Strawberry Oracle Promotions<\/b><\/p>\n
Present 7 releases on a CD- Rom from various labels including, Merlins Nose Records, Alone Records, and Infinite Fog Productions.<\/p>\n
What constitutes \u2018Neo Folk\u2019? This I was wondering while waiting with some intrigue for an album of what I believed to be a \u2018Neo Folk\u2019 compilation. I have to admit I am a little out of my comfort zone with this one, and any knowledge I have of \u2018folk balladry\u2019 has been in the form of late 1960s \u2018Folk Revivalists\u2019 \u2018Pentangle\u2019 and \u2018Fairport Convention\u2019. I was expecting an album that featured artists that were tuned into something akin to the late 1960s \u2018Folk Revival\u2019. What I got in the post was a CD-Rom with 7 full albums of obscure bands that play broadly speaking \u2018Folk\u2019 inspired music. If songs of a pastoral nature appeal to you, coupled with Sitar\u2019s, Lutes, Tabla\u2019s and the \u2018Hurdy Gurdy, then these albums will certainly be up your tree lined garden path.<\/p>\n
Barcelona\u2019s \u2018Psych Folksters\u2019, \u2018Aleppo Pine\u2019<\/strong> (fittingly named after a Mediterranean tree) gets proceedings underway, and they certainly wear their influences on their sleeves. Those who are familiar with \u2018The Incredible String Band\u2019, \u2018The Strawbs\u2019 and \u2018Fairport Convention\u2019 will find much to enjoy on this album. Songs such as \u2018Black Wizard\u2019 and \u2018Swan Skies\u2019 will remind the listener of \u2018Donovan\u2019 in his full late 1960s hippie pomp. However, \u2018Aleppo Pine\u2019 change tack at the midway point on this album and drift into much more heavier \u2018Psych Rock\u2019 moments, particularly on the \u20183rd Eye\u2019 with guitar riffing a plenty.<\/p>\n \u2018Amber\u2019<\/strong> were a trio who evolved out of the St Albans Folk scene in the 1960s. They were friends with \u2018Donovan\u2019 and would often play together at impromptu musical evening in a back room of the \u2018Cock Inn\u2019 in the aforementioned town. They recorded \u2018Pearls of Amber\u2019 in 1970-71, and the \u2018Donovan\u2019 influence is clearly in evidence. Some of the tracks were recorded at \u2018Olympic Sound studios\u2019 and more interestingly ex \u201cYardbirds\u2019 frontman Keith Relf produced at least 3 of the songs, including the lovely \u2018Sea Shell Shook Me\u2019 \u2018Donovan provided the Sitar, which was previously owned by George Harrison. \u2018Pearls of Amber\u2019 barely clocks in at 25 minutes, and the listener should feel lucky to have at least that to listen too, as the tapes were thought lost until their singer \u2018Mac McLeod\u2019 found the tapes in his attic, and it finally saw an official release in 2010. The standout moment for me is \u2018Sea Shell Shook Me\u2019, which really showcases the vocal talents of \u2018Mac McLeod\u2019.<\/p>\n \u2018Arrowwood\u2019<\/strong> made the hauntingly stunning album \u2018Beautiful Grave\u2019 this year. The first thing that catches the listener will be the dreamy almost whispering vocals of multi instrumentalist Chelsea Robb. The other startling thing on this album is the ever-present wind chimes and bells, which really enhances this rather dreamy and beautifully vague album. Chelsea Robb also duets to stunning effect with Pythagumus Marshall on \u2018We are Dark Wells\u2019, and his vocal presence can really be felt in the second half of this album. This is a surreal and almost hypnotic listening experience, and defies easy categorization so I will leave the last word to \u2018Arrowwood\u2019, who perfectly sum this album up in one sentence. \u2018A dream about a dream within a wood\u2019.<\/p>\n The somberness continues and it is now time to crack open another bottle of Mead while listening to \u2018The Glinting Spade\u2019, by \u2018In Gowan Ring\u2019<\/strong>. This rather downbeat and melancholy album was released in 1999, and it could be argued that it is in the tradition of male singer songwriters like Nick Drake and Leonard Cohen. Bobin Eirth has a compelling and restrained vocal style, and does not need to use vocal histrionics in order to get his songs across to the listener. Coupled with Bobin Eirth\u2019s wistful and thoughtful lyrics is his stunning finger picking guitar playing, best exemplified on \u2018To Thrum a Glassy Stem\u2019.<\/p>\n Austria is the next port of call for literally a one-man band called \u2018Im Jahrtal\u2019<\/strong>. Ewald Spiss can lay claim to being not just a multi instrumentalist but also a painter and performance artist. \u2018Reprisen & Instrumenta\/Stuecke\u2019 is another dreamy listening experience, which comprises of very sparse sounding instrumentals. Despite the presence of so many instruments including acoustic guitar, sitar, violin, flute, the hurdy gurdy, (which gives the album a drone like sound), this is a clean sounding album, even when a bit of distorted electric guitar is thrown in for good measure, every instrument can be clearly heard without any hint of musical clutter.<\/p>\n \u2018Paths of Prakriti<\/strong>\u2019 provide some Norwegian style \u2018Jingle Jangle\u2019 1960s inspired \u2018Folk Rock\u2019 in the vein of \u2018The Byrds\u2019 \u2018Love\u2019, and for some reason \u2018The Blue Things\u2019. Axis Mundi is very mellow and floats along pleasantly enough, without ever really getting out of first gear. There are more overt Psychedelic tracks such as \u2018Dark Horse\u2019, and as a fan of the above named bands there was enough here to keep me interested. \u2018Norwegian Wood\u2019 this is not, but still a nice diversion away from the medieval tinged folk that I have heard so far.<\/p>\n A concept album brings this CD-Rom to a close, and it is arguably the most haunting music I have heard in a long time. The narrative is that of a European Pagan heritage slowly being submerged by Christianity. \u2018Orchis\u2019<\/strong> are from the U.K and released \u2018A Thousand Winters\u2019 in 1996. The music on this album is spine chilling to say the least, coupled with haunting, whispery and ghostly vocals, which really does give the listener the sense of an oppressive unwanted presence, which appears in the narrative of the album. The album is also littered with spoken word parts, which are essential to understanding the idea behind this concept album. This is by far the most ambitious album on the CD-Rom, and worthy of more consideration for those that are partial to dark sounding \u2018Folk\u2019 music provided by the \u2018Orchis\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What constitutes \u2018Neo Folk\u2019? This I was wondering while waiting with some intrigue for an album of what I believed to be a \u2018Neo Folk\u2019 compilation. I have to admit I am a little out of my comfort zone with this one, and any knowledge I have of \u2018folk balladry\u2019 has been in the form of late 1960s \u2018Folk Revivalists\u2019 \u2018Pentangle\u2019 and \u2018Fairport Convention\u2019. I was expecting an album that featured artists that were tuned into something akin to the late 1960s \u2018Folk Revival\u2019. What I got in the post was a CD-Rom with 7 full albums of obscure bands that play broadly speaking \u2018Folk\u2019 inspired music. If songs of a pastoral nature appeal to you, coupled with Sitar\u2019s, Lutes, Tabla\u2019s and the \u2018Hurdy Gurdy, then these albums will certainly be up your tree lined garden path.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":5020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,82,128,71,74],"tags":[793,789,794,795,797,796,790,792,788,799,798,791],"series":[],"class_list":["post-5018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-folk","category-hot-plugs","category-music","category-reviews","tag-aleppo-pine","tag-alone-records","tag-amber","tag-arrowwood","tag-im-jahrtal","tag-in-gowan-ring","tag-infinite-fog-productions","tag-longjohn","tag-merlins-nose-records","tag-orchis","tag-paths-of-prakriti","tag-strawberry-oracle-promotions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5018"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5045,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5018\/revisions\/5045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5018"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=5018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}