ARTIST: VA
TITLE: Folk Off-New Folk And Psychedelia From The British Isles And North America
LABEL: Sunday Best
GENRE: Folk
BITRATE: 190kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 1h 49min total
RELEASE DATE: 2006-07-10
RIP DATE: 2006-06-18
Track List: CD #1/2 - The British Isles
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01. Tunng - Pioneers 4:30
02. North Sea Radio Orchestra - 1:17
Guitar Minaiture
03. Acid Casuals - Bowl Me Over 3:07
04. This Is The Kit - Wooden 2:52
Spoons
05. Vashti Bunyan - Here Before 2:06
06. James Yorkston And Reporter - 4:21
Woozy With Cider
07. Songs Of The Green Pheasant - 4:24
Nightfall
08. Clayhill - Beard 2:52
09. Eighteenth Day Of May - Dawn 2:51
10. Deep Elem - In The Woods 1:58
11. Jakokoyak - Eira 3:24
12. Same Actor - Nothing Yet 4:22
13. The Hat - 3AM Drunken Lullaby 3:18
14. Magnetophone - And May Your 4:07
Last Word Be A Chance To Make
Things Better
15. Listen With Sarah - Blue 7:17
Parsley
Track List: CD #2/2 - North America
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01. Micah P Hinson - Yard Of 3:02
Blonde Girls
02. Marissa Nadler - Famous Blue 4:25
Raincoat
03. Vetiver - Amour Fou 4:37
04. Richard Swift - Sadsong Street 2:17
05. Dr Dog - The World Will Never 3:06
Know
06. Espers - Rosemary Lane 4:43
07. Au Revoir Simone - Through The 3:56
Backyards
08. Laura Cantrell - Bees 4:13
09. Sufjan Stevens - Decatur Or A 3:12
Round Of Applause For Your
Step-Mother
10. Readymade FC Feat. Feisty - 3:40
Snow Lion
11. Jack Lewis - The Day Neil 3:15
Young Died
12. Animal Collective - Kids On 5:48
Holiday
13. Baby Dee - Morning Holds A 3:36
Star
14. Mi And L'au - Bums 2:41
15. Blitzen Trapper - 40 Stripes 3:50
Release Notes:
30 songs over 2 CDs, compiled by Rob da Bank and out on Sunday Best
on 10th July. Enjoy!
'Notes From A Revived Revival' by Pete Paphides:
Last year, more bicycles were sold in this country than at any other
time in the last fifty years. In the jetpack era that never quite
arrived, thats worth dwelling on. Once reduced to mere recreation
like a sheepdog demoted to the job of chasing balls the bike is
still the least likely vehicle to leave you looking like a chump.
Its no wonder that just like his predecessors, the modern
revolutionary prefers to pedal.
In 2006, transportation, portability and design count for
everything. And so, its no accident that the humble acoustic guitar
is at the epicentre of some of the most exciting, most contemporary
music being made right now. And me? I was there, kids. I saw it
happen. Micah P Hinson arriving at Londons legendary In The Pines
afternoon session, donning his acoustic and shedding his anonymity
like a skin to slay us with a searing Southern blues. At the
Luminaire, watching intricate picked notes dancing around the burr
of James Yorkston dispenser and describer of minor epiphanies. In a
half-empty Cardiff bar scribbling the name of a dervish-eyed New
York folk siren on a beermat Marissa Nadler; Tunng at The Green Man,
reinventing the spirit of Jansch and Renbourn for a generation of
urban worriers; Vashti Bunyans first live performance in three
decades at an enraptured Royal Festival Hall. When she sang, If my
heart freezes/I wont feel it break, it was like having a long-lost
piece of our unconscious wrapped up and handed back to us.
Some people are calling it a folk revival. No harm there, but of
course, we had one of those in the 60s when tiny London bars like
Bunjies and Les Cousins paid host to upcoming troubadours like Bert
Jansch, John Martyn and visiting Americans like Paul Simon and
Jackson C. Frank. The zig-zagging of influences and ideas between
either side of the Atlantic was crucial to the scene. Without the
British influence, the US folk revival would have amounted to a
well-meaning but pious hootenanny of well-scrubbed campfire singers
singing We Shall Overcome. Without the American influence, blues
wouldnt had a chance to run Jansch, Renbourn and Donovans games.
Over three decades on, its happening again. Only more so. In a
blind taste test, eight out of ten cats had no way of telling that
the eerie psych-folk rendering of Rosemary Lane came from
Philadelphias Espers. Or that the corner of Appalachia which
spawned Deep Elem is actually Herefordshire. Or that Eighteenth
Day Of Mays jingle-jangle mourning emerged from a kitchen in
London.
All of which leads us to Folk Off. A bad pun, but a great idea.
A folk-off between Britain and America. A demonstration that the
oldest instrument in the tableau of popular song is capable of
making of the most cutting-edge music. The people you hear in Folk
Off are not luddites. On songs by Animal Collective (US) and
Magnetophone (UK) youll hear acoustic guitars cast as the eye of a
lysergic electrical storm. Try and pin down the sleepy backwoods
funk of Oregons Blitzen Trapper and the past will be of no help to
you. Where exactly do you locate the folk centre to all these
songs? Whither the point of intersection between the sepia
dream-haze of Laura Cantrells Bees and Tunngs stunning acoustic
reconfiguration of Bloc Partys Pioneers? Or Jack Lewiss The Day
Neil Young Died and the unadorned twilit wonder of This Is The Kits
2 Wooden Spoons? Partially as a result of James Yorkstons typically
playful decision to go fully electronic on his contribution, even
the guitar takes its leave from a couple of songs.
Maybe then, we should take our lead from Austrian philosopher and
sometime folk aficionado Ludwig Wittgenstein, who opined that
sometimes the only common characteristic that binds a class of
objects is family resemblance. Spend a day or two in the company of
these artefacts, and youll realize that theory has everything going
for it. Families always gather together on special occasions. And
this extended family of artists disparate yet unmistakably
connected is absolutely no exception. Come in and join us. Weve
been expecting you.