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/