★Island
How Much Are They? (12"EP)
Original UK edition on Island of the 1981 EP with the post-punk dub experiments by PIL's bass player and two members of the mighty Can.
Mainstream (LP)
Original 1975 French edition of the sole album of excellent and peculiar pre-new wave art-rock by a super-group including This Heat's Charles Hayward, Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera, Matching Mole's Bill MacCormick and Eno.
Ultravox! (LP)
Italian edition of the great and influential first album of futuristic electronic glam punk rock, produced by Brian Eno and Steve Lillywhite and released on Island in 1977.
Sandy
On Sandy, Sandy Denny sharpens intimacy into something orchestral, fusing folk clarity with country shimmer and chamber strings. The album feels like a private notebook sung aloud, where regret, resilience and quiet defiance unfold with luminous, unh…
The North Star Grassman and the Ravens
The North Star Grassman and the Ravens finds Sandy Denny stepping from the wreckage of Fotheringay into a dreamlike solo territory, where maritime omens, cryptic elegies and barroom detours collide. The arrangements are spare yet spectral, framing ly…
Like an Old Fashioned Waltz
On Like an Old Fashioned Waltz, Sandy Denny leans into cinema-lit nostalgia, braiding English folk melancholy with 30s-inflected strings and jazz standards. Time, memory and solitude waltz together, her voice hovering between confessional intimacy an…
Buy (LP)
Original 1979 Italian edition on ZE/Island of the first free jazz/funk/punk album by the fantastic No Wave band led by James Chance.
Off White (LP)
Original UK edition on ZE/Island of the excellent 1979 disco/funk/free jazz album by the leader of the Contortions.
The Making of Five Leaves Left
Last year, we commemorated the 50th anniversary of Nick Drake’s untimely passing—yet his music remains as vital as ever. His influence stretches far and wide, inspiring artists across generations, from Liz Phair and Radiohead’s Philip Selway to Let’s…
Spooky Two
"Spooky Two is this British blues-rock band's pièce de résistance. All eight of the tracks compound free-styled rock and loose-fitting guitar playing, resulting in some fantastic raw music … their smooth, relaxed tempos and riffs mirrored bands like …
Unhalfbricking
Unhalfbricking is the third album by the British folk rock band Fairport Convention and their second album released in 1969. It is seen as a transitional album in their history and marked a further musical move away from American influences towards m…
What We Did On Our Holidays
Sandy Denny's haunting, ethereal vocals gave Fairport a big boost on her debut with the group. A more folk-based album than their initial effort, What We Did on Our Holidays is divided between original material and a few well-chosen covers. This cont…
Liege & Lief
Liege & Lief is the fourth album by the British folk rock band Fairport Convention. It is the third album the group released in the UK during 1969, all of which prominently feature Sandy Denny as lead female vocalist (Denny did not appear on the grou…
Kip Of The Serenes
*2023 stock* Ireland's answer to the Incredible String Band, Dr. Strangely Strange engaged in the same type of psychedelic acoustic music with folksy arrangements. With traditional instruments like penny whistle, fiddle, harmonium, and mandolin, Dr. …
Solid Air (LP)
Released in February 1973 and regarded by many as the John Martyn album. The title track was written for friend and peer Nick Drake and concerned Drake's mental strife at the time. (Drake took his own life the following year, a great loss to John per…
I've Always Kept a Unicorn: The Acoustic Sandy Denny
"Transcendental. I’ve never heard a voice like Sandy Denny’s. She started out with the band Strawbs, which she left when she realized they weren’t particularly folk enough for her, and joined Fairport Convention, where her, and many others, would mak…
Kip Of The Serenes
Dr. Strangely Strange were an experimental Irish folk group, formed in Dublin in 1967 by Tim Booth and Ivan Pawle. the Strangelys were friends and contemporaries of the Incredible String Band, whose producer Joe Boyd signed them to his Witchseason ma…
Sunday's Child
John Martyn's follow-up to 1973's Inside Out is a much more song-oriented, less experimental effort which concentrates on the joys of home and family. Sunday's Child skillfully blends the sensual ("You Can Discover") with the sweet ("My Baby Girl"), …
Inside Out
Of all the musicians who attempted to marry modern jazz/rock ideas with
traditional British folk in the late '60s/early '70s, John Martyn was
the most challenging and aggressive. He had others giving him a run for
his money, sure -- Richard Thomp…
The Tumbler
John Martyn’s second album was released in December 1968. Another album in
the folk tradition but featuring the jazz flautist Harold McNair,
particularly on the romantic Dusty, The Gardeners and Fly On Home. As a
young man John stayed with his sis…