2008-01-02 The Legend Of The Dreamstones / Shide & Acorn

happy new year!
i was quit busy even christomas and new year holiday... and still busy now for the recording for AMT &TMP U.F.O.'s new albums... i decided one thing in the new year "i am not going to have any rest until die! when i'll die, finally i'll enjoy holidays in the hell or heaven!"
Shide & Acorn is well known as the british folk rock band by "Under The Tree" that was released in 1971. this album is compilation of their earlyn demo recordings in 1969. these tracks are more psychedelic rock style than british folk style... of course the recording quality is not good, it means i love it!! hahaha...!! anyway their sound is really cool psychedelic, especially 1st track remains me early Quicksilver Messenger Service!! also some folky tunes are really dreamy and beautiful!! i can enjoy hard songs and folky songs both on this album!! i may prefer it to their folk albums...
anyway Kissing Spell has reissued so many great folk records!! i'm really grateful their great job!!

2007-09-21 Ballads / Andrew Rowan Summers

i'm really interested in American roots music and Country music in these years. unfortunately i don't know so much about Andrew Rowan Summers, and there is no liner-notes inside of the sleeve (i guess the last owner of this record lost it!)... so i can know just music from this record!
his singing is amazing also dulcimer playing too! his sound is like really troubadour!! i was looking for this kind of the greatest folk music for a long time!! and all melody is like European ballads, or chanson also fado!! this is so great music!! I felt a touch of pathos in his music!! There isn't anything pushy about his singing!! even i can't understand the lyrics, it doesn't matter! because his singing has so much good beautiful vibration! this is the real great singing for me!! some people talked about only lyrics "lyrics is the most important...bura bura bura...!" hahaha... i think it's so stupid! they can't understand what the great singing is! anyway in the biginning there was music!! even people can't understand lyrics, at least good music can impress people by only sound!!
this is the one of my favorite folk album in my life!

2007-09-19 Light Upon Light / Do'a

Do'a are Randy Armstrong (guitar, etc) and Ken LaRoche (flute,etc) from New Hampshire. their music is like folk meets prog rock by acoustic and ethnic instruments... they use acoustic and electric guitars, sitar, mandolin, harp, vibes, rosewood xylophone, bells, schruti box, flutes, recorders, panpipes, ocaria, bansri, kalimba, harmonium, piano, percussion, also special tape effects on this their 1st album!! i guess they play more like New Age or Jazz scene, but at least this their 1st album is not like New Age nor Jazz... more folk and prog rock (even they don't have bass and drums!) style... beautiful guitar works and wood winds!! what is difference between their music and New Age (or this kind of boring Easy Listening Music)...? i feel some Rock spirit from this album even they don't care it... but i think their music lost Rock spirit year by year (also they changed the name "Do'ah World Music Ensemble", and more members joined!)... it may be the way to such boring Easy Listening Music!! anyway this album is very beautiful ethnic folk for me!! but i understand many people prefer such boring Easy Listening Music to this ethnic folk... why does people prefer "beautiful" "spiritual" such boring Easy Listening Music to the real good music!? maybe this beautiful record was a miracle by accident for Do'a...?
they changed the name to Do'ah, because many people confused with DOA (Dead Or Alive)!! hahaha...

2007-07-16 De Sydfynske Alpedrenge / Solskinsliv

Solskinsliv is the acid folk group from Denmark. i don't know anything about them... i know just this album was released in 1972. they play many instruments, acoustic and electric guitar, violin, vibraphone, piano, flute, contrabass, percussion, drums... but the members have lutes on a photo on the back sleeve!! so i believed they played more like traditional songs or troubadours... (because i couldn't understand credit of some instruments by Danish! for example, drum is "trommer"!!) their music is totally different from anything what i imagined... more like Scandinavian acid folk rock!! anyway their music is so cool!!! they don't use any effects, no echo, no fuzz, no tape reverse!! i love this kind of pure sounds... because it's totally opposit to my music! of course i love trippy music with lots of effects, but if the music doesn't need any effects, it's really great way... especially i think usually acoustic instruments don't need so much effects, these instruments have already beautiful sounds by themselves. while electric instruments have lots of possibility to make many kinds of sounds with effects. so i love electric guitar!! also i love folk music and troubadours!
by the way why did they take lutes on the photo? if they play lutes, i really want to listen to their music with lutes too... and i hope they don't play neither troubadours nor traditional music with lutes... i believe they can play their own folk music with even lutes... because instruments are just tools also the one of means!

2007-06-26 Dreaming / Murari Band

i don't know about Murari Band so much... they are from Atlanta, they started in maybe 1978 or 79 and released at least 3 albums... i guess they are believers of a kind of Hare Krishna Temple... that's all... i found their name on the vinyl lists of japanese rare records stores as "acid folk"... i have their 2 albums. when i bought this album, i didn't know anything about them... i was just interested in this sleeve, because they put some images of Hare Krishna Temple... i imagined they might be a kind of cult acid folk group...? these is a inner sheet what is information of mailorder... they sell Murari Band's records and 3 books "Consciousness : Missing Link", "The Science Of Self Realization" and "Seach For Liberation : John Lennon 69"!! what are they? oh man... that period when they released it was already in 1981!! probably their music is like an old-fashioned fossil folk rock then... by the way what did i do in 1981?... i played my music, and i set up my cassette label R.E.P. to release my music... then i was alreay interested in what is called "psychedelic", "flower movement", "hippies culture", but these were already dead language by some new movements especially Punk and New Wave! unfortunately my music were not similar with Punk/New Wave... so nobody was interested in my music in that period... but i didn't care about it, i just wanted to play my music what i want to play and listen. in these days, people said my early works were really psychedelic, when they listened to some reissued my early works. i'm not sure my early works were psychedelic or not... maybe my early works what i wanted to play were similar with psychedelic music even i didn't know what psychedelic music was yet...
by the way Murari Band is also old-fashioned in that period too... so if i met them in 1981, could we sympathize each others? i think probably NO! we had totally different musical ideas! (so the drummer Benny Tillman plays so-called new age music now!) but i might be interested in their life style why i wanted to know what is called "hippies culture"... (so i had stayed at the one of Japanese old hippies commune when i was younger...) but i already understood that i'm interested in music more than life style!!

2007-05-26 The Chelsea Sessions 1967 / The Incredible String Band

i like this session recording by Robin Williamson and Mike Heron... what a great recording is!! i prefer simple arrangement folk music, so this album is really good for me. my favorite ISB's album is "The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion" in 1967. they recorded this session in 1967, too... the arrangement of "The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion" is really perfect as a typical ISB sound for me, they used many instruments like sitar, oud, flute... it looks like a typical psychedelic atmosphere on the surface...
on this session, they don't use so much instruments, acoustic guitars, organ and a few things... this session by only acoustic guitars makes me feel more psychedelic!! the sound is a very insane folk music!!... like the other side of insane from Syd Barrett...

2007-01-02 Stone Angel / Stone Angel

this Stone Angel's 1st album is well known as one of the mega rare British folk record. of course i have only this reissue cd. (there are many photos inside of the booklet!)
their sound is the medieval and traditional music with a little bit electric instruments. it looks a well balanced ensemble by acoustic instruments and electric instruments for me. even i like Fairport Convention (with Richard Thompson), i prefer Stone Angel to even the great trad/folk-rock group Fairport Convention. because their sound is more dreamy folk... sometime Paul Corrick plays the floating fuzz-tone guitar! it's the great part on this album!