Folk /
Masque Femine
Masque Femine should be regarded as a total work - much like a film, a ballet, a building, or, an altarpiece - rather than as an album of individual songs. And, its fundamental subject should not be understood to be romantic love. Christina Carter was born in the bayou city of Houston, Texas in November of 1968, and co-founded the group Charalambides there in December of 1991. Ever since then, she has deeply mined her own vein of sound-as-music with voice, guitar (both electric and acousti…
Solo Acoustic Volume Nine
A dazzling debut from Bay Area guitarist Aaron Sheppard whose virtuoso fi¬nger-picked six string attack is stunning in both its precision and melodicism. Sheppard's album is a bold introduction to a remarkable new talent in the world of acoustic guitar.
Solo Acoustic Volume Three
2014 restock, released 2010. 12-String arrangements from a true master of the instrument, Brokaw shows a range from waltzes and ballads to experiments and rhythms. Member of Codeine, The NewYear, Come, Thurston Moore and the NewWave Bandits and many more ensembles.
Roads to ruin
restocked / Jenks "Horseback, Mount Moriah" Miller and James "Wooden Wand" Toth share a lot of the same musical influences in addition to being two of the most unique voices in underground music over the past decade. Every release from these gentlemen individually shares DNA with what came before but always takes the listener on an exciting new twist. Both Miller and Toth greatly admire the work of the other and ecstatically wanted to share a record where they could combine their own material in…
I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore
"I'm sorry, but any record that opens with a vintage rebetika track is pretty much sold for me, and since this record does, the rest doesn't really matter, it's already awesome. Yep the first track on this killer re-issue is from Marika Papagika and sets the pace (and standard) for the rest of the album, which is a showcase of music recorded in the USA between 1927 and 1948 but rooted in other cultures. So from the initial blast of gorgeous Greek folk, we're thrown into Calypso, Appalachian folk…
Last Kind Words (1926-1953)
The first Mississippi compilation, in print again for the first time in over 7 years. Here we have some of the absolute best performances of country blues and ballads ever put out, dating from 1926 - 1953. Early 78's that speak of the universal human condition in a profound way. Artists include Geechy Wiley, Blind Wille and Kate McTell, The Blue Sky Boys, Lottie Kimbrough, Robert Petway, Memphis Minnie and much more. No typical blues riffs or boring standards here - just truly unique artists tra…
Ghost Woman Blues : Country Blues 1927-1952
Compilation of absolutely must-have country blues from Mississippi. A mix of well known artists playing their signature songs and more obscure musicians. Highlights include Bukka White's elemental "Fixin' to die", Lottie Kimbroughs' seldom heard "Don't Speak To Me", George Carters' haunting "Ghost Woman Blues", Willie Browns' existential "Future Blues", Monroe Moe Jackson's wild "Go Away From My Door" and many more hits. The real stuff and some of Mississippi Records all time favorite tunes.
Siria
Collection of material from 1975 - 1982 by Brazilian artist Mestre Cupijó, entitled 'Siriá'. Siriá is a cross pollination between the music of the inhabitants of the quilombos, a Brazilian hinterland settlement founded by escaped African slaves, and the indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest. Mestre Cupijó has created the modernised version of this local music, which has been igniting street parties and traditional festivals across the state of Pará in Northern Brazil for decades.
Solo Acoustic Volume Ten
Guitarist Bill Orcutt's fist set of new compositions in many years is a series of abstract blues played on the acoustic guitar, using a variety of tunings, and referencing great historical blues players alongside unusual historical errata."It's been two decades since Bill Orcutt was part of Harry Pussy, Miami's most bracing, uncompromising ensemble of noisemakers. After taking almost 15 years away from music following the demise of HP, he returned in 2009 -- with the fantastic A New Way to Pay O…
Solo Acoustic Volume One
2009 Release "VDSQ (Vin Du Select Qualitite) is an acoustic guitar LP series curated by Steve Lowenthal of Swingset Magazine and Plastic Records. The series is released on high quality LP with letterpress sleeves, each with a picture of the guitar used to record the record. Track-by-track notes included on the back cover. 'The idea behind VDSQ was really to do a label that was a nod to the great guitar-oriented labels like Takoma and Transatlantic but focusing on contemporary artists rather than…
What Are They Doing in Heaven Today?
2014 repress. "Compilation of 78's by Washington Phillips, in print again for the first time in over 7 years! Washington Phillips is one of the most unique gospel artists of all time. He played an instrument that was either the dolciola (a now extinct chimey sounding piano) or something entirely home made. No one knows for sure. Phillips sings with a beautiful voice and his instrument provides a celestial and otherworldly background. His songs are like lullabies straight from the spirit …
Fantomas: Le Faux Magistrat
"In celebration of the centenary of Louis Feuillade's Fantomassilent film series, James Blackshaw was invited by Yann Tiersen to perform a live score to the fifth and final film, Le Faux Magistrat, at the beautiful and prestigious surroundings of the Theatre de Chatelet, Paris on October 31, 2013. Fantomas -- a master of disguise and symbol of terror -- is one of the most popular characters in French crime fiction, as well as a favorite with the avant-garde, particularly the surrealists. Tim Hec…
Zarthus
Robbie Basho's Zarthus, dating from 1974, is, in his own words, "An album of Persian, Arabic, Westerns Themes (sic), woven together into a single 'Fabric D'Amour' to cover the barren manekin (sic) of modern times." Easily the album that most indulges his obsessions with Eastern modal scales and odd meters, and even Western classical themes. All of it is grounded in Basho's guitar though, and the discs first two tracks, "Zarthus" (dedicated to Meher Baba, Pete Townshend's guru) and "The Lord Of T…
A Way To Nowhere
Maurizio Abate is a self taught guitarist active since 2000s, with a dinstinctive approach to experimentation. Since 2006 he has made several recording sessions, released on some LPs under his own name and other collective groups, he collaborates with David Vanzan and Virginia Genta (Jooklo), Makoto Kawabata (Acid Mother Temple), Luca Massolin (Golden Cup) and many others He is currently involved in the project Eternal Zio and plays live in the project BeMyDelay. The records aggregates many infl…
The Indian Music Of Chiapas, Mexico
The Indian Music Of Chiapas, Mexico'. In the mid 1970's Richard Alderson made these amazing recordings in Chiapas, Mexico. A very unique blend of ancient music and modern rhythms. Here we have modern Mayan people singing folk songs accompanied by guitar, ragged brass bands, and much more. A trip into a very beautiful world. The cover is a faux Folkways style wrap around print on an old school "tip on" jacket. Includes liner notes. A co-release with Mississippi Records."The music of the indigenou…
Wawayanda Patent
The needle lands on the vinyl surface of Wawayanda Patent, and the room appears in your mind’s eye. Black Dirt Studio sits empty, the sunlight still caught in the west-facing window, while an array of strings, drums, bells, and wooden bodies waits in expectant silence. In time-lapse, each performer appears in the space before your eyes, channeling the experience of unnumbered past collaborations into a new chimera: heart of Pelt, head of Gunn, neck of NNCK, legs of Rhyton, wings of Pigeons. To e…
The Voice of the Eagle
“I don’t call a lot of my stuff far out,” Basho explained. “I just call it a different level of feeling. It’s far in, as far as I’m concerned...I spent years on the road singing folk songs that had no meaning. It dawned on me music is supposed to say something. Music is supposed to do something.” This is a Basho vocal album – his singing, which John Fahey described as “strangely compelling”, came straight from the heart and soul with no regard for restraint, phrasing or timing. Thankfully, he wa…
Oud
Oud virtuoso and composer Salman Shukur was the Head of the Music Department and Professor of Oud (the Arab lute) at the Baghdad Institute of Fine Arts for over 30 years. However, despite his long and illustrious career, Shukur made only one LP, recorded in London in 1976 at Rosslyn Hill Chapel. Shukur's compositions, while based on the Arab classical musical tradition, attempt to bridge the gap between eastern and western music, and may be described as tone-poems, embodying both free and formal…
Aulos' Second Reed
Aulos' Second Reed is a massive development in the transverse music created by Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides. Pascal Nichols and Kelly-Jayne Jones go outside of themselves and become a whole listening unit with a singular pulse. Side A is elegance personified. Using what appears at first to be a two person small Gakaku style setup which leads the listener through occasional tympani playing and a flute response that sounds like it came a hundred years before this time. As each player moves …
Khyber Mail
Sohail Rana, versatile maestro of film and pop composition, and leading force in pioneering the cultural landscape of modern Pakistan. His longplay masterpiece, Khyber Mail is stocked with groovy eastern moods, electric organ, sitar soul and surf guitar. Alan Bishop (Sublime Frequencies/Sun City Girls)
As the son of renowned Urdu poet Rana Akbar Abadi, Sohail Rana was born into a respected family in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India, 1938. Having achieved academic qualifications in his formative years …