Arrowwood & novemthree split EP (2007)

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

More of a collaboration than a split, contributing musicians from both groups feature on both sides of the split.

Both projects deal with haunting folk styles, sounds that evoke a sort of timeless atmosphere of poetry and myth. Arrowwood’s contribution weaves an almost ambient haze of melancholic moods, which, lead by vocalist Chelsea Robb (with accompaniment from Pythagumus, Lindsey Hoffman, Josh Lovejoy), transports you to a time when haunting laments were the bread and butter of troubadours everywhere. Meanwhile, Novemthree (spearheaded by Pythagumus) has a sound that evokes memories of the spooky pastoral folk found on The Wicker Man Sountrack.

The EP is a release on the new Little Somebody Records label, who utilizes unique packaging (two mini-CDs with some marvelous graphic design) to create a treasured collectors item. This is music that beckons you towards a dark wood, and you should heed its call. - A Sweeping Curve of Sound

Info like line-up and tracklist omitted to save space, see here.

http://www.myspace.com/arrowwood

http://www.myspace.com/novemthree

http://www.myspace.com/littlesomebody

Bitrate - V0

Click here

Larkin Grimm - Parplar [2008]

1. They Were Wrong
2. Ride That Cyclone
3. Blond And Golden Johns
4. Dominican Rum
5. Parplar
6. Durge
7. Be My Host
8. Mino Minou
9. My Justine
10. Anger In Your Liver
11. All The Pleasures In The World
12. Fall On My Knees
13. How To Catch A Lizard
14. The Dip
15. Hope Of The Hopeless

Parplar is the Young God debut from the fabulous itinerant force of nature Larkin Grimm. She’s got an elemental voice that comes from somewhere under the earth. She alternately moans like a woman-in-full, wails like a banshee, or coos like a crazed little girl, depending on her mood. Parplar was co-produced by Michael Gira (Devendra Banhart, Akron/Family, Angels Of Light, Swans) and Larkin Grimm. It was recorded at Old Soul Studio in Catskill NY, with additional recording at Seizure’s Palace in Brooklyn and mixed at Trout Recording, Brooklyn. Larkin’s risen to the occasion on this one – really found herself as a singer, and it features absolutely stellar vocal performances of songs that are sometimes soulful, whimsical, sensual or bizarre. The production is as varied and unpredictable as Larkin herself.

Info

http://www.myspace.com/larkingrimm

DOWNLOAD

Meg Baird, Helena Espvall & Sharron Kraus - Leaves From Off The Tree [2006]

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

1 Bruton Town (5:39)
2 Barbry Ellen (5:47)
3 Furtune My Foe (3:38)
4 Willie Of Winsbury (9:17)
5 The Nightingale (3:11)
6 John Hardy (3:38)
7 The Derry Dems Of Arrow (3:33)
8 Now Westlin' Winds (5:32)
9 False Sir John (7:18)

Leaves From Off The Tree is a three-way project of Sharron Kraus with Meg Baird and Helena Espvall from Espers. This is a beautiful recording of traditional folk material, with the most stunning singing and arrangements of some of England and Appalachia's finest songs. "The songs on this record were recorded after many an evening swapping songs (and beers!) in Fishtown, Philadelphia, where Sharron had moved from her native England, and Meg and Helena were already installed. Meg and Sharron both had traditional music backgrounds and would meet up and teach each other Appalachian and English ballads, and improvise harmonies and alternate melodies. At some point Helena was invited along and her voice and cello added a rich new layer. We wanted to record the songs in a way that would capture the relaxed atmosphere of our gatherings, so we recorded all nine songs live in one afternoon." Comes in a deluxe white gatefold sleeve complete with notes of each track.

Info

DOWNLOAD
vbr ~210 kbps

Sharron Kraus - The Fox's Wedding [2008]

Monday, October 27, 2008

1 Brigid
2 Green Man
3 In The Middle Of Summer
4 July Skies
5 Harvest Moon
6 Would I
7 The Prophet
8 Thrice Toss These Oaken Ashes
9 Robin Is Dead
10 Ruthless And Alone
11 Made My Home
12 Magpie Child

Sharron Kraus is a singer/musician/songwriter with a gift for beautiful and heartbreaking songs from a deep-seated storytelling mythology. Her music is rooted in the Folk traditions of England and Appalachia. Her songs are characterized by soil-rich vocals, haunting banjo, fine acoustic guitar, and visionary wordcraft. Kraus' songs are populated by a carnival array of fatally charismatic characters, telling tales of enslavement, perversion, incest, obsession, love and death whereas her live performances are stark, compelling, and delicate. She is like the roving storyteller, bringing tales of terror, sadness and joy to a stranger's hearth on a dark and stormy night. The Fox's Wedding offers eleven original songs and a cover of 'Trice Toss These Oaken Ashes' written by Thomas Campion.

Info

http://www.sharronkraus.com/

DOWNLOAD
192 kbps

Alela Diane - The Pirate's Gospel (2006)

This album plays like an autobiography of everything this remarkable young woman has experienced: a place where deep woods meet winding rivers; where rural traditions are not the curiosities of bourgeois hipsters, but rather, a way of life. enchanting and endearing in equal parts, this album will endure long after this year is done. - Roughtrade

Traditional folk with a hint of country and the North American South. Originally self-released in 2004, this release with two bonus tracks on Holocene Music/Names Records.

Tracklist:

1 Tired Feet
2 Rifle
3 Pirate's Gospel
4 Foreign Tongue
5 Can You Blame The Sky
6 Something's Gone Awry
7 Pieces Of String
8 Clickity Clack
9 Sister Self
10 Pigeon Song
11 Oh My Mama
12 Heavy Walls (Bonus Track)
13 Gipsy Eyes (Bonus Track)

http://www.aleladiane.com/

Bitrate - V2

Click Here

The Battle of Land and Sea - The Battle of Land and Sea [2008]

Sunday, October 12, 2008

1. Saltwater Queen
2. Birdsong
3. Beautiful Ones
4. Harden My Heart
5. Six Days
6. I Built the Sea
7. Lady
8. You Are a Sailor

To describe the sound of The Battle of Land and Sea, one might call up images of abandoned sea-worn ships floating through a thick coastal ... (more) fog. And upon first listen you might call to mind Cat Power, or the soft glow of Songs of Green Pheasant. But eventually, you start to hear what makes the music of Portland based Sarah O’Shura so special. You get a glimpse of a world through the eyes of someone on a musical pilgrimage, whether the tales are laden with sorrow or joy, they are enchanting and hopeful.

http://www.myspace.com/battleoflandandsea

DOWNLOAD
320 kbps

Castanets - First Light's Freeze [2005]

Saturday, October 11, 2008

1 (The Waves Are Rolling Beneath Your Skin) (0:28)
2 Into The Night (4:03)
3 A Song Is Not The Song Of The World (3:56)
4 Good Friend, Yr Hunger (2:03)
5 (We Drew Uncertain Breath) (0:28)
6 Bells Aloud (4:50)
7 First Light's Freeze (2:16)
8 Evidence (A Mask Of Horizon, Distortion Of Form) (0:55)
9 No Voice Was Raised (5:17)
10 (Migration Concentric) (0:31)
11 All That I Know To Have Changed In You (3:53)
12 Dancing With Someone (Privilege Of Everything) (3:00)
13 Reflecting In The Angles (1:45)

A dark, mutant-country sound infused with strands of free-jazz and a late-70's Nashville big-radio strut hijacked by post-punk unravelers. The result is a beautiful mix of somber reflection, destination-unknown travelogue, and subversive anti-war boogie. "Freeze" confronts the mythology of war and friendship; the close proximity of things painful and pleasurable, and the complications of this as a paradigm for the world. Castanets suggest artistic geography as transcontinental as Merle Haggard, Albert Ayler, Television, and Richard and Mimi Farina.

Info

http://www.myspace.com/castanets

DOWNLOAD
320 kbps

Mountain Home - Mountain Home [2007]

Thursday, October 9, 2008

1 The Sparrow (5:10)
2 Battle, We Were (10:42)
3 Comes, The Winter (7:10)
4 Omie Wise (7:25)
5 Nottamun Town (6:59)

Mountain Home is Marissa Nadler, Greg Weeks, Maragret Wienk, Ilya Monosov, Joshua Blatchley and Kristen Sherer. Highly underrated, and quite unknown. Fans of slow and melancholic folk music will appreciate this album.

Info

http://www.myspace.com/mtnhome

DOWNLOAD
192 kbps

Josephine Foster - This Coming Gladness [2008]

Saturday, October 4, 2008

A1 The Garden Of Earthly Delights
A2 The Lap Of Your Lust
A3 Lullaby To All
A4 I Love You & The Springtime Blues
A5 All I Wanted Was The Moon
B1 Waltz Of Green
B2 Sim Não
B3 Second Sight
B4 A Thimbleful Of Milk
B5 Indelible Rainbows

Colorado born Josephine Foster has practically defined what it means to be an outsider folk singer. Initially with Born Heller and then solo and accompanied by the Supposed, her unsettling soprano and way with a song takes the eerie otherness of those early Appalachian ballads and brings them, whispering, into our dreams.

The Coming Gladness brings the folk aesthetic that Josephine has explored in her recent albums to the psyche rock territory of her recordings with the Supposed. This intense, uncompromising music is the looming badlands landscape lit by the charged lightning strikes of an extraordinary voice.

Info

http://www.myspace.com/josephinefoster

DOWNLOAD
320 kbps