Folk /
About To Choke
His only album for Capitol Records (originally released in 1996) was another exceptional batch of songs. An edgy slice of country-folk showing his unique version of Americana that was usually several things at once: his craggy voice, raw honesty, an acoustic guitar (or a piano) and an outrageous imagination. Vic Chesnutt was a rare kind of artist and definitely one of the most relevant songwriters of the last 20 years.
Les Meilleurs Souvenirs de la 1ére Biennale Artistique et Cultur
Recorded in 1970 as part of the First Biennale of Arts & Culture for the Young in Mali. The Regional Orchestra of Mopti was a state funded orchestra that participated in country-wide music festivals & competitions. A hypnotic band feat. guitars & a large horn section. A serene & droning record that is both sorrowful & celebratory. This is 1 of 6 in a series of Mali music LPs that Mississippi Records will be reissuing this summer
One-Armed Fiddler
Mid-70’s album of instrumental Appalachian fiddling (with guitar and bass accompaniment) by a guy who, after a grisly gun-related injury, developed a between-the-legs bow technique. Mr. Smith was a repository of would-be lost traditional tunes, and his unique, microtonal playing only makes these gems all the more precious. For fans of the Anthology of American Folk Music and/or Jandek.
Tomorrow Come Someday
(1969) from the home studio of future BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP composer PETER HOWELL & his musical partner JOHN FERDINANDO, makers of legendary albums under the names Alice Through the Looking Glass, Ithaca, Agincourt, & Friends. This private press album was recorded as the soundtrack for an underground film production by (later to be) renowned television director Ian Hamilton
Solo Acoustic Vol. 2
The second installment in VDSQ’s (Vin Du Select Qualitite) Solo Acoustic guitar series curated by STEVE LOWENTHAL of Swingset Magazine. Solo Acoustic Vol. 2 features new songs from EMERALDS guitarist MARK MCGUIRE that spark new innovations and memories thought to be lost. Packaged in letterpress sleeves with a picture of the guitar used on the recording. Limited to 500 copies, already sold out at source
The river session
Recorded live at City Hall in Glasgow in 1974, this is an extraordinary set drawing from the 2 albums of the period: "LA Turnaround" & "Santa Barbara Honeymoon"
Camber Sands Sunday
Recorded live at Camber Sands Holiday Park, England on May 14, 2006. Featuring RICHARD YOUNGS (bass guitar) & ALEX NEILSON (drums)"At this 2006 concert, we have Jandek with a sympathetic rhythm section, and like a rhythm section that would back, say, a Lightnin’ Hopkins or a John Lee Hooker, they adapt themselves to the artist’s flow and provide a kind of pillowy environment or canvas on which he can do his thing. To give you an analogy from the free jazz world, some of the recent Jandek p…
We Are All One, In the Sun: A Tribute To Robbie Basho
In Robbie Basho's lifetime he set out to champion the steel string guitar as an expressive and dignified concert instrument. His guitar playing was first brought to light in 1965, when John Fahey released Basho's debut The Seal Of The Blue Lotus on Fahey's own Takoma Records. Armed with a unique and powerful singing voice, his 6 & 12 string guitar and a collection of special guitar tunings that he created (even originating a unique chart titled 'The Esoteric Doctrine of Color and Mood,' denoting…
Too Long In This Condition
Young Scotsman Alasdair Roberts is an old hand at songcraft -- and not just his own, but the songs of the ancients, the near-ancients and their friends. Over the past decade that he's been singing music in his own name (after graduating from the Appendix Out youth brigade), he's made a habit out of recording songs of his own and traditional songs with an equal amount of investment and urgency. After all, it's all music, always deserving of everything we have to give. Following 2009's de…
Ragged And Right
LP edition: Link Wray became the thematic soundtrack for a 2008 JACK ROSE tour with D. CHARLES SPEER & THE HELIX. Jack got so excited by the vibes emanating from these songs that he thought to break with his usual acoustic approach & enlist the Speer band to join in some unhinged & unrepentant fun in the studio. Recorded using an all live, no overdub approach, a gleaming bottle of Buffalo Trace helped shepherd them through the night. Feat. the original Helix lineup in peak form & lap steel & Ros…
What A Beautiful Place
CD edition, lavishly packaged: In the last couple of years there's been no shortage of lost folk albums re-appearing for the world to enjoy once more, and the wonderful Numero Group label (which is fast becoming one of our most loved imprints...) has managed to find another. Hailing from the bleak northern city of Halifax, Catherine Howe was initially trained at drama school, gaining a brief stint in Doctor Who ('The Underwater Menace' for all you Whovians out there, wink wink) among othe…
Blue Afternoon
Blue Afternoon, released in 1969, was Tim Buckley's first self-produced record and his debut for Herb Cohen and Frank Zappa's Straight record label. This was Buckley's fourth album after Tim Buckley, Goodbye and Hello, and Happy Sad. Blue Afternoon used the same group of musicians as Happy Sad, with the inclusion of drummer Jimmy Madison. Several tracks on Blue Afternoon are songs Buckley had intended to record on earlier albums but had not completed. "Chase the Blues Away" and "Happy Tim…
Say God
The 2xLP version comes in an old-style tip-on gatefold jacket with 8” x 10” insert and MP3 download coupon. In recent years, Higgs has released a number of solo outings that can only be described as the ultimate in isolation, worlds away from the hypnotic, communal rock of his band, Lungfish. Higgs follows up the 2007 album/book release Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot with his new double album Say God. Say God is an album of gospel songs and poems as presently received by this Daniel Higgs. Recorded …
Volume One
The MONKS OF MALASPINA debut release is a phantastical psychedelic mystery musical filled with dark woods wonder and honey comb clouds over sparkling fjords from deep within the mountains of Canada's British Columbia. Highway 101 ends here, or like this new record, begins. Members of the band call up roots from First Nation relations with Jesuit missionaries co-mingled with a diverse offspring from a free love commune started in the 1970's. Most of the music on this record is gloriousl…
Rainy Day Raga
Peter Walker was the quintessential psych-folk guitar player to come out of the '60s. Revered by Timothy Leary, who had him program the music for his TURN-ONS, Walker was one of the first to take the Indian tradition of ragas and channel them through the guitar into a sound that is pure heaven. His exotic, state-of-the-art finger-picking transcends description and has influenced such artists as Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance.Vanguard Records originally released the record in 1966, …
Secrets from the Storm
With Secrets From The Storm, NYC-based singer and guitarist Peg Simone has put a remarkable avant-garde spin on the blues, collaborating with writer Holly Anderson and fellow Table Of The Elements star Jonathan Kane, who assists on the epic opening cut 'Levee/1927', a radical and poetic take on the original ('When The Levee Breaks') by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy. This is quite some opening, shaping an incredible twenty-two minutes over which Kane adds his guitar and kick drum, leaving y…
Wayfaring Strangers: Guitar Soli
another gem, a wonderful collection of obscure solo acoustic guitar tunes from the mid 60s up to the dawn of the 80s -- beautiful work from a slew of players we've never heard of -- but we'd put right up there with Fahey and Basho in the way they reach from the back porch to the cosmos with just their fingers and some strings! One thing we love about this set, and the Numero Group releases to date, is how deep they dig and what beauty they unearth, somehow with impeccable sound quality. S…
From The Ground
Very special vinyl edition cut at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin, includes a bonus track and a hidden locked groove, together with new artwork. limited copies!* The sister of office favourite Peter Broderick, Heather Woods Broderick steps into the limelight with this hugely impressive solo debut. On 'From The Ground', Heather is ably assisted by her multi-talented sibling, who records, produces and contributes various instrumental elements to the songs. These two are regular collaborato…
Excavated Shellac: Strings
Excavated Shellac is an incredible resource for rare international 78rpm recordings. With each post, shellac excavator Jonathan Ward takes great care to ensure that the transfer is as clean as possible. His blog posts always go the extra mile in placing the music within a larger cultural and historical context (on the side, JW is a professional writer and researcher). With the motto "good music is best when it's shared", JW has done just that for upwards of 100 songs that might otherwise go unhe…
Helena Espvall and Masaki Batoh
Restocked, few available..."If the pentagrams and moccasins and ponchos of the now nearly bygone “freak folk” era made listening to Fairport Convention cool again, Helena Espvall and Masaki Batoh’s self-titled collaboration serves as a reminder that British longhairs of the ’60s were nerds, nerds, nerds. Cellist Espvall, best known for her work with Espers, and Batoh, the guitarist of Japanese psych band Ghost, deploy an arsenal of exotic stringed instruments. They play earnest cover…