Experimental / Folk Rock

2012 release ** "Estasy is the project of Emiliano Maggi, an Italian singer/songwriter who has spent the last couple of years releasing low-key CD-Rs and collaborating with artists and filmmakers in Rome. A lot of the time his live performances with other artists, well-documented on YouTube, are set to spooky visuals, and in those that aren't Maggi wears quite frightening masks. Sure, quite a bit of that does sound like the sort of standard gimmickry rife in 2012, but there's something about Emi…

In the fall of 2010, when Douglas McCombs convened a new version of the band, Brokeback hadn't played a live show for more than two years and had not recorded any new music for eight. The band, a long-running side project for Tortoise and Eleventh Dream Day's Douglas McCombs, had stiffened up, sometimes getting lost in a welter of meticulously constructed electronics. McCombs's idea was not to start over, exactly, but to start fresh, approaching similar harmonic content from a different directio…

Chris Rose's Robust Worlds has impressed us since first glimpse. He was actually barefoot, if you can believe that, and his set had the feel of a way more lysergic Kevin Ayers. It was freezing fucking cold and I'm pretty sure he wore a Hawaiian shirt. His debut LP is called Emotional Planet, and it's deceptively simple. Voice, guitar, some noisy shit, whatever. His playing is sick: fluid, unforced, warm, soothed and soothing. It's a bath you don't want to exit. Seriously, if yr going to play gui…

This is a collection of previously-unreleased studio and live material. Originally released in 2002 and deleted for years -- this collection is now made available again in 2012 due to demand. The studio material is as beautiful and sad as "Dirty Old Town," made famous by The Pogues, which is released on CD for the first time here. The oldest song, "Willie Boy," was recorded during the 1991 session for Documentary but didn't make it onto the record. "German Mustard," "Where I Lead Me," "Heav…

Utterances into a dictophone from a backdoor man hiding in the closet as the husband arrives home. The tales plod along in whispers, accompanied by defined guitar interplay, punctuated piano and snappy drums. Nearly every accent of guitar seems present. Fragile flamenco plucks, fuzz-to-the-front fumblings onto smooth lyrics of a detective attempting to resolve his own crimes. Vocals and acoustic guitar were recorded by Greg Weeks. The arrangements, instrumentation and production were lovi…

In the all-female duo Coa, Eddie Corman trades on volume and velocity in a howling rock beast that could well fit the bill soundtracking an apocalyptic horror movie. Both Eddie and Marcon first played together in an early incarnation of LSD-March, pysch-blasted legends of the Japanese underground. Combining their names to form a new endeavour into Japanese acid folk, Eddie and Marcon – as Eddie Marcon – have been working in much quieter tones to make delicate, gorgeous and esoteric music. Shinin…

Ben Chasny has spent many years at this point perfecting his very personal vision of the American landscape. With his early LPs he managed to grab a groundswell of support for his distinctly lo-fi recordings, and since hitting the Drag City label with the breathtaking 'School of Flower' he has managed to extend his vision to countless others. 'Asleep on the Floodplain' continues his exploration, and while it doesn't change up the formula too much (apart from the odd analogue synth blurt here and…

"As K.J. Gustin wrote, Piece Of Mind is a work of 'exotic psychedelic free-jazz-meets-rock, East-meets-West, progressive and smoky moment in late Twentieth Century music history'. Add to that a spice of jazzy brassed R&B and a touch of minor-key popsike sensitivity and you get an accurate description of the sounds contained in Roger Bunn's astonishing 1969 LP, originally released in the UK on the Major Minor budget label, but issued in some European countries (Ohr label in Germany or Phil…

Emil Amos, world renowned as drummer of the illustrious experimental rock groups Om and Grails, has an increasingly prolific, though relatively unknown, solo career under the moniker Holy Sons. Home recording over 1000 songs since the project's inception in 1992, Amos has spent the better part of the last two decades honing his song writing and production skills over a wide swath of genres in a mission to capture his internal world sonically. Only a handful of shows have ever been pla…

Luminous Night is the first set of new Six Organs Of Admittance material to leap forth from Ben Chasnys' cerebral cortex in 18 months, and what a joy it is. With the release of odds-and-sods collection RTZ earlier in the year there to bridge the gap between 2007s Shelter From The Ash it doesn't seem like he's been away for long per se but for serious Chasny-heads a new album is something to get pretty excited about and with his other musical outlet Comets On Fire either on extended hiatus or spl…

The burgeoning Finnish free-folk movement has been garnering much praise & attention over the past year. First CD release by Avarus who play a left-field blend of noise, folk & free jazz. From the same circle of psychos who bring us Kemialliset Ystavat, Maniac's Dream, Pylon & the Anaksimandros. Backward, dirt-eating freak folk that makes the Animal Collective sound like Judy Collins.

Recorded in 2005/2006 in Portugal and Europe... and they like to dance to the sound of tribal music!

A true solo endeavor, this LP is the debut of D. Charles Speer on long player. Recordings over a span of 4 years have been assembled here into a rumination on loss in its many forms - loss of direction, loved ones, home, mental acuity, money, and emotional stability. Pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl and limited to 500 copies.

This album is essentially the first recording by Robin Williamson and Mike Heron as a duo. What's most exciting about this album is that fans can witness these songs take creative flight for the first time. Most of these selections found their way onto subsequent studio recordings, but there are also a few unreleased songs, including Williamson's "Born in Your Town" and Heron's "Lover Man," which was later recorded by Al Stewart. The discovery of these tapes was made in 1985. They finally saw re…

White Magic is the songwriting and vocal lyricism of Mira Billotte engaged by the talented likes of 'Sleepy' Doug Shaw, Jim White (Dirty Three), Tim DeWit (Gang Gang Dance), Tim Barnes, Samara Lubelski, Shahzad Ismaily, Jesse Lee, Karen Leblanc and Brad Truax. White Magic's debut full length album Dat Rosa Mel Apibus is an elaborate evolution from the first release. It is a journey which sets forth into an untamed musical landscape, finding the familiar in unusual streams of new sound -- a new m…