Strange Folk

”Songs III: Bird on the Water” is Marissa Nadler's third full-length album, released in March 2007 on Peacefrog Records. It was distributed in the US and Canada in August 2007 by New York City-based Kemado Records. The album was nominated for Best Americana Record of the Year by the PLUG awards, as well as Best Female Artist, in 2007.

Linhart's debut album is a strange, unfocused affair, the kind of thing that would have only been issued by a major label in the late '60s. The singer varies between relatively short songs and way-extended workouts that mix folk with rock, Indian music (Big Jim Sullivan plays sitar), and even some mellotron. Linhart uses drawn-out blues-folk phrasing that owes quite a bit to Village folk-rockers like Tim Hardin and Fred Neil, and in fact a five-and-a-half-minute workout on Hardin's blues, "Yellow Cab," opens the LP. The ten-minute "Willie Jean" is next, and actually Phil Ryan's mellotron here gives the song an unusual lift that helps to differentiate what would otherwise be an OK but unremarkable anguished folk ballad. The 18-minute "Sing Joy" takes up most of side two, and its Indian-oriented improvisation gets tedious after a promising opening burst of ominous orchestral drone…

Batiska is the first album by a new Belgian contemporary folk music ensemble called Naragonia Quartet. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Naragonia is also a duo formed by melodeon player Pascale Rubens and multi-instrumentalist Toon Van Mierlo on various bagpipes, accordion, bombarde, biniou and low whistles…

Billy Bragg - Back To Basics (1987) {Mushroom Records MUSH32028.2 rec 1983-1985}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 330 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 137 Mb
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© 1983-85, 1987 Billy Bragg / Mushroom Records | MUSH32028.2
Alternative Folk / Folk / Folk Rock / Singer/Songwriter / Urban Folk / Anti-Folk

After Elektra signed Billy Bragg to his first major-label deal and released Talking with the Taxman About Poetry in 1986, the label decided to do a clean-up job on his back catalog and compiled Back to Basics, which combined the material from Bragg's first three records – Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy, Brewing Up with Billy Bragg, and Between the Wars – into one two-record set (now available on a single CD). The first seven cuts, from the Life's a Riot EP, are Billy Bragg at his most basic; recorded in an afternoon with no overdubs, the audio is rough and Billy's electric guitar often threatens to drown out his voice, but the performances are game, and Bragg was already writing top-notch songs like "A New England" and "The Milkman of Human Kindness."

John McLaughlin - Molom - A Legend Of Mongolia (1995) {Verve 529 034-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 312 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 136 Mb
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© 1995 Verve / Polydor/PolyGram S.A. France | 529 034-2
Jazz / World / Fusion / Etnic Fusion

This McLaughlin album is a rare limited edition French release - soundtrack to a limited edition film "Molom - A Legend Of Mongolia" . All this combination sounds a bit strange, so I almost missed that album. It could be a big mistake! Album contains 22 compositions, only around half of them is McLaughlin pieces, all others are original Mongolian folk songs played and recorded very tastefully, with all acoustic mysticism possible!