Folk /
In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper
"Širom fashion maximalist avant-garde soundscapes from antique acoustic instruments like the balafon and hurdy gurdy. Their artfully rootless roots music makes an impassioned statement both aesthetically and, more opaquely, politically too.” - Uncut The Slovenian avant-folk trio Širom are back with a sonically and thematically expansive 5th album; a thrilling follow-up to their widely praised 2022 release The Liquified Throne of Simplicity. Navigating almost two dozen instruments (some of which …
Personal Jesus
To mark Nina Hagen's 70th birthday, Personal Jesus is being released for the first time on vinyl, including a bonus track – exactly fifteen years after its original release. The bonus track is titled "I Am Born To Preach The Gospel" and is a cover of Washington Phillips. With Personal Jesus, Nina Hagen delves deep into rock, blues, and gospel in 2010. Raw, unpolished, and full of intensity, she interprets songs about faith, resistance, and redemption – carried by her unmistakable voice, which bu…
The Twinkling Star
Legendary Egyptian vocalist and cultural icon Umm Kulthum, revered worldwide as “the Voice of Egypt” and often described as “Egypt’s fourth pyramid,” remains one of the most powerful figures in music history. Originally released in 1961 on Parlophone, The Twinkling Star is a luminous showcase of her unparalleled vocal mastery—an album that captures both the grandeur of her artistry and the emotional intensity that made her a cultural phenomenon across the Arab world and beyond.
A cornerstone o…
Oslan Husein
In truth, singing is not all that different from acting. Performing a song is very similar to playing a role in a theatrical production. A singer's delivery — the way they interpret and emphasize certain parts of a song — is much like what an actor does with their character. That's why we often find singers who go on to gain popularity as performers — some on stage, but more often on the silver screen (film). These are called 'singing stars' — vocalists who are also featured actors, usually give…
Pantilde
We at EM Records love to transport our listeners to new worlds, other worlds; "Pantilde", this magical new album from Cornish avant-folk performance artist The Worm, is indeed an ethereal new world: otherworldly, but somehow rooted; an imaginary oral and musical story of everyday village life in an alternative Celtic landscape. The music here is strange yet familiar, fantastical and enchanting while remaining simultaneously attached to the earth. Amy Lawrence, aka The Worm, plays cello, harp, re…
Martin Carthy
Re-pressing of Martin Carthy's debut album, originally released on Fontana in 1965 and re-issued by Topic in 1977. In the early 1960s, the approach Martin Carthy took to folk music was nothing short of revolutionary, albeit a relatively quiet revolution befitting of his humble nature.
You wouldn't find Carthy's music clambering up the singles charts; his was not a face adorning the teen magazines. Instead, his influence was felt at a grass-roots level. He plied his trade in the folk clubs, which…
An Introduction To Anne Briggs
2025 stock Anne Briggs was born in Nottinghamshire in 1944 and began singing in local folk clubs in her teens. Her break came through the Centre 42 tour of 1962. This was a distinctly leftist group of artists, writers, actors and musicians whose lofty aim was to make arts and culture accessible to the masses. Local artists were invited to audition where Ewan MacColl first heard Briggs' remarkable voice and persuaded her to join the tour. There Briggs met MacColl's broader minded comrade A.L. 'Be…
Anne Briggs
2025 stock A long overdue reissue of the classic first album from Anne Briggs on Topic. Widely regarded as a long-lost treasure and recorded in 1971 by Sean Davies, featuring Johnny Moynihan from Sweeny’s Men on bouzouki.
Anne Briggs began singing in local folk clubs in her teens. In 1962, she became part of the Centre 42 tour, a leftist group of artists, writers, actors, and musicians aiming to make arts and culture accessible to the masses. Ewan MacColl first heard Briggs’ remarkable voice and…
An Introduction To Shirley Collins
Few singers of the English folk revival have attempted as much on record as Shirley Collins – an extraordinary combination of fragility and power. “I like music to be fairly straightforward, simply embellished – the performance without histrionics allowing you to think about the song rather than telling you what to think.”
Through an impressive series of experimental recordings Shirley established an extraordinarily sympathetic marriage of traditional songs handed down through generations of rur…
A Path To Open Air II
*2025 stock* Introducing 'A Path to Open Air II,' Tobias Wilden reimagines the tonal textures first shaped in his 2013 release, 'A Path to Open Air'. Diving further into his perceptions of nature and music, the album blends acoustic intimacy with ambient depth, painting serene scenes of remote landscapes. Wilden combines guitar, cello, double bass, and Sanshin with orchestral layers and fleeting electronic glimmers. It’s an ode to the in-between, where jazz meets not-jazz — a musical terrain tha…
Kaikou
Makoto Moroi (1930-2013), his name is well-known early electronic works at NHK electronic music studio, composed numerous works for Japanese traditional instruments during the 1960s and 1970s. His most notable works include "Chikurai Gosho" (1964) and "Uitenpen" (1973), with "Symphonia for S.M. ― Shin" (1972) considered his crowning achievement. On the other hand, this piece, "Kaikou,” had not been revisited since it was broadcast on NHK FM's "Contemporary Music" program on November 2, 1975.
As …
The Sun Is Not True
"David Nance’s doom spiral tour of the supermarket. The spectral glade fashioned by the Spatulas in “Heaving Chimes." The hazy, chattering, crypt-riot of Bruce Russell and Peter Wright’s Escalation. The warmth and momentum of Liam Grant’s barn dance. These intensely physical spaces are all conjured through song, an unexpected venue for such somatic expression. It’s a bracing, welcome tangibility, a mark of exceptionalism shared by this music. But what do these songs have in common, beyond their …
Kizaki Ondo
"Kizaki Ondo" is a folk song from Nitta Kizaki town in Gunma, north of Tokyo. Played annually by local performers at the Bon-Odori traditional summer dance festival, it features unabashed lyrics about prostitution along with a rhythmic drive sure to appeal to fans of contemporary electronic genres as well as aficionados of traditional musics. The first track is a wildly echoing vocal version recorded in 1980, redolent of humid summer nights; the second track, recorded in 1981, is an instrumental…
Is Noise Vol. 1
TAKAAT (pronounced tuh-cot), meaning “noise” in the Tuareg language Tamashek, is the trio of Ahmoudou Madassane, Mikey Coltun, and Souleymane Ibrahim, also known as the rhythm section of Mdou Moctar. TAKAAT is sonic chaos, improvisation, freedom of exploration, and the punk styles of bands such as Fugazi and Unwound, all mixed together with the guitar music from the Sahel.
TAKAAT started during soundchecks while on the road with Mdou Moctar when the trio indulged their shared love for amps crank…
Batch #6 - Party
40girls by Ya Tosiba: Rooted in folk music’s storytelling spirit the album introduces a dynamic conversation between generational memory and progressive innovation. It is crafting a soundscape that feels feminine, elusive and powerfully transformative. The album opens with delicate samples of the Şüştər and Rahab makams with its soft and ethereal textures intertwining with subtle, noisy experimentation. Kita Koun Kan by Sabou-Gnouman De Kita: Kita, a small town in the West of Mali was once consi…
Hey, Mr Devil: Apocalyptic Gospel And Rapture Rockabilly From Private Press Prophets (1964-1984)
From the makers of Hillbillies In Hell... Private Press Prophets and Vanity Vinyl Visionaries.
Presented here for the very first time are 20 timeless slices of Luciferian Gospel, End-Times Prophecy and Doomsday Sermons from the Surreal Sacred Songbook. Armageddon Rockabilly collides with Kindergarten Sulphur and Brimstone diatribes. Backwoods Demonic Disco confronts Beastly Predictions and Southern Fried Incubus Funk. All excavated from deep within the forgotten margins of Homespun and Private …
I Won't Need A Wheelchair In Glory: Songs Of The Triumph Of The Human Spirit (1966-1984)
From the makers of Hillbillies In Hell...A Celebration of Spiritual Triumph over Terrestrial Adversity. Originally cut on Homespun, Private-Press and Vanity labels across the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, this collection features voices almost never heard in the professional entertainment industry. The Dis-abled, the Less-abled, the Blind, Cancer survivors, those confined to a Wheelchair, those born with Dwarfism, those born without Limbs and some with many other challenges. Here, they shine and…
Land Of Plenty
Two of the most exciting visionaries in contemporary guitar music, Bill MacKay and Ryley Walker, announce the reissue of their seminal debut album, "Land Of Plenty." Originally released in August 2015, this instrumental masterpiece will be available again on vinyl on September 26th via Drag City, giving new listeners and longtime fans alike a fresh opportunity to experience a milestone in the modern guitar canon.
Recorded live over a month-long residency at The Whistler in Chicago, "Land Of Plen…
Elders of the Begena: The Harp of David in Ethiopia
"The Begena is one of those rare musical instruments of the world that has survived for more than 5800 years. What is fascinating about it is not only its age but the fact that both its manufacture and the purpose for which it is being played have never changed during all these years. It is still made of wood and animal products, such as the intestine of the sheep for the strings, the leather that covers the sound box. It is used for praying, for praising God and for meditation, just as it was i…
Songs of Truth: Music and Song from the Kobzar Tradition of Ukraine
Julian Kytasty is celebrated around the world as a master of the bandura. This plucked-string instrument has become a symbol of Ukraine through its association with the deep tradition of the kobzari. On Songs of Truth: Music and Song from the Kobzar Tradition of Ukraine, he brings expressive clarity and vibrancy to this centuries-old repertoire of these blind bards through skillfully retold historical epics, timeless philosophical songs, biting satire, and joyful dance tunes.