Pop & Rock Vinyl New Releases - News

First official vinyl reissue of this sought-after psychedelic folk-rock / Americana / SSW album from 1976.

Major Arcana was a group led by counter-culture Milwaukee icon JIM Spencer, featuring a revolving cast of musicians / collaborators. The core of the band was Jim Spencer (guitar, vocals); Randall Dubis (electric guitar); Michael Burdecki (bass, slide guitar) and Jim Kitchen (percussion, harmonica). They were helped in the studio by some friends / musicians like Sigmund Snopek III and Barry Patton among many others.

Released on Jim Spencer’s own private label (A Major Label, home also to Anonymous of “Inside The Shadow” fame), the album opens with the terrific psych-folk of “Western Wind” and closes with an acid-folk rendition of “Greensleeves”. In between, you’ll also find some blues rock, SSW ballads, jazzy bits…

File next to groups like Pearls Before Swine or Bermuda Triangle.

It promises to be one of early 2019's most anticipated French albums. Having shot to fame in 2017 with his first solo album, simply named "Un" (One), featuring popular hits Sous Garantie and Cinéma, Malik Djoudi is now ready with the sequel, intriguingly entitled "Tempéraments". This Poitiers-born artist, with his strong personality and innate charisma, brings us eleven new songs that are at once instinctive and ambitious, hypnotic and exhilarating, informed and unburdened. Three years ago, following a journey of discovery to Vietnam, his mother's homeland, the singer and self-taught musician imagined a conditional future, writing eight songs in French that met with critical and public success. Thanks to this record, initially self-produced then released on the label Cinq7 (Dominique A, Katerine, Bertrand Belin), Malik Djoudi played more and more gigs, and performed at some of France's most prominent festivals (Nuits de Fourvière, Francofolies, Pete The Monkey, MIDI Festival, Biarritz en été, Rock en Seine, Coconut Festival, and more).

Whether than resting on his laurels, Malik Djoudi has decided to keep going with a second album simultaneously with a marathon tour. Last summer this self-taught singer and musician ended up finding refuge in the studio of sought-after producer Ash Workman (Metronomy, Christine And The Queens, Baxter Dury), with the artistic support of Amaury Ranger (Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains). In his quest for an electro, synthetic pop sound, this time Malik Djoudi has decided to do things differently (or "autrement" to paraphrase the title of the album's second track), having written, composed and produced Un on his own. "My first album seems almost alien to me. I just wouldn't be able to make it that way again now. On the new one, I started with a completely blank page, before shifting my focus to British/American culture…"

Unconsciously inspired - whether by Connan Mockasin's guitar or James Blake's synth sounds - Malik Djoudi composes on the guitar and the keyboard, without distinction. Chords, melodies and harmonies are the driving force for his creations. "I take my work very seriously. Since signing with Cinq7 in spring 2017, I have been essentially living out a childhood fantasy. The way I see it, a song is like a painting: every detail counts. I can spend six months trying to find the right three words that are missing from some song lyrics. The music, the lyrics, the breathing and the placement of the instruments are just as important." He is meticulous, obsessive and demanding, spending long nights perfecting his art. Tempéraments shines with melodic brilliance, daring arrangements, androgynous vocals and profound lyrics. Certain stanzas resonate immediately: "I laze in blue jeans" (Tempérament) "To feel different, like when I was twenty" (Autrement); "Marry the night to reach new heights" (Épouser la nuit); "I can adapt, accept, but I don't like August" (Belles sueurs); "Sweet madness squared" (Folie douce). His lyrics are largely autobiographical, expressing dreams of carelessness and sentimental destiny.

Halocline - a visible layer of water that forms between saltwater and freshwater when there is a rapid change in salinity; they are found in colder oceans, caves, fjords and estuaries.

Malin Lewis is a queer bagpiper, fiddler, instrument maker and award winning composer. One of Scotland's most exciting innovators, Malin melds west coast tradition with a newly invented, self-made bagpipe. Hair tingling, philosophical and dance inducing melodies inspired by European folk traditions, humans, queerness and the universe. Having played in Canada, Europe and across the UK, Malin will release their long awaited debut album Halocline on the 3rd May 2024 with Hudson Records. Halocline began as a New Voices commission for Celtic Connections and was premiered to a sold out Strathclyde Suite, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in 2023.

"I saw my first Halocline aged fourteen whilst swimming in an estuary in the Isle of Skye. I didn't know what it was at the time but the image has stayed with me ever since. Appearing like a hazy layer of cloud under the water; it floats between two worlds and provides an environment which is home to a unique microbial ecosystem. As a trans person I live in a space in between; this beautiful space between a binary with its own colourful and unique culture."

Malin's unique sound is born from the deep connection that comes with making and composing for their own instrument. Alongside whistle and fiddle, Malin plays a newly invented two octave bagpipe that, when combined with guitar FX pedals, creates a whole new world of sound which is as lively, thought provoking and sensitive.

Under the Malmin-moniker you’ll hear on “Med Ashild Vetrhus” original organic grooves and timeless tunes from three masters of the quite unheard ‘untamed, hypnotic, raw and chanting’ folk music of Rogaland: Olav Christer Rossebo, Anders Hana (also known from the bands Moha! and Naaljos Ljom) and vocalist Ashild Vetrhus. This record consists of traditional and spiritual music from the Rogaland region in Norway (in the south-west of the country, around the city Stavanger). The album includes upbeat ‘dance’ and nostalgic folk music with a religious touch here and there. The typical national and sometimes even regional instruments used on this record in addition to voice is: hardanger fiddle, langeleik (a zither-like instrument), microtonal mandolin and guitar, mouth harp and fiddle. The performers have learned the music directly from traditional sources, but most of the material on this record has derived from the study of archive recordings from the Ryfylke Museum (in the city of Sand).

Tinges of Americana stand side-by-side with the ghosts of Eastern
European fiddle tunes and ancient a cappella ballad singing, melding into
an unusually accessible dark-folk sound on Mama's Broke 'Narrow Line',
now available on vinyl
Canadian folk duo Mama's Broke has spent the past seven years in a nearconstant state of transience, pounding the transatlantic tour trail. They've brought
their dark, fiery folk- without- borders sound to major festivals and DIY punk
houses alike, absorbing traditions from their maritime home in Eastern Canada,
all the way to Ireland and Indonesia along the way. Nowhere is the duo's art-inmotion approach more apparent than on their long- awaited sophomore record
'Narrow Line'; it's the sound of nowhere in particular, yet woven with a rich
synthesis of influences that knows no borders. The eleven songs on 'Narrow Line'
burrow deeply, with close harmony duets, commanding vocals, and poignant
contemplations on cycles of life, including birth and death. A careful listen of
'Narrow Line' invokes an ephemeral sense of place—whether real or imagined—
inviting us to take comfort in the infinite possibilities of life, whether or not we
ever choose to settle down.

aLike some “Dream from Africa”, Yelema is a journey that wanders where the mood takes it, travelling a kind of enchanted universe where the

whole world, from the blues of the Delta to the arabesques of the oriental traditions, might have been invited to come and renew its strengths at the

springs and wells represented by the purest, most authentic music of Mali. At once both playful and poetic, and transcended by the inimitable voice of

Mamani Keita, this little gem of intelligence and music propels the music of Mali into the 21st century. Yelema has the audacity to telescope all kinds of styles,

all kinds of cultural hybridization, without ever ceasing, not even for the slightest instant, to humbly belong to the thousand-year-old gestures of the most authentic African music.

The long-arc vision of Faith Coloccia / Mamiffer has deftly traversed a sonic terrain with an emotional depth and compositional restraint rarely found in contemporary music. Across multiple albums, EPs, and splits, she and her collaborators have tapped into the passionate elements of life - the sublime joys and the harrowing losses - while also providing a score to the less definable moments; the pensive times of solace, the dissonant chapters of uncertainty, and the meditative sojourns. Mamiffer’s latest album, The Brilliant Tabernacle, transmutes darkness and rejoices in the force of life by illuminating the beauty of creation. Beginning with a foundation of piano, organ, and voice, Coloccia enlisted her partner and long-time collaborator Aaron Turner along with a congregation of auxiliary musicians to help her construct “a guiding light” in the form of seven songs.

With The Brilliant Tabernacle, Coloccia has focused her work on encompassing the totality of the human experience. Herein she acknowledges both the joyful abundance and inherent suffering of life, while fostering a deep reverence for “pristine awareness” as accessed by the natural mind. This fecund drive was further bolstered by the birth of her first child after her last album The World Unseen. The attendant experiences with maternity—hope, love, strength, support, surrender, and more than anything, the cognition of the self at its most powerful: the embodiment of vulnerability—prompted the construction of The Brilliant Tabernacle.

The album opens with “All That is Beautiful,” a poetic salve buttressed by Coloccia’s piano, Jon Mueller’s communal drum patterns, Veronica Dye’s constellating flute, and Turner’s dichotomous combination of bucolic acoustic guitar and distorted squall. Amidst this backdrop of lilting major and minor key melodies, Coloccia weaves a private psalm of global stewardship and personal strength—a prime example of her music serving as a talisman in a labyrinthine world. From there the album segues into the aural blessings of “River of Light,” a psychedelic calling of drones, pulses, and melodic fragments, with supplementary vocals by Monika Khot. “So That the Heart May Be Known” is a blissed-out harmonic incantation, an amalgam of old world folk elements and modern minimalist composition colored by Eyvind Kang’s string arrangements. Coloccia’s lyrics once again serve the overall vision of reveling in the beauty of creation by repeating the cyclical mantra “How does it feel? / What do you know? / All love!” Coloccia asserts that her aim with Mamiffer is to create psychedelia without drugs and spirituality without the dogma of religion, and that principle is deftly achieved on “Two Hands Together” where graceful piano foundations channel lyrical parallel’s between the process of birth and the metaphoric rebirth of baptism, invoking a secular sense of wonder and magic towards both human biology and consciousness.

“Hymn of Eros” is the centerpiece of side 2, a kaleidoscopic inversion of side 1’s homespun musical traditions interwoven with the electro-acoustic emissions of synthesist Alex Barnett and waves of textured bass from Brian Cook. It’s the track that most closely recalls the ominous lurch and protracted abstractions of Mamiffer albums like Hirror Enniffer and Mare Decendrii, although the lyrical intent is perhaps the most pointed of any song on The Brilliant Tabernacle. “So many problems in the world stem from people who do not love themselves, and have lost a fundamental gift that should be everyone’s birth right: to be loved unconditionally and completely. Much of our conditioning has strived to detach humans from one another, to see difference as threatening instead of as a strength, to separate the bond with the mother and the earth, and this is passed down through the generations,” Coloccia says. “I felt this record was a complete psychic and magical observation of the healing power of true love, of respecting vulnerability, of not wanting to forget where we all come from- how we were all once helpless and all deserving of love.” The album closes with “To Be Seen,” a transcendental plainsong that brings the uninitiated into the fold while conjuring the inviting warmth and hallucinatory spirituality of Letzte Tage Letzte Nächte-era Popol Vuh or the hypnotic repetition of Asa Osborne projects like Zomes and Lungfish.

“The album as a whole represents a mythical narrative: the hero's descent into the darkness of the soul and the generational sickness of our current culture and its history, followed by the triumphant reunification with the primal deep of total love. This process generates the power to break the spell of linear time, thought and action, and produces instead a sense of cyclic and physio-psychic existence. It provides the opportunity to overcome indoctrinated amnesia, to uplift collective strength and allows for the restoration of in-born self-love” Coloccia says of The Brilliant Tabernacle. And indeed, the album is a journey through the dark and into luminous revelation, across a myriad of textures and timbres, at turns tranquil, turbulent, and surreal.

“To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread.”- James Baldwin

Roscoe is a road dog - The 14-year-old Boston Terrier has been there for
the whole ride of Mapache, Clay Finch and Sam Blasucci's band, which
has grown from being the casual project of two longtime buds to one of
the most formidable cosmic-folk acts around
"Roscoe's been through a lot of shit," says Blasucci, the dog's formal owner. "He's
been all around the country, come on tour a little bit." With some bemused pride,
Finch points out that, for a few years, he and Blasucci bunked together in a room
in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles that was just big enough to fit two
twin beds. "It was the two of us and the dog," he laughs. Naturally, Roscoe has
found himself the subject of a good handful of Mapache songs in the past - and
on Roscoe's Dream, the band's upcoming third LP of originals, he takes center
stage.

UK multi-instrumentalist and story-teller Mara Simpson's new album In This Place will be released on September 24th, 2021. A heady blend of alt-folk, analogue synth and classical composition, In This Place is a tale of quiet rebellion, and taking back control. Fittingly, the new album marks the start of another new journey for Mara. In This Place will be the first record to be released on Downfield Records, a non-profit imprint set up by Simpson, placing artists at it’s centre. “I want to try and promote transparency and equality, assist other artists to get public funding and to ‘pay’ forward the time and resources I’ve benefited from,” she says. The label’s mission is to see musicians paid fairly and release records through a creative and joyous process.

Whilst the struggles of 2020 will go down in history, for Mara it was 2019 that was the tough one. A year spent consumed by worry, whilst in and out of hospital with her one year old daughter, had left Mara feeling like she was playing a constant game of catch up with a world that wouldn’t slow down. With songs ready to be recorded for her new album, she headed into the studio. “I stepped into the studio not needing my hand held, just my voice heard” explains Mara, who quickly came to the realisation that she was working in a toxic environment. Enough was enough

It was whilst waiting for a train that she had the sudden realisation that the album she was recording would never see the light of day. Struck by an overwhelming feeling of failure, Mara began to ruminate on the time and money she had wasted but then something clicked. “Perhaps it’s something about train stations, the coming and the goings, that allows a stagnating frame of mind the grace and space to clear” she says. “The funny thing is, upon realising failure, the despair I’d been feeling was now replaced with something else...Relief”.

Feeling re-energised, Mara called her dream producer Ellie Mason, of Voka Gentle, and together the pair began working on a new record. “I’ve been more hands-on with this album than I’ve ever been, taking a much more active role in production. Throughout the whole process Ellie has heard my voice, and been open to any possibility” explains Mara. “We’ve stumbled across golden moments, recording four part harmonies in Brighton’s oldest church, using every drum there is in Brighton Electric, layering New Zealand bird song with tape delayed piano, all thanks to her nurture, playfulness and kindness” she continues.

Album opener ‘Serena’, named after the apartment building in Brighton where Mara’s daughter was born, is based on the experience of becoming a mother and the responsibility of making important healthcare decisions. “How will I know how to love you” she sings over undulating synths and sparse piano chords. Title-track ‘In This Place’ is about the confrontation between mother and new-born child. The ‘sizing-up’ of one another as they embark on a new journey together. “When I left home to travel around the world and was so worried about breaking my Mum’s heart,” says Mara. “I just remember her saying that your children are never yours to keep. This is a song about the rawest of loves, and the fact that however much we love someone, they are never ours, and the beauty in that.”

In addition to the experience of motherhood, the songs on In This Place take inspiration from a wide range of places, including Mara’s ‘second home’ New Zealand. ‘Christchurch’, written in response to the Christchurch Mosque shootings in 2019, layers New Zealand birdsong on top of swirling piano and moving choral vocals. ‘Fault Lines’ was inspired by The Waitangi treaty. Signed in 1840 in New Zealand by the British Crown and Maori chiefs. The British understood that the Maori were signing over land that the British could now govern and effectively ‘own’, however to the Maori people it is impossible to own land, in the same way that you can’t ‘own’ air. “We live and die, the land remains and we are just it’s keepers for the very short time we are here. This song is about us not owning this earth - how can we? We are only the guardians of it while we are here” says Mara.

Backed by a band of accomplished musicians (Jools Owen (Bears Den) on drums, James Smith (Anaïs Mitchell) on banjo, Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres on clarinet and strings by Poppy Ackroyd) on In This Place, Mara sounds the most confident she’s ever sounded. With her new material, Mara Simpson hopes to promote a gentle, yet radical shift toward kindness and it’s this warmth that can be both heard and felt across her new record.

The album features a notable line-up of musician such as: Sami Yaffa (New York Dolls/Joan Jett), Dave Richmond (Serge Gainsbourg/Elton John), Christophe Deschamps (Jean-Michel Jarre), Kath Guifford (Stereolab), Will Crewdson (Adam & The Ants/The Selecters), Danny Ray (Bo Diddley/Brian Setzer)...Mastered at the legendary Abbey Road Studios and cut to vinyl across a 180g LP in a gatefold sleeve with booklet. L'homme de l'ombre immerses you from start to finish in a sonic and lyrical journey that rewards your mind and emotions. Here you will find the glamorous rock attitude of Marc O's musicianship colliding brilliantly with the wise and witty writing of french philosopher Bruno Pons Levy. The result is not so much a double identity, but an intangible and powerful third element, much like the mathematical equation described in the song The triangle squared (Le triangle au carré). This song is emblematic of Marc O's persona: a musician of style and vision, crossing cultures and decades to collaborate with a remarkable team and create this, his most personal album. Press quotes: Ten well realised, vintage aesthetic fantasies ****" MOJO "Singular debut set that lurches from glam-punk to Air-meets-Gainsbourg purr, infectiously Pulp-ish electro-rock and gauche, Bowie-esque panther strut. Formidable! 8/10" UNCUT "Never less than fascinating, this is an important and hugely enjoyable work ****" RECORD COLLECTOR "Propelled by his core rhythm section and lyricist collaborator, they address some weighty subjects with passion ****" SHINDIG! "Blends aggressive and powerful textures and melancholic soundscapes to break down language barriers and deliver a powerful, evocative and stunning album" LOUDER THAN WAR "The music is as strong as Pons Levy's lyrics, mingling melodic rock with chanson in the grand tradition ****" RNR

Signed to Columbia Records, Maren Morris is one of the leading country music voices of her generation. The 4 x platinum selling 'The Bones' topped the US Billboard country songs chart for an incredible 19 weeks in 2020. She has since won multiple awards. This album is the follow up to 2019's critically acclaimed 'Girl'. This is an 11 song album available on standard LP and CD. Strong support at radio, with plays across R2, Absolute, Virgin and ILR specialist shows. Ads, features, interviews and reviews across all press. Online/social media activity. Poster campaign and database mailout.

Margaret Glaspy’s third album Echo The Diamond emerged from a deliberate stripping-away of artifice to reveal life for all its harsh truths and ineffable beauty. Informed by profound loss, the album finds the New York-based musician sorting through that pain to piece together indelible fragments of wisdom. Produced by Glaspy with her partner, guitarist/composer Julian Lage, it expands on the frenetic vitality of her widely acclaimed debut Emotions and Math. On the new album, Glaspy recorded with bassist Chris Morrissey (Andrew Bird, Lucius, Ben Kweller) and drummer/percussionist David King of The Bad Plus.

Iconic Sámi – Norwegian folk artist Mari Boine is known as genre-bending trailblazer with
a taste for jazz, folk, rock, and world. Returning with a new album after five years, she has
again found something completely different inside her than anything heard before. The
album ‘Amame’, co-written with Norwegian jazz artist BuggeWesseltoft shows a different
and more mature Mari Boine, accompanied by Wesseltoft’s tender and responsive piano
playing.

In the early 1990s, a team of linguists, engineers, anthropologists, and archaeologists were tasked with constructing a type of communication that could transcend time. How might we converse with future civilizations when language may evolve or dissolve entirely? The result yielded the design of spike fields; a strange construction of granite thorns bursting from the earth to alert its viewers to the deadly uninhabitability of nuclear waste disposal sites. For Maria BC (they/them), this state of temporal focus molds the wanderings on their second full length album Spike Field. How do we connect with the weathered shadow of our experience, while envisioning the self a few steps ahead of us? While their debut album Hyaline (2022, Father/Daughter) explored grief and anxiety through a series of character-led accounts, Spike Field recognizes that the past will continue to lurk below the surface until we decide to break through the soil. Spike Field was recorded in the home of a family friend. The home featured an out-of-tune baby Steinway piano, complete with squeaky hammers and strange, sporadic sounds. The piano is sprinkled throughout the album, and features extensively on opener "Amber," showcasing Maria BC's looser, more extensive arrangements. The song flickers with electronic wonder, like a wave seeking out its station, before crashing into the angelic choral introduction of "Watcher". Strings, plucked guitar and buzzing swells accompany their classically-trained mezzo-soprano voice on "Return to Sender," a song that focuses on the frustrations and turmoil of being unable to reach a loved one--both physically and emotionally. Spike Field reminds us that despite our best efforts to bury certain aspects of ourselves, they will always lurk beneath the surface. Instead of ignoring the seeds striving to break through, we can point to these places with a curious grace, concocting a language that transcends words to converse with our previous selves. Maria BC pieces together juxtaposing sonic landscapes and oscillating vocals to represent the thread of miscommunication, or the failure of words, that weaves throughout the album, transforming it into a distinct and ever-evolving sonic tongue. If we listen, we might find something new within ourselves.

“Fans of acoustic guitar-playing female singer-songwriters are so flooded with options these days that they are in the position to be pretty discriminating. Artists such as Alela Diane, Marissa Nadler, Jana Hunter, and Mariee Sioux have issued a steady stream of quality music, and have collectively set a fairly high standard for newcomers to match.”
Mariee Sioux is an artist transmitting medicinal qualities of music for the current times we are in. Her finger picking guitar has been compared to the greats of Nick Drake and Bert Jansch and her music has also been described as hallucinatory with a trance like performance.

Her first album “Faces in the Rocks” is considered a cult classic and garnered attention from such artists as Mazzy Star, and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, with whom she has both collaborated and shared the stage with. She has also opened for Joanna Newsom, Frank Black, Buffy St. Marie, Alela Diane, and Brightblack Morning Light.

Poetic mysticism and ancestral remembrance have always been deeply embedded in Mariee Sioux’s music. There is a transcendent quality in her unique expression that sometimes feels otherworldly. Her ethereal singing aches with haunting sensitivity and the way she poetically weaves dreamlike imagery and the shared human experience together often moves listeners to tears. Over the past decade many people have written to tell her of profound healing experiences the music has supported them through; from births, to loved ones last breaths, moments of peace during drug withdrawls and reconnection to the self during trying times or heart break. There seems to be medicinal quality to her music that is undeniable and sought after in an often destructive and disconnected age.

Coming from mixed races of Polish, Hungarian and Native American heritage she has always been fascinated by her ancestry and has recently become involved in local and national indigenous activism. A highly sensitive person, Mariee was raised in the small gold mining town of Nevada City that resides on occupied Nisenan territory in Northern California. She grew up daydreaming about the old ways of her ancestors and what might have existed on their land, imagery that later found it’s way into her songwriting.

In her early years Mariee's father, a mandolin and guitar player, took the family to Bluegrass and music festivals where his band often played, exposing her to harmony, fingerpicking and the way music always brought community together. Music started to find a more personal place in her life when she taught herself to play guitar at 18 years old. Soon after she took her Dad’s guitar on an isolating and influential trip to Argentina where she traveled alone in the high desert and volunteered with indigenous Mapuche children. This was where the convergence of words, melody and channeling began and is when Mariee wrote her first songs.

During her 20’s, seeking relief for from alcoholism and depression, she started to explore the worlds of plant medicine and ceremonial ways to find healing. Throughout this time she was able to reconnect with her health, sense of purpose and the importance of sharing her gift with others. These medicine ways were life changing and continue to be an important part of her path. There is a maturity and deepening sense of self in the nature of Mariee Sioux's recent songwriting. Her third album “Grief in Exile” feels like a culmination of these profound experiences and strike the listener as much more refined, less stream of consciousness and abstract. This new collection of songs shares stories of deeply intimate and relatable feelings on heartbreak, loss, indigenous prophecy, and the need to welcome grief back into our lives for the health of society.

Mariee Sioux is an artist transmitting medicinal qualities of music for the current times we are in. Her finger picking guitar has been compared to the greats of Nick Drake and Bert Jansch and her music has also been described as hallucinatory with a trance like performance. Her first album “Faces in the Rocks” is considered a cult classic and garnered attention from such artists as Mazzy Star, and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, with whom she has both collaborated and shared the stage with. She has also opened for Joanna Newsom, Frank Black, Buffy St. Marie, Alela Diane, and Brightblack Morning Light.

‘It’s worth asking whether the world needs another solo guitar record of folk standards. What makes the re-release of Portland guitarist Marisa Anderson’s 2013 record Traditional and Public Domain Songs worthwhile isn’t just the gorgeous, glowing tone she conjures from her guitars, but the humility with which she approaches these songs, giving them the opportunity to speak to us directly, without ostentation, postmodern posing or comforting nostalgia. Anderson’s stylistic straightforwardness asks us to remember that, though performed unaccompanied, each track here has its roots in communal experience and was brought into the world to be sung, chanted and shared. Meanwhile, her dexterous picking and gift for melodic variation highlights the power of the individual to embody and enliven well-known songs. Unusually for a solo guitar record, Traditional and Public Domain Songs feels like it listens as much as it speaks.’ DUSTED

Reissued here with new tracks. Marisa Anderson continues her streak of amazing solo guitar LP’s. On first glance of the track listing you may feel like you’ve heard it all before – classic folk songs and anthems – but trust me, Marisa takes these tunes to places they have never been. The vibe is heavy on this one. The guitar playing is beautiful at points and intense at others. Not for the faint of heart.

Marisa Anderson is one of the most eminent guitarists working today. Her lucid, eloquent approach to guitar music and composition has established her as an unparalleled artist and an insightful, coveted collaborator. Anderson"s work draws on a mosaic of folk musics and lives in conversation with myriad musical traditions. Her music is inviting and candid, beckoning the listener into sprawling ecosystems and intimate corners alike, from barren landscapes to verdant thickets, impassioned communal experiences to pensive reclusions. As a master of her instrument, Anderson translates abstractions into undeniably moving music, tracing through traditional folk tunes, imagined Sci-Fi films, and foggy sanctuaries of sound. Still, Here is Anderson at her most direct, laying bare her practice of processing and understanding the world through music and distilling that practice into pieces as expressive as they are transfixing. The pieces of Still, Here center around Anderson"s present. The album is a compendium of living moments captured by her preternatural ability to mold human realities into enduring, lyrical compositions. Away from the road for the longest stretch of her career, the making of Still, Here affirmed for Anderson the role of the guitar as an essential tool in processing external and internal realities. "I don"t get ideas and then turn to the guitar, rather I turn to the guitar to find out what my ideas are. I turn towards it for meaning." The discordance of protest and upheaval emanates from a propulsive acoustic ostinato and mournful dueling pedal steel guitars on "The Fire This Time," pausing only to allow space for the blare of sirens on the Portland street near Anderson"s studio. "The Crack Where the Light Gets In" rapturously revels in the glimmers of hope that peek through a pall of darkness. Across Still, Here, Anderson"s playing transmutes the tributaries of fluctuating emotions into a unified flow, stirring and sublime.

2024 Restock

2024 Restock

Released in 1989, Marisa Monte's first album was a critical and public success. Produced by Nelson Motta and recorded live, the 11 tracks featured a singer with a sweet and powerful voice, interpreting a repertoire of varied styles and eras, who conquered the country. In addition to the only unreleased, the hit "Bem que se quis", MM brings in the repertoire "Comida" (Tit–s), Preciso me encontrar (Candeia), "Ando meio desligado" (Arnaldo Baptista/Rita Lee/Sergio Dias), "South american way" (Al Dubin / Jimmy McHugh) and "Comida" (Tim Maia), among others.

Droneflower is in bloom. The new collaboration between Marissa Nadler and Stephen Brodsky (Cave In, Mutoid Man), is a sprawling and expansive exercise in contrasts. It is the sound of the war between the brutal and the ethereal, the dark and the light, the past and the present, and the real and imagined.

Brodsky met Nadler for the first time in 2014 at Brooklyn’s Saint Vitus Bar when he came to see her play on her July tour, and they quickly became friends. Both of them had been wanting to explore songwriting that didn’t fit into their existing projects, and they soon became energized by the prospect of working together. One of the first ideas they discussed was a horror movie soundtrack, and while Droneflower isn’t that, it is a richly cinematic album.

The first song that came together was “Dead West,” based around a beautiful acoustic guitar piece Brodsky wrote while living on Spy Pond, just outside of Nadler’s home base in Boston. By the time they started working on the song earnest, Brodsky had moved to Brooklyn. Nadler added lyrics and vocal melodies remotely, and it was obvious there was kismet in the collaboration.

“Dreaming With Alice” by British folk musician MARK FRY was released only in Italy in 1972.

This album has been quite an obscurity already by the time of its release. Recorded by 19 year old Mark Fry for an Italian sub label of RCA it presented a beautifully naive kind of psychedelic folk similar to what the INCREDIBLE STRING BAND laid down at the same time just a bit more straight forwarded. We saw originals in good condition go for about 1600 Euros already, therefore such a reissue is always welcome among fans of totally psyched out music ,done by mostly acoustic instrumentation and vocals. Young Mark enchants his listeners with dreamy vocal melodies of utter beauty which create an outmost peaceful atmosphere. The picturesque tunes take you onto a trip out to the English countryside on a gentle and warm spring morning and into a fairytale world. You might get lost within this colorful dream and not be willing to return to grey reality anymore but this music indeed burns on as the flame of love within your heart. The direction despite all psychedelic elements is definitely determined by British folk music of the 60's and 70's. One charmingly odd aspect of the album is that the title track has been split up over the whole album as short sections flanking the longer tunes. I cannot recall anybody else ever doing that, so this is making this nifty little record a unique effort. If you are a fan of PERRY LEOPOLD or the above mentioned INCREDIBLE STRING BAND this record will fulfill your wildest dreams but will also please those into STEELEYE SPAN, WOODS BAND or PENTANGLE. Mark Fry plays his acid folk from the bottom of his soul without thinking about satisfying the demands of the mainstream audience. This is a must have for all fans of acid folk from the late 60s to the early 70s era. This music is intriguing, keen and absolutely one of a kind with a mood changing from rainy days to sunny mornings out in the meadows.

First studio album in 11 years for Normandy-based, English psychedelic folk
musician/painter, Mark Fry
When 19-year-old Mark Fry recorded his debut album 'Dreaming With Alice' for RCA
sublabel, "It" in Italy in 1971, little did he know that it would become a much-soughtafter, much -bootlegged "acid folk" classic three decades later, with millions of Spotify
plays. Fry, an acclaimed painter in the interim, returned to making music in 2008 and
has released three more acclaimed studio albums - this, 'Not On The Radar,' is the
fourth. These days, far less "acid" than in his youth, Fry still knows his way around a
beautiful melody. The new album, recorded with musician friends at his Normandy
home studio and produced by David Sheppard (Ellis Island Sound/ State River
Widening) is resplendent with love songs, the beauty of nature and the passing of
time.
Full press, radio, online PR campaign both in the UK and in the EU, handled by Big
Mouth Publicity. Mark plays a very rare London show, as an album launch, with full
band, on the day of release, at Stone Nest, Shaftsbury Avenue, London. He will also
perform at A Celebration Of The Incredible String Band, Southbank Centre, London on
20th Sept (alongside Sam Amidon, Junior Brother, Daisy Rickman and more.
Reviews in Mojo and Uncut (with interview) confirmed for month of release. News/
features online : Click Roll Boo, KLOF, Maximum Volume Music, Pipilo Pop, The Pop
Corporation, White Light/White Heat (Italy). Playlisted : Rockambula, Foxy Lady

Includes demos of every track from the original album, stripped back to (mainly) guitar and voice. Originally a Norman Records exclusive, these are the last few copies available from a limited pressing of just 300. Mark Fry is a France- based, English singer- songwriter/ artist whose debut album, 'Dreaming With Alice,' released in Italy in 1971, became a much-bootlegged "acid-folk" classic three decades later. Fry returned to recording in 2008 and has since released 4 more acclaimed studio albums. These days, far less "acid" than in his youth, Fry still knows his way around a beautiful melody. This album of sketches is resplendent with love songs, the beauty of nature and the passing of time Fry is certainly no stranger to the preparatory sketch. An artist in the truest sense of the word, renowned equally for his decades- long career as a painter of vibrant abstracts and as a cult psychedelic minstrel turned intimate, evocative singersongwriter, his atelier, housed in a converted stable building at his Normandy home, literally doubles as his music studio. It was in this space that Mark's fifth solo album, 'Not On The Radar,' released back in May, was recorded in the summer of 2024, with the singer pushing back his easels to accommodate a four-piece live band and vanloads of miscellaneous accompanying paraphernalia.

Before that, the studio had been a considerably emptier space in which working versions of the album's ten languidly bucolic compositions were first demoed by the solitary songwriter (although some emergent tracks were also captured at Balintore - the home studio of Mark's regular guitarist, Iain Ross, housed on the latter's London-moored canal barge). With those sketches presented here in the same running order as on the mothership longplayer, this new album stands as a document of process - offering the opportunity for track- by- track comparison for those already familiar with Not On The Radar. Crucially, it also makes for a very fine standalone album in its own right, which, if nothing else, bears testament to the inherent robustness of Mark Fry's songwriting.

Death Is Not The End reissue Mark Vernon's sought-after 2013 collection Sounds of a Modern Hospital on vinyl & cassette formats.

Whilst every effort has been made to record the subject in as great a degree of isolation as possible, the sound recordings you will hear on this record were made in a real working hospital and not under controlled conditions. Therefore, on occasion, you may hear some unavoidable background noise, conversations and other extraneous sounds.

All recordings were made by Mark Vernon at Forth Valley Royal Hospital, Larbert, Stirling Community Hospital and Falkirk Community Hospital between 2011 and 2013.

Marry Waterson – an essential part of the fabric of folk history in England – and Adrian Crowley– one of Ireland’s most acclaimed talents – collaborate for the first time on ‘Cuckoo Storm,’ a distinctive and powerfully lyrical album of 11 original songs produced with Jim Barr (Portishead).

The ‘Cuckoo Storm’ might never have been, were it not for a social media post Crowley wrote on a wintery late-night walk in a quiet neighbourhood of Dublin during lockdown. Struck by Waterson’s previous album ‘Death Had Quicker Wings Than Love’ (co-written with David A Jaycock), he wanted to mark the moment and pressed ‘send’ into the ether with no way of knowing what would follow. Drawn to his voice and seeing a kindred spirit in his poetic lyrics, Waterson was touched by his message and responded by asking if he would be interested in working together. His answer was a resounding ‘yes.’

‘Cuckoo Storm’ is a deeply compelling album. A serendipitous collaboration that has resulted in a collection of 11 beautifully crafted songs, sung by two voices that are a powerful match. Waterson’s brilliantly distinctive voice is underpinned by Crowley’s rich baritone and together it’s an intoxicating mix.

Joining Marry Waterson (vocals) and Adrian Crowley (vocals, piano, electric guitar, mellotron, harmonium, music box clarinet, marxophone, synth) on Cuckoo Storm are Jim Barr (Portishead) bass, lap-steel guitar;Pete Judge (Get The Blessing) trumpet, flugelhorn; Jake McMurchie (Get The Blessing) sax; James Gow, cello; Seán Mac Erlaine bass clarinet; Lisa Dowdall viola d’amore and Rob Pemberton on drums.

Russell Marsden and Emma Richardson first started writing songs together in their teens after meeting at school in their Southampton hometown. Forming Band of Skulls 17 years ago with drummer Matt Hayward, they went on to make five acclaimed studio albums together. Now, the pair have temporarily stepped away from Band of Skulls to focus on a new musical project they’ve been dreaming about since their earliest songwriting days.

The album covers the full breadth of human emotions, mining deeply into songs about human connection, vulnerability, loss, change, love, identity and forgiveness – as well as the future and hope. It’s vast in scope, something magnified by its grandiose cinematic feel that leans towards the soaring jazz arrangements of the 40s and 50s. The album’s strings were scored and directed by Tom Edwards, who had worked with Band of Skulls previously when he’d reimagined several of their songs. “When Tom sent back the first song, ‘Outsider’, it was a jaw-dropping moment for us to see what he’d done with it,” Emma says. “We challenged him to take inspiration from the incredible composers and arrangers from the 40s and 50s jazz era

LP Black Vinyl, DL card. ‘Until We Fossilize’ is the debut album from Marta Del Grandi, an eclectic singer songwriter from Italy. This is an award-winning jazz vocalist set in new territory, crossing borders of genre and style from West Coast ‘60s to ambient exotica, from plaintive Lynchian etherealism to dramatic Morricone scores. Marta gathers influences from near and far to create a unique genre-splicing style who’s now travelling her own unique and unchartered path. Newly signed to Fire Records, this debut is an unravelling of time and distance; a breathtaking journey from mainland Europe to the Far East and back again, delivered as an eerie, soundtrack by a captivating vocalist. A self-produced gem; filled with lush strings and electronic ambience and an eclectic vocal that transcends boundaries. Lead single ‘Amethyst’ takes inspiration by the myth of Amethyst, filled with Greek mythology, touching the wildest manifestation of imagination, it’s the story of a woman who frees herself from the expectations imposed on her by patriarchy. Composed with Indian drummer Tarun Balani, Marta sounds like Sandy Denny backed by Eno on Gamelan with a nod to Sun Ra. ‘Until We Fossilize’ is a lyrically aware set of dramas littered with life-affirming couplets over gorgeous, dramatic turns. “It’s modern and ancestral at the same time.”

The recording unites Colombian folk traditions with Latin American rhythms, Spanish flamenco, and jazz harmony across fourteen tracks-- twelve of them original-- that travel from the valleys of Colombia to the coasts of Peru and beyond. Centered on voice and guitar, the arrangements feature subtle touches of bass, percussion, flute, and accordion, revealing Gomez's gift for lyrical storytelling and emotional clarity. Two decades later, Cantos De Agua Dulce remains a timeless expression of Gomez's vision; music that flows with grace, bridges cultures, and honors the poetry of everyday life.

Jon Neufeld and Martha Scanlan's unique alchemy on stage began ten
years ago when they first played Portland's Indie Roots festival Pickathon
together - It was an immediate friendship and musical connection that
has only deepened with time and years spent touring festivals and
venues across the country, the sense of adventure and improvisation in
the music becoming more fluid and expansive with each show, each
passing mile
In January 2020, when so much began to shift and live shows ground to a halt,
what began as a loose plan to work on a new record seemed to become a
musical journey of it's own, a necessary sort of refuge. They began passing
songs and ideas back and forth from their respective homes/studios; Martha in
Western Montana and Jon in Portland Oregon, often in the early hours before the
world was awake, often waiting to listen to the track until tape was rolling, almost
as though the improvisational live interaction onstage was occurring over time
and space, in slow motion. The result is a continuing collaborative project in
motion, an unfolding story. Welcome to the first mile-post, "Last Stars First Light"

Das selbstbetitelte Debütalbum der kanadisch-amerikanische Singer-Songwriterin Martha Wainwright als 20th Anniversary Edition! Das Album wird bestimmt durch die Intensität und Vielseitigkeit ihrer Stimme und einer Mischung aus introspektiven Texten und emotionaler Instrumentierung. Ihre Songs verbinden poetische Texte mit einer Mischung aus Folk, Rock und Alternative-Einflüssen und erzählen Geschichten von Liebe, Verlust und persönlicher Stärke.

This vinyl re-pressing of Martin Carthy's Debut album is released to commemorate Topic's 85th anniversary in 2024 - Limited edition of 1000 copies - Black vinyl, standard weight with black, polylined inner sleeves. 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 is where the likes of Bob Dylan and Paul Simon sought him out, enamoured of his traditional repertoire and keen to learn songs like 'Scarborough Fair' and 'Lord Franklin' directly from him before adapting them for their own purposes.

His debut eponymous album, re-released here, on vinyl by Topic Records as part of their ongoing Topic Treasures series, is a snapshot of the work he was doing at the time.

Originally finding its way into the world in 1965, courtesy of Fontana Records, Martin Carthy pulled together 14 songs from his burgeoning repertoire. Produced by Terry at the Philips Recording Studios in Marble Arch, the album was a must-learn checklist for budding guitarists and folk club orgas, and, to this day, remains an essential listen for anyone attempting to find their way into traditional English folk music. Most people turn up for 'Scarborough Fair', very few leave without getting hooked on 'High Germany', 'Sovay' and 'Ye Mariners All'.

The album also introduces Carthy's earliest collaborations with Dave Swarbrick, an enduring and much-copied partnership that lasted, off and on, until Swarbs death in 2016, and became a blueprint for how guitar and fiddle duos ought to sound. While Carthy had been building up his solo repertoire over the previous five or six years, several of the duo arrangements on this album ('Lovely Joan', 'A Begging I Will Go', 'Broomfield Hill') were thrown together in the studio, adding a fizz and freshness to the recordings. This became the pair's standard way of working. "We used to rehearse on stage, in front of the audience," he explains today.

In the years since, Martin Carthy has become the veteran of over 40 studio albums and a veritable beacon for musicians and music lovers seeking "the real stuff." Pressed to name his favourite, he needs no time to think it over. "I always stand by the first album," he says of his 1965 debut. "I love it. There are some things on it I think I couldn't have done better. There was a clarity of purpose."

And, with this re-release, we can be sure that newcomers get to hear that sense of purpose in the best possible quality, as clearly as Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and a generation of folk lovers did six decades ago.

Red Colored Vinyl! Original mono recording First Time Reissued on Jackpot Records. Limited to 1000 copies. Martin Denny's Debut #1 Album Originally Released in 1957. Original MONO recording preferred by MARTIN DENNY and featuring ARTHUR LYMAN & Augie Colon. "Exotica" spawned an entire genre and the birth of the TIKI/COCKTAIL movement starts here. "The original, monaural version of the LP was recorded before stereo records were produced. That version features Arthur Lyman and is considered brighter, wilder, and more interesting than the stereo re-recording."

Blue Colored Vinyl! First Time Reissued on Jackpot Records. Limited to 1000 copies. Martin Denny "Hypnotique" originally released in 1959. A fan favorite from the father of the "EXOTICA" movement. Stunning Original Cover Artwork . 9/10 All Music Guide Review.

Green Colored Vinyl! First Time Reissued on Jackpot Records. Limited to 1000 copies. Martin Denny "Quiet Village" originally released in 1959. Iconic album artwork reflected the fantasy of Denny's Influential fusion of tropical moods. 9/10 All Music Guide Review.