Psych /
Five Leaves Left
Whether you know it or not, you've heard Nick Drake before. Maybe
it's from his other albums, maybe it's from that VW commercial, maybe
it's just the sound of that quiet bleakness we all feel when sadness
comes to the door and doesn't want to leave. This music lives with all
of us. It exists in quiet lonely nights, chilly autumn evenings, and the
muted grey of the world when it's been raining all day.During his too-short musical career, Nick used music to look at those
little feelings we a…
Lassa sta' la Me Creatura
** Audiophile pressing (Pure Analogue Cutting, One-Stage Pressing Process, 180 g.) edition of 490 copies ** More than 40 years after its publication, the album Lassa sta 'la me creatura continues to be systematically cited in the stories of Italian music related to the' 70s as a completely unique and innovative event in the music scene of those years. A remarkable Italian folk/ethnic album with experimental tendencies, released in 1974 on the legendary Intingo label, Canzoniere Del Lazio was one…
A Rare Conundrum
Though recorded in England, Bert Jansch’s time in America recording the preceding ‘L.A. Turnaround’ and ‘Santa Barbara Honeymoon’ is still much in evidence. The breezy, bluesy style carries effortless across standout tracks ‘Looking For a Home’ and ‘3AM’, alongside the more familiar UK folk territory of ‘The Curragh of Kildare’ and ‘Pretty Saro’. Recorded at London’s now-legendary Air Studios, the production – steered by Jansch and new collaborator Rod Clements – has a wonderful lightness of tou…
Maison Rose
We begin by saying that this is an album unlike any other. A bold statement, perhaps. Yet look in the Scented Gardens of the Mind book and you will see this description: "a revelation of a folk album, with songs of incredible beauty and innovative arrangements. It features traditional instruments you've hardly ever heard before and touches of the avant-garde. Play this album directly after that of another randomly chosen female folk album, and you will notice the difference! This is one of the b…
The End of the Line/Perspectives
Double LP version. The genesis of Havenstreet goes back to 1969, when Phil Ridgway and Jeff Vinter played in The Gas, an experimental psychedelic band heavily influenced by Barrett-era Pink Floyd.
The two friends started to write songs their own songs, ending up as a
folk duo. With the offer to record some of their material at a friend's
studio, they recruited more musical friends, so Havenstreet was born.
The influences had expanded now to bands and artists such as Peter Hammill, Strawbs, T…
A Midsummer's Night Dream
LP version. Sommor presents the first ever legitimate reissue of Oberon's A Midsummer's Night Dream,
one of the rarest psych-folk albums from the UK, originally released in
1971 in a private edition of 99 copies. Oberon consisted of seven young
musicians who met while studying at Radley College in Oxford. Drawing
upon such influences as Fairport Convention, The Pentangle, King Crimson, The Incredible String Band, and Sandy Denny,
the group created a stunning piece of progressive folk. Fanta…
Ship to Shore
2018 repress. Stunning debut album from 1976 by legendary/cult UK folk musician Nigel Mazlyn Jones. Originally issued as a private pressing, Ship to Shore
combines 6 and 12-string acoustic guitars with electric textures,
effects and unusual soundscapes, culminating in the haunting
progressive-folk 11-minute title-track. A folk-rock/acid-folk
masterpiece highly recommended to anyone into John Martyn, Nick Drake, Michael Chapman, Bob Theil, or Pink Floyd. Mastertape sound, including an insert …
Room For Thought
Largely known for their fantastic album And I Turned As I Had Turned As A Boy from 1971, a true folk-rock delight, British group Dulcimer had also recorded a second album to be released that same year, but for some reason it went unreleased. So here, finally, is the first-ever vinyl release of this lost UK folk-rock album, and it's taken from the original mastertapes. Limited to 500 copies in nice artwork and backflapped old-style covers. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl.
Lantaloon
Third and last album by UK folk-rock outfit Dando Shaft, from 1972. Another brilliant set of acoustic folk-rock and traditional folk. 500 copies only, pressed on 180 gram vinyl. Includes a reproduction of the original big poster and an insert with liners by Andy Morten.
Red Hash
First reissue of this underground folk-psych classic, originally released in 1973 as a self-released LP. Red Hash features eleven haunting tracks of folk-pop played on acoustic and electric guitar and arranged with percussion, cello, flute, piano, organ, bass and mandolin. This plus Gary's transcendent vocals bring to mind the perfectly-damaged vibes found in David Crosby's masterpiece of peace, love and paranoia, If I Could Only Remember My Name and the recently re-discovered and acclaimed Para…
Love Is Our Existence
LP version. Tip-on gatefold sleeve; Includes liner notes; Edition of 500. Craig Smith was an extraordinarily gifted songwriter and musician who seemed poised for a successful career in the 1960s music business until his life was derailed by drugs and schizophrenia. In 1969 clean-cut, charismatic Craig Smith became Maitreya Kali, a dark, disturbed psychedelic Messiah figure with a black widow spider tattooed on his third eye. He laid out his strange vision on a self-released double-album Apache/I…
One Nation Underground
Another time, indeed! It's been fifty years since Pearls Before Swine first appeared. A genteel, oft-hushed missive from a far corner of the psychedelic hive mind, One Nation Underground was released on an Independent outlier of a record label, removed from the mainstream and still its spirit came to be widely appreciated by a generation and more. Today, this music has been reissued by labels around the world dozens of times. Tragic, then, that it hasn't been heard properly in decades! The stere…
First Utterance
Official 180g reissue, from the original master tapes no less, of one of the most insane (and influential) experimental folk records of all time. This was Comus. Super dark themes and nightmarish visions abound in this total one-off of a record. First Utterance was, and still is, “difficult”. Fortunately today an appreciative audience exists for “difficult” stuff like this.Kent-based art students Roger Wootton and Glenn Goring had played acoustic covers of Velvet Underground numbers in London fo…
Judee Sill
Judee Sill's debut album (as well as the debut of the Asylum label) heralded a major new talent in the airy, contemporary folk world of the early '70s. The album employed the production skills of Sill's ex-husband Bob Harris, as well as ex-Turtle, ex-Leaves Jim Pons, and Graham Nash (on the album's sole single, 'Jesus Was s Crossmaker'). Judee Sill featured all original compositions, many of which relied on Sill's own brand of cosmological Christian imagery to make their point. By turns spare an…
Suan
Acid-psychedelic ballads, with lots of acoustic guitar, bursts of fuzz guitar and excellent use of electric instruments. The fuzz bass on “The House on the Hill” will blow your mind and… speakers away. It is considered to be one of the best and rarest European psychedelic folk rock albums. Original Mint copies go nowadays for 1000+Euro. English lyrics. Armando Piazza, singer-songwriter from Naples was joined by renowned US guitarist Shawn Phillips on bass, acoustic and electric guitar. "Suan" w…
50
The revered, Yorkshire-based journeyman celebrates 50 years on the road with this badger rough and satisfyingly bittersweet collection. “After five decades of recording and touring, veteran British songwriter and guitar sage Michael Chapman has finally made what he calls his “American record,” and the aptly titled 50 now stands as his late career masterwork, a moving legacy statement by a legend. Backed by a collaborative group of friends and acolytes—Steve Gunn (who also produced), Nathan Bowle…
Flat Baroque And Berserk
Hyper-expensive edition on LP, but quality is over the top. Flat Baroque and Berserk was the first record of Roy Harper’s to go into the charts. Peter Jenner was assigned by EMI Records to produce the recording – the two have been good friends ever since. EMI Studios, Abbey Road was at that time the most advanced studio in Europe, and over the next ten years Harper was to record in near-perfect conditions.Over those years, the studio buzzed with four separate Beatles, some Stones, The Pink Floyd…
Stormcock
Hyper-expensive edition on LP, but quality is over the top. Stormcock was born in 1969 as Roy Harper began to stretch his wings. He’d been there a few times before, but this time he gave himself the space to go deep and stay there. “Hors D’Oeuvres” is perhaps the lightweight in the collection, but after all, it’s the starter… The Same Old Rock records Harper’s opposition to continued dependence on the cheap opium of convenient mass religion. This year marks two important milestones for Roy Harpe…
Lifemask
Hyper-expensive edition on LP, but quality is over the top. Roy Harper's Lifemask was made at the height of the ‘flower power’ expression/boom in 1973. The songs catalog spontaneous interpretations of how we are interacting with the planet. It was never aimed at mass market and is just a poem for friends and kindred spirits. The poem was inspired by a collage of Geronimo in an eighteenth century English landscape drawing given to Harper by his friend and artist James Edgar whilst he was in the m…
It Don't Bother Me
Bert Jansch recorded his second album in 1965, just after his self-titled debut earlier that same year. The sessions were a step-up from the intimate, field-recording setting of his first album, although still not labored over too much in the studio. 'I figured that the faster I put down the tracks, the faster I could get out of the place,' Jansch told NME, 'so I just ordered about a dozen bottles of wine, put the microphone in front of me and off I went, for three hours.' The lyrics of I…