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viewing 1 To 9 of 9 items
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BR 015X-CD
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Anti-counter culture loner folk from a teenage attic in the heart of rural Northern hippiedom. Today the valley town of Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire is world-renowned as something of a bohemian backwater. It wasn't like this back in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, when a disparate selection of radicals, drop-outs, heads, musicians, artists and writers started to be attracted to the Calder Valley. Over time, those seeds of radicalism and collectivism ensured Hebden Bridge evolved into a place where people could be themselves and all shades of individual oddness not only tolerated but actively encouraged. But back at the turn of the dreary 1970s it remained a monochrome world defined by its unforgiving surrounding landscapes, where the old gritstone over-dwellings were stained with soot and rain lashed down for weeks. It was here that Trevor Beales, who was born in 1953, grew up, and from where he drew musical and lyrical inspiration. The discovery of Bob Dylan, Django Reinhardt, The Byrds, and James Taylor at a young age, lead to him picking up a guitar at the age of ten, and he was soon writing his own originals and performing them at local (though often remote) folk clubs and pubs. Recorded in the attic of the family home at Ivy Bank in Charlestown on the verdant wooded slopes at the edge of Hebden Bridge between 1971 and 1974, these early recordings are collected here for the first time and mark Trevor Beales long-overdue solo debut. In these songs is a suffer-no-fools sense of realism that is defiantly Northern, yet also expresses a worldliness that belies Beales's young years, whilst also showcasing an inherent storyteller's ear for narrative. Two aspects of this music make it remarkable: Beales' natural ability showcases a sophisticated guitar-picking style that was leagues ahead of many of his (older, more recognized) contemporaries. This is music that can confidently hold its own with pioneers such as Davey Graham, Michael Chapman, Dave Evans, Bert Jansch, and Jackson C Frank, as influenced by jazz, blues and steel guitar as any of the old songbook classics from ancient Albion. Secondly, his lyrics are a far cry from either the naïve bedroom scribblings of a teenager who has barely left his upland home, nor do they fall foul of the type of lazy cliches and sub-Tolkien imagery that was still in abundance in the early 1970s. Trevor's music is grounded in reality -- his reality. Trevor Beales died suddenly and unexpectedly on March 29th 1987, aged 33. He left behind Christine and their young child Lydia. Sleeve notes by Hebden author Benjamin Myers.
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LP
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BR 015LP
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LP version. Tip On sleeve. Anti-counter culture loner folk from a teenage attic in the heart of rural Northern hippiedom. Today the valley town of Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire is world-renowned as something of a bohemian backwater. It wasn't like this back in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, when a disparate selection of radicals, drop-outs, heads, musicians, artists and writers started to be attracted to the Calder Valley. Over time, those seeds of radicalism and collectivism ensured Hebden Bridge evolved into a place where people could be themselves and all shades of individual oddness not only tolerated but actively encouraged. But back at the turn of the dreary 1970s it remained a monochrome world defined by its unforgiving surrounding landscapes, where the old gritstone over-dwellings were stained with soot and rain lashed down for weeks. It was here that Trevor Beales, who was born in 1953, grew up, and from where he drew musical and lyrical inspiration. The discovery of Bob Dylan, Django Reinhardt, The Byrds, and James Taylor at a young age, lead to him picking up a guitar at the age of ten, and he was soon writing his own originals and performing them at local (though often remote) folk clubs and pubs. Recorded in the attic of the family home at Ivy Bank in Charlestown on the verdant wooded slopes at the edge of Hebden Bridge between 1971 and 1974, these early recordings are collected here for the first time and mark Trevor Beales long-overdue solo debut. In these songs is a suffer-no-fools sense of realism that is defiantly Northern, yet also expresses a worldliness that belies Beales's young years, whilst also showcasing an inherent storyteller's ear for narrative. Two aspects of this music make it remarkable: Beales' natural ability showcases a sophisticated guitar-picking style that was leagues ahead of many of his (older, more recognized) contemporaries. This is music that can confidently hold its own with pioneers such as Davey Graham, Michael Chapman, Dave Evans, Bert Jansch, and Jackson C Frank, as influenced by jazz, blues and steel guitar as any of the old songbook classics from ancient Albion. Secondly, his lyrics are a far cry from either the naïve bedroom scribblings of a teenager who has barely left his upland home, nor do they fall foul of the type of lazy cliches and sub-Tolkien imagery that was still in abundance in the early 1970s. Trevor's music is grounded in reality -- his reality. Trevor Beales died suddenly and unexpectedly on March 29th 1987, aged 33. He left behind Christine and their young child Lydia. Sleeve notes by Hebden author Benjamin Myers.
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BR 014LP
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LP version. Andrew Tuttle's Fleeting Adventure is a musical adventure through a reimagined journey from the Australian ambient producer and banjo player. Golden plucks of banjo, gauzy electronics and cosmic guitar shimmer into gloriously expansive melodies that conjure peace and space, comfort and wonder. A deepening sense of life, love, health, loss, and luck shaped the outlines of Tuttle's fifth, and most collaborative album to date. Following a surprising exhilaration and exhaustion from the hitherto most innocuous of moments in mid-2020 -- a half-hour drive to collect an online order, the furthest distance he'd traveled in months; Tuttle commenced working on new musical ideas loosely based around navigating the aftermaths and interregnums of a restless era. Thinking of musician friends and peers around the world -- each confined to their own immediate surroundings -- Tuttle's generative and collaborative musical practice became a silvery through-line, connecting American innovators Steve Gunn, Chuck Johnson, Luke Schneider, and Michael A. Muller (Balmorhea), to French/Swedish violinist Aurelie Ferriere and Spanish guitarist Conrado Isasa, back to Australian friends such as Voltfruit (aka Flora Wong and Luke Cuerel) and Darren Cross (Gerling) -- among many others -- each fitting seamlessly into Tuttle's vibrant musical world. Whilst previously a feature of Tuttle's music, the exploration of space and texture found within Fleeting Adventure feels particularly vast and generous. The involvement of Chuck Johnson and Lawrence English mixing and mastering the album respectively, as with their work on Tuttle's previous and breakthrough album Alexandra (RMSG 022CD, 2020), inspired Andrew to develop songs that are as serene and patient as he's ever sounded. Stripping elements back, the idea of pulling the songs apart somewhat, was just as important as adding the work of Andrew's collaborators. The road to Fleeting Adventure has been both long and short, but it sits as a tender and perhaps even vital reflection of an era in progress, in retrospect and in anticipation. A poignant contemplation on the many bonds that make up our lives from friends and family to the myriad places we inhabit and pass through along the way. The idea that an adventure doesn't necessarily have to be a grand statement Andrew Tuttle has gathered up a number of his contemporaries and crafted something quietly spectacular, a new beginning to familiar habits.
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CD
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BR 014CD
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Andrew Tuttle's Fleeting Adventure is a musical adventure through a reimagined journey from the Australian ambient producer and banjo player. Golden plucks of banjo, gauzy electronics and cosmic guitar shimmer into gloriously expansive melodies that conjure peace and space, comfort and wonder. A deepening sense of life, love, health, loss, and luck shaped the outlines of Tuttle's fifth, and most collaborative album to date. Following a surprising exhilaration and exhaustion from the hitherto most innocuous of moments in mid-2020 -- a half-hour drive to collect an online order, the furthest distance he'd traveled in months; Tuttle commenced working on new musical ideas loosely based around navigating the aftermaths and interregnums of a restless era. Thinking of musician friends and peers around the world -- each confined to their own immediate surroundings -- Tuttle's generative and collaborative musical practice became a silvery through-line, connecting American innovators Steve Gunn, Chuck Johnson, Luke Schneider, and Michael A. Muller (Balmorhea), to French/Swedish violinist Aurelie Ferriere and Spanish guitarist Conrado Isasa, back to Australian friends such as Voltfruit (aka Flora Wong and Luke Cuerel) and Darren Cross (Gerling) -- among many others -- each fitting seamlessly into Tuttle's vibrant musical world. Whilst previously a feature of Tuttle's music, the exploration of space and texture found within Fleeting Adventure feels particularly vast and generous. The involvement of Chuck Johnson and Lawrence English mixing and mastering the album respectively, as with their work on Tuttle's previous and breakthrough album Alexandra (RMSG 022CD, 2020), inspired Andrew to develop songs that are as serene and patient as he's ever sounded. Stripping elements back, the idea of pulling the songs apart somewhat, was just as important as adding the work of Andrew's collaborators. The road to Fleeting Adventure has been both long and short, but it sits as a tender and perhaps even vital reflection of an era in progress, in retrospect and in anticipation. A poignant contemplation on the many bonds that make up our lives from friends and family to the myriad places we inhabit and pass through along the way. The idea that an adventure doesn't necessarily have to be a grand statement Andrew Tuttle has gathered up a number of his contemporaries and crafted something quietly spectacular, a new beginning to familiar habits.
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CD
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BR 013CD
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"Metal Bird feels blissfully unmoored from any sense of time and space, its astral Americana hymns hovering somewhere between the dirt and the stars, between a bygone golden age and our tense present, between raw intimacy and dreamlike splendor." --Pitchfork
Metal Bird gets a release on Basin Rock, the Todmorden based record label who gave a lift off to Julie Byrne, Aoife Nessa Frances, Nadia Reid and Johanna Samuels. Eve Adams offers solace within life's shadows. Un-numbing senses with anthems of surrender and tender-hearted tales that tingle with Californian folk-noir, her album Metal Bird takes flight with the turbulence and romance of Hollywood's golden age, and meditates on the mysteries of love, death, insecurity and loneliness. Like a match struck in a cobwebbed attic, Adams voice is a fiery detective, unafraid to explore the unseen; the liminal spaces between mourning and rapture, between the coldness of a corpse and the heat of cremation. Imagery of flight and the denial of gravity floats slyly through the ten songs on Metal Bird by the California-born musician and hints at the experience of being caught in purgatory, like a passenger on a plane ride from Hell to Heaven. Combining airy folk with haunting soundscapes the album takes listeners on an auditory voyage from sonorous lullabies, to dreamy ambience, skeletal jazz, 1930s torch songs and 1940s film noir. Metal Bird has a distinct, genuine tone, with orchestral arrangements, ambient hallucinations and high-fidelity vocals that are unafraid to be heard loud and clear. For those who are hopelessly enamored with a by-gone time, there is solace in these songs and sounds. Flickering back and forth between dread and hope, the unrelenting march towards a spiritual transformation and the realization that each of us are driven by our own dreams and as much as we want to hold it in our hands, often it is intangible. The sublime remains elusive, existing somewhere in the heart, and it sounds like Eve Adams knows this best. LP version comes on 180 gram vinyl; includes inner picture sleeve with Metal Bird flight instructions; includes download code.
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LP
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BR 013LP
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LP version. 180 gram vinyl; includes download code. "Metal Birdfeels blissfully unmoored from any sense of time and space, its astral Americana hymns hovering somewhere between the dirt and the stars, between a bygone golden age and our tense present, between raw intimacy and dreamlike splendor." --Pitchfork
Metal Bird gets a release on Basin Rock, the Todmorden based record label who gave a lift off to Julie Byrne, Aoife Nessa Frances, Nadia Reid and Johanna Samuels. Eve Adams offers solace within life's shadows. Un-numbing senses with anthems of surrender and tender-hearted tales that tingle with Californian folk-noir, her album Metal Bird takes flight with the turbulence and romance of Hollywood's golden age, and meditates on the mysteries of love, death, insecurity and loneliness. Like a match struck in a cobwebbed attic, Adams voice is a fiery detective, unafraid to explore the unseen; the liminal spaces between mourning and rapture, between the coldness of a corpse and the heat of cremation. Imagery of flight and the denial of gravity floats slyly through the ten songs on Metal Bird by the California-born musician and hints at the experience of being caught in purgatory, like a passenger on a plane ride from Hell to Heaven. Combining airy folk with haunting soundscapes the album takes listeners on an auditory voyage from sonorous lullabies, to dreamy ambience, skeletal jazz, 1930s torch songs and 1940s film noir. Metal Bird has a distinct, genuine tone, with orchestral arrangements, ambient hallucinations and high-fidelity vocals that are unafraid to be heard loud and clear. For those who are hopelessly enamored with a by-gone time, there is solace in these songs and sounds. Flickering back and forth between dread and hope, the unrelenting march towards a spiritual transformation and the realization that each of us are driven by our own dreams and as much as we want to hold it in our hands, often it is intangible. The sublime remains elusive, existing somewhere in the heart, and it sounds like Eve Adams knows this best.
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CD
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BR 010CD
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Whilst Jim Ghedi's previous idiosyncratic take on folk has often been instrumental, exploring the natural world and his relationship to it through his music as seen on 2018's A Hymn For Ancient Land. His new album, In The Furrows Of Common Place, is a deeper plunge inside himself to offer up more of his voice to accompany his profoundly unique and moving compositions. "There were things I was seeing around me and being affected by in my daily life," he says. "Socially and politically, I saw defiance but also hopelessness. I wanted to be honest with the frustration and turmoil I was experiencing." The decision to include more of Ghedi's vocals was a conscious one and driven by a need to say something. However, this isn't a brash raging political polemic. As is now customary with Ghedi's work, it is rich in nuance, history, poetry and allegory. Musically, the album is equally locked into this ongoing sense of evolution. Ghedi's intricate yet deft guitar playing still twists and flows its way through the core, weaving in and out of gliding double bass, sweeping violin, gentle percussion, and vocals that shift from tender solos to overlapping harmonies. As with much of Ghedi's work, there's a rich connection between the past and the current. Musically, he continues to sit in a singular position of sounding distinctly contemporary yet also with a touch of traditional flair. This expands itself into the lyrical terrain here too. "I've been exploring contemporary issues and in that process discovering sources that correlate with similar issues in the past," he says. "Which proves that these issues throughout history -- environmental destruction, working class poverty etc. -- are ongoing." For all the socio-political and historical backdrop to the record it is not one that feels overwhelmed by it. Much like Ghedi's work when it was largely instrumental -- and some of it still is here -- it flows and unfurls thoughtfully, with space still being utilized masterfully, creating room to pause and reflect. It's another inimitable record from an artist that truly sounds like nobody else right now.
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LP
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BR 010LP
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LP version. 180 gram vinyl; includes download; picture sleeve with song notes and lyric sheet insert. Whilst Jim Ghedi's previous idiosyncratic take on folk has often been instrumental, exploring the natural world and his relationship to it through his music as seen on 2018's A Hymn For Ancient Land. His new album, In The Furrows Of Common Place, is a deeper plunge inside himself to offer up more of his voice to accompany his profoundly unique and moving compositions. "There were things I was seeing around me and being affected by in my daily life," he says. "Socially and politically, I saw defiance but also hopelessness. I wanted to be honest with the frustration and turmoil I was experiencing." The decision to include more of Ghedi's vocals was a conscious one and driven by a need to say something. However, this isn't a brash raging political polemic. As is now customary with Ghedi's work, it is rich in nuance, history, poetry and allegory. Musically, the album is equally locked into this ongoing sense of evolution. Ghedi's intricate yet deft guitar playing still twists and flows its way through the core, weaving in and out of gliding double bass, sweeping violin, gentle percussion, and vocals that shift from tender solos to overlapping harmonies. As with much of Ghedi's work, there's a rich connection between the past and the current. Musically, he continues to sit in a singular position of sounding distinctly contemporary yet also with a touch of traditional flair. This expands itself into the lyrical terrain here too. "I've been exploring contemporary issues and in that process discovering sources that correlate with similar issues in the past," he says. "Which proves that these issues throughout history -- environmental destruction, working class poverty etc. -- are ongoing." For all the socio-political and historical backdrop to the record it is not one that feels overwhelmed by it. Much like Ghedi's work when it was largely instrumental -- and some of it still is here -- it flows and unfurls thoughtfully, with space still being utilized masterfully, creating room to pause and reflect. It's another inimitable record from an artist that truly sounds like nobody else right now.
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10"
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BR 007LP
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"I love songs that make you feel something viscerally," says Johanna Samuels, the LA-based songwriter who releases brand new EP Have A Good One on Basin Rock, and it's a sentiment that echoes right through the heart of the five stirring songs that make up her new work, Born in New York City and named after Dylan's "Visions of Johanna", Samuels subsequently moved to LA and grew up on the classic songwriters of yesteryear before finding her way to Elliott Smith and Jon Brion. Samuels then spent the best part of a decade honing her craft, carefully peeling away the layers until she found herself here; a stark, absorbing, and visceral new collection. Finding a way to balance bright, pop melodies with a drifting sense of melancholy that can't be placed, Samuels made the most of a bad year, writing the EP as a reaction to her long-term relationship falling apart. More than just skin-and-bone, the songs here are comprised of lap steel, clarinet, Juno analog synthesizers, and more; this rich instrumentation provides a swaying and elegant back-drop which helps bring Samuel's stories beautifully to life. Recorded with musical partner, the up-and-coming producer Sean O'Brien who helped engineer The National's Sleep Well Beast LP (2017), the new EP was created in his studio, which became something of a haven for Samuels and the work she was creating. As such, the five songs on Have A Good One are full of emotional and musical depth, each moment of darkness acutely balanced by a brightness that lifts these songs out of the shadows and into the hearts and minds of the listener. "Why Do I Go There?" is a bold, glowing opener, the playful piano and lush instrumentation belying the sense of heartache in Samuels beautifully lilting voice, driving the track forwards as it softly buries its way into your consciousness. Then comes the tender, country-like balladry of "Rush Of Wheels", written quickly in the dead hours of night, it presents a poignant quest for answers, aching under the weight of its emotional turmoil. Accompanying "Rush Of Wheels" is a video that Samuel's made with best friend (and Sundance Grand Jury prizewinner) Anu Valia. Basin Rock is a relatively new label based in the Lancashire/Yorkshire border town of Todmorden. They've released albums by Julie Byrne, Nadia Reid, and Jim Ghedi. Heavyweight, die cut sleeve; Includes download code.
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