Folk & Traditional / All styles

The first Mississippi compilation, in print again for the first time in over 7 years. Here we have some of the absolute best performances of country blues and ballads ever put out, dating from 1926 - 1953. Early 78's that speak of the universal human condition in a profound way. Artists include Geechy Wiley, Blind Wille and Kate McTell, The Blue Sky Boys, Lottie Kimbrough, Robert Petway, Memphis Minnie and much more. No typical blues riffs or boring standards here - just truly unique artists tra…

Compilation of absolutely must-have country blues from Mississippi. A mix of well known artists playing their signature songs and more obscure musicians. Highlights include Bukka White's elemental "Fixin' to die", Lottie Kimbroughs' seldom heard "Don't Speak To Me", George Carters' haunting "Ghost Woman Blues", Willie Browns' existential "Future Blues", Monroe Moe Jackson's wild "Go Away From My Door" and many more hits. The real stuff and some of Mississippi Records all time favorite tunes.

2014 repress. "Compilation of 78's by Washington Phillips, in print again for the first time in over 7 years! Washington Phillips is one of the most unique gospel artists of all time. He played an instrument that was either the dolciola (a now extinct chimey sounding piano) or something entirely home made. No one knows for sure. Phillips sings with a beautiful voice and his instrument provides a celestial and otherworldly background. His songs are like lullabies straight from the spirit …

"In celebration of the centenary of Louis Feuillade's Fantomassilent film series, James Blackshaw was invited by Yann Tiersen to perform a live score to the fifth and final film, Le Faux Magistrat, at the beautiful and prestigious surroundings of the Theatre de Chatelet, Paris on October 31, 2013. Fantomas -- a master of disguise and symbol of terror -- is one of the most popular characters in French crime fiction, as well as a favorite with the avant-garde, particularly the surrealists. Tim Hec…

Seminal recording (originally released in 1964) by the two men most responsible for opening the West to Indian music. Master of the sitar, Ravi Shankar (age 91) is, of course, famous for his legendary influence on the Beatles, but this recording was made for the American jazz label Prestige prior to their meeting. Perhaps lesser intertwined with the pop music world, Ali Akbar-Khan is nonetheless one of India’s greatest musicians, and the world’s best sarod player. Shankar and Khan play to…

Three Ragas, Ravi Shankar's Western debut (recorded in London in 1956), remains one of his finest albums ever recorded. Although Shankar was already an accomplished and well-known musician in India in 1956, he was still almost completely unknown in the West. The album, consisting of three ragas, was meant to be a kind of introduction to Shankar's music for the Western listener. Side A consists of 'Raga Jog,' an evening Raga that 'expresses the yearning of a longing soul,' while side B con…

Some of the first eastern-jazz fusion ever recorded, finally reissued on LP. Originally recorded in 1962 for World Pacific and featuring jazz musicians Gary Peacock on bass and Bud Shank on flute, the album opens with improvisations on the theme that Shankar wrote for the 1955 Indian neorealist film Pather Panchali, by legendary Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray. 'Fire Night' was another jazz-fusion piece, recorded to commemorate the fires that were burning all around LA when this session was…

Maurizio Abate is a self taught guitarist active since 2000s, with a dinstinctive approach to experimentation. Since 2006 he has made several recording sessions, released on some LPs under his own name and other collective groups, he collaborates with David Vanzan and Virginia Genta (Jooklo), Makoto Kawabata (Acid Mother Temple), Luca Massolin (Golden Cup) and many others He is currently involved in the project Eternal Zio and plays live in the project BeMyDelay. The records aggregates many infl…

The needle lands on the vinyl surface of Wawayanda Patent, and the room appears in your mind’s eye. Black Dirt Studio sits empty, the sunlight still caught in the west-facing window, while an array of strings, drums, bells, and wooden bodies waits in expectant silence. In time-lapse, each performer appears in the space before your eyes, channeling the experience of unnumbered past collaborations into a new chimera: heart of Pelt, head of Gunn, neck of NNCK, legs of Rhyton, wings of Pigeons. To e…

Oud virtuoso and composer Salman Shukur was the Head of the Music Department and Professor of Oud (the Arab lute) at the Baghdad Institute of Fine Arts for over 30 years. However, despite his long and illustrious career, Shukur made only one LP, recorded in London in 1976 at Rosslyn Hill Chapel. Shukur's compositions, while based on the Arab classical musical tradition, attempt to bridge the gap between eastern and western music, and may be described as tone-poems, embodying both free and formal…

Aulos' Second Reed is a massive development in the transverse music created by Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides. Pascal Nichols and Kelly-Jayne Jones go outside of themselves and become a whole listening unit with a singular pulse. Side A is elegance personified. Using what appears at first to be a two person small Gakaku style setup which leads the listener through occasional tympani playing and a flute response that sounds like it came a hundred years before this time. As each player moves …

Sohail Rana, versatile maestro of film and pop composition, and leading force in pioneering the cultural landscape of modern Pakistan. His longplay masterpiece, Khyber Mail is stocked with groovy eastern moods, electric organ, sitar soul and surf guitar. Alan Bishop (Sublime Frequencies/Sun City Girls) As the son of renowned Urdu poet Rana Akbar Abadi, Sohail Rana was born into a respected family in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India, 1938. Having achieved academic qualifications in his formative years …

Between the floor cracks of her whispered folk pop music as a solo artist, burning various violin and bass strings in Thurston Moore's Chelsey Light Moving, breakdancing for a Jackie O Motherfucker and playing in 1234 other bands in and around Soho NY, Samara Lubelski melts all other violinists on earth in a small metal bucket, while still hot she wiped their fat on her strings and blurred out 2 stripped, beautifully psychedelic solo violin pieces! 

2013 release. The mysterious Jandek emerges on Jackpot Records for a limited box set containing some of his most important works. This Jandek Vinyl Box set contains Ready For The House, Six and Six, and Chair Beside A Window in a deluxe hardbound slipcase with 3 exclusive 24" x 24" posters and full Corwood catalog insert. A must-have for Jandek fans and a great introduction to the cult outsider musician's work for new followers. Only 500 hand numbered copies made exclusively for RSD.

The 1969 guitar classic, remastered from the original tapes in gatefold sleeve. "Robbie Basho released Venus in Cancer in 1969 on the Blue Thumb label. After five albums for the Takoma label in the '60s, Basho had cemented his reputation alongside John Fahey and Leo Kottke as one of the most brilliant guitarists of his generation. His wide range of musical influences from around the globe set him apart from other blues-based players, incorporating Arabic, Himalayan and Indian themes; Japan…

D. Charles Speer, aka Dave Shuford, is a founding member of both Rhyton and No Neck Blues Band, and also known for his work with Enos Slaughter, The Suntanama, Egypt Is The Magick #, and Coach Fingers. On ‘Doubled Exposure’ The Helix take their loose and free country rock boogie and enhance it with the blistering psych Speer explores in Rhyton, and the traditional Greek melodies delved into on the Speer solo album, ‘Arghiledes’. ‘Doubled Exposure’ was recorded by Jason Meagher at the increasingl…

Arghiledes' is a brilliant homage to Greek Rebetiko music of the early 20th century by No Neck Blues Band's David Shuford aka D. Charles Speer. It's his 2nd solo LP under this moniker and a deeply researched, beautifully executed effort replete with in depth sleeve notes and paste-on cover. Coming from a Blues playing American of Greek descent, the project reflects the syncretic nature of Rebetiko music, itself made up of the many disparate elements which formed Greek urban folk music (European …

This has gotta be a piece of history right here. These 12 songs comprise Alan Lomax's first recordings of the legendary Fred McDowell in an incredible, on-the-spot document of his soul-stomping, spirit-wrenching blues. Fred is joined by Miles Pratcher on second guitar for a number of songs, and accompanied by Annie Mae McDowell's vocals and Fanny Davis on hair comb, running through a repetoire of spirituals and original songs. We're by no means Blues experts, but you don't need to know jack sh*t…

"Swathed in hundreds of miles of snaking hinterland, the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan is a giant canvas for the imagination of the wanderers it gives home to. Through the stark reaches of the vast Thar Desert, Rajasthan shares borders as well as bloodlines with the Pakistani provinces of Sindh and Punjab to the west and the Indian state of Gujarat to the south. The state's rough history and harsh environment is heavily reflected in the Rajasthani people and Marwari tribal culture; cent…

After the 1960 independence, the Orchestre Regional de Kayes was founded in order to reinvigorate the local cultures from the Mand and the Kasso regions and turn some traditional themes into modern songs. Under the guidance of bandleader Harouna Barry, they evolve as one of Mali's finest orchestras. In the early 1970s, like most modern bands of Mali, the orchestra evolved into the Sidi Yassa de Kayes, named after Sidi Yassa, a late great singer. In 1977, they release one eponymous LP in 1977 on …

An early and one of the most special Gnod recordings is out now on Aguirre. The Somnambulist's Tale consists of two sidelong adventurous pieces which are carried by an incredible loop. The haunting ambience in combination with electronics, distant guitar layers,  conversations between the band members, a typewriter, and other sounds from found objects makes this quite an atypical Gnod release, but definitely a great one. Influenced by early Krautrock bands like Can, Hawkwind and Ash Ra Temple, G…

Amazing sounds from the subcontinent – a selection of mid-century recordings that focuses on the incredible vocal range in Indian music, served up by a set of singers we might never have known otherwise! The voice is almost the lead instrument here – usually just supported by a bit of percussion or sitar, and set free in open space with these insane inflections and cascading tones that really leave us breathless! Mediative and exciting vocals from the masters. Great liner notes and master…

In October 2012, the Tamashek community lost one of its most luminous voices when Koudede's life was cut short by a car crash during his trip home to Niger from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Koudede was a leading light among the myriad musical groups that have recently proliferated in Niger and Mali to voice the Tuareg struggle against exploitation and to exalt their proud but waning nomadic heritage. His outstanding reputation and corpus of songs garnered the respect of his contemporaries, and his…

Recorded in December 1970.  "Peter Walker is an American original, as eclectic and enigmatic as the songs he writes. The legendary seventy-five year old raga/psychedelic/folk acoustic guitarist, who was schooled by masters such as Ravi Shankar, and Ali Akbar Khan, has been described by Larry Coryell as, “One of the most original practitioners of contemporary music” and proclaimed by the Beatles’ press agent Derek Taylor as “Perhaps the greatest guitarist in the world.” His music, celebrated by t…

In 2010, against all odds, Angola Soundtrack Vol. 1 (AACD 069CD/AALP 069LP) was awarded the German Record Critics' Prize in the category "Black Music." This victory was all the sweeter for its triumph over the predicted winner, Aloe Blacc's multi-platinum record, Good Things. Many were surprised that the award was handed to a compilation that covered obscure music, but it didn't surprise the team behind Analog Africa, who believed such an award should have come much earlier. Since discovering th…

"Relay I" is the first in Smeraldina-Rima's Relay Series. An artist for the A-side is chosen by the Smeraldina-Rima clan, after which the A-side artist decides upon who will get to fill the B-side. For every Relay 7" a different artist will be chosen to create the outside artwork. The A-side of "Relay I" fell to Jack Allett, the fingerpicking whirlwind formerly known as Spoono. Allett chose Kalbakken for the B-side. A great choice, Kalbakken, with its shamanistic folk, offers a great supplement …

...Vol. 1. Limited edition full-color gatefold LP version of the Sublime Frequencies CD release from 2004. Original description from 2004: How do they do it? Are they smarter? Are they better? How can it be ignored or denied? How is it possible that one of the most unique, perfectly composed and performed, intense and awe-inspiring musical legacies the world has ever known is looming north of the equator physically tucked between world cultural giants India, China, and Thailand, without more tha…

In 2006, Hisham Mayet returned to West Africa to continue his search for an unknown musician he had heard six months earlier on the radio in a Morocco hotel room. Knowing only that it was Sahrawi music -- music of the south -- he headed down through the vast and remote desert landscape of the Western Sahara and Mauritania in hopes of finding someone who could identify these revelatory recordings. The story of how he finally found this elusive artist is the stuff of ethnomusicological legend. But…

In 2005, Sublime Frequencies released Choubi Choubi: Folk and Pop Sounds from Iraq, and in the ensuing years it has become one of the most beloved and venerable titles in their catalog. Now almost 10 years later, this highly-anticipated second volume is finally here. Compiler and producer Mark Gergis has once again put forth a revelatory and poignant collection of Iraq's national folk music. What has happened to Iraq since the 2003 U.S. invasion and eventual occupation? Endless death, destructio…

It is an eclectic collection of inspired Indonesian folk and pop music culled from cassettes and vinyl recorded and released during the 1970s and 1980s. The music on this collection spans several contemporary popular genres - each inherently unique and born from very different cultural and geographical origins within the archipelago. All, however, are also vitally informed by Islamic, Arabic and South Asian popular and traditional music, alongside various Western musical fads -- a distinctly Ind…

First release on Sham Palace, a new label from key Sublime Frequencies conspirator Mark Gergis. "Leh Jani" -- the legendary Omar Souleyman track -- was originally released in Syria as a sprawling 30-minute epic groove, alongside two additional tracks. The entire 60-minute cassette album was recorded live to tape in 1998 at the home studio of producer Zuhir Maksi in the village of Ras Al Ain in northeastern Syria. Many of Omar's early tapes were recorded in this fashion to replicate the feeling o…

Sublime Frequencies is pleased to present the second volume of Northeast Syrian dabke music from legendary vocalist Omar Souleyman and his group. This record was compiled by Mark Gergis to coincide with the Sublime Frequencies UK/European tour in May and June of 2009, featuring live performances by Omar Souleyman himself. Culled from dozens of cassettes recorded in Syria from 1999-2008, the music here is an extension of Omar's Highway to Hassake: Folk & Pop Sounds of Syria (SF 031CD) release, to…

The Kel Tamasheq people of the Sahara respect an ancient social order of noble families supported by lesser nobles, craftsmen and former slaves. Noble princes never would pick up a musical instrument -- that was for the craftsman, the griot, the professional bard, or the lesser nobles. But all that has changed during the droughts and rebellions of the past 50 years. The whole social order has been challenged. In the 1970s, electric guitars appeared in the desert. Everything began to c…

"Unreleased performances by Dave Van Ronk, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Kate McGarrigle, Rick Danko, Anais Mitchell, Sleepy John Estes, Arlo Guthrie, Sarah Lee Guthrie, and more. Caffè Lena, the oldest continuously operating folk music coffeehouse in the US. Opened by Lena Spencer in 1960, this tiny room has played host to influential artists across diverse genres of music; traditional folk, blues, singer-songwriters, jazz, and bluegrass. Luckily, many performances were caught on tape through …

Previously unreleased tracks from the legendary eccentric folk singer Jackson C.Frank. He was Sandy Denny's boyfriend; Nick Drake, Bert Jansch, Al Stewart and others have covered his songs. His first and only album was produced by Paul Simon. After being burned in a fire and the death of his son, he became an NYC vagrant and eventually succumbed to pneumonia and cardiac arrest in 1999 at age 56.

Compiled by Chris Menist, Qat, Coffee & Qambus: raw 45s from Yemen features vintage oud and vocal music inspired by the qat-chewing, coffee-sipping, qambus-playing culture of Yemen. Although part of the classical Arabic musical tradition, the music of Yemen takes its rhythmic lead as much from the East African coast (a mere 20 miles across the Red Sea) as the surrounding Arab Peninsula.Little has been written about the music and culture of one of the world's oldest civilizations, and each 45rpm …

Features six extended tracks from the Golden Age of the Moroccan record industry. 'Kassidat', the Arabic word for poetry, is one of the essential ingredients in Moroccan song. Despite the bewildering array of musical styles in Morocco, the Moroccan sense of poetry is found throughout the music, regardless of the style or language. This isn't the language of high art, but an often impenetrable vernacular poetry of oblique references, symbols, metaphors, and double entendres that describes the liv…

Kye is proud to present 'Abersayne' & 'Attersaye', a brand new 7' single by Graham Lambkin, his solo debut on the format after 21 years in the game. 'Abersayne' & 'Attersaye' pairs a perfectly serviceable love song with a rough-and-ready late-night lament (featuring one conspicuous overdub). Expertly mastered by Jason Lescalleet at Glistening Labs, 'Abersayne' & 'Attersaye' arrives in a pro-printed full color high gloss sleeve, with lyric insert, in an edition of 500 copies.

A compilation of gongs of ethnic minorities in Ratanakiri and Mondolkiri provinces of Cambodia and in Champasak and Attapeu provinces of Laos, recorded between 2003 and 2007, released for the first time on a double vinyl, mastered by Rashad Becker at dubplates Berlin. Georges Condominas had released end of the 50s on the french label Ocora a vinyl containing recordings of gong ceremonies 'musiques Mnong gar du Vietnam', in between so much has happened and more than 50 years later it's tim…

Long awaited reissue of the classic first album by legendary prog-folkies Heron, from Berkshire, UK.  Issued in 1970 on the ultra collectable Dawn label, their beautiful songs were recorded in a field, surrounded by trees, birds and sun. This debut album is an Acid Folk masterpiece. Delicate songs, brilliant interpretations and a magic sound provided for their "outdoors recording style". This sessions keep the attention of Roger Daltrey (The Who) who visited the band those days and John Peel, wh…