Bobb Trimble - Iron Curtain Innocence

okay before I even say anything about this guy's music:


Aside from looking like the coolest Columbine shooter, Trimble creates really bizarre, dark synth-laden pyschedelic folk/pop. Shit'll sound like lo-fi Beatles on some tracks and then sound like R.E.M. via P.C.P. on others.

check out this motherfucker right here:



shpelp

Blood Axis & In Gowan Ring & Witch-Hunt - The Rites of Samhain

Blood Axis & In Gowan Ring performed together in 1999 under the name Witch-Hunt. The result is this badass live CD of the two performing experimental arrangements of traditional Celtic folk music with a few nice studio cuts from each separate act tacked on at the end. Seriously. It's two of the best neofolk musicians playing celtic folk, you know you're interested.


bop

Scott Tuma - Peeper / Love Songs Loud & Lonely

Scott Tuma, former half of the Souled American duo, puts out some quality Americana-tinged folk dronish ambient stuff. In fact, I think this 2010 cassette might be the best thing he's ever created so far. The Peeper side of this is composed of 5 worn, lo-fi, nostalgic ambient pieces, which are all fantastic and noteworthy by themselves, but the real deal is the second side, one 26-minute monster Love Songs Loud & Lonely. It shifts between distinct movements, spanning from ethereal lo-fi folk to noisy dark ambient to ominous bell-heavy grooves and everything in between. The atmosphere almost always rests at the two extremes of "oh my god im gonna cry this is so pretty!" and "fucking horrifying." The last 4 minutes might be the single prettiest thing I 'er heared though for real.

sogood

John Fahey & Cul de Sac - The Epiphany of Glenn Jones

In the midst of guitar legend John Fahey's 90's revival, he collaborated with the experimental post-rock group Cul de Sac to create this unknown gem. Fahey's signature folk style contorts and melds with the ethereal ambient textures of Cul de Sac. The results are grand psychedelic compositions that range from meditative soundscapes to raucous distorted noise improv. Oh and a lot of Nothing.

spo

The Skygreen Leopards - Disciples Of California

soundz like a lazy summer day sittin out on the back porch drinkin but your porch is in the sky. Or actually it just sounds a lot like the Byrds but that's never really a bad thing.

waiso

Exuma - Exuma

Comus as played by a Caribbean voodoo nut. You should be dl'n already.

obeah

Living Torch - Black Bile

The latest free Living Torch release. As expected, it's amazing. This guy right here is one of the best active musicians in the ambient/folk game. It's ridiculous how little attention this shit gets, because Living Torch consistently releases shit that is easily better than its drone peers.

git

You can get the other Living Torch releases as well via the last.fm page.

Gary Higgins - Red Hash

Red Hash is a lo-fi psychedelic folk album by singer/songwriter Gary Higgins. The music found on this album sounds a lot like if Karl Blau and Six Organs of Admittance (Chasny cites Higgins as a huge influence) recorded an album together. Very few copies of the album were printed initially, as Higgins recorded the album knowing he was about to go to prison on drug charges. Because of the aformentioned Ben Chasny, however, Higgins is starting to enjoy some amount of acclaim.


DL

John Hartford - Aereo-Plain

Probably my favorite bluegrass album, but I feel like this could appeal to anyone unfamiliar to the genre as well. John Hartford was just such an awesome songwriter. I don't think there's a single song on this album that isn't excellent. Humorous at times, nostalgic at others, and often strangely poetic. Hartford's also a pretty adept guitarist/banjoist/fiddler at that.

If you don't at least like this song, you are a soulless, unfeeling fuck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lo_-MnG-wQ


berb

Korouva - Shipwrecks & Russian Roulette

Korouva is Miranda Lehman from Portland, OR. She writes simple lo-fi jazz/folk tunes and sings and it's all rather pretty. Shipwrecks is mostly known for being one of the albums that Velvet Cacoon plagiarized, but beyond that it's actually a pretty chill album. Good stuff.

blb

John Fahey - Volume 6: Days Have Gone By

Pretty much every day since I got this album, whenever I pick up my guitar I'm only learning songs off this. Simple enough for a clown like me to learn but complex enough to make me sound good. Anyway, John Fahey is the fuckin man. Look at that badass motherfucker on the cover. He's just like "yeah you tap your foot to this kickin tune you little shit."

fokk

The Innocence Mission - Birds of My Neighborhood

Every year during this season, I actively search for a new "fall" album. This year it was this. Birds of My Neighborhood is just an impeccable collection of simple, mellow tunes consisting of lush guitar instrumentation and Karen Peris's incredible voice and songwriting. It reminds me a bit of 10,000 Maniacs kinda. Whatever, ish is great. It's a shame fall only lasts for a month here in Alabama.

mm

Doc Watson (1964)

Doc is the shit. Listen as he tears it up on the geetar, banjer, and even acapeller. His songwriting skills are pretty fantastic, too, with songs ranging from lighthearted folk tales to solemn hymns.

pickin

Red House Painters - Early Demos

As the title might suggest, this is a collection of early cassette demos and unreleased songs recorded during the band's early days. Most of the material on these tapes later appears on Down Colorful Hill, Red House Painters I, and Red House Painters II, but here they're all in less developed stages. It's interesting to hear some of the familiar polished material in a more stripped-down, lo-fi setting. The unreleased tracks are really great, too. Guess they just didn't make the cut before the band started moving into more folky territory.

dlow

Red House Painters II (Bridge)

Perhaps even bleaker than Red House Painters I, II has slowly grown to become one of my favorite releases of Mark Kozelek's vast and growing catalog. To those familiar with its predecessor, take that album and push it to even more austere extremes and you'll have something like this. This album even sounds kind of Slint-ish at times. "Evil" is frankly one of the most aptly titled songs and "Blindfold" might just be the best song Kozelek did under the RHP moniker. I mean, he just straight up screams for the last two minutes of the song. User PMac551 of RYM put it best when he said "Blindfold is the pinnacle of feeling like absolute shit and it is everything all at once and I don't even know how to respond to that song." Also, this is the most panned RHP album on sputnikmusic's review site, so you know it's gotta rule.

sad

The Bothy Band - Old Hag You Have Killed Me

im just kiddin heres some more fruit ass irish folk

hag me

Jackson C. Frank

yeah so dick drake was a whiny faggot and killed himself because he wasn't famous and then got played in car commercials, yet this boss was fucking blasted by a furnace explosion that killed most of his friends and gave him severe burns and permanent mental scarring, only produced this one bare-bones album that's more bummin than anything you ever heared, slept on sidewalks for most of his life, got checked into countless institutes, was mistreated for schizophrenia when he really had chronic depression, was shot in the left eye when at rock bottom by kids firing a pellet gun completely at random, and fukin tuffed it out until he was 56 and died from pneumonia in a senior center living on state aid with nothin but a $10 guitar and a suitcase to his name and STILL didn't become famous yeah dick drake u cover this guy's shit but yr still a whiny faggot i'm just kiddin i fuckin love nick drake even though he is in hell

but seriously, dude has the most miserable, unlucky story I've ever heard. Oh yeah and this album rules hard.

:'(

Planxty - Planxty

If you don't like traditional Celtic folk music, then I recommend you git this and start likin it. Variety is the spice of life!

James Blackshaw - The Cloud Of Unknowing

Stunningly beautiful & ethereal pieces for 12-string acoustic guitar. The title track is one of the best things I've ever heard. Definitely give it a listen if you're a fan of stuff like John Fahey or Jack Rose or Sir Richard Bishop or etc. etc. but chances are if you like them, you've probably already heard this. Whatever.


dlfiq

Richard Skelton - Landings

I originally gave each track on Landings a one-minute listen, decided Skelton was another one of those folk drone "artists" that loop recordings of running water and random guitar noodling/scraping, and deleted it. For some reason or another, I decided to give it another try. These are simply some of the most depressing, beautiful, and ultimately well-crafted drones I've ever heard. A lot of this was recorded in Anglezarke in the West Pennine Moors in England, where he would apparently wake up at 5 in the morning to go out and play his various instruments to gain the feel from his environment rather than going the cheap way out and simply making some uber lo-fi field recordings. This approach works according to the music found in this album. The landscape shows through Skelton's music. In a genre that's being exploited by several due to its relative ease in creation and composition, this is a true standout. Dissonant and mournful, yet refined and beautiful.

:( :( :(