Firstly, upon embarking on this blogpost, I would like to apologise profusely for my lack of blogging, I have been exceptionally busy with a whole heap of things i.e. life, work, pleasure and pain.
I am going to try and blog about music more frequently and get back into a rhythm of things again.
Ok let the blog post begin...
The date is 1969, the place is Canada and the product, is possibly the finest Acid-Folk psych LP ever released; The Folklords' 'Release The Sunshine' album is one of those fine gem's which seemed to have gone astray in the corridors of time and is a work which is quite unlike anything that has been created.
This album has most definitely been a huge influence to me of late, not only has it become the soundtrack to my Autumn and Winter of 2011, it has also inspired my own new sounds even down to the style of the front cover, which I will be ripping off and borrowing heavily from when I shoot my own sleeve.
The Folklords were -Paul Seip - Vocals and Guitar
Martha Johnson - Vocals and Autoharp
Tom Waschkowski - Bass and Vocals
With Craig Boswell - Drums
The resulting album is a product of beauty, down to the last note, mystical lyricism, psychedelic ambience, mind altering chiming via the sounds of Autoharp, tripped-out melancholy, blurry visioned hope and a wonderful array of rich and textured harmonies, complemented entirely by Martha Johnson who anchors the whole thing.
The album is one of my finds of 2011 and this album has been engrained into my emotional D.N.A and whenever I listen to it, it will remind me of this period of my life.
Please find below three of my favourite songs on the LP.
Jennifer Lee
Forty Second River
Unspoken Love (single version)
Enjoy
Paul Messis
'Blogging' should be fun, not work. :^)
ReplyDeleteI find this group really evocative, alongside the best tracks by The Ashes/Peanut Butter Conspiracy, Richard & Mimi Farina or The Poppy Family. Maybe it's the autoharp? Does anybody record with autoharp, dulcimer or zither anymore, and if not then why not? Any real musical instrument is inherently more interesting than sampling keyboards and drum machines. Let's destroy all computer processors that give us processed music, these old recordings are way more nutritious. Heck, let's just throw away all the genres, have no rules, and just groove on what feels cool! Liusten; real people in a real studio, it's the new thing all over again, yay! :^D
Offtopic: I just read another source saying that Brian Jones was listening to Creedence Clearwater over and over in the summer of '69 and talking/jamming with Steve Marriot, Alexis Korner, John Lennon and others, and writing new stuff... but all these tapes were stolen or destroyed!
Rebecca, thanks for your reply... Blogging has been hard for me of late as my day-job has been really exhausting and tiresome, not to mention my personal life has been constantly go go go, with recording, visiting friends and general socialising.
ReplyDeleteI have recorded an Autoharp for my next single, which should be released in April if all goes well.
The Folklords album is really evocative (great word) it certainly has become my favourite LP of the year, ironically I have been listening to a great deal of The Peanut Butter Conspiracy too.
Regards Brian Jones' jan session, who knows? maybe it was good these tapes were destroyed?
P
When you record Autoharp do you have to turn it up in the mix for it to come across loud enough? I'm waiting on a toy Pixiphone to come in from England and we're going to experiment with recording two of them together in March (Under My Thumb was suggested as a good tune to practice with). Maybe we can come up with something for a Howlin' Houndog (& Bex on this one track) kids' CD.
ReplyDeleteI have heard some really bad practice rehearsal tapes but the ones with Jones and Hendrix jamming together circa late '67 are pretty neat I think, but 'hoo nose', they could've been fifty unlistenable takes of Proud Mary! :^)
Funnily enough, an autoharp is pretty loud... BUT yes it's quite a dynamic instrument to record, you need a good microphone, quite loud and you need the room to be absolutely silent cos you may pick up background noise.
ReplyDeleteSitars are worse to record than an Autoharp.
Wow, I did not know this record. I'll have to keep a look out for it in 2012. Really great stuff, love their bass sound. So dry.
ReplyDeleteIt's a killer LP
ReplyDelete