Folk Sale 249 Items

Expedition is a collaboration between sound artist The Dead Mauriacs (aka Olivier Prieur) and collage artist Evan Crankshaw, based on their mutual interest in treating exotica as both a subject and a material. Evan Crankshaw's 2015 collage book, also entitled Expedition, is assembled and collaged by hand from a vast archive of popular exoticist printed materials, and explores recurring motifs in expedition narratives, simultaneously evoking and alienating the exoticist fantasy.

In 2018, the book was interpreted for a live performance at Festival BBMix (Boulognes-Billancourt, France) in collaboration with The Dead Mauriacs, who created a complete exotica-concrète score accompanying projected images of the book & live narration. That collaboration can be heard on this album, an armchair-travel virtual-voyage to the heart of an imagined actual elsewhere, stitched from pieces of narcotizing fabulisms, disturbing actualities, and incomprehensibilities – an interior excursion into the exotic immensity.

Self-labeled "dream-fi folk from the Cajun prairies," Renée released her first two songs in 2020 - "Out Loud" and "Until Tomorrow", which Gorilla vs. Bear described as "an effortless, inspired union of the haunting folk music that Reed was raised on and a lilting, lost '60s French-pop gem." Renée's statement on "Fast One" and her album: "This album is a collection of songs about toxic relationships, seeing ghosts, ancestral baggage and blessings, and daydreaming about love. It is about certain feelings and experiences I've had over my life coming to fruition in the past three years. It was all made on a four track recorder at home, in a place and in a way I feel most natural, and I believe that quality comes through in the sound." She has drawn comparisons to Jessica Pratt, Mazzy Star, and Cate le Bon. Renée's music has a mysterious quality with a strong melodic undertow.

Reverse board tip on with silver pantone print. The first ever reissue of Dorothy Carter's 1978 folk/psych/drone masterpiece. A truly unique album in Dorothy's catalog of otherwise traditional psaltery folk music, Waillee Waillee's essence sits in the confluence of Dorothy's mastery of the dulcimer; its shimmering notes fully enmeshed with the tremulous, cavernous drones of Bob Rutman's bowed steel cello. The core of this album, Dorothy's only with a full band, lies in the contradiction of traditional psych-folk idioms and the minimal avant-garde, referencing Henry Flynt and Laraaji as much as Karen Dalton. This LP version includes 12 page booklet with unpublished manuscripts, drawings, photographs, and songbooks of the songs from the album, as well as extended liner notes from friends and family of Dorothy Carter, including notable musicians such as Laraaji, Bob Rutman, and Alexander Hacke (of Einstürzende Neubauten). Drops soon - a joint release between Palto Flats & Putojefe Records.

Dorothy Carter was many things - a virtuoso player, storyteller, historian of Celtic and Appalachian folk music, avid lifelong busker, avant-garde musician, and itinerant troubadour, laying a framework for music that existed both within and outside of standard folk idioms - never better represented than on her 1978 masterwork, Waillee Waillee. Underscored by Bob Rutman’s cavernous bowing of the steel cello, the richness of Waillee Waillee’s sound produces an album unlike any other in her discography. In particular, its two side-ending pieces, “Summer Rhapsody” and “Tree of Life,’’ glide with the shimmering filigree of hammered dulcimer and Dorothy Carter’s ephemeral voice floating over Rutman’s droning buzz of the steel cello. The elements of these two tracks suggest something akin to a transcendental Appalachian raga or whirling cosmic folk music, an effortless combination that serves to add additional substance to the remaining tracks on the album.

The title track is one of her most enduring compositions, often performed in stripped down versions throughout her career, and one of her sole recordings featuring a full band, with the contrapuntal interplay of tremulous flute, vibrating steel cello, bass and drums. Lyrically and tonally, her voice would never sound as stirring and refi ned as on this, her most outwardly accessible song.

She counted musical colleagues as diverse as Constance Demby, Einstürzende Neubauten and Laraaji, as well as her lifelong artistic partner and friend Bob Rutman, whose imprint is felt throughout the grooves of this record. The master tapes for this recording were fortuitously discovered in Rutman’s Berlin studio, many, many years later. As recounted in Laraaji’s contribution to the liner notes, Dorothy was “someone who really influenced my early zither exploration and vocabulary and inspired my shift toward hammered zither performance and recording,” after encountering him busking on the sidewalk one day in the 1970s. Later, when living in Berlin in the early 1990s, Dorothy would begin work on manuscripts detailing the history of the dulcimer family and providing extensive sheet music, selected material of which is reproduced in the twelve page booklet included with this release. Dorothy would find later success touring and performing in the late 90s with the ensemble Mediæval Bæbes, which she led with British musician Katherine Blake, playing a prominent role on their first four albums.

Record Store Day 2023 first time officially reissued on vinyl since 1988. Limited to 500 copies. Rasman Maxwell Udoh was one of the best things to come out of the Nigerian music scene in the 80s and 90s. Born on the 29th of August 1959 and passed away on the 18th of December 2014, his 55 years on earth were a memorable time that resulted in many contributions to the musical heritage of Nigeria, and the messages he spread through his lyrics are still treasured by the downtrodden even today. Maxwell Udoh was a true pioneer, and his musical legacy is more than relevant, even to this day.

After he left Oron’s Methodist Boys High School in 1980, Maxwell’s uncle Patrick Peter Udoh took him under his wing. As a professional musician with The Doves Rock Band, Patrick taught him all he could until the band’s dissolution, which prepared Udoh for the trailblazing career that he would soon be embarking upon. Maxwell Udoh and His Masses Militia Band took Nigeria by storm with their debut album ‘Forward Ever, Backward Never’. The record was a massive hit that opened his route to greatness, taking his reputation far beyond the shores of Nigeria and winning him several music awards.

The fame that Maxwell would claim from this would skyrocket him into his election as chairman of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria. As a naturally inclined musician and charismatic leader type since childhood, his journey is a series of natural progressions that sequentially delivered to him the many stages of the recognition he deserved.

Rasman Maxwell Udoh was renowned as an advocate for social justice, as well as one of the first few Africans to sing authentic reggae in its true form. His musical catalogue overall helps tell the story of a man who was larger than life and is cherished both in Africa and the world over to this day. Maxwell’s independent albums and singles are classics for the ages and stand firmly and triumphantly as paragon examples of the best of Nigerian music.

On the album we are proudly presenting you today (‘Survival Of The Fittest’ recorded in Nigeria in 1972) the listener is treated to six mind blowing tracks filled with excellent reggae, funk, soul, boogie and disco influences. Also included is the heavy hitting smash-hit “I Like It (Don’t Stop)” that was featured on the ’’Khruangbin: Late Night Tales” album. Fans of Maxwell will be proud that he was chosen as a representative of Nigeria on these ongoing and acclaimed series. A great accreditation for Maxwell Udoh and a big deal to say the least. All of the above makes ‘Survival Of The Fittest’ a real must-have for collectors and fans alike.

Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the First ever vinyl reissue of this landmark Nigerian album originally released on Average records in 1988 (OG copies go for large amounts on the second-hand market). This is also the first time these recordings are being released outside of the African continent. This unique record comes as a deluxe 180g vinyl edition (strictly limited to 500 copies) with obi strip and features the original artwork. Released exclusively for Record Store Day (uk/europe) 2023 and available in participating stores on April 22, 2023.

A truly unique Gospel stylist - Isaiah Owen's plays guitar and sings in his own very distinctive and otherworldly way. Isaiah plays loud and with quite a bit of dissonance, his voice floating above beautifully. This LP features some of his finest performances captured from his radio broadcasts in Montgomery Alabama and from studio recordings. Mississippi is very proud to present this material. Liner notes by Kevin Knutt (of the greatest radio show of all time, Sinners Crossroads, as well as the Case Quarter label).

A retro-futuristic journey from folk to free exploring the shores of the Mediterranean, claiming its power as a living core, never as a deadly border. The TransMegaCobla fuses traditional Mediterranean culture –from bulería to kopanitsa, from gnaoua to sardana– with contemporary culture to create a fictional but deeply human and festive universe. Resurrecting the Phoenician language, the octet seeks common roots to fuse and remake them with contemporary molds such as rock, punk, free jazz and conducted improvisation. A timeless orchestra ready to invent, with real elements, a science-fiction Mediterranean in a parallel reality.

Djiguia is an Ode to Life. It is a calm breathing, a sigh, a rage to live, a reflection. a resistance as much as a letting go...It is the word, the silences and the cries of what Strange o'clock carries and defends.This new Strange o'clock album is intended to be even more distinctive and diversified, while keeping this African'Blues touch well known to the duo.Imbued with blues, rock, jazz, psyche, Tuareg and Mandinka music. this album is a real journey without borders or space-time...

Available for the first time and on CD only, the live sessions of Baba Stiltz second LP „Paid Testimony“ recorded earlier this year at the legendary „Atlantis Studios“ in Stockholm. Full Music info below: When he‘s not writing or recording, Baba Stiltz immerses in fearless fiction by the likes of Denis
Johnson and Dodie Bellamy; prose where pedestrian details become transcendent in aggregate and the inner lives of marginal characters are examined as though they were kings. A similar thesis runs through „Paid Testimony“, the essential second tape of minimalist guitar music from the Filipino-American-Swedish artist.
In recent years, Stiltz has made like Lee Hazelwood‘s Cowboy In Sweden in reverse, making annual pilgrimages from Stockholm to California and reconnecting with his roots via a guitar and a Fostex 4- track. He‘s drawn to the less glamorous corners of the golden state, an observant habitué of unkempt
streets and dive bars stretching from LA to Vacaville. It‘s a long stretch from the jetset techno clubs where Baba originally plied his musical trade, but it‘s where he finds characters and ideas worth writing about.
The characters on „Paid Testimony“ are on the edge and on the run. Surrounded by flawed men with big schemes since childhood, he extrapolates characters who plot bank heists and order milk and vodka in AM hours, the type of confrontation- prone characters who „say some shit, make everyone
uncomfortable and then just split.“ To focus on the rawness of this document would discount the humor and sympathy with which he treats his characters, not to mention the subtly- psychedelic songwriting recalling David Berman, early Smog, the original indie rock minimalist poets.
On the final song, Stiltz looks back on the city that raised him, „Stockholm,“ referencing „young professionals carelessly living“ before adding „I can‘t say I‘m not jealous even though I live my life just like they do.“ There‘s an honesty in the small details revealed on „Paid Testimony“, and a defined
sense of place, be it Stockholm, Sacramento or some dim barroom across from the Bank Of America. Baba doesn‘t quite fit in anywhere. This outsider quality has often been used as a marketing tool, yet here, it lends a writerly aspect to the proceedings, an unreality to the everyday.

Featuring current/former members of Light The Fuse And Run, Wow, Owls!, Weak Teeth and Jesuscentric, Best Practices is a return to the fundamentals of punk rock. On the band's Tiny Engines debut, The EP LP, the quartet lets loose a whirlwind of (garage power pop) punk fury. Recorded with Will Killingsworth (Orchid, Ampere) at Dead Air Studios, Best Practices pummel their way through 9 songs in 12 glorious minutes. The band comes close to careening off the edge at points but never seem to overtake themselves. Chock full of razor sharp hooks Best Practices lays down a furious gauntlet that is as catchy as it is exhausting. All your left with as The EP LP fires towards the finish line is the feeling that you just want to do it all over again.

sferic mark 5 years of operations with a special deep dive into ancient/modern Mediteranean culture by Giovanni Napolano, usually known for crankier industro-dancehall output as Nplgnn (Reel Torque, Youth) as well as programming the wonderful MBE label (Beatrice Dillon, Conor Thomas, Evol) - a proper Riyl Jay Glass Dubs, Christos Chondropoulos, Alan Lomax, DJ Screw, Coda Lunga.

Unfolding along two sprawling 15 min sides, Napolano stitches threads of chopped & screwed folksong with a discrete dub strategy, seamlessly leading the mind down labyrinthine ginnels of his imagination in a sort of uchronic regression session where the ghosts of the past inform the present. In the process it humbly speaks to Naples’ position at the frontier of the current migrant crisis, and necessarily takes a standpoint against Italy’s resurgent, nationalist fascism, revealing the beauty and energy of its indigenous mixture of peoples, rather than erecting borders between them.

Taking his native Naples as a locus of Mediteranean culture, Napolano plunges the port city’s palimpsest of energies embedded by successive waves of Greek, Northern African & Eastern migration to discover an underlying, rhizomic connection and commonality linked by dub and hip hop as a contemporary iteration of folk music.

Under its titular, mythical metaphor for the fall of Babylon, and usage in Rastafari culture, ‘Le Macerie Di Babilonia’ imaginatively examines a sense of self via a historic lens, drawing on Napolano’s upbringing in the chaotic port city and his autodidactic research into the rich mosaic of Napolitan heritage, to model how a folk class solidarity and shared character, with its own rules and rituals, has emerged from its syncretic milieu.

Variously a treatise on provenance; an impressionistic tale of the European north meets a global south; a dub-abstracted, allegoric, ethnomusicological collage; ‘Le Macerie Di Babilonia’ is a fascinating and immersive listen that presents its maker’s dilated world view at its most mesmerising.