Varghkoghargasmal - EP, split w/ October Falls, Drowned in Lakes

Three records (outa four, the demo is missing) in a single archive. Varghkoghargasmal play "wooden black metal". It's louse, lo-fi, half-improvised outsider music, sounds like jazz or surf rock sometimes. It's awesome.

l i i i i i

While my banjo gently fiddles

"The Banjo Lesson" by Henry Ossawa Tanner

An odd-one-out post. This is a compilation of public domain old-time American songs, gathered from archive.org. Yeah, of course, you can download these songs from there as well, but one by one. Basically I'm just offering a bundle, a sample.
The songs are by various string bands, banjo- and fiddle-players, singers, etc... a mixed bunch. But all great, all, old, all amazing. I really love this kind of music. And all things like pre-war blues had (and have) a great influence on my own creations.

<<< time machine >>>

Elizabeth Cotten

An amazin woman!! My favourite blues singer, hands down. Her voice and playing are unique and quite possibly one of the most expressive sound in blues. Elizabeth Cotten's story is worth some reading (google is your friend) and her music is, well, worth a few thousand listens. No words can describe it. There's this myspace page, you can give it a listen, but whatever, just download this, no matter what are your musical preferences. Trust me. Everybody has to hear her.

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Kan Mikami - Barking Practice /// White Lines

Kan Mikami is a Japanese blues musician, known for his minimalistic guitar playing and expressive vocal style. And that's it, that's what this album is all about - Mikami's a blues-man, a bard, a singing poet. It's a pity I don't know Japanese, but for the rest like me the English lyrics can be found here. Highly recommended album.

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Dead Raven Choir - Their Feet Are The Foraging Ground Of Wolves

Might as well just post another DRC release... to keep this blog's tradition going. "Their feet.." was released by the obscure-but-stilll-well-known-in-obscuro-town Jewelled Antler Collective in their series of 3" CDrs and features three lengthy tracks, mostly centered around huge gaps of silence and slow-slow acoustic guitar progressions plus the usual smolkenish mumblings&ramblings.

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Uaral - Lamentos A Poema Muerto

Chile's best. Doom metal meets classic guitar lessons. This album is truly a masterpiece, with lengthy compositions revolving around acoustic passages, piano, chanting and occassional outbursts (in that doomy slow way) of growling and distortion. An amazing listen. This is their second effort. The first album is in a similar vein, but less sophisticated and includes more shitty synth strings.
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Dead Raven Choir - Armoured Wolves

I'll do a description later.
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Dead Raven Choir - My Firstborn Will Surely Be Blind

Dead Raven Choir's album for 2007. It's from the noisier kind. Lots of black metal influence. And some covers of black metal songs. I like it, it's a good album. More melodic than usual.
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Dead Raven Choir - Lesbian Corpse Wolves

This is supposed to be "more accessible than any dead raven release of the past few years", according to Smolken's site. You know, the guy who makes those endless Wolfmangler albums. Dead Raven Choir is another project by him. Only the songs are shorter. Less drone. Some of the albums are raw and noisy, black metallish, some reflect a heavier folk influence.
Lesbian Corpse Wolves represents the second kind. Interesting female guest vocals, decent male guest vocals. The Man himself (Smolken) sings too, but not so much.
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I had no internet for some time. The poll is closing to its end, the folk-drone leading, so that's why I'm posting Dead Raven Choir.

Wolfmangler - My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Wolves

Another Wolfmangler release (the other). Four songs this time, very similar, with drones and stuff, maybe more distorted. OKKKAY, I admit, it's the same shit. The same fuckin dronefolk shit. But it's great. Of course, it sucks when an artist sticks to an algorithm and releases a shitload of identical albums... Smolken (the guy behind the music) belongs to this kind, unfortunately. Still... His stuff (Wolfmangler, Dead Raven Choir) is a great listen.
I didn't get a bunch of albums released under his projects for nothing.
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Oh, vote in the poll.

Wolfmangler - Dwelling In A Dead Raven For The Glory Of Crucified Wolves

Chello-strangling* mind-twisting music. Acoustic sludge? With elements of black metal? Hell yeah, I *love* making up labels for bands. Wolfmangler's great. Very atmospheric. And droney/sludgey/doomy. Without stepping on the distortion pedals. Honestly, I don't understand the presence of 6 tracks on Dwelling in a Dead Raven etc. Sounds like one big song for me. A big, depressing, 50-minute eulogy (eulogy of humanity and everything. You know the drill)
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*My bad, there's no chello in it. Just a bunch of chello-sounding instruments.