Susan Christie - Paint A Lady [1970]

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

1 Rainy Day
2 Paint a Lady
3 For the Love of a Soldier
4 Ghost Riders in the Sky
5 Yesterday, Where's My Mind?
6 Echo in Your Mind
7 When Love Comes
8 No One Can Hear You Cry

30 years ago, a Philly based folk singer named Susan Christie was dropped by her record company. After one novelty song, the label bosses didn’t think her melancholy take on country and solitude would ever be of any interest. Five copies of her album were pressed and faded into obscurity. Skip forward to present time, and a small label, ‘Finders Keepers’ salvages three out of these five copies and decides to release it. Susan Christie’s album is a beautiful piece of despondent tales and folky psychedelia. The fascinating thing is that it sounds very current. The title track is reminiscent of Portishead , while other songs incorporate break heavy folk-funk, current DJ’s would die for. Don’t get me wrong, it is an obscure 70’s folk record at its heart, but highly worth listening to today.

http://www.myspace.com/susanchristie07

http://linksave.in/7198271334b157fc001e9e
FLAC (lossless)

Trees - The Garden of Jane Delawney [1970] (Remastered & Expanded)

Sunday, November 15, 2009

1. Nothing Special
2. The Great Silkie
3. The Garden Of Jane Delawney
4. Lady Margaret
5. Glasgerion
6. She Moved Thro’ The Fair
7. Road
8. Epitaph
9. Snail’s Lament

Bonus Tracks:

10. She Moved Thro’ The Fair (Demo)
11. Pretty Polly
12. Black Widow
13. Little Black Cloud (Suite)

When Trees second album On The Shore was finally released on CD last year - 38 years after its first vinyl issue - the reaction to this lost English psych-folk masterpiece was outstanding. Admired by artists and critics alike, it also made a big impression on merry funksters Gnarls Barkley who sampled the track Geordie on their St Elsewhere album.

On The Shore was the follow up to The Garden Of Jane Delawney. It’s quite fitting that Trees get their debut album reissued after the second has been released; they were bohemians living in Portobello Road who never followed the conventional path. Feasting on records imported into Simon Stable’s Record Store, they immersed themselves in a tapestry of sounds that combined US acts like Spirit, Buffalo Springfield and Quicksilver Messenger Service alongside progressive UK bands like Fairport Convention, Skin Alley, High Tide and Caravan.

Completed in March 1970 and produced by Tony Cox, the original album (half Tobias Boshell originals and half traditional songs) blends a mixture of weird psych twin guitar into lilting folk falling around the dreamy like vocals of Celia Humphris. Then there’s the wonderful The Garden of Jane Delawney track itself, which was later covered by François Hardy and goth shoegazers All About Eve.

The bonus tracks feature original demo versions plus 2 new recordings only available on this remastered album.

http://linksave.in/21375210524b00efc97e831
AAC @ 320 kbps

Forest [UK] 1968-1971

Starting out as school friends in 1966, the Foresters of Walesby began singing unaccompanied vocal harmony folk tunes in Lincolnshire folk clubs. Dez Allenby, Martin and Adrian Welham soon progressed to writing within the burgeoning psychedelic folk movement in the wake of the Incredible String Band's mid 60's beginnings, finally changing their name to FOREST.

The rare single 'Searching For Shadows' was released in 1969, followed by Forest's debut eponymous album which featured a colourful mix of acoustic instrumentation and rich harmonies, evoking pastoral sound scapes of misty, smoke-filled worlds of olde. 'Full Circle' was released a year later, a more eclectic mix of tracks which saw each member venturing down their own unique avenues. Titles such as 'Bluebell Dance', 'Midnight Hanging of a Runaway Serf' and 'Graveyard' portend the darker offerings explored. By the early 1970's the Harvest label no longer looked to invest in such esoteric musical genres, and in 1972 the trio disbanded.

The seminal albums have since been reissued both on vinyl and CD. Recently the track 'Graveyard' featured on psych-folk compilation 'Gather in the mushrooms' and 'Fading Light' on the 'Strange Folk' compilation CD. Thirty years on, Forest are as moving, stirring and haunting as ever.

Martin is now back as part of psych-folk duo THE STORY with his son Tom. Dez is now recording with his wife Cathy as Southernwood, and Adrian is still writing and adding to his canon of songs to this day.

http://www.myspace.com/forest70

http://linksave.in/11169395274b00c67a8ace3
APE (Lossless) + AAC @ 320 kbps

Twinsistermoon - The Hollow Mountain

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Twinsistermoon is a solo project of Mehdi Ameziane, who is also one half of Natural Snow Buildings. Not really sure how to describe this, psychedelic folk? Post-folk? Anyway, this was released earlier in the year by Dull Knife records on wax, pre-orders are now being taken for the CD version on Blackest Rainbow.

I've uploaded 3 tracks from the album so you can check it out. They were ripped from vinyl so they're slightly low fidelity. Here.

http://www.blackest-rainbow.moonfruit.com/

Nancy Elizabeth new album and single

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

So a few months ago I posted Nancy Elizabeth's Battle and Victory. On the 5th October her new album, Wrought Iron, was released. Again on Leaf, it's available on CD, vinyl, and as a digital download. You can grab a copy here.

In addition, the first single taken from the album entitled 'Feet of Courage' has been released as a download with two exclusive remixes, and there's also an accompanying video (Nancy's first vid!) you can check the single out here and the video here. I haven't yet heard the album, but the single sounds really nice.

http://www.myspace.com/nancyelizabethcunliffe
http://www.theleaflabel.com/

Update/explanation

Hello everyone,

I know it has been quiet on the western front, but I have other duties that have been taking up my time. I hope that the regularity of the posts here will start to pick up slightly in time. As you will have noticed, I'm moving Shaded Moontide away from being your typical mp3 download blog, in favour of news and exposure. I shall still be posting the odd download, namely any rare and out of print material I come across/unearth, and any samples any artists or labels might want to send my way.

A Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake (Documentary, 2000)

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

DVD rip of this film documenting the life and career of Nick Drake. I think originally released and shown in a few select picture houses in 2000, never properly released on DVD. I got this with the re-release of the Fruit Tree boxset ages ago, I always intended to upload it but it slipped my mind until now.
Anyway, this is a high quality XviD encode. I can make the .ISO available to anyone that wants it, send me an email at the address specified in my profile. All I ask is that you make a comment on this post.

Director: Jeroen Berkvens
Length: 48 Minutes
Filming Location: Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire, England.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Autumn Grieve news

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

I was thinking of re-posting Autumn Grieve's Terra Infinita EP, which I posted a few months ago on the blog. However then some stuff happened, including a re-release of said EP, so I'll make this a news post.

For those of you who missed the first Autumn Grieve post, she's a Canadian folk/classical singer/composer. Terra Infinita has recently been re-released as a remastered, extended edition, including two songs from the first EP, Another Window. Including the remarkable packaging, it's a great release. I'd advise anyone whom missed the first pressing to pick it up.

Also, a new Autumn Grieve EP entitled Stray Birds has been released in the last few days, the first pressing of which is limited to a tiny 21 copies. Info on both releases can be found in the following places:

www.autumngrieve.com
www.myspace.com/autumngrieve

You can download the original version of Terra Infinita here.

Sir Richard Bishop - Staged (2007)

Saturday, April 25, 2009

A collection of live tracks. Limited CD-R, only 250 copies available at live shows.
Sir Richard Bishop's new album is coming out in May, don't miss it!

TRACKLIST:

[01/07] Fingering The Devil/Abydos
[02/07] Kamakhya
[03/07] Black Eyed Blue
[04/07] Nowhere Over The Rainbow
[05/07] Improvisation #1
[06/07] Stomping Matilda
[07/07] Feast At Howrah Station


http://www.myspace.com/sirrichardbishop


Click HERE

Espen Jørgensen - On the Great Alkali Plains (2006)

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

I have posted this elsewhere in the past, however it's something I also think our readers here will appreciate. Espen Jørgensen is a Norwegian acoustic/classical/new age guitarist, this is his first and so far only solo release to date. This is one of my very favourite releases, this guy is an incredibly talented and highly overlooked musician. I'm not going to bother quoting any reviews or press releases or whatever, what you really need to do is let your ears give this their undivided attention, and afterwards show your appreciation by buying a copy of the CD (which comes in a very beautiful digipak).

Label: Jester Records

Tracklist:

1 The Immaculate Conception
2 Move Ahead - Quickly
3 Mirabell
4 Down From The High Peak
5 Barren
6 The Woods
7 Farbror Melkers Bekymring
8 Himmelsangen

http://www.myspace.com/espenjoergensen

Buy CD - http://www.jester-records.com/releases_sub.php?ID=44

Click
V2

Caethua - Village of the Damned [2008]

Friday, April 10, 2009

1-Village Of The Damned 03:08
02-Retreat 02:31
03-Playing Dead 02:29
04-Meditation 03:22
05-They Walk At Night 02:56
06-Burning Yarrow 09:18
07-Tragic 02:33
08-Consecration 05:54
09-Black Water 05:08

http://www.myspace.com/caethua

CLICK HERE
VBR-V2

Werkraum - Early Love Music (2008)

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Another modern classic here, Werkraum have a modern take on traditional European folk. Werkraum is Axel Frank, with a multitude of contributing musicians.

Label: Ahnstern

Tracklist:

1 Beware The Jabberwock!
2 La Marmotte
3 Ein Lied von Lieb und Treu
4 Santy Ano
5 Slâfest Du, vriedel ziere?
6 Song For Erik
7 The Dream
8 Allgemach
9 Der Schmied (The Blacksmith)
10 Beyond The Evening Star
11 The Smiling Of The Rose
12 Une Jeune Fillette
13 Die rechte Braut
14 Sanctity And Steel

http://www.myspace.com/werkraum
Buy CD/LP:
http://www.werkraum.org/
http://www.steinklang-records.at/shop/

!
Somebody from Werkraum got in touch and requested we remove the download link, so it has been removed. We are huge fans of Werkraum and of the other musicians whose material we post, we truly believe that any publicity is good publicity, and that blogs and other filesharing fora are great ways of creating awareness, and introducing people to music that they would otherwise never know existed. We wholeheartedly believe that filesharing helps independent music, rather than hinders it. However, we appreciate the fact that others may not feel the same way. I'm going to leave this post here so if anyone wants to check out Werkraum's music, you can grab a copy of the record via the links above, which of course, we always encourage anyway. You won't be disappointed.

Fire On Fire - The Orchard (2008)

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

When I heard Fire on Fire's "Amnesia" (from their EP), I was won over by the psychedelic madness that boiled beneath the song's tuneful hook and bizarre lyrics. The band manifested a crazed energy within the confines of their nuanced songwriting and constantly teetered on the brink of chaos. The Orchard sees the band relaxing and focusing their energy on softer tunes and strengthening their songwriting core. With nothing but acoustic instruments at their disposal, the group recalls the spirit of America's early musical tradition by emphasizing strong lyrical topics and melody-heavy songs. Drunken and haphazard frills decorate the record and keep many of the songs from sinking into pure genre worship. This is not slick, romantic Appalachia; Fire on Fire are rugged and lively musicians who emphasize lurching movements and uneven steps. - Brainwashed.com

Label:
Young God Records

Tracklist:

1. Sirocco (5:10)
2. Heavy D (4:31)
3. Assanine Race (6:15)
4. The Orchard (4:07)
5. Flordinese (5:29)
6. Hartford Blues (3:31)
7. Toknight (6:13)
8. Squeeze Box (4:14)
9. Flight Song (4:24)
10. Grin (5:03)
11. Tsunami (4:44)
12. Haystack (8:36)


http://www.myspace.com/fireonfiremusic


Buy the CD (1000 numbered copies available only from YGR):
http://younggodrecords.com/Releases/Detail.asp?C=1970


Click Here

Rebsie Fairholm - Mind the Gap (2007)

Saturday, March 7, 2009

"Rebsie Fairholm is an English singer who felt the calling to traditional music but found the lure of 60s psychedelic rock too great an influence to resist, ending up with a darkly evocative cornfield-edge psych-folk. Inspired by the land and the lingering spirits of the ancestors who tilled it.

A mixture of reinvigorated traditional songs and new original ones transforms the sound of the ancient past into a silky psychedelia. She has also appeared on a couple of releases by The Owl Service." - rebsiefairholm.co.uk

Label: Sonic Spongecake

Tracklist:

1 Round Window
2 The Unquiet Grave
3 MacCrimmon's Lament
4 Buain A' Choirce (Reaping Oats)
5 Blackbirds & Thrushes
6 Spirits of the Dead
7 Leafblower
8 Fine Horseman
9 Geordie
10 Julia Dream
11 She Moves Through the Fair

http://www.myspace.com/rebsiefairholm

Buy the CD - http://www.rebsiefairholm.co.uk/

Click here
V2

Haruko - Wild Geese (Forthcoming album)

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Just thought I would let our readers know of what promises to be an amazing forthcoming LP by German folk musician Haruko (Susanne Stanglow). It's called Wild Geese and it's being released by Bracken Records in the early summer as a limited 12". It's going to be Haruko's first release (I believe), and I only had to listen to a couple of myspace tracks and samples to realise that this is probably going to be the folk release of the year. Get your preorders in now at Bracken Records.

http://www.myspace.com/harukomyspace

http://www.brackenrecords.com/

Thistletown - Rosemarie (2008)

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Well, I only discovered this band the other day, but after doing some research for this post it seems that this album has become somewhat of a classic of romantic pastoral folk in the short time since its release.

They live on a boat in Cornwall, dig nature, and make the most beautiful pre-Raphaelite English romantic music you have ever heard. - Label

Thanks go to Graaf for introducing me to this band. The CD is available from HMV, Amazon etc as well as the label, so I suggest you grab a copy.

Label - Big Bertha

Line-up:

Tiffany Bryant
Andrew Jarvis
Lydia Tweddell
Ben Tweddell
Matthew Bennett

Tracklist:

1 Rosemarie
2 Glowworm
3 Under the Trees
4 Dance With the Sea
5 Labyrinth
6 Oak and Ash
7 Moon is a Pearl
8 The Sun is Coming Up

http://www.myspace.com/thistletown

Click here
V2

Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog (2007)

Friday, February 20, 2009

Folk Rock, Japanese version with two bonus tracks.

Singer-songwriter Sam Beam has gradually added rhythm and instruments to his gravitas across his previous records as Iron and Wine. On this third album, Beam finally brings the blood, instrumental colors and quirky but fluid arrangements that make explicit the worry and wounds running red in his Southern-gothic stories and dead-love letters. Slide guitars and buzzing sitars hang like spider's silk from "White Tooth Man." In "Carousel," Beam sings through a Leslie-organ effect, like George Harrison caught in the fog of "Blue Jay Way." "Wolves (Song of the Shepherd's Dog)" is how David Essex's "Rock On" would have sounded if the Clash covered it on Sandinista! Beam uses these sparks and hooks to draw you closer to uncomfortable truths. "Innocent Bones" is a bossa nova about the sin of piety. "House by the Sea" laments the cruelty of separation with African highlife guitars. Beam is as unsure in love and dismayed by the world as always. But he has never sounded more alive. - Rolling Stone

Label: Sub Pop Records

Tracklist:

1 Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car
2 White Tooth Man
3 Lovesong of the Buzzard
4 Carousel
5 House By the Sea
6 Innocent Bones
7 Wolves (Song of the Shepherd's Dog)
8 Resurrection Fern
9 Boy With a Coin
10 The Devil Never Sleeps
11 Peace Beneath the City
12 Flightless Bird, American Mouth
13 Carried Home
14 Kingdom of Animals

http://www.myspace.com/ironandwine

http://www.ironandwine.com/

Buy the CD - http://www.ironandwine.com/_catalog_30792/CDs

Click here
V2

Sharron Kraus - Beautiful Twisted (2002)

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

"After the big stroke realised with Goblin Market, whose last year’s album marked one of the most exciting moments of the whole musical season, C.O. reaffirm their presence in the gothic folk edge with Sharron Kraus. "Beautiful Twisted" was recorded in California with a small team of co-workers, who added violin, string bass, mandolin and few other timbres to the guitar and five-string banjo of Sharron, a very expressive instrumentalist besides being an essential yet excellent singer. It’s precisely Kraus’ vocal personality to bring "Beautiful Twisted" near the atmospheres of Goblin Market’s ‘Ghostland’, while the instrumental impact is dryer and of higher acoustic purity, close to Fairport’s more bucolic things and to an even greater extent to the Incredible String Band. As happens for the greatest storytellers of the folk tradition, a fundamental point of strength is given by the lyrics, often entering scabrous territories (the tender incestuous story of ‘Twins’, recalling the young Joni Mitchell in the soft blend of guitar and violin, is the most evident example), perfectly balancing between melancholy and bitter irony, with a deliciously destabilising effect in a light-hearted hymn to detention as ‘Song of the Unfree’, inserted on the noble poetic string of female minstrels going from Shirley Collins to Suzanne Vega, taking also advantage of the colouring seductions of a strong and persuasive bass clarinet. Exemplary murder ballads and really unorthodox cloister memoirs, dark reminiscences of Don Juan and startling funeral gigues, waver in a notebook of dramatic remembrances, only sweetened by an undefined feeling of time distance, also rendered with visual effectiveness by the sepia-tinged monochromatic appearance of the rich booklet. Tales always menaced by dense clouds invite to an intense and pleasant listening, given also the abundant melodic proficiency of Sharron’s writing. A precious disc."


Label:

Camera Obscura Records

Tracklisting:

1. The Peacock's Wing (5:06)
2. The River's Daughter (3:32)
3. Moonbathing (4:01)
4. The Family Tradition (4:30)
5. Twins (4:37)
6. Cold-Hearted Devil (4:49)
7. Death Jig (1:15)
8. The Wrong Man (4:53)
9. Godstow (2:56)
10. Beautiful Twisted (6:16)
11. Song Of The Unfree (4:11)


http://www.sharronkraus.com/

http://www.myspace.com/sharronkraus


http://www.cameraobscura.com.au/obscura.htm - Purchase the record

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/acideagle - I'm not sure, but this should be Camera Obscura's Ebay Shop


Bitrate: V0

Click here

Nancy Elizabeth - Battle and Victory (2007)

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

"The Lancashire-born singer’s down-to-earth songs are brought to life by her warm and unaffected voice. Unpretentious but effortlessly ambitious, Nancy turns the retro, less-is-more aesthetic of the current acoustic revival on its head. Not content with writing and singing all the songs herself, the 23 year-old also plays most of the instruments, including guitar, khim, Indian harmonium, Appalachian dulcimer and bouzouki, amongst many others."

"Nancy Elizabeth with an astounding new single Hey Son on Leaf. Starting from the seed of a pure female voice and guitar, it slowly builds taking in a great choppy guitar action until finally we're in a wall of pagan intensity and tribal beats. Makes me want to strip off, paint up and dance round the campfire high on lead from cheap market paint". - Norman Records on 'Hey Son'

Label: Leaf

Tracklist:

1 I'm Like The Paper
2 I Used To Try
3 Off With Your Axe
4 The Remote Past
5 Coriander
6 8 Brown Legs
7 Electric
8 Hey Son
9 Weakened Bow
10 What Is Human
11 Lung
12 How Can I Stop?
13 Battle and Victory

http://www.nancyelizabeth.co.uk/

http://www.myspace.com/nancyelizabethcunliffe

http://leaf.greedbag.com/nancy-elizabeth/ - Purchase the record

Bitrate - V0

Click here

Various - Hand/Eye (2001)

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The Hand/Eye label has been bringing the world modern experimental-folk and psychedelic music since the early 1990s. Hand/Eye has forged a unique and varied catalog which, along with parent label, Dark Holler, has given the world everything from deep-space astral explorations to traditional fiddle tunes. For the 10th Hand/Eye release we've gathered friends and associates from the world over, hand-picked for this celebration of music. All of the artists have provided exclusive material for this compilation. There are no convenient names for this gathering of music: Psychedelia, wyrdfolk, acid-folk, experimental, astral-folk... call it what you will, it cannot be bottled under one small label. The music shall speak for itself.

Track Listing CD1 "hand" 1. AMPS FOR CHRIST "False Knight on the Road" 2. IN GOWAN RING "On the Butterfly´s Wing" 3. PETER SCION "Cynthia" 4. SARADA "The Darkest Path" 5. ALASDAIR ROBERTS "Willie-O" 6. THE IDITAROD "The Rowan" 7. STONE BREATH "The Blood of the Woven-Vine Divinity" 8. GREG WEEKS "Night Must Fall" 9. CURRITUCK COUNTY "Paid for Grace" 10. RING "The Sun is Behind" 11. WITCH-HUNT "Two Magicians" 12. ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O. "Le Satyre" 13. PRYDWYN "Hermit Song (Ianitrix)" 14. FIT & LIMO "Oh Sphinx" CD2 "eye" 1. MARTYN BATES "Seven Yellow Gypsies" 2. KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT "Leikattu Nurmikko" 3. DREKKA "In Tension" 4. TINSEL "Random Books Floating" 5. FURSAXA "Porpoise Wings" 6. TIMOTHY THE REVELATOR "Always All One, All Ways Alone" 7. SKYE KLAD "Widdershins" 8. PELT "Actias Luna Chase, or Moth Navigation" 9. DIANA OBSCURA "West Wind" 10. DEAD RAVEN CHOIR "We will not Whisper" 11. MASON JONES "Can't You See" 12. SALAMANDER "Ghost Riders in the Sky"


Info:

http://www.somedarkholler.com/


*LINK REMOVED BY REQUEST OF ARTIST*

The Iditarod and Sharron Kraus - Yuletide (2003)

Monday, January 19, 2009

Splendid e-zine review:
You know those times when you put a record on and close your eyes, and then open them again and you can't tell whether you've listened to the record or not? I'm having them more often recently. Partly it's because the day job is getting too intense and I can barely do anything except slump in my chair when I get in. But mostly it's because I'm listening to the Iditarod a lot. Imagine that a band snuck into Heaven and clipped a few blades of grass, took a glassful of water from a river and a handful of earth from a shady corner of God's garden. Once they'd floated back down to earth, they strung their instruments with the grass, passed the water around and took a few sips each and scattered the earth on the floor of the rehearsal room. And then they started to play music, music from the past, music from stone cottages, from fishing villages, from field workers, from the working folk. Folk music. And the music was good. Exceptionally good. It somehow fused the devotion of the true believer with the authenticity of a scholar and the sound of an accordion slowly exhaling. You can't imagine that? No problem, it's out on Elsie and Jack shortly.
- Jimmy Possession

Label: Elsie & Jack Recordings

Tracklist:
1 The Trees Are All Bare
2 Lyke Wake Dirge
3 Gift
4 Winter's Spell
5 Wintermute

http://www.secreteye.org/theiditarod/

BITRATE: VBR V0

CLICK HERE

Tau Emerald - Travellers Two [2008]

Sunday, January 18, 2009

1 Travellers Two
2 Evening Wings
3 Stoikite
4 Barrowlands
5 Full Moon
6 Pilgrims' Return
7 Henbane
8 Water Divining
9 Bani Caapi
10 Mermaids' Call
11 Laureola

Travellers Two is a full length recording from the duo of Tara Burke (Fursaxa) and Sharron Kraus. Togerther Kraus & Burke create an ethereal record of dark-folk magic.
Tara Burke and Sharron Kraus were due to travel to Finland together for a week but missed the flight, so instead they decided to spend the week recording together and Travellers Two is the result. The time was spent out in the fields, visiting burial mounds, and then coming back to Sharron's home studio to work. They had played previously together and done some recording but this is the first time an album was conceived.

Info

http://www.myspace.com/sharronkraus

http://www.myspace.com/tarafursaxa

CLICK HERE
192 kbps

Colleen - Les Ondes Silencieuses (Japanese Edition) [2007]

Thursday, January 15, 2009

1 This Place In Time (2:33)
2 Le Labyrinthe (5:15)
3 Sun Against My Eyes (4:22)
4 Les Ondes Silencieuses (6:09)
5 Blue Sands (5:16)
6 Echoes And Coral (3:09)
7 Sea Of Tranquillity (5:46)
8 Past The Long Black Land (3:41)
9 Le Bateau (7:09)
10 Unfold Out (5:36)
11 Serpentine (6:04)
12 I'll Read You A Story (5:18)

Cecile Schott returns with her third album as Colleen, the highly personal, distinctly adventurous and confident Les Ondes Silencieuses, which follows Colleen Et Les Boites Ee Musique from late 2006. This album signals a change of approach for Parisienne Schott.

A whole new approach to composing was needed, both in a more traditional and, paradoxically, a more improvised way. Chord changes, greater use of space and tempo variations were all now possible. The sounds created were key to the overall feel of the record. Unlike Schott's previous album, The Golden Morning Breaks, where the sounds created from each instrument often ended up disguising their identities, Les Ondes Silencieuses creates a platform using the intended sound, and then augments it with more of her innovation and personality. With all these ingredients a new world is created, with one foot in the court of Louis XIV and the other in the imagination of Cecile Schott.

Japanese Edition With Live Bonus Tracks

10,11,12 Recorded Live In Tokyo On 4th November 2006

Info

http://www.myspace.com/colleenmusique

CLICK HERE
320 kbps

The Iditarod - The Ghost, The Elf, The Cat And The Angel (2002)

The Wire (UK) review:
From Rhode Island, the Iditarod play a minimal kind of bleak psychedelic folk that owes as much to the somnambulism of Bristol's Movietone as it does to early 70s private press semi-legends like Stone Angel or Caedmon. The time-frozen feel of their slow processionals are further heightened by the subtle use of chimes, tamboura, singing bowl, viola and banjo, which cast little shadows beneath Jeffrey Alexander's guitar picking. Vocalist Carin Wagner sings in a half-monotone as if lost in reverie. She's joined for two tracks by the German folk duo Fit & Limo who play bouzouki, dulcimer, organ and glockenspiel as well as providing vocals. The Iditarod's reading of "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme" closely monitors Pentangle's recorded version, while their take on a droning lament "Unfortunate Lass" - the set's highlight - echoes Steeleye Span's masterful "When I Was On Horseback".
- David Keenan

You will find more reviews of this album here.

Label: BlueSanct

Line up: Carin Wagner, Jeffrey Alexander

Tracklist:
1 The Roots Of The Butterfly Bush (3:31)
2 Black Strung Bow (1:00)
3 Afternoons Like This Are Hard To Come By (7:22)
4 Raga (In D#) (6:44)
5 Cycle Circle (4:40)
6 The Falling Of The Pine (9:54)
7 Ich Tanzte Weit (2:09)
8 New Magic In A Dusty World (1:58)
9 Let No Man Steal Your Thyme (3:55)
10 The Nameless One (4:08)
11 Unfortunate Lass (5:40)

http://www.secreteye.org/theiditarod/

Bitrate: V0

Click Here

Pollyanna - Whatever They Say I'm a Princess (2004)

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

"Pollyanna is a French band led by songwriter Isabelle Casier. My first reaction was "woah, Julie Doiron." It does sound like Julie Doiron but a bit less intimate, a bit less low-key, and midway through "Matador", the first song, I changed my mind and decided it sounded more like Nina Nastasia, with haunting cellos, dramatic choruses and careful instrumentation. "You Hold the World in Your Hand" sounds really dark while "Frankenstein" leans more towards Doiron's casual weariness with lyrics like "It's hard to please with a screw stuck in your forehead." "Iron Man" reminds me of Ivy, a bit less exciting and a bit less poppy but she has a great voice and a cute shade of an accent." - Only Angels Have Wings."

DIY bedroom Folk with a soft indie rock flavour.

Label - Eglantine Records

Line-up:

Isabelle Casier - Vocals, acoustic guitar
David Lopez - Drums, arrangements

Tracklist:

1 Matador
2 You hold the world in your hand
3 Frankenstein
4 Iron man
5 In my pocket
6 The narrow door
7 Untitled
8 Song for a room
9 Romeos
10 Across the river
11 Goodbye

http://www.pollyanna.org/

http://www.myspace.com/pollyannamusic

Buy the CD - http://www.eglantinerecords.com/releases/egl007

Bitrate - V2

Click here

Mountain Mirrors - Mountain Mirrors (2006)

Friday, January 9, 2009

"If Nick Drake had regularly gone camping with the guys from Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath, he might have put out albums like those of Mountain Mirrors—the psych folk/rock project of multi-instrumentalist Jeff Sanders. Sanders has a melodic yet mesmerizing style, and fearlessly explores subject matter both dark and spiritual...all with a big, cosmic, out-of-doors feeling." - magnatune.com

In other words, psychedelic, progressive, folk rock.

Line-up:

Jeff Sanders with various guests.

Tracklist:

1 Stay Evil
2 The Demon's Eye
3 Karmic Dogs
4 Your Time Has Come
5 Calm Before the Storm
6 Alone in a Crowd
7 Deploribus Unum
8 Praying Mantis

http://www.mountainmirrors.com/

http://www.myspace.com/mountainmirrors

Buy the CD - http://cdbaby.com/cd/mountainmirrors2

Bitrate - V2

Click here

Green Mistletoe - Of Bird's Song and Flower's Breath [2007]

Sunday, January 4, 2009

1. oakwine, birch twigs, and dragon's blood
2. magick song mead of the gibbous moon
3. othilaz on the knaur
4. nicippe
5. like sweet flowers of earliest bloom
6. of bird's song and flower's breath
7. druid's foot
8. the last red apple of the topmost twigs
9. greenwizardbreath through mountainwater
10. wovoka
11. hazelcromm
12. woodspryght
13. dream poliphilo, in obscure wood

http://www.myspace.com/greenmistletoe

CLICK HERE
VBR - V2