Lovely record. An intimate, unshowy, reaching blend of British folk and minimalism in the tradition of Robert Wyatt solo; quietly co-mingling Henry Flynt and Ivor Cutler, Eastern outernationalism and Radio art. Beautifully presented, too; in a die-cut, inside-out sleeve, with a poster. Check it out!

From the Tree Person’s solo album Real Life And Fiction: a punky-folk drone with chimes; disconsolate cheer-leading on the flip.

Blimey. Four previously unreleased recordings, made by Alan Lomax in late 1957. Two songs, both solo and with Shirl’s own banjo accompaniment. Beautifully sleeved.

Deluxe LP edition, with gold foiling on the sleeve, a four-page booklet, 140g vinyl.

Refreshing, rootedly odd, mostly unaccompanied four-part-harmony singing recorded in Govan Old Parish Church, Glasgow, by members of Trembling Bells and Muldoon’s Picnic. Elements of Sacred Harp, Gregorian chant, medieval madrigal and English folk, with poetic influences including Maya Deren, Saint John The Divine and Dennis Potter — a unique blend of the visionary and the earthly, the intimate and glorious.
Silk-screened sleeve.

‘Dissonant, ghostly, and otherworldly, summoning complex emotions with sparse tools…
‘The songs are nested in tape hiss and arranged with vocal harmonies she layers like falling snowflakes and drones that fill up the crevices of your lungs. It has the tactile intimacy of 1970s folk musicians like Vashti Bunyan and Karen Dalton, music that feels tied to the natural world it dreams of…
‘This out-of-time music comes to us when the natural world is deteriorating and the ever-present internet is a tool of mass surveillance and a lens to witness multiple global atrocities at once. In her endeavor to exalt such a bleak world, Zuniga seems to be battling herself. She acknowledges that “memory always sees the loved one smaller” and then also shares “why I remember,” citing “white ripe strawberry bruise / beats in the heart” as her reason. She lays bare her pain but ends the record with a wordless composition of stormy static and crystalline piano notes titled To Live Happily. Zuniga allows these disparate perspectives to coexist without overexplaining. A star can be shining now and gone tomorrow, a memory beautiful and still insufficient. Her comfort with dissonance creates a sense of expansiveness and richness to songs that often only feature a handful of instruments at a time’ (Pitchfork).

Something special. Very warmly recommended if psych-folk from the same amphora as Joanne Robertson is your poison.

‘My favourite singer in the place was Karen Dalton. Karen had a voice like Billie Holiday’s and played the guitar like Jimmy Reed’ (Bob Dylan).

Her legendary, heart-wrenching recording for Capitol in 1969; now remastered all-analogue-style from the masters; with a decent booklet.

‘Home to Cuca Records and hundreds of Nashville-fantasizing pluckers and singers, Wisconsin’s Driftless region was a hotbed of country music in the 1960s. Influenced by old-timey ethnic songs, Bakersfield outlaws, countrypolitan rainbows, and the lonesome twang of every rural route roadhouse, these seventeen Driftless Dreamers washed up at Jim Kirchstein’s Sauk City record plant with little more than $100 and a longing.’