his first LP, the acclaimed 'Recoletos' and with Luis Delgado he recorded the now classic album 'La Fl or De Piedra' under the name Ishinohana Erc025). Today Javier is active, participating in the Sephardic music groups 'Halilem' and 'Alquibla', as well as diverse alternative chamber music groups, as well as working around as composer, arranger and producer and appears regularly with Manolo HH on Radio Nacional de Espana.

2016 Grammys Best Historical Album Nominee
34 tracks newly re-mastered
Deluxe 3xLP set includes 60-page book housed in a “Tip-On” slipcase with three “Tip-On” jackets
Both 2xCD and 3xLP editions include comprehensive liner notes, artist interviews, unseen archival photos, and lyrics (with translations)
Vinyl pressed at RTI
Liner notes by Kevin “Sipreano” Howes

Largely unheard, criminally undocumented, but at their core, utterly revolutionary, the recordings of the diverse North American Aboriginal community will finally take their rightful place in our collective history in the form of Native North America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966–1985. An anthology of music that was once near-extinct and off-the-grid is now available for all to hear, in what is, without a doubt, Light In The Attic’s most ambitious and historically significant project in the label’s 12-year journey.

Native North America (Vol. 1) features music from the Indigenous peoples of Canada and the northern United States, recorded in the turbulent decades between 1966 to 1985. It represents the fusion of shifting global popular culture and a reawakening of Aboriginal spirituality and expression. The majority of this material has been widely unavailable for decades, hindered by lack of distribution or industry support and by limited mass media coverage, until now. You’ll hear Arctic garage rock from the Nunavik region of northern Quebec, melancholy Yup’ik folk from Alaska, and hushed country blues from the Wagmatcook First Nation reserve in Nova Scotia. You’ll hear echoes of Neil Young, Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Cash, and more among the songs, but injected with Native consciousness, storytelling, poetry, history, and ceremony.

The stories behind the music presented on Native North America (Vol. 1) range from standard rock-and-roll dreams to transcendental epiphanies. They have been collected with love and respect by Vancouver-based record archaeologist and curator Kevin “Sipreano” Howes in a 15-year quest to unearth the history that falls between the notes of this unique music. Tirelessly, Howes scoured obscure, remote areas for the original vinyl recordings and the artists who made them, going so far as to send messages in Inuktitut over community radio airwaves in hopes that these lost cultural heroes would resurface.

With cooperation and guidance from the artists, producers, family members, and behind the scenes players, Native North America (Vol. 1) sheds real light on the painful struggles and deep traditions of the greater Indigenous community and the significance of its music. The songs speak of joy and spirituality, but also tell of real tragedy and strife, like that of Algonquin/Mohawk artist Willy Mitchell, whose music career was sparked by a bullet to the head from the gun of a trigger-happy police officer, or those of Inuk singer-songwriter Willie Thrasher, who was robbed of his family and traditional Inuit culture by the residential school system.

Considering the financially motivated destruction of our environment, the conservative political landscape, and corporate bottom-line dominance, it’s bittersweet to report that the revolutionary songs featured on Native North America hold as much meaning today as when they were originally recorded. Dedicated to legendary Métis singer-songwriter and poet Willie Dunn, featured on the anthology but who sadly passed away during its making, Native North America (Vol. 1) is only the beginning. A companion set featuring a crucial selection of folk, rock, and country from the United States’ Lower 48 and Mexico is currently in production.

fold out cover

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.

Talk about a talented family: Willie Nelson and his Sister Bobbie Nelson each achieved massive success in country music. Even in their late 80’s, the Nelsons continue to make music and their influence can be heard through many artists in the genre. December Day, Willie’s Stash Vol. 1 is a collaboration album between the two, and upon release in 2014 it was met with positive reviews from music critics. The album spawned three singles: “Who’ll Buy My Memories”, “Laws of Nature” and “Summer of Roses / December Day”. The liner notes were written by Willie’s frequent collaborator Mickey Raphael. This record comes as a limited edition on snowy white vinyl.