Folk 254 Items

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.

A collection of 12 fantastic taarab songs from Yaseen Mohammed (Mac & Party) rich in exotic tone colour, full of swing and groove, compiled from the elusive Mzuri catalogue, Mombasa, Kenya 1960’s. Comes with with a large 4 page fold-out insert with extensive background story and never-before-seen pictures.

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.

Quantity: 4500
Release type: RSD Exclusive Release

Wilco’s legendary 2011 album now on three LP’s. Expanded to include all related single, EP and bonus tracks - plus A selection from The Loft's archive of live in-studio performances and previously unreleased alternate mixes and demos. Includes Wilco classics "Art of Almost", "Dawned on Me”, "Sunloathe” . 3LP Box

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 Time For Peace Is Now compiles fourteen songs that, while recorded over four decades ago, speak now more than ever. These are undeniably soulful, passionate, and urgent songs from obscure 45s, dug up from a long dormancy in attics, sheds and rated across the American south. Compiled by Gospel guru Greg Belson. The second volume in Luaka Bop's World Spiritual Classics Series.

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.

The fantastic soundtrack of the new Tarantino comes in a double gatefold sleeve with inlay and poster.

A phenomenal soundtrack to a phenomenal movie. Tarantino once again proves that he not only has a great taste when it comes to music, but he also takes a good amount of time to dig through record collections to pick gems for his soundtracks and arrange the 22 songs 9 era-specific radio advertisements.
This should become a movie soundtrack classic.

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.

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.

Trey Gruber's posthumous debut double LP Herculean House of Cards. A compilation of early demos, studio demos, and live recordings. A tortured songwriter and struggling addict who jolted the tired Chicago DIY scene with his own brand of primal despair, Trey Gruber and his band Parent were on track to join the ranks of Twin Peaks, Mild High Club, and Whitney. His death in 2017 at the age of 26 brought it all to a halt. In his final years Trey wrote and recorded hundreds of previously unheard demos, dandelions in the cracked concrete of 21st century disconnect, an alphabet's worth of which have been compiled by his family and friends for his only album: Herculean House Of Cards. The 26-song 2xLP covers years of material, from home tape recordings, sessions at Mathew Roberts (Mild High Club) & Paul Cherry's home studio, to a studio session with Charles Glanders (Whitney) at Chicago's Foxhall Studios, along with audio taken at The Hideout during his last live performance, among others. Though Gruber was an unrelenting perfectionist who was constantly self-deprecating about his best demos, Herculean House of Cards is a wholly comprehensive and accurate reflection of his infectious charisma and raw songwriting. He had a charmingly distinct way with words but also could be disarmingly vulnerable. Like he was in life, Gruber never shied away from being open with his struggles with alcoholism and addiction. On the vivid opener "Eisenhower to the West Side," he sings in painstaking detail of, "A jail-skin cell, a junkies fight/Corner-boys full of grace/And Jesus Christ full of spite." He told then-future bandmate flautist Rebecca Ridge, "It's not some Lou Reed glorification of drugs _ `makes me feel like a man'_ I talk about the disconnect and the ugliness. They're sad pop songs." But even with the pain and the darkness in his lyrics, Gruber's songs had an unmistakable sense of hope and catharsis.

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!

The Tallest Man on Earth released one of 2008's most powerful records, one that Pitchfork praised, calling Kristian Matsson "a natural-born folksinger, earnest, clever, and comforting." Shallow Grave could not have been more simple, just Matsson's commanding vocals with an acoustic guitar or banjo, recorded at his home in Dalarna, Sweden. Although the album was released on the Swedish label Gravitation without the help of widespread distribution, the story of The Tallest Man on Earth spread far and wide through word of mouth. In April 2010 The Tallest Man on Earth released the critically acclaimed album The Wild Hunt and has played dozens of sold-out shows on both sides of the Atlantic. Now, Gravitation is pleased to make Shallow Grave widely available on vinyl for the first time.

Comes in large format duo-case with 60 page booklet. Osharaku is a traditional Japanese form of musical entertainment, featuring mainly voice, shamisen and percussion, with a repertoire of folk and popular songs, performed by farmers and fishermen for local audiences. This compilation, 28 tracks compiled by Riyo Mountains, is the fourth release in the EM Records/Riyo Mountains Japanese folk series. These recordings feature legendary Osharaku masters, recorded in their homes, brilliantly capturing the casual warmth and vitality characteristic of the style. Osharaku is unique in its use of shamisen, originally an “uptown” urban instrument, in a “downtown” non-urban setting. These joyous tracks, all recorded in the 1960s and 70s, are available as a 2CD set or a single 12” vinyl LP, with English translations and rare photos. Cover art by Shinsuke Takagi (Soi48).

Riyo Mountains are a Japanese folk song research team formed by Mood Yama and Takumi Saito. They are resident DJs at the renowned party "Soi48" at Be-Wave, Tokyo, featuring music from all over the world. They produced the Japanese folk song mix-CD series entitled "Riyo Mountains Mix" and also direct the reissue series of Japanese folk music on EM Records, including the releases "Yumi-kagura", "Sakai Ishinage Odori”, and "Kizaki Ondo”. Riyo Mountains have appeared as DJs at many events/programs including NTS (London) and Japanese Bon-Odori traditional dance festivals. Their articles about Japanese folk music are now published serially in the Japanese web magazine “boid".

In early November 2014 we went to Kalmykia. Our goal was the local “Dzhangar” epic. The epic genre, as one of the most archaic, can be called a basis for Kalmyk music culture. Not so long time ago among Kalmyks there were their own professional epic storytellers - Dzhangarchi who as a socio-artistic institute today are practically absent: repertoire of modern folk singers mostly consists of late folk art of the Soviet era.

Soundway presents the unique results of a one-off 2018 meeting in Marrakech between Belgrade-based tribal/techno/industrial outfit Tapan and the nomadic Touareg electrified desert-blues group Generation Taragalte.
Tapan is not an ordinary “techno” project, rather it escapes easy categorization. It is the Belgradebased production duo of 20/44 club resident Nebojša Bogdanović (Schwabe), and Goran Simonoski, a producer behind music projects such as Belgradeyard
Sound System, Piece of Shh and more. Both have been active in the Belgrade music and nightlife scenes since the 1990s, and since 2015 have brought together their diverse musical experience under the collaborative moniker of Tapan.
While performing at the Atlas Electronic festival in Morocco in 2018, they encountered Generation Taragalte of southern Morocco, and recorded the initial music for the Atlas EP in an improvised studio on the festival grounds, followed by final production
on returning to Belgrade. The result was the 4-track EP “Atlas”, a dark, desolate and potent collision of the electronic drone-jazz of Belgrade and the windswept, desiccated psych-guitar riffs of the Moroccan Sahara.

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...

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.