Folk 257 Items

On this LP we find Michael Hurley stretching out on six longer than usual compositions that are heartbreaking & beautiful as anything he's ever done.Side one features Hurley on a creaky pump organ and a Hammond organ. Side two starts out with two newer compositions - just Michael on guitar & vocals. The record ends with a stunning version of Tea Song (which Michael originally wrote & recorded way back in 1963).A sustained feeling of loss & need for redemption haunts this record. It ain't easy listening, but then what worth a damn is?Includes insert with Michael's notes on the songs and some artwork.

Turkish psychedelic folk-rock compilation album from Donusum Folk Band. The band members also played the old Turks instruments from the Far-East. Produced by Faruk Kakinc & written by Halit Kakinç.

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.

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.

On August 16th, 2019, Eilen Jewell will release Gypsy on Signature Sounds. Described as "one of Americana's most intriguing and creative voices" (American Songwriter), Jewell has written 11 new songs for Gypsy and is calling it her favorite album yet: new sounds, old sounds, electric guitar-driven rockers, classic country, and tender ballads. Gypsy continues to solidify Jewell's reputation as one of the most distinctive and potent voices in the Americana world today.

Soil In The Sky, the highly anticipated new album from Heather Maloney, out June 14, 2019, on Signature Sounds. The album features an amazing cast of musicians including Rachel Price from Lake Street Dive, Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith from Dawes and Jaron Olevsky and Ryan Hommel from Amos Lee's band and features Maloney's most melodic and striking songs yet.

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.

Unreleased early Algerian synth electronic by Ahmed Malek, compiled and co-produced by Flako

In the early 1980s, Ahmed Malek was already in his 50s , when he discovered synthesizers and electronic music for himself and started to experiment with sounds. The result was a mixture of ambient synth music, field recordings he made in Cuba and a wide variation of different sound experiments that he also presented as different avanguarde music festivals in Cuba and the US. None of it was ever released but we got a huge box of master tapes from his family and we're happy to present this different side of Ahmed Malek's music. It was compiled and co-produced by Flako, a fan of early electronic and synth music. This is not a remix album though, Flako's aim was to create an album out of 2 hours of material that sounds like it might have if Mr. Malek would have finished it himself before of his death. Fully approved and licensed from the artists family.

The album comes with an informative booklet with liner notes, an interview with Flako regarding his approach towards the production and unseen photos. We will also release a third album by Ahmed Malek which will be more in the vein again of the music he is known for and this album will also be previously unreleased.

Nominated for a Grammy!

Following their hotly tipped 2018 debut album “On” – Altın Gün returns with an exhilarating second album. “Gece” firmly establishes the band as essential interpreters of the Anatolian rock and folk legacy and as a leading voice in the emergent global psych-rock scene. Explosive, funky and transcendent.

The world is rarely what it seems. A quick glance doesn’t always reveal the full truth. To find that, you need to burrow deeper. Listen to Altın Gün, for example: they sound utterly Turkish, but only one of the Netherlands based band’s six members was actually born there. And while their new album, Gece, is absolutely electric, filled with funk-like grooves and explosive psychedelic textures, what they play – by their own estimation – is folk music.

Back IN Print!!! An almost mythical giant of African guitar, whose reinvention of acoustic fingerstyle quickly spread from western Kenya throughout East Africa, before his tragic death in 1963. Spellbinding guitar lines, sweet harmony vocals, every melody an instant classic, and a life story steeped in legend. Co-released by Raw Music International and Olvido Records. 12-song LP comes packaged in a deluxe spot-color jacket, with a 12-page full color booklet featuring an oral history by George MUKABI's family and peers, and lyrics in English and Swahili.

You take a trio of the fnest traditonal griot musicians from Mali and put them in a studio with Western music's most revolutonary string quartet - and the resultng album is one of the most richly rewarding musical collaboratons you are likely to encounter. Together the Kronos Quartet and Trio Da Kali have created an album that is rich in texture, hauntngly melodic and strikingly inventve as violins, viola and cello combine with balafon, ngoni and the powerful female voice of Hawa 'Kassé Mady' Diabaté in transcendental style. David Harrington, who founded the Kronos Quartet in 1973, describes the album as one of the most beautful Kronos has done in forty years.' All three Da Kali members come from hereditary musical families, Balafon player and musical director Lassana Diabaté was a long-tme member of Toumani Diabaté's Symmetric Orchestra and has recorded with Salif Keita, Taj Mahal and many others. A musician of great subtlety and inventon he has honed a virtuoso two-balafon technique to perfecton. Bass ngoni player Mamadou Kouyaté is the eldest son of the instrument's greatest exponent, Bassekou Kouyaté and he holds down the groove in his father's band 'Ngoni Ba'. Singer Hawa 'Kassé Mady' Diabaté is the daughter of Mali's greatest traditonal singer, Kassé Mady Diabaté, and the power, range and phrasing of her voice led David Harrington to compare her to the late queen of American gospel, Mahalia Jackson.
Kronos Quartet have earned an enviable reputaton collaboratng with contemporary composers such as Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Terry Riley and Laurie Anderson and with world music icons from Argentnian tango hero Astor Piazzola to Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle.

The first-ever compilation of "havagies", the nearly forgotten Hawaiian-influenced music of 1930s Greece, focused on the compositions of Kostas Bezos and his ensemble White Birds. A world-class slide guitarist, political cartoonist and sleepless Bohemian, Kostas Bezos created some of the most unique music of any era: surrealist guitar portraits blending Athens and Honolulu, haunting tropical serenades, wild acoustic orchestras, and heartbreaking steel guitar duets. Incredibly, this is the same musician responsible for the legendary "Kostis" rebetika recordings (see A. Kostis "The Jail's a Fine School" [OLV-002 / MRP-098]).

A collection of beautiful Country-Western inspired music from 1950s Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya. Fingerpicking "omasiganda" troubadours, train car yodels, raw slide guitar, and haunting travel-weary ballads, all reissued for the first time from rare 78s. A heavy duty document of a nearly lost scene, and all the songs are all stunners to boot. Featuring George Sibanda, Josaya Hadebe, Sabelo Mathe, Petrus Mntambo and more, with a 12" booklet of deep research and full lyrics, packaged in old school tip-on covers. Co-released by our friends Olvido Records (A. Kostis, The White Birds, George Mukabi). Audio restoration and transfers by Michael Kieffer.

Long awaited follow up to the "True Story of Abner Jay" LP. Abner Jay was a man who had a grand sweeping vision of what folk music was. In his lifetime his expression of what folk music could be encompassed some serious stylistic variations. Sometimes he was a one man band traveling troubadour playing an electric banjo, harmonica, & drums who tried to hoodwink audiences into believing that he was 150 years old & the standard bearer for authentic Americana. Sometimes he played in electric straight up R&B bands such as "Koko Joe & the Jobhunters". Culled from a mix of Abners' 45's & LPs spanning the period 1964 - 1973, including Abner's first LP. We hope that this release will help to further the current wave of understanding that Abner Jay is an important artist who deserves a wider audience than he ever received during his lifetime.

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.

Ltd to 500 copies, no repress.

The sought after LP from Zann ‘Strange Ways / Inside Jungle’ originally released as a private press in 1990 finally receives a full reissue.

Zann started life as a 7-member live band in 1982. Founder member Udo Winkler had been a part of New Wave & Post Punk band Konec touring extensively and releasing one LP on Polydor titled ‘Schrille Blitze’. Zann was an outlet for more experimental works heavily influenced by Brian Eno's collaborations with David Byrne and Jon Hassell, German bands like Embryo and Dissidenten, David Sylvian and middle & far eastern music.

In 1988 Udo and Hjalmer Karthaus built a small basement studio with a 4 track tape machine and musical experiments began in earnest. After the limitations of playing live it was an acoustic wonderland and they gave themselves no musical boundaries. The unlimited studio time meant they could pick up ideas and develop pieces gradually, friends would come to the studio to play and songs evolved from extensive jamming sessions. The resulting LP has Middle Eastern instrumentation at its core, particularly wind & string instruments such as the Tabla and Gong, and is a melting pot of influences incorporating elements of Ambient, Jazz and Folk with strong synth programming on a number of tracks. The band pressed up a handful of copies and sold them exclusively at record fairs in Germany and in the intervening years the LP has become highly sought after with copies changing hands for 150 Euros.

The LP has been fully remastered from the original DAT tapes with new full sleeve artwork from Bradley Pinkerton and is pressed on 180 Gram Vinyl.

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.

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.

Issam Hajali is most known as the singer and composer of the Lebanese band Ferkat Al Ard. While they recorded 3 albums only their classic „Oghneya“ saw a vinyl release and is highly sought after in the Lebanese record collector scene (A copy changed hands in Beirut this year for 5000 USD). Before the band came together, he recorded this debut album in Paris in 1977 . This rare album fuses jazz and folk with Arabic and Iranian influences into unique beauty. It was only released in a limited run of 75 cassette tapes and is now officially licensed and reissued by Berlin based Habibi Funk Records.

Julie Byrne’s much loved second album Not Even Happiness (2017) added atmospheric instrumentation and electronic flourishes to her unusual guitar tunings and fingerpicked melodies, moving the songs from the front-porch into subtle anthemia. Whether witnessing the Pacific Northwest for the first time (‘Melting Grid’), the morning sky in Colorado after staying up through the night at a house party in the mountains of Boulder (‘Natural Blue’), recording the passage of freight trains on the outskirts of Buffalo, New York ('Interlude'), or a journey fragrant with rose water; reading Frank O’Hara aloud from the passengers seat during a drive through the desert of Utah into the rainforest of Washington State (‘All The Land Glimmered Beneath’), Not Even Happiness is Julie’s beguilingly ode to the fringes of life.

Josh Rouse has recorded an album of original holiday songs, which all feel like a classic 60s jazz-influenced holiday album (think Vince Guaraldi, A Charlie Brown Christmas). This music should appeal to two audiences: Josh Rouse fans and holiday music fans. The First Edition release,on red vinyl, includes a bonus 12"featuring 3 Christmas classics performed acoustically + 3 demo versions of songs from the album.