Folk /
Gallivantin'
Texas Songwriter Will Beeley's Rare LPs from 1971 & 1979 Reissued by Tompkins Square. Tompkins Square reissues two albums by Texas singer/songwriter Will Beeley - the self-released mega-rare (only 200 copies) private press LP 'Gallivantin' from 1971, and 'Passing Dream', originally released by Malaco Records in 1979. Recorded in San Antonio, 'Gallivantin' shows Beeley's heartfelt, folky side - a wistful set of original tunes, plus a cover of Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" and a spaced-out…
The Music of The Music of Harry Taussig & Max Ochs
Fifty years ago, Harry Taussig and Max Ochs were featured on a sampler LP, 'Contemporary Guitar - Spring '67', alongside John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Bukka White. Both guitarists were "re-discovered" 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.
Am I Really Here All Alone?
Phil Lewin's homespun debut is a loner folk masterpiece; accidentally psychedelic, lit by heartbreak and timeless in its sadness and hope. 1975 Private-press LP (only 300 signed and numbered copies pressed at the time) now remastered from the original tapes. In his own words, today: in 1967 I began my life in the student union of a university. In other words, I was in school. But, classes definitely took a back seat to people-watching and attempts at relationships. I would not say that I was par…
Endless
First-generation American Primitive guitarist Richard Osborn studied with Robbie Basho in the late 60's. 40 years later, Osborn finally recorded, appearing on Tompkins Square's 'Beyond Berkeley Guitar' comp in 2010. 'Endless' is his first widely available solo guitar album. [Osborn has] an unhurried, quiet spirit of adventure, a love of ringing strings and slowly revelatory meditations on the natural world. - Acoustic Guitar Magazine "He's a student of mine and he's better technically t…
Sousoume Tamachek
Music for desert picnics. Tuareg guitarist Mdou Moctar delves into his more sensitive side with a minimal studio recording of dreamy ballads. Thumping calabash, droning guitars, and vocal overdubs evoke an imagined desert soundscape. All instruments and vocals performed by Mdou only, creating a very personal and auteur sessions. Emotive and introspective, exploring themes of religion, spirituality, and matters of the heart. After his underground success on the pirate mp3 networks of West Africa …
The Gamelan of the Walking Warriors
A fascinating immersion in the heart of a funeral ceremony live recorded in Bali, where gongs, cymbals, and drums give rhythm to the bewitching atmosphere of this mortuary procession. The international audience’s interest into Balinese music and its gamelan orchestras dates back to the edition of large ethnographic series in the 1950s, 60s and 70s which largely encouraged the discovery of this music beyond Indonesia’s borders. Taking advantage of a more advanced technology compared to the vinyl …
Guitars From Agadez (Music Of Niger)
Group Inerane is the now sound of the Tuareg Guitar Revolution sweeping across the Sahara Desert and inspired by the rebel musicians that started this music as a political weapon used to communicate from the Libyan Refugee camps in the 1980s and 1990s. Spearheaded by the enigmatic guitar hero Bibi Ahmed, Group Inerane has been together for several years and carries the rich tradition of Tamachek guitar songs for another generation. These ten tracks are a combination of amplified roots rock, blue…
Ecstatic Music of the Jemaa El Fna
For centuries, the Jemaa El Fna (Rendezvous of the Dead) has remained the stage for one of the most spectacular social forums on the planet. By day, this central square in the city of Marrakesh, one of Morocco's great imperial cities, fosters a kaleidoscope of entertainment for its local inhabitants; storytellers, acrobats, magicians and snake charmers all create intriguing displays of bewitching spectacle. As the sun sets, the evening grows frantic with the pulse of the crowd; it is then that t…
The Feudal Spirit
2017 small repress. "Rob Noyes has been on the Eastern Massachusetts scene for a while, but what we've heard him play is music from within the context of electric bands, most of whom are loud as hell and exist somewhere along the rim of the post-core continuum. More recently, Rob has taken to displaying his solo acoustic guitar chops and they are massive. The Feudal Spirit is the first vinyl evidence of their 'shoulders.' Like Western Mass's Tony Pasquarosa, who mines the same widely-varia…
Burning The Threshold
A salve for folk souls and whoever needs it; Ben Chasny makes acoustic folk-pop great again. “In preparing for the first album of non-Hexadic Six Organs of Admittance music since 2012’s Ascent, Ben Chasny had a think about what he’d be saying in his own tongue for the first time in a half-decade. As ever, a head-full of ideas were driving him to think and speak music as a spirituality superimposed onto a reality, with the ghosts of both whispering at each other. In the end, what sits in our list…
Sugar Daddy
"This year sees an exciting new undertaking from the Strut camp. We’re launching ‘Original Masters,’ a series of essential original LP reissues exploring rare and under-rated African, Latin and Caribbean music classics, curated by leading collector and DJ, Duncan Brooker. If that right there is enough to let you know that you’ll be needing each of these classic LPs, we’re offering a subscription option which guarantees a copy of each of the four 1LP Original Masters releases we have planned for …
Tibetan Buddhism Trip
Psalmody, small bells, big cymbals, gongs and drums - this puzzling collage of Tibetan Buddhist rites recordings is hypnotizing. It opens the way to the state of trance. The slight electronic arrangement still reminds that reality is not so far. The two twenty-minute tracks instantly convey an unknown and fascinating universe. Mantra chanting accelerates, horns become more insistent and a mystical atmosphere arises. With Tibetan Buddhism Trip, Akuphone starts exploring ritual and ceremoni…
Tchashm-e-Del
The Paris-based Collapsing Market label unveil a gem of found art with Tschashm-e-Del: a radio play recorded in Iran sometime during the '60s by Morteza Hannaneh, co-founder of the Tehran Symphony Orchestra with Parvis Mahmoud, and the grandfather of Collapsing Market co-owner Cyrus Goberville, who discovered the recording on a tape at his home. Without definitive records to go from, Tschashm-e-Del was presumably recorded in the '60s (certainly pre-revolution) and quite possibly broadcast on Ra…
Peace And Love - Wadadasow
Deep, brooding, spiritual, hypnotically psychedelic, 1974 classic Peace & Love. Mixed that night straight after recording the session, by Lloyd Chalmers and George Raymond to deliver a unique & spontaneous continuation of mood, that blurs the lines beautifully between Reggae & Psychedelia.
Delivering four extended expeditions for Ras Michael's second album, under the moniker Dadawah, with Willie Lindo on rather brilliantly spacey blues guitar.
Early Traditional Instruments In Asia
From the metal chimes of the gamelan, to the Burmese harp, passing through the Chinese Hu Ch'in, a traditional and ancient chordophone-bowed lute, Early Traditional Instruments In Asia is a sheer historical document that represents some of the most ancient instruments known to mankind. 45rpm audiophile vinyl; Limited edition of 300.
The Spirit Of Indonesia
The Spirit Of Indonesia is a newly curated collection of traditional tunes from various regions and ethnic groups of the South East Asian archipelago. These historic live recordings are as "first-take" as it gets, conveying the true soul and spirit of this wonderful region, through discrete pieces coming from very different heritages. 45rpm audiophile vinyl; Limited edition of 300.
Ethiopian Urban And Tribal Music: Mindanoo Mistiru/Gold From Wax
Double LP version. Includes color insert. Sub Rosa present a reissue of volume one (Mindanoo Mistiru) and two (Gold From Wax) of Ethiopian Urban And Tribal Music, both originally released as two distinct LPs on Lyrichord in 1972. Mindanoo Mistiru and Gold From Wax were recorded by Ragnar Johnson. Ethiopia contains many diverse peoples and many styles of music. It was still an empire in July and August of 1971 when these recordings were made. Over 70 languages and 200 dialects are spoken in Et…
Balsams
Chuck Johnson's pedal steel guitar debut delivers a group of pieces for ambient meditation. Recorded in a single two-week session during late 2015, and subsequently arranged/constructed/treated in the studio in spring of 2016, Balsams is awash in layers of tonal perfection. The album constantly evolves while maintaining a unified approach across both sides. Balsams is a record that lives outside genre and time, one that continues to develop with each successive deep listen. A unique expansion in…
Abbandonato Da Dio Nazione
Anthony Pasquarosa focuses the third eye back to 1910 to conjure a lysergic spaghetti Western experience. Expect to be transported to another realm where gunshots, galloping horses and psychedelic gunslingers mark the terrain. Pasquarosa reveals himself to be a master stylist and his third full length for VDSQ shows the widescreen breadth of his cinematic vision. Abbandonato Da Dio Nazione is expansively packaged with hand drawn artwork from the guitarist himself. Western's have never sounded li…
Metqal Qinawi
Metqāl Quenāwī, born in 1929 (Luxor, Egypt), also known as Met'qal, Metaqal Kinawi Metaqal, Metaqal Rebab Ensemble, Metkaal Kenawe or Awlad Metqāl, developed an intense artistic career based on rescuing folk traditions from southern Egypt. Recovering the traditions of the Said, the southern region around Luxor, Qena, and Asyut, Metqāl was brought up on the customs of the Fellahin (agricultural laborers who passed on the age-old traditions of Egypt), which were disseminated across the nation by t…