I've included a word or two about each record to make the list more readable.
The Gothic Archies "The Tragic Treasury" (2006) This is a very mauve recording indeed.
JP Shilo "As Happy As Sad Is Blue" (2006) x-Hungry Ghosts(great Australian instrumental combo). More mixed than his old band; lots of straightforward twangy melancholia but laced with dark, less obviously instrument-based passages.
Rex Holman "Here In The Land Of Victory" (1970) Mellifluous baritone voice. Earnest. Discreet use of tablas, sitar, organ and some gently fried electric guitar. Deeply hippy but not drippy.
Volcano The Bear "Egg And Two Books" (2006) Live in Leicester. As playful and disorientating as ever, VTB make extemporised music-making sound like a real crowd-pleaser.
V/A "Dark Was The Night" (2003) Amazingly consistent collection of Blind Willie Johnson songs(if you've seen "Paris Texas" you've heard some of his music). Hard to pick highlights but Ginny Clee, The Henrys/Mary Margaret O'Hara and 3 Mustaphas 3 are all particularly good.
PJ Harvey "Dry" (1992) Yeah I know. Still, better late than never. It's really evident hearing this why PJ Harvey had to be a band name as well as a person's. Stephen Vaughan-what happened to him?-and Rob Ellis are a rocking bass 'n' drums unit.
Oriental Sunshine "Dedicated To The Bird We Love" (1970) Two Norwegians and a Sikh living in Norway come together for 11 tracks of Indo/psych introspection. Tablas, flutes,organ, sitar-not played by the obvious candidate-and English lyrics sung by a woman with a fine, if sometimes hesitant, folk voice. It's a mood thing.
Nara Leao "Nara '67" (1967) Thought this was bland initially. I was wrong. It's pre-Tropicalia which means that rock-reared ears have to work harder to get it. That said, it's really catchy so what's not to get?
Toshiaki Ishizuka "Drum Drama" (2006) Japanese drummer-cohort of Keiji Haino's in Vajra-doing a sparse percussion thing relying more on texture than rhythm. Mostly. It's a grower.
Field Music "Tones of Town" (2007) Everyone keeps mentioning XTC. I keep thinking of ELO. Even better than their ace debut album. Drums as a lead melodic instrument? They've got 'em.
PG Six "Slightly Sorry" (2007) Pat Gubler's first two albums were firmly in the Brit-folk/Weird folk neck of the, er, woods. This one's a lot trickier to get a handle on. It's a fully fledged band rather than a solo project.And initially this is really offputting. Especially the role played by the drums. It's a small example of the artist wrongfooting the listener's expectations. Once that's out of the way the songs can do their work and the enjoyment begins. It's as good an album as the first two. Just different.
Mustafa Ozkent "Genclik Ile Elele" (1973) Funky Turkish music reissued by Andy Votel's Finders Keepers label. I can't imagine anyone not liking at least some of this. It exudes pleasure-in-the-doing.
Ghost "In Stormy Nights" (2007) Opening and closing with acoustic joss-sticks and slipping into the middle a 28 minute murky freakout and three tympani-driven stompers is almost par-for-the-course for these folks. This may be my favourite Ghost album.
Arbouretum "Rites of Uncovering" (2007) This is a sombre record performed by a man who likes singing portentous lyrics in a gloomy voice in a vaguely folk-based way. It's also a record performed by men who love wailing away on their electric guitars in a Crazy Horse kinda way. It's not-though some reviews would like it to be-an alt-fucking-country record.
These Trails "S/T" (1973) This has something of the same kind of magic as the Linda Perhacs album. Great singing-mostly female, often harmonised-understated fingerpicking and, unusually, ARP synth burbles and squiggles. Deeply acid under a fairly conventional surface.
Bill Withers "Still Bill" (1972) Every song on this album is totally great.
The Decemberists "The CraneWife" (2006/7) More songs about Civil War-era revenants, Loyalist terrorists, Japanese folk tales and other subjects not covered in the Kasabian songbook. Like Built To Spill did, they mark the transition to a major label with a record as good as anything they did as indie label critics darlings.
Khavas Jute "Wide Open" (1971) Australian heavy rock in a Cream sorta mould.
What do you mean, it doesn't sound promising? It's ripper!(I heard this in "Kath and Kim").Personal highpoint: the amazing Jack Casady-like bass playing of Bob Daisley, future Ozzy and Gary Moore sideman.
The Trees Community "The Christ Tree" (1975) Mid-70's Christian commune who released one album in 1975. This 4 x cd set compiles that and a host-sorry-of other performances celebrating their love of Christ. I'm only one disc in but already I've heard: sitar drones, ambient bells, upbeat harmony pop, Balinese monkey chants, conventional psalmody, recitative ...............
There's a lot to take in but it's already proving to be powerfully addictive.
A Broken Consort "The Shape Leaves" (2006) Richard Skelton has made these drone pieces using violin, guitar and found sounds. Drift might be a better word than drone to describe the languid way they hang around the room.Always to the fore-and preventing things from getting too cosily ambient-is the cold metallic blue of Skelton's violin.
