Folk 223 Items

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!

After «Many Things», released in 2008, and «From Africa With Fury: Rise» in 2011, «A Long Way To The Beginning» is the third album by Seun Anikulapo Kuti with Egypt 80

In the native tongue of the South American tribe Mapuche, there exists the word ‘MENOKO’. Deep within the Andean Forests there are sacred places, springs of purity known as Menokos. Hidden and untouched by man or animal, they are whispered, home of virgin water. Womb of the natural cycle from which plants and herbs of extraordinary medicinal abilities are nurtured.

Barrio Lindo feels a strong bond to the native tribes of his Argentinian home. Ancestral cultures are of great importance, providing a wealth of inspiration. An instrument maker by trade, using his bare hands he constructs many ethnical instruments like Andean flutes, African harps, string instruments from India and so on. This fascination with indigenous sounds is reflected within his music and themes with the use of samples and tribal instrumentation. While understanding his work is far from that of the native cultures, he finds ways to incorporate these influences through fusions of sounds. Drawing a parallel, worlds both old and new align.

‘Menoko’ comes on limited purple double vinyl (including download code).

In the native tongue of the South American tribe Mapuche, there exists the word ‘MENOKO’. Deep within the Andean Forests there are sacred places, springs of purity known as Menokos. Hidden and untouched by man or animal, they are whispered, home of virgin water. Womb of the natural cycle from which plants and herbs of extraordinary medicinal abilities are nurtured.

Barrio Lindo feels a strong bond to the native tribes of his Argentinian home. Ancestral cultures are of great importance, providing a wealth of inspiration. An instrument maker by trade, using his bare hands he constructs many ethnical instruments like Andean flutes, African harps, string instruments from India and so on. This fascination with indigenous sounds is reflected within his music and themes with the use of samples and tribal instrumentation. While understanding his work is far from that of the native cultures, he finds ways to incorporate these influences through fusions of sounds. Drawing a parallel, worlds both old and new align.

‘Menoko’ comes on limited purple double vinyl (including download code) as well as a limited handmade and handpainted purple cassette edition (including download code).

2LP, 180 Gram Audiophile Vinyl, Numbered Limited-Edition

12 recently discovered Johnny Cash studio recordings (not demos or out takes) produced by Billy Sherrill.

Limited edition for Record Store Day 2014

Discrepant proudly presents the Vinyl edition of Lebanese trio Malayeen. Malayeen is the project of Lebanese musicians Raed Yassin (Keyboards, Turntables & Electronics), Charbel Haber (Electric Guitar & Electronics) and Khaled Yassine (Darbouka, Percussion). Born from Yassin and Haber's love for the music of quintessential Egyptian guitarist Omar Khorshid, Malayeen disassembles and re-configures the work and style of the iconic guitarist innovative take on Arabic music. The final result makes for an original and unique update of Khorshid & belly dancing inspired songs from the past.

Edip Akbayram’s a frail guy who spent his childhood unable to walk, but once he grew up he was on Istanbul TV in a whitey-fro and knee length colored robes. Akbayram’s voice is big & open, and it took him all across Turkey at the height of Anatolian psychedelia. This 1st album collects precious singles from 1972-74, with dark melodies that descend in loose spirals, seemingly forever. Tunes taken from mystic Sufi poets who played the ba?lama, but retrofitted with hard plowing electric bass lines, funky drums, fuzz-wah guitars and keyboards. Remastered sound, insert / booklet with photos and liner notes by Angela Sawyer (Weirdo Records).

For the the eleventh volume of FRKWYS, an unrestricted series pairing contemporary artists with their influential predecessors, gifted guitar squire Steve Gunn meets roving, radiating legend Mike Cooper in Lisbon, Portugal.

12 great songs recorded by 2 of Cajun music's finest & most unusual artists. Originally released on 78 in the late 20s, these fragile & dignified
performances feature French vocals accompanied by guitar or fiddle (sometimes both). Impeccable ballads & breakdowns

Aby Ngana Diop was the most famous taasukat in Dakar, Senegal in the 1980s and 1990s. Taasu is a Wolof-language poetic style, usually performed by women griots over frenetic drum patterns, with an aggressive verbal flow thought to presage rap. Her only album Liital was groundbreaking in the history of Senegalese music because it was the first commercial recording to feature a traditional female taasukat performing to the modern accompaniment of mbalax, Senegal’s quintessential pop genre.

After a few years of searching for Ms. Diop’s family members—she passed away from a heartattack in 1997—it took another year to get the release sorted it out but I’m happy to report this is all square with her family in Dakar (thanks to the help of a friendly professor from Boston who also contributed excellent liner notes).

Kassa belongs to the long tradition of melancholy raconteurs with a decided gift of gab. And the unique embrace of his deep voice heightens the emotion generated by the hum of his lyrics. For Ethiopians he is, along with the other great traditional voices of the post-war period such as Assèfa Abatè, Fréw Haylou, Asnaqètch Wèrqu or Kètèma Mèkonnen, a perfect example of the culture of the word: poetry and freedom of expression, with an impressive verve that hits the mark, quiet vehemence and merciless loquacity, lovelorn despair and self-deprecation. It must be underscored – to invoke some notion of a virtual scale of values – without exaggerating that there is a certain similarity between Ethiopians’ perception of Kassa Tèssèma’s “music” and the rapture Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou’s piano playing inspires in non-Ethiopian audiences. Each in his own way, both these artists are able to captivate their listeners. Music that demands to be listened to.

The recordings that the sisters Elia and Elizabeth Fleta made, hand in hand with music arranger Jimmy Salcedo in the early seventies in their native Colombia, remained hidden like lost pearls in the undervalued musical pop history of Latin America until today. Their concise and natural mix of styles sways between soft-pop with a touch of tropical-pastoral funk, singer-songwriter sweetened by the subtle perfume of Caribbean music and the psychedelia of a world in the midst of discovering all the possibilities offered by the recording studio. These elements blended graciously and fortuitously, brimming with freshness, in a perfect partnership of sharp melodies with lyrics inspired by a genuine juvenile curiosity about life's mysteries, love and nature in their simplest forms.

Full-color inner sleeve incl. liner notes, pics & lyrics.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Discrepant proudly re-presents the Vinyl edition of Lebanese trio Malayeen. Malayeen is the project of Lebanese musicians Raed Yassin (Keyboards, Turntables & Electronics), Charbel Haber (Electric Guitar & Electronics) and Khaled Yassine (Darbouka, Percussion). Born from Yassin and Haber's love for the music of quintessential Egyptian guitarist Omar Khorshid, Malayeen disassembles and re-configures the work and style of the iconic guitarist innovative take on Arabic music. The final result makes for an original and unique update of Khorshid & belly dancing inspired songs from the past. Over the course of 7 compositions, appropriately named after Khorshid and famous belly dancers from the Arabic diaspora, the three musicians' varied backgrounds and techniques collide and coalesce in an experimental yet magical fashion, not actually playing Khorshid's music, but inspiring themselves from the cult guitarist's genius to create something completely new, modern and unexpected. A unique LP featuring the combined talents by key players of the Lebanese avant-garde.

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.

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.