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The Horse Stories Bo'Weavil Recordings Weavil-07 LP £13.99 Latest on Bo'Weavil, the label that brought you high-quality reissues of sides by Shirley Collins, Richard Bishop and James Blackshaw is Dale Berning's The Horse Stories, a soundtrack to a film by Hiraki Sawa, commissioned by the Hayward Gallery and Bloomberg London, for Waterloo Sunset, the Dan Graham Pavilion at the Hayward in November 2004. Dominated by slow, melancholic piano runs, the music has the feeling of a long-abandoned doll's house, with the muzz of chimes, water dripping from taps, the march of wind-up clocks and the sound of manipulated record players all conspiring to birth an atmosphere heavy with the feel of sad nostalgia. Hand-numbered edition of 500 in textured sleeves. |
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Vinegar & Rum Bo'Weavil Recordings Weavil-12 CD £10.99 Great set of improvised acoustic guitar face-offs from avant Japanese guitarists Tetuzi Akiyama and free New Zealander Donald McPherson. Various hypnotic strategies cohere to wildly variant effect, with beautiful - almost Fahey-esque - melodies squatted by wayward, Jandek-style string navigations, percussive stops and melancholy clumps of chords. First ever CD from Bo’Weavil too, in deluxe fold-out art card sleeve and limited to 1000 copies. Very beautiful. |
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Free London Bo'Weavil Recordings Weavil-11 2xLP £15.99 Anyone who has ever spent any considerable time in the UK's godforsaken capital will immediately concur with the sentiment expressed in the title - some has gotta liberate that place from the clutches of style-mag/media-centred mediocrity and soon. Bo'Weavil, a label that has done a lot to upgrade a host of key folk sides to deluxe vinyl, is the first to strike a blow with this nicely presented double LP in a hand-numbered edition of 550 copies on heavyweight vinyl that gives a side each to four artists dedicated to expanding free/folk tongues. Rob Mullender plays acoustic guitar instrumentals that fit nicely into the whole post-60s Pentangle/Davey Graham school of sorcery. Wooden Spoon plays acoustic and electric guitar and banjo and his banjo playing is particularly strong, stubby percussive forms that sound like rusty ragas nailed to tiny wooden crosses. The Eidetic Band are a trio that work non-idiomatic allusion that vaguely touches on Volcano The Bear/People Band style notions of freedom while still referencing established UK modes of improvised dialogue via bass, cello, tone generator, zither, laptop, guitar, power tools, sax, keyboard et al. Ladyswoodsman are the duo of Luke Garwood and Paul May who play guitars, clarinets, percussion and un-nameables across a series of rhythmic, improvisatory modes. |
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Kurdish Melodies On Zorna Bo'Weavil Recordings Weavil-14 CD £9.99 "Zadik Zecharia's zorna playing is a powerful relentless blast of beauty. The drone like qualities that engulf both the listener and player are unyielding in their intensity from start to finish. The instrument, well known in the middle east, particularly in Kurdistan, Iraq and Turkey, is similar in sound and intensity to the Scottish bagpipes. Zadik takes few pauses for breath, but wildly plays a continuous flow of melody weaving around the Dola drum that provides a pulsating rhythm. Zadik Zecharia was born in the Sharnash Village in Kurdistan and moved to Israel in 1950. Zadik has dedicated his whole life to playing the zorna - a traditional, trumpet like instrument, (but longer and narrower) that has been identified with the Kurdish people. "There are two kinds of melodies: Chopie and Shechni. The Chopie are the fast melodies, tunes for dancing with the high notes of the Zorna. The Dola drum always accompanies the Zorna on Chopie tunes. The Shechni are slower melodies in the background, sad tunes that are usually played while the celebrators are sitting around the table. It reminds them of their Motherland, Kurdistan, and serves as an intro to the partying and dancing." - Tzadik Zecharia, Jerusalem 2005. Beautiful CD in a fold-out art card sleeve with liners featuring unearthed recordings from the 1980s. Recommended. |
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Vinegar & Rum Bo'Weavil Recordings Weavil-12 LP £13.99 Vinyl edition of what was previously a CD, hand-numbered in an edition of 550 copies with wraparound card sleeve and insert: Great set of improvised acoustic guitar face-offs from avant Japanese guitarists Tetuzi Akiyama and free New Zealander Donald McPherson. Various hypnotic strategies cohere to wildly variant effect, with beautiful - almost Fahey-esque - melodies squatted by wayward, Jandek-style string navigations, percussive stops and melancholy clumps of chords. First ever CD from Bo'Weavil too, in deluxe fold-out art card sleeve and limited to 1000 copies. Very beautiful and highly recommended. |
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Obliquity Bo'Weavil Recordings Weavil-23 LP £12.99 Deluxe LP version: All-new trio moves from these three UK free scene stalwarts, saxophonist Alan Wilkinson (best loved for his work with Hession/Wilkinson/Fell), bassist John Edwards and drummer Steve Noble. Liners by Mike Gavin: "Obliquity is a free jazz record, if you'll forgive the use of such a hoary, old fashioned phrase. Its scorching, heads-down momentum, rhythm and drive places it in direct line of descent from the fierce originators of the genre: Ayler, Sanders, Graves, Frank Wright. It also swings. At times it dances. Obliquity is a free jazz record through the prism of the improvisational movement in Europe, though. This is no attempt at polite revivalism or looking back/up to the 1960s. Wilkinson/Edwards/Noble are producing new, vital music of and for now. You need form to work at this level of spontaneity and certainty and any frequenter of the outer limits of the European music scene could vouch for the jazz porridge these three have put away." |
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Right Wantonly A-Mumming Bo'Weavil Recordings Weavil-25 CD £9.99 "These songs were written over the course of a year, starting at midsummer 2005. Sharron's aim was to create songs that could be sung to celebrate the seasons and mark the turning points of the year; songs with choruses that were easy to pick up and that would sit comfortably alongside traditional wassailing songs, carols and May songs. 'Each song was written in its season: at midsummer I awoke at dawn, climbed a hill and looked out over Oxfordshire and imagined the battle between summer and winter; at midwinter I made holly wreaths, wrapped up warm and went for brisk wintery walks and then huddled in a warm pub with my favourite traditional singers, sang 'To Shorten Winter's Sadness' for the first time and was rewarded with a rousing chorus. Following and marking the seasons was important to rural communities whose lives depended on a good harvest. I believe that it's just as important for us to do the same: to rejoice when spring comes each year; to be thankful for 'good harvests', whatever form they take; to confront death and the return of winter, and to take comfort in each other's company through the cold months. I hope that these songs will be sung by folk singers in sessions and folk clubs, around bonfires at midsummer gatherings, by choirs, and by ramblers and anyone who takes joy in nature.' - Sharron Kraus. (SK) The singers and musicians joining Sharron on this record are all connected through the Oxford folk scene. Ian Giles, Claire Lloyd and Graham Metcalfe sang together as Folly Bridge and Ian and Graham now sing with Ian Woods as GMW. John Spiers and Jon Boden started playing together at the Elm Tree. Through Jon they gained Fay. Giles Lewin is an occasional visitor." "I like this CD very much, and I loved Wake up Sleepers, and The Wedding song in particular. Sharron has a great voice - it's very strong and clear and with a hard edge that is both beautiful and compelling to listen to." - Shirley Collins 2007. |
