James Blackshaw - Litany Of Echoes [2008]

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

1 Gate Of Ivory (5:20)
2 Past Has Not Passed (12:38)
3 Echo And Abyss (12:10)
4 Infinite Circle (5:54)
5 Shroud (11:44)
6 Gate Of Horn (5:21)

James Blackshaw's previous albums featured his John Fahey-inspired guitar playing, but much like Fahey himself, Blackshaw is not the sort of performer who enjoys being tagged with a single identification. So LITANY OF ECHOES downplays Blackshaw's sterling guitar work to include lengthy tracks composed and performed on piano and violin, as well as an increased use of subtle effects to enhance the hypnotic drone effects of songs like the alternately lulling and unsettling 13-minute epic "Past Has Not Passed."

Info

http://www.myspace.com/jamesblackshaw

CLICK HERE
VBR - V1

The Owl Service - A Garland of Song [2008]

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

1 A Garland Of Song (Folk Revival) (2:13)
2 Child Ballad No.49 (Or The Rolling Of The Stones) (2:59)
3 Hoodening (2:10)
4 The North Country Maid (2:39)
5 Katie Cruel (3:21)
6 The Lammas (1:46)
7 Oxford City (Or The Jealous Lover) (2:55)
8 Turpin Hero (4:09)
9 The Dorset Hanging Oak (6:33)
10 Apple Tree Man (3:08)
11 Child Ballad No.219 (The Gardener Child) (5:16)
12 Corn Dollies (1:26)
13 Flanders Shore (4:44)

The Owl Service was formed by Steven Collins on 6th June 2006 as a vehicle to explore his love of British films and television of the 1960s and 70s, the great outdoors and the sound of the English folk revival.

A Garland Of Song was recorded and mixed almost entirely at home, with a group of like-minded collaborators, between December 2006 and June 2007; it fuses traditional British folk ballads with elements of psychedelic rock, occasionally bordering on a doom-laden garage sound, and is interspersed with Steven's original instrumental compositions. It recalls the great acid-folk bands of the late '60s/early '70s but never once sounds contrived or overtly retro - nobody has approached trad folk quite like this for over 30 years.

Info

www.myspace.com/theowlservice

CLICK HERE
192 kbps

Loreena Mckennitt - An Ancient Muse (2006)

Friday, December 12, 2008

Something a bit different this time, an amalgamation of new age and world music styles with of course, a folk leaning. Incredible album, this.

“Tell me, O Muse, of those who travelled far and wide”

Aptly, it is an echo of Homer’s timeless Odyssey that introduces Loreena McKennitt’s seventh studio recording, the latest volume of a project she describes as “musical travel writing”. This time, the journey takes her in search of the Celts’ easternmost paths, from the plains of Mongolia to the kingdom of King Midas and the Byzantine Empire. Along the way, she muses on the concepts of home, of travel in all its incarnations, of the cultural intermingling that underpins human history and our universal legacies of conflict and hope. - quinlanroad.com

Label - Quinlan Road

Tracklist:

1 Incantation
2 The Gates of Istanbul
3 Caravanserai
4 The English Ladye and the Knight
5 Kecharitomene
6 Penelope's Song
7 Sacred Shabbat
8 Beneath A Phrygian Sky
9 Never-ending Road (Amhrán Duit)

Grab the CD here.

Bitrate - V2

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Marissa Nadler - Four Track Recordings, Outtakes [2005]

Thursday, December 11, 2008

01 - Flora Barone Queen of the Vaudeville Throne [4:41]
02 - Box of Cedar [4:19]
03 - Famous Song [4:06]
04 - Annabelle Lee [5:13]
05 - Black Hole Infinity [1:24]
06 - Chelsea Hotel #2 [2:23]
07 - Ashes [2:24]
08 - Days of the Dead [1:10]
09 - Strange [1:53]
10 - Battle Hymn of the Republic [1:51]
11 - As I Lay in Death My Son [4:32]
12 - Lily, Henry, and the Willow Trees [3:34]

Info

DOWNLOAD
320 kbps

Arborea - Arborea [2008]

Friday, November 28, 2008

1 Forewarned
2 Red Bird
3 Ides of March
4 Seadrift
5 Black Mountain Road
6 Dark Horse
7 Leaves Among the Ruins
8 Dark Is the Night, Cold Is the Wind
9 Swan
10 Echo of Hooves
11 Plains of Macedonia

Arborea is a Maine-based husband and wife duo that creates earthy, spirited music with a hearty nod toward folk music of the past. Really, their music is a strong mix of old-world and American folk traditions, with a smattering of other elements, both modern and antique. For their sophomore album, Buck and Shanti Curran incorporate vocals, guitars, banjo, violin, and percussion into their beautiful works. Their previous album was called "Wayfaring Summer," but this self-titled effort seems to evoke the fall season with its deep, brooding music and melancholy sound. - Foxy Digitalis

Modern Psych Folk. Gorgeous vocals accompanied by haunting melodic banjo, slide guitar, and cello.

I was asked by Arborea's management to remove the link to the full album.
Understandably, they're concerned about people only downloading the album and not bothering to purchase it.
I respect the right of the band to not have their album available for free here, even if it was meant for promotional purposes.
Please go to their myspace page, listen to the samples, and buy the album!

- S.E.

http://www.myspace.com/arborea2

Autumn Grieve - Terra Infinita (EP, 2007)

"Ethereal folk with a classical sensibility". Autumn Grieve is probably my favourite discovery this year, beautiful stuff.

It would be impossible to describe Autumn's music without mentioning Kate Bush - though more from depth of feeling rather than a direct link. Her first release for bedroom-run label Rusted Rail feels deeply feminine, steeped in emotion, offering a unique take on the world of pastoral folk. Autumn's breathy vocals serve as another instrument within the layers of delicate guitar, and careful strings. The result is individuality in a genre that has become heavily loaded of late. Essential. - Rough Trade

Label - Rusted Rail

Tracklist:

1 Flown
2 The Balance and the Beauty
3 Today the Rain
4 The Borrowed Light of Memory

http://www.autumngrieve.com/
http://www.myspace.com/autumngrieve
Grab the EP here - http://www.rustedrail.com/autumn2.html

Bitrate - V2

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Jack Rose - Kensington Blues (2005)

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Something a little more upbeat this time. Jack Rose plays psychedelic ragtime folk in a ridiculously fast and complex fingerpicking style. On a mission to revive the traditions of ragtime, Mr. Rose plays the acoustic guitar like noone else I've ever heard.

His tools are firmly those of the past. While the new century's novel folk has already seen significant definition, Rose is largely alone in talking new century ideas with the old language.
Thus, Kensington Blues is derivative and at the same time nearly brilliant. The styles Rose employs are diverse: twelve-string virtuoso shows, a slide guitar that alludes as much to the sitar as to the blues, solid traditional Takoma ragtime and folk. Out from latter comes a Fahey cover, "Sunflower River Blues", which (not surprisingly) works as the soil from which the rest of the record grows. The original was predicated on Fahey's impeccable timing; Rose's take amplifies the feeling and melody, and then runs with it. Hence the stunning "Kensington Blues", a song full of clarity and syncopation, elegant and well composed. Two others, "Rappahanock River Rag" and "Flirtin' with the Undertaker", are less weighty, more jaunty deliveries of Rose's signature modern ragtime.

But Rose is more than a traditionalist, and the other tracks on Kensington Blues veer sharply into newer territory. "Cathedral et Chartres" uses twelve strings to abstract the melodic clarity so abundant elsewhere on the record, speeding it up and then sending it into a droning, buzzing finale. This idea is fully worked out in his closer, "Calais to Dover", in which Rose transfigures the raga into a kind of Dream Music, deep listening project, vibrating his way past individual notes and sequences and arriving at something more akin to pure tone and texture. The minimalist affinity is no coincidence: Rose's folk is not the least bit free, even as he explores freak sonic terrain, and control is his technique, no matter how many notes he stacks. - Pitchfork

Label: VHF Records/Beautiful Happiness

Tracklist:

1 Kensington Blues
2 Cross the North Fork
3 Cathedral et Chartres
4 Rappahanock River Rag (For William Moore)
5 Sunflower River Blues
6 Now That I'm a Man Full Grown II
7 Flirtin' with the Undertaker
8 Calais to Dover

http://www.vhfrecords.com/jackrose/
Grab the record here

Bitrate - V2

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