Folk Sale 240 Items

"28/4/23" captures the atmospheric live performance of Swedish composer Mats Erlandsson at Fylkingen, Stockholm on the 28th of April, 2023. With exceptional delicacy, Erlandsson guides the audience through his signature electro-gothic soundscape of continuous tension; 40 minutes of processed field recordings, zither, feedback and Serge modular synthesizer.

Cyanotype prints and woodcut by Håkan Jonson. Released in an edition of 90 copies.

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 This LP version includes 12 page booklet with unpublished manuscripts, drawings, photographs, and songbooks of the songs from the album, as well as extended liner notes from friends and family of Dorothy Carter,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.

Edna Martinez pays a heartfelt tribute to her birthplace in Valledupar with another entry of Cintas Elefandes- a colorful showcase of Vallenato, the passionate, accordion-driven genre that spreads from the tributaries of the Cesar river in northern Colombia. A bittersweet mix that sits just right with an open bottle of rum, or the soul remedy of your choice.

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.

In this new album, Matjé delivers stories sung or rapped in French on tropical music. His light and poetic words but heavy with meaning mingle, among others, with Colombian Cumbia, Brazilian Forro, African Soukous, Reunion Maloya, Malagasy Salegy...Although drawing on traditional music, this new opus is anchored in modernity and we sometimes feel Hip hop influences in the flow or production of certain titles.His solar and catchy music exudes a positive energy inviting to dance while the careful and poetic writing leads to take a step back and reflect.

Folk duo lilo's ascent continues with second EP, I Don’t Like My Chances On The Outside. Having met at school aged 11, Christie Gardner and Helen Dixon’s friendship runs over a decade deep. Starting out with homespun recordings and YouTube covers, by the time they moved to London in their late-teens, they had an unshakeable creative bond that forms an incredible bedrock for them to flourish from. Their exceptional debut EP Sleep Country (Practise Music) came out in late-2021. Taking cues from alt-folk and classic country, it showed a maturity and dexterity that belied their years. As Loud & Quiet said of the band in a recent interview, "what sets them apart from their contemporaries is a real understanding of Americana-influenced folk’s lineage as a genre. Think Emmylou Harris’ soul bearing and the pitchperfect vocal glide of Karen Carpenter." New EP, I Don’t Like My Chances On The Outside, is a truly brilliant follow-up that underscores that we're no longing talking about promise with this duo. Working with producer friend Joseph Futák, they're now firmly in their stride, deftly counterbalancing delicate moments and harmony-led pop highs across a full-bodied band sound. Their lyrics speak for their generation too, encapsulating the panic, anxiety and love of twenty-somethings at a time of great uncertainty; from single 'Settled' where the financial realities of needing to move back in with your parents to the sheer relief of ending a relationship on 'I Don't Love You Anymore' and 'Just A Thought's failing attempts to pull a friend away from a bad person ("It's your hill to die on," they warn), nothing is off the plate.

Most of Gen X-ers who grew up in the mid-1980s Indonesia must have seen Soedjarwoto Soemarsono, known with his nom de guerre “Gombloh” performing on a state-run television station, playing some of his biggest hits from that era, pop gems like “Kugadaikan Cintaku (I Pawn Off My Love)”, “Setengah Gila (Half-Crazy).”

But of course, it is not fair to judge Gombloh only from these hits. Dig deeper and you will find buried treasure in his early stuff from Indra Records, and there are many of them.

His album with the band Lemon Tree’s Anno ‘69 (yes, that’s the name of the band) is all remarkable, but what he did for Chandra Records was no less spectacular. How can you go wrong with songs like “Kebyar-Kebyar”, the unofficial national anthem for Indonesia, dan “Berita Cuaca” one of the better epic songs in a catalogue full of epochal songs? These were all long out of print and in our journey to source the original master for these albums we met Bob Djumara of Nirwana Records, the Surabaya, East Java-based label which broke Gombloh into the mainstream in the mid-1980s. Almost all albums Gombloh recorded for his early labels, Indra Records and Chandra Records were critically acclaimed, but commercially they bombed, big time. Nirwana Records came up with an ingenious plan. What if they recorded Gombloh performing live and release it as is. After all, the first song in Gombloh debut record Nadia & Atmospheer is him strumming on his guitar backed by the cheering of a crowd, who could be heard going wild when he hurled that epithet “bastard” at the end of the song

The end result is a brilliant recording which despite being recorded live the sound quality so pristine leading many to doubt the claim of being live. Regardless, Nirwana shipped a decent number of units and Gombloh could buy his first car, a Katana Jeep, with money from the royalty.

One of the best things about Live Gila is its perfect sequencing, beginning with Gombloh’s social commentary on the rich’s debauched lifestyle of preying on young boys and girls, one of the most popular subjects allowed by the censoring machine of the New Order authoritarian government. The second song “Untuk Persada” is a soaring ode to the nation. For this song, Gombloh could be heard drawing his inspiration from The Police, which was undoubtedly popular in the early 1980s, even in a faraway port city like Surabaya.

Listening to this record as a whole (we omitted the last song from the original master tape “Bagimu Negeri” which sounds too jingoistic), we could not help but point to some of similarities it has with Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks. Not a single composition in this record sound indigenous (the Malay-influenced rock of Panbers or Koes Plus come to mind); they all sound modern and effortlessly catchy, and had it not been for the language, this album could be mistaken for a musical output from someone growing up in Laurel Canyon or Southern France.

There are only limited copies of vinyl records in the second-hand market today available for Gombloh music, if at all. For his ardent fans, they have to scavenge for old cassettes to continue to be able to enjoy his music and have to pay top dollar for that. In Indonesia, where he was a superstar in the early 1980s, Gombloh was largely forgotten. With this project, we can only hope that the time is ripe for Gombloh to reemerge and now, more than ever, his music could speak to a bigger audience.

Quantity: 1700
Release type: RSD Exclusive Release

Dark Horse Records is proud to reissue Leon RUSSELL’s 1984 album Hank Wilson Vol. II on limited Red Vinyl for Record Store Day Black Friday. The album notably features a duet with Willie Nelson on the country standard “Wabash Cannonball,” plus takes on classics by Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, and Don Gibson. Russell was born in Oklahoma, had a home in Tulsa, and grew up around country and blues music. After making successful rock albums, touring, and releasing the concert album Leon Live, he returned to his roots under the name of a fictional musical personality: Hank Wilson. His second outing under this assumed name, Hank Wilson, Vol. II, was self-produced in 1981 at Leon’s Paradise Studios in Burbank, California.

Where Rock 'n' Roll Was Born: Celebrating 100 Years of Sam Phillips[2 LP] Determination and passion drove Sam Phillips to create Sun Records and change music forever, and Sun is celebrating his 100th birthday with a 2-lp anthology of songs he brought to life. The gatefold features archival photos and liners from Grammy-winning writer Robert Gordon about Phillips' legendary legacy. Known as "The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll," tracks from artists like Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis remind listeners what the Big Bang of rock and roll sounded like in 1950s Memphis.

After taking a hiatus from her music career in 1979, Yoshiko Sai made a comeback to the music scene with her album "Taklamakan" in 2008. However, she did not resume her live performances until the following year. Later she performed live in Tokyo in 2014 and 2015 but each time only once. This live album features a recording of her performance at a "Midnight Heavy Rock Party vol.2" held at Shibuya Mount Rainier Hall in 2014. Jojo Hiroshige and Futoshi Okano from Hijokaidan and other representative alternative musicians from Japan played as her backing band, making it a legendary performance where Yoshiko Sai miraculously made her comeback. This live recording has never been publicly released before, and P-vine is honored to be able to share this wonderful recording with her fans around the world.

8-Track available on Pink, Yellow, Blue or White (Randomly selected). Due to limited capacity the full track-list is not included on the 8-Track Definitive collection of Nancy's rare singles, demos and previously unreleased cuts. Includes 3 previously unreleased tracks, plus 3 tracks making their vinyl debut. Deep booklet includes new Q&As with Nancy & Don Randi (The Wrecking Crew) - both conducted by Grammy®-nominated co-producer Hunter Lea Plus never-before-seen photos from Nancy Sinatra’s personal archive. Features audio freshly remastered from the original analog tapes by Grammy®-nominated engineer John Baldwin. Vinyl pressed at RTI. Double LP housed in a gatefold jacket with 24-page book Light in the Attic continues to celebrate the influential career of singer, actress, activist, and icon *Nancy Sinatra* with a captivating new collection, Keep Walkin’: Singles, Demos & Rarities 1965-1978. Exploring the lesser-known gems from Sinatra’s rich catalog through 25 B-sides, rare singles, covers, demos, and previously-unreleased recordings, Keep Walkin’ was remastered by the *Grammy®-nominated engineer John Baldwin* and available in a variety of formats, including vinyl, CD, 8-track, and digital. The 2LP set, pressed at Record Technology, Inc. (rti), is presented in an expanded gatefold jacket and accompanied by a 24-page booklet featuring an array of photos from the artist’s personal collection, as well as a new in-depth Q&A with Sinatra, conducted by the reissue’s Grammy®-nominated co-producer, Hunter Lea. The booklet also contains a fascinating interview with keyboardist Don Randi (The Wrecking Crew), who recently spoke to Lea about his hit-filled career and his 50 years of work with Nancy. Keep Walkin’: Singles, Demos & Rarities 1965-1978 serves as a companion to the widely-acclaimed 2021 career-spanning retrospective, Start Walkin’ 1965-1976, and marks the latest release in LITA’s ongoing Nancy Sinatra Archival Series, a partnership with the legendary artist, which honors her musical legacy through lovingly curated reissues (including her 1966 debut, Boots and the 1968 classic, Nancy & Lee), limited-edition merch, and other special releases. In 1965, 25-year-old Nancy Sinatra scored her first No.1 hit with “These Boots are Made for Walkin’,” a bold anthem for female empowerment. Brazen, sassy, and utterly infectious, it was a reintroduction of sorts for the eldest daughter of Frank Sinatra, who had been struggling to find a spotlight of her own amid a changing musical landscape. Suddenly, audiences who had initially brushed off Sinatra as too demure or out-of-touch were paying attention. Written and produced by Oklahoma-born songsmith Lee Hazlewood (with swaggering instrumentals, courtesy of Billy Strange and The Wrecking Crew), the song launched the singer’s career, as well as one of music’s most unlikely, yet compelling, creative partnerships. Over the next decade, Sinatra continued to notch multiple hits on both sides of the Atlantic, including “Sugar Town,” “How Does That Grab You, Darlin?,” and a haunting rendition of the Sonny Bono-penned “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down).” The singer also paired up with Hazlewood for a series of popular duets (“Summer Wine,” “Jackson,”* and *“Some Velvet Morning”) and collaborative albums. In between best-selling LPs like Boots (1966), How Does That Grab You (1966), and Nancy & Lee (1968), Sinatra performed the theme song to the 1967 James Bond film, You Only Live Twice, and collaborated with her father on the global chart-topper, “Somethin’ Stupid.” While these career landmarks are well-documented in the annals of pop culture history, however, much of Sinatra’s catalog remains sorely overlooked. As Keep Walkin’ co-producer Hunter Lea explains, “With the changing taste of the record-buying public in the late 1960s and the counterculture taking over, artists like Nancy Sinatra weren’t in the mainstream as they once were.” Despite that fact, “[Sinatra] kept working, recording, and performing at a voracious pace.” Lea continues, “This compilation is a celebration of some of the many glorious recordings that may have been overlooked, forgotten, or never even released at the time. The obscurity of some of these recordings doesn’t mask the genius, brilliance, and effort that went into them; on the contrary, it’s incredible to learn that some of the lost gems are just as rich as the national treasures.” Among the highlights is the spritely opener “The City Never Sleeps at Night,” which served as the B-Side to “These Boots Were Made for Walkin’.” Overshadowed by the colossal success of its A-side, it’s no surprise that the cinematic tune never had its proper due. Yet, Lea reveals, Hazlewood initially intended to make it the focus single. Another long-lost B-side is “The Last of the Secret Agents?,” which was paired with the Top 10 hit, “How Does That Grab You, Darlin’?” The playful song, written by Hazlewood, served as the theme to the 1966 comedy of the same name, in which Sinatra co-starred alongside Marty Allen and Steve Rossi. Keep Walkin’ also features several choice A-sides that were never included on albums and were overlooked for one reason or another. Among them is 1966’s “In Our Time,” a rebellious anthem for ‘60s youth, which references drug culture and women’s liberation, among other topics. Speaking to the Hazlewood-penned track, Sinatra recalls, “That was a fun song. Lee was starting to do his ‘anti’ stuff. He was cynical and it showed in his writing at some point.” But, despite the themes of the song, Nancy laments that she was never embraced by the counterculture. “[drugs] knocked me out of the picture completely. I was so far removed from the hip people in those days. I think they probably made fun of my stuff.” Another stylistic departure for both artists is “Love Eyes,” a bluesy, soulful single from 1966. The song, Nancy shares, is “one of my favorites. I think what helped Lee’s writing at that point was the bigger sound.… I really love it. I think it holds up to this day.” She adds that her dreamy vocal performance was inspired by early female R&B stars like Ruth Brown and LaVern Baker. The collection also features several outstanding covers, including a previously-unreleased rendition of the Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil classic, “I Just Can’t Help Believing” (a hit for both B.J. Thomas and Elvis Presley). This 1978 recording, reimagined as a duet, marked one of Sinatra’s brief reunions with Hazlewood, following his abrupt move to Sweden not long after 1972’s Nancy & Lee Again. Another choice track finds Nancy interpreting Neil Diamond’s “Glory Road.” Released as a single in 1971, it features one of the singer’s most cherished vocal performances. “After I worked on my voice and improved as a performer and as a singer, I embraced Neil Diamond. Anything I did by Neil Diamond, to me, is my best work.” Nancy also looks back fondly on her moving rendition of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine," released in 1973 as the B-side to “Sugar Me.” The recording (which features particularly lush orchestral arrangements by Billy Strange) reunited Nancy with another close collaborator, Jimmy Bowen, who produced the singer in the early ‘60s and later introduced her to Hazlewood. “I love Jimmy,” she declares. “The records we did early on…had a depth to them that I appreciated. He heard me and saw me in a different light; he saw me as a much more serious performer, which I appreciated.” Listeners will also be delighted to hear a pair of previously-unreleased demos: “Something Pretty” (the 1968 country hit, made famous by Wynn Stewart) and the theme to the 1965 Richard Rogers/Stephen Sondheim musical, Do I Hear a Waltz?, both of which were intended for a self-described “disco” record. Despite the two catchy takes featured on Keep Walkin’, Sinatra calls the shelved album “A disaster. I called it the disco fiasco!” Offering additional insight into Sinatra’s career is music director, songwriter, and keyboardist, Don Randi. A member of the hallowed *Wrecking Crew* collective, Randi was one of the most prolific session musicians of the ‘60s and ‘70s with hundreds of credits to his name, including The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations,” Linda Ronstadt’s “Different Drum,” and “These Boots are Made For Walkin’” – his first recording with Sinatra. For the next fifty years, he would be a fixture at her sessions and live shows. He also appears on nearly every track in this collection. Speaking to Lea, Randi delves deep into his time with Sinatra, with a palpable admiration for the singer. *“She was easy to work with,”* he shares. “She was always wonderful to musicians; nobody even comes close.” The keyboardist, who met Sinatra through Hazlewood, also recalls the magic of that partnership. “I always liked working with Nancy & Lee. They had something very special that they could get out of each other. It was a good team.” He continues, “Sinatra stood up for herself [around Lee]…He could be so cantankerous…but that’s Lee…. [Nancy] saw through it. She was so lovely and helpful to him a number of times when he really needed someone to talk to.” That said, Randi also appreciates the power of Sinatra’s solo performances. “I never thought she really needed [Hazlewood},”* he reveals. “I thought her shows were just as well with everybody else; they were excellent.” After stepping back from the industry in the ‘70s to focus on her young family, Sinatra returned to the spotlight in the mid-90s, releasing a string of new albums, including the star-studded Nancy Sinatra, which paired the artist with some of her biggest fans, including Morrissey, U2, Calexico, and Sonic Youth. Since then, Nancy’s legacy has only continued to grow. In more recent years, her impact has been recognized by the likes of Pitchfork, NPR, and Rolling Stone, while in 2020, “Boots” was inducted into the Grammy® Hall of Fame*. Today, Sinatra remains a force in the industry, as new generations discover her influential catalog, which boasts nearly 20 studio albums and dozens of charting singles.

Next up on Rocky Hill is a limited edition, vinyl only white label, featuring 2 edits licensed from Terrestrial Funk and Darone Sassounian's compilation from 2021, and two original tracks from LA - based DJ and producer, Lara Sarkissian. The A side (Silk Road Side), features two previous exclusives from Darone's compilation on Terrestrial Funk titled, 'Silk Road: Journey of the Armenian Diaspora (1971 - 1982)'. The two edits on the A side were only available digitally, on CD, and Cassette formats. A1 features an edit of Marten Yorgantz's "Ammenain Serdov [De Tout Coeur]" from NY-based DJ duo, Fundido. A2 features an edit of Jozeph Sefian's "Karoun E Yegel" from Darone Sassounian. The B Side (Lara Sarkissian Side), features two original tracks sampling duduk (Armenian woodwind), songs - named as Lezginka Dance Scene and Ojakhum Nightmare. The tracks are reworks of the originals from 2016 - 2017, when Sarkissian began the creation of her own unique process of synthesizing duduk as percussion, bass and voice. Both tracks have been used in her early live sets from 2017 - 2018. They're finally available now only on vinyl. This is Rocky Hill.

Four dazzling, extended engagements with mbalax master-drumming.

The contribution from Holy Tongue is chase-the-devil steppers — thumping, clangorous, reverberating — super-charged with energy and atmosphere. From the off drummer Valentina Magaletti detonates a hard rain of small bombs, rounds of fire, ticking fuses. Musical co-ordinates are somewhere between classic On-U Sound crew like African Head Charge, The Mothmen, and Creation Rebel, and the experimental funk of the Pop Group and 23 Skidoo, at their funkiest. Thrillingly, the two dubs are increasingly deranged.

Adjusting the same wavelengths as her superb Workaround LP, Beatrice Dillon plays spaced-out, abstract synth-work against the bodily physicality of the ancient, shifting mbalax rhythms. The music is poised, mindful, tentative; but also limber, fleet, and magical.

Phantasmagorical and efflorescent, Lamin Fofana’s one-two is simply stunning. Both excursions are wide-open, beautiful, epic, and propulsive — the first mix is banging and headlong, the second more syncopated and serpentine — teeming with freshly sublime, funkdafied updates on Jon Hassell’s Fourth World possible musics.

The two parts of LABOUR’s Etu Keur Gui engage the same sequence of drum patterns (called bakks) from different perspectives. The duo performed portions of this piece at the opening ceremony of the Dakar Biennial in 2022, at the Grand National Theater, with thirty sabar players from the family of Doudou Ndiaye Rose. This Wolof phrase for the inner-court of a home — a meeting-place — doubles here as a metaphor for inner space on a metaphysical level; and Pan Sonic, Muslimgauze, Zoviet France, early Shackleton… all ghost across the threshold.

This record is a jewel for followers of the more obscure sounds of the 1960’s and 1970’s. In Catalonia, at the end of Franco’s dictatorship, a group far-out singers and musicians experimented with genres such as folk-rock, rhythm&blues, garage rock, psychedelia or Catalan rumba. Their names were Pau Riba, Sisa, Ia & Batiste, Toti Soler, Gato Pérez, Guillermina Motta and many others, who were responsible for the creation of masterpieces such as Dioptria, Galeta Galàctica, Chichonera’s Cat or the Miniatura EP. Now, Barcelona’s power-pop mainstay Ricky Gil teams up with high-energy rockers Biscuit to recreate the repertoire of those pioneers. Together they have unearthed a dozen nuggets and have recorded a powerful, intense and fully enjoyable album, featuring the collaboration of some of the surviving original artists.

Kacey Johansing’s latest album Year Away will be released July 28 via Night Bloom Records.

Once again Johansing called upon some of the finest players of Northeast Los Angeles’ vibrant music community to lend a hand with the record. The 70s R&B-folk of “Watch It Like a Show” features an electric guitar solo from Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy, while album closer “Endless Sound” boasts backing vocals from electronic musician Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and swooping Indian-inspired violins from Amir Yaghmai (haim, The Voidz). The record shines brightly thanks to an ace mix from veteran producer Rob Schnapf (Beck, Elliott Smith, Cat Power), woodwinds from Logan Hone (John Carroll Kirby, Eddie Chacon), and a featured rhythm section of drummer Josh Adams (Jenny Lewis, Bedouine) and bassist Todd Dahlhoff (Feist, Devendra Banhart). Recorded across multiple studios including LA’s famed Sunset Sound, the album remains steadfastly buoyed by the adept engineering of Tyler Karmen (mgmt, Alvvays).

In March of 2020, after learning that a dear friend’s life was coming to an end, Johansing sat down and in one sitting wrote the song “Daffodils”. An elegiac tribute to someone facing death with grace and curiosity, the lyrics confront Johansing’s own mortality by observing the brief lifespan of a Hlower. Only a week later when the world came to an abrupt standstill, she soon found herself processing this recent loss while trying to make sense of a new global reality. Across the ensuing months, Johansing found herself increasingly untethered by a world of isolation and political upheaval.

Michael Chapman (1941-2021) released his debut album Rainmaker in 1969 on Harvest. He went on to release over fifty albums and influence many with his evocative songwriting and guitar prowess. From heady jams to expressive ballads to experimental noise, Chapman’s work continues to inspire. Tompkins Square recruited Henry Parker to curate a collection of covers by working musicians from Chapman’s home turf in Northern England. With stunning artwork by local artist Bunty Marshall mapping the important places in Michael’s life, this 12th volume of Tompkins Square’s Imaginational Anthem series is the ultimate tribute to a very dearly missed artist. Features tracks from Parker, Dean Mcphee, Katie Spencer, Bobby LEE, Holly Blackshaw, Andrew DR Abbott, Hawthonn, and Chris Brain.

Alien Transistor announces a reissue of Such December, the fourth album by Japanese indie folk-pop artist, Gratin Carnival. Listeners might already know Gratin Carnival from their appearance on the Alien Parade Japan compilation of indie pop groups working with brass and woodwind. Gratin Carnival's "Just Watching" was one of the many highlights of that compilation, and its gentle bossa-folk glide reappears on Such December. Originally released in 2020, Such December captures beautifully the happy-sad charm of Gratin Carnival. The project of Koreyuki Mitsunaga, Gratin Carnival started in 2011; Mitsunaga had been home recording for some time and decided on the name as an umbrella for his music-making. Mitsunaga's main instruments are guitar, which he uses to great effect throughout, his gorgeous acoustic playing reminiscent of players like Ueno Takashi of Tenniscoats or João Gilberto, and alto saxophone and clarinet. Those three instruments make up the core of Gratin Carnival's sound, along with Mitsunaga's charmingly doleful singing. Recording at his parents' home, with a four-track cassette recorder and a MacBook, Mitsunaga created Such December during 2020, though the songs on it stretch back to 2016. As with plenty of musicians from the Japanese underground, Mitsunaga is involved in other music, too -- he's been working with The Otoasobi Project, which performs music in collaboration with individuals with learning disabilities, and their families; and he's also involved in improvised music. With Such December, though, you get to hear Mitsunaga's music at its most personal and individual, ten songs of still, gorgeously poised indie folk-pop, where the swooning clang of six strings meets the breathy bliss of woodwind and brass.

Mystic choral beauty drifting far into the outer cosmos, this other worldly ensemble creates a contemporary avant-garde vocal fusion combined with strange instrumental accompaniment. The Hani are linguistically derived from the YI branch of the Tibeto-Burmese and number a million and a half in the southern part of Yunnan province in China above Laos (Phongsaly) and Vietnam (Dien Bien) where smaller Hani communities also live. As with many other ethnic groups of the area, an original traditional singing pattern is used with each singer adapting the words to the context. Many of these songs express intimate strong emotions that bring tears to the performers while they are singing. The choir that gathers all singers at the same time is considered to be a very unique style of vocal polyphony or heterophony. The cascading mournful feel of this music is beautifully transcendent. You’ve never heard anything like it. Instruments used by the ensemble include the Babi (single tree leaf ) and Mepa (rolled up tree leaf in a shape of a horn or mirliton), a Chiwo (3-stringed bowed instrument), a Labi (6-holed bamboo flute), a Lahe (3-stringed small lute) and a Meba (vertical reed instrument). Recorded by Laurent Jeanneau in 2011, this Limited Edition vinyl LP includes a two sided insert with photos, liner notes, and names of all the vocalists and accompanying musicians.

»This River Only Brings Poison« was released in 2002 as the sixth full-length album of Chris Hooson’s Dakota Suite project. This first-ever vinyl edition of the record includes four bonus pieces and makes it possible for fans to re-evaluate one of the most crucial Dakota Suite albums in the project’s vast discography while also providing new listeners with an entry point into its intricate musical cosmos. »This River Only Brings Poison« turns out as a sonically rich and stylistically versatile as it is emotionally multi-layered.

Between tradition and contemporary aesthetics, Sousta Politiki forcefully and uniquely revisits the repertoire of Smyrneiko (Greek rebetiko from Asia Minor) and the songs of Istanbul, adding their own compositions.
Formed in Strasbourg in 2016, Sousta Politiki is a Franco-Turkish music group that draws inspiration from various urban and marginalized music genres of Greece and Turkey. The repertoire they explore is diverse, including Smyrneiko from Asia Minor, Kanto from Istanbul, rebetiko from Athens or Piraeus, and traditional songs from Thrace. However, they all share a common connection to the post-Ottoman traditions of the early 20th century. These songs primarily consist of vocals, and their themes often touch upon of daily life such as alcohol, drugs, prison, and prostitution.
The songs are approached with a sense of irony and celebration. One can find both joy and melancholy, as in Argentine tango or American blues. The five members of Sousta Politiki come from diverse musical backgrounds, including rock, Ottoman music, opera singing, rebetiko, and improvised music. The process of creation and reinterpretation knows no limits, and the unique instrumentation of the group (cello, Ottoman tanbur, accordion, bouzouki, percussion, and vocals) allows for surprising and unprecedented rearrangements.

Ils Veulent Nous Tuer is Bérurier Noir's 3rd maxi 45tours, the title of which is borrowed from the slogan of a banner unfurled by the mutineers from the roof of Fresnes prison. It was an apt title for the group, too, since at the time of its release, the political and police authorities decided to destabilise them by associating them with the Black War activists and arresting many of the Bérus' entourage.

It's a dark album, with hard-hitting lyrics rooted in the social reality of the time (1988) and tackling subjects as diverse as the problems of access to food for the precarious (On A Faim !), prison repression (Sur Les Toits), the excesses of marginal youth (Mineurs En Danger) and the omnipresence of the military and police in our daily lives (Et Hop !). The album compo

--

The band's name alone evokes the epic of alternative rock: rebellious and committed.

Born by mistake on a February evening in 1983, Bérurier Noir soon found themselves the driving force behind a vast "Mouv'ment d'la Jeunesse", determined to take control of their lives in the face of a society that was ultra-conservative at the time. Times have hardly changed.

From their first self-produced records distributed by hand to the creation of self-managed labels, from concerts in squats and wild appearances at demonstrations, on the street or in the metro to endless tours, from interviews given to fanzines and free radio stations to unclassifiable appearances in the mainstream media, Bérurier Noir waged the most exciting war of independence in the history of French rock, with just a microphone, a guitar, a drum machine, a few red noses and patched-up theatre masks.

François, Loran and their 'Troupeau d'Rock' gave the last finger to this turbulent, irredeemable raia, committing hara-kiri at the height of their glory, during three final concerts in the heart of Paris in November 1989.

Forty years after its birth, Bérurier Noir's work continues to resonate, whether at demonstrations or free parties, fuelling the hopes of all those who wish to turn this world upside down and build a truly libertarian society based on solidarity and brotherhood.

For those who missed this unprecedented adventure, the Archives de la Zone Mondiale label is bringing you 8 recordings by Bérurier Noir in the form of limited-edition reissues on highly original Color Vinyl ("crown" finish), distributed throughout the year.

Pressed on colored vinyl. Color unknown. Not on label.

Borrowed Tongue is the debut solo album by Korean singer-songwriter Minhwi Lee. It’s a mysterious, strangely compelling thing, an album of rare poetry, and remarkably self-assured. Originally released in November 2016, the album made waves, winning best folk album of 2016 at the 14th Korean Music Awards. Its eight songs, written and predominantly arranged by Lee, don’t reveal their secrets easily, or at first blush; rather, they take their time slowly to unfurl in her listeners’ worlds. There are hints of other music here, from time to time: the intimacy of Stina Nordenstam, perhaps; the gauzy haze of Hope Sandoval, on the blissed-out pop of “Broken Mirror”; there are touches of acid-folk, and ECM jazz, and a slyly filmic approach to songwriting and arrangement that makes every song fit perfectly into the album’s arc.

Lee arrived at her solo music through a complex, circuitous route. After studying musicology in Seoul, she learned her trade, film scoring, in New York and Paris. She also studied classical music, blowing off steam in a wild punk duo, Mukimukimanmansu, who released one album, 2012, on Korean indie label Beatball. Subsequently, Lee has been refining her music, focusing both on her solo songs, and on writing for television series and films; she’s written scores for films by such directors as Sangmoon Lee, Jeongwon Kam, and Wanmin Lee. She also plays in the jazz outfit Cubed, and recently joined doom metal group Gawthrop on bass.

Since its release in 2016, Borrowed Tongue has slowly bewitched listeners with its idiosyncratic arrangements and evocative songwriting. It’s an album that hints at plenty, but refuses to make grand statements, something Lee seems intent to pursue: in correspondence, she’s very clear that she wants these songs to enact a kind of transmutation, to be adopted into the listeners’ lives and exist within their own imaginings. She does, however, offer a few hints to what propels these mercurial songs, explaining, “this album is about a person who again opens their mouth, which was once shut. The album deals with what it means to speak: things that are known but not said, things that should be said but are not, things that cannot be said but nonetheless are.”

This may well explain the curious mood of Borrowed Tongue, the multiple ‘voices’ that inhabit the album; Lee’s singing voice is pliable and mutable, approaching each song as its own diorama and ensuring the song is sung with just the right tone. The arrangements Lee conjures for her songs are all in service to narrative and melody; they appear to her alongside the composition, which is surely why everything here fits together so beautifully. From there, Lee approaches her songs carefully, in deference to their ‘need to be sung’ a certain way. There isn’t a moment wasted: everything on Borrowed Tongue is as it needs to be, whether a melancholy folk song taking to the air, or a psychedelic reverie dreamed into being. It’s a beautiful, poised and confident debut.