Folk /
Winter Songs, Wedding Songs
Biggest Tip! ** 250 copies. Deluxe LP comes complete with a 20pp booklet * The long-anticipated LP of folk songs from Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region — one of the worst affected by Russia’s invasion. - The Black Sea folklore of Mykolaiv is a women’s history in song: neglected by folklorists and ethnologists for the area’s late settlement and mixed ethnic composition. This LP corrects that oversight.
Collected over the last decade by the young musician and ethnographer, Tetiano Chukno, these recording…
A New Directive From The Bureau of Compulsory Entertainment
Previously better known for his analogue electronic music productions as Automatic Tasty, Jonny Dillon’s debut acoustic LP ‘Songs For A One-String Guitar’ took the listening public by surprise and the critics by storm when it dropped out of the blue on All-City in 2019. It represented a departure for an artist who was renowned for having the Midas touch when it came to coaxing dance floor fire from all manner of hardware. But fortune favours the brave and temporarily setting the machinery aside …
Stories From Another Time 1982-1988
The roots of Angolan popular music explored in the meticulous guitar studies of Mário Rui Silva 1980s albums. Whether on mesmerising acoustic ballads or hypnotic groove-led tracks, the music of Angolan guitarist, researcher and intellectual Mário Rui Silva has a beguiling, melancholy quality, woven into the dynamics of his deft guitar playing. Rhythmically complex yet supremely effortless, the music collected here stems from three albums Mário released in Luanda in the 1980s that reflect his div…
“Tumai Takahashi / Uya nu Kukuru”
This recording is a miraculous session produced by Makoto Kubota and is surely precious being their very first performance in Japan. “Tumai Takahashi” is often sung in a set with “Yatcya guwa” but in this recording it is performed as a stand-alone song, which makes it very rare. The coupling song “Uya nu Kukuru” is a classic piece by Teihan China, Misako Oshiro's mentor. Misako Oshiro sings with Kanako Horiuchi, her top pupil, in a relaxed and lustrous voice.
Misako Ōshiro (or sometimes Misako O…
Wa Maret El Ayam
From the two towering pillars of the Arab World’s Tarab, Om Kalsoum & Mohamed Abdel Wahab, comes another cult classic of Wa Maret El Ayam. With an iconic prelude featuring one of Abdel-Wahab’s quintessential fusions, this time a Libyan folk melody, Souma records bring a long-awaited remastering of the original studio version. Entrancing, magnetic and transcendental all at once.
Hakam Aleena El Hawa
Egyptian King Baligh Hamdy and “The Lady” Om Kalsoum meet for the final time in her parting ode, Hakam Aleena El Hawa. With a hypnotic intro featuring the rhythmic fireworks of Hany Mehanna’s organ, Souma records bring a remastering of the original studio version for The Voice of Egypt to live on. Musing, beckoning and triumphant as always.
Wa No Wa
The much-awaited vinyl version of a musical piece which has garnered much attention over the recent years in Japan. The sound is eye-opening, profound, spiritual, and will leave you in awe. Absolutely mind-bending. This is beyond categories and beyond good! The highest possible recommendation!
Psyché
Drop a needle on Psyché's debut double-sider and you'll see visions, or rather Mediterranean visions, be they of waves of heat shimmering above dunes of sand, or of women dancing around a bonfire on a rocky plain, or of bushy cliffs overlooking emerald-green and turquoise sea. The name Psyché is of course ancient Greek for 'soul' or 'mind', signifying the band's love of psychedelic funk, but also the wide range of Mediterranean influences – from Southern Europe to the Balkan Peninsula, and from …
Something Special
The three years spent on MGM Records between 1966 and 1968 were golden ones for Lee Hazlewood. He spent them working with his muse, Suzi Jane Hokom, writing a still-unreleased book, The Quiet Revenge of Elmo Furback, competing with Phil Spector from their respective studios, and coming up with the formula for the "boy/girl” songs for which he’d become famous. In fact, the unflattering portrait on the cover of Something Special did little to hint at how hip this late-flowering talent (he was in h…
Soon
*250 copies limited edition* 'Latest Hana Stretton's album has an intimacy akin to Lynn Avery’s Carpet Cocoon, but with less clarity and more vagueness and elusion. Its warmth is shrouded in a thick layer of fuzz, with nods to ambient music allowing the music to creep in like a sunset. Despite its elusive nature, it refuses to keep a distance between the listener—it’s intriguing and thoughtful, subtle and moving. There’s something naturally magical about Soon—your reflection in the lake, the chi…
La Force Aquarienne
In his debut release with Constellation Tatsu, Andy Aquarius takes us on a journey from the forest to the sea. Aquarius was in the process of writing another album, the follow up to ‘Chapel’ (Hush Hush, 2021), when multiple voices emerged, each of them holding a distinct energetic signature. Those incantations became ‘La Force Aquarienne,’ a collection of intuitive prayers.
The first track, ‘U Lisi’ (Ukrainian for ‘In The Forest’), represents the connective and grounding tissue of our shared dim…
Re-cycling
Tip! "In ‘re-cycling’ I distilled a true story, into its component parts, and put it back together as the narrative of this album's music. Each track represents one of five elements: a fungus, a bacteria, rocks, water, a tree. These elements come together to create a forest of sound approaches created through sitar and tabla. The album's title – ‘re-cycling’ – works on several levels. It's a reference to the cycles of life and death, familiar cycles (the water cycle, the rock cycle) and unfamili…
In delicate balance
*2023 stock* Recorded immediately following a group meditation, "in delicate balance" takes that spiritual energy and amplifies it back to listeners. The album's title refers to Raag Bhairavi where I interweave several themes "in a delicate balance" of inspiration and experience.
"J.J Gregg’s depth of passion for his music and his attention to nuance on the sitar is masterful. His study and use of traditional ragas is beautifully filtered through his own touch and personal experiences in other g…
Opening up
*2023 stock* J.J. Gregg’s 'opening up' draws listeners deep into a meditative state. Each raga provides a different mood while taking the listener on a journey unique to their state of mind. The first track, a lilting and bright rendition of Raag Rageshree, explores speed and sound in a most refreshing way. In track two, Raag Yaman offers a uniquely developed and comprehensive journey through the beauty of South Asian Classical music. In the concluding track on the album, Raag Chandrakauns, deep…
Cumbia Mahàre / Ophis
Drop a needle on Psyché's debut double-sider and you'll see visions, or rather Mediterranean visions, be they of waves of heat shimmering above dunes of sand, or of women dancing around a bonfire on a rocky plain, or of bushy cliffs overlooking emerald-green and turquoise sea. The name Psyché is of course ancient Greek for 'soul' or 'mind', signifying the band's love of psychedelic funk, but also the wide range of Mediterranean influences – from Southern Europe to the Balkan Peninsula, and from …
Fiddle
First, the music was obscured by history and now almost by the story behind it all.
Old Glow
* 200 copies limited edition * The first time I heard Wheatie’s music was at a basement show in Philadelphia, and I was entranced. I’ve felt similarly when watching videos of the French singer Barbara as she concentrates on a corner of the room, her eyes big warm coins, singing “La solitude” about a loneliness that “rolls around the hips” and demands that the door is opened. It’s Barbara’s self-possession that haunts me, her willingness to do publicly what I can only find alone. It’s not so much…
Marwa
Unique recording by dhrupad singer Marianne Svašek, a former pupil of legendary Hindustani musicians Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, Uday Bhawalkar, and Zia Fariduddin Dagar. The album consist of one track, a lengthy alap sung by Svašek––accompanied only by two tanpuras––in a complex and mysterious raga of twilight and sunset: Raga Marwa. Comes in a digisleeve featuring liner notes by Joep Bor, professor emeritus at Leiden University and author of The Raga Guide.
Nikhil Banerjee in California 1967
*2023 stock* These are live recordings of Nikhil Banerjee at KPFA Radio in Berkeley, California, on the 9th of July, 1967. It is for the first time they are made into vinyl record and published in China. The original recordings were on two reel-to-reel tapes. In 1988, American record label Raga Records released the recordings on both CD and cassette. Until a few years ago, it was by chance that producer Tu Fei got hold of these reel-to-reel tapes and decided to release this vinyl version, hoping…
Zhuizi Selections
This studio album is recorded after Guo Yongzhang performing on the 5th Tomorrow Festival stage.