Strange Folk

The Incredible String Band - The Incredible String Band
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 302 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Strange Days Records # POCE-1032 | Country/Year: Japan 2006, 1966
Genre: Rock, Folk | Style: Folk Rock

…While this album is a tremendous launch pad for potential enthusiasts, be aware that every Incredible String Band recording is also extremely individual and reflects the current membership of the group.

Horslips - Dancehall Sweethearts
EAC+LOG+CUE | WV: 262 MB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Strange Days Records # POCE-1245 | Country/Year: Japan 2008, 1974
Genre: Rock, Folk, World | Style: Folk Rock, Prog Rock, Celtic

"…So while this album succeeds in their effort to create more accessible, radio-friendly music, it wasn't the commercial breakthrough this band had hoped for to compete more directly with similar, successful groups like Jethro Tull and Wishbone Ash. That said, Dancehall Sweethearts is still regarded as one of their finer recordings and the more mainstream approach of this record fully reveals that instrumentally they were every bit as talented as their more famous early seventies rock & roll counterparts." ~AMG

For most of the last decade and a half, guitarist Steve Gunn has been quietly going about his business as a musician's musician. In addition to collaborating with Meg Baird, the Magik Markers, and Kurt Vile, he has been an active recording artist as a member of GHQ, the Gunn Truscinski Duo, and in his low-key way, as a solo artist. Time Off is his first trio recording under his own name. Gunn is a guitarist of wide interests and skillful versatility, whether it be early blues traditions like Piedmont or Delta styles, American Primitive, Indian music, psych, Gnawan, etc. He seeks out what inspires him then masters it. This set was reportedly cut in the breaks he had between other projects.

Forest were a late 60's minstrel/medieval type of folk-prog trio in the style of The Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention and Dr. Strangely Strange. They released a couple of albums with dark but subtle acid lyrics, incorporating pipes, harmonium, harpsichord, mandolin, 12-string guitar and percussion to their sound. Their music doesn't have the electricity normally associated with rock, yet it can't be described as straight folk either, the lyrics being rather strange and the band's approach being far too eclectic - thus their inclusion here.
Their eponymous album (1969) is practically a clone of The Incredible String Band whereas "Full Circle" (1970) shows more original songwriting and more diverse arrangements, with themes still dealing with nature, mystery and darkness. Both albums are altogether esoteric, pastoral, serious and communal as befit the times.

Tim Buckley - Live At The Troubadour 1969 (1995) {Manifesto PT3 40705}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 469 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 188 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 21 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1969, 1995 Manifesto Records | PT3 40705
Rock / Folk Rock / World / Psychedelic Rock / Country / Blues / Singer-Songwriter / Jazz

For an artist whose recording career spanned less than ten years, Tim Buckley seemed to get a lot done. From 1966's self titled debut, to Look At The Fool, his final album released in 1974, Buckley's oeuvre is as broad as it is varied. Ever the experimental troubadour, no other singer of the time was capable of absorbing such a diverse range of styles, whether that be folk, blues, jazz, rock, or classical, Tim was the ultimate when it came to freedom of expression.

For a band that celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019, Strawbs still sound amazingly spry on Settlement. That’s a testament to both their staying power and their ability to transcend genres to create music that relates to the world in which we are currently trapped. Dave Cousins assembled a lineup of old hands, Dave Lambert on guitar, bassist Chas Cronk, and Tony Fernandez on drums, all veterans of the classic Strawbs bands of the ‘70s…