Devon Folklore Tapes - Calendar Customs Vol 3

Anyone whose interested - (basically Nebraska & Me)

I've been seeing this on here and wanted to check it out - is there anyway to listen to this stuff digitally besides SC excerpts? I get the appeal of their physical series and limited output but tbh I kind of feel left out at this point. It's supposed be akin to ghostbox recordings right, or a similar ethos anyway?

It's not really Ghostbox in as much as it's nearly all acoustic stuff (hardly any electronics) focusing on British country folklore.

Are there no excerpts on Bandcamp?

The Halloween one is one of my fav non-folklore series, but May Day was just too upbeat. What's the vibe on this volume?

yes. thanks for the heads up fumi.

link to the bampcamp /trolling you i meant SC

  On 11/22/2015 at 5:14 AM, fumi said:

It's not really Ghostbox in as much as it's nearly all acoustic stuff (hardly any electronics) focusing on British country folklore.

Are there no excerpts on Bandcamp?

oh ok, i suppose i just got the same weird folksy english country vibe that Belbury Poly seem to hit on a little

  On 11/24/2015 at 5:51 AM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 11/22/2015 at 5:14 AM, fumi said:

It's not really Ghostbox in as much as it's nearly all acoustic stuff (hardly any electronics) focusing on British country folklore.

Are there no excerpts on Bandcamp?

 

oh ok, i suppose i just got the same weird folksy english country vibe that Belbury Poly seem to hit on a little

 

Belbury Poly is more sort referencing early 70s film and TV - at least it seems that way to me. (I'm originally from England) :)

DFT is like when you were at primary school and the headmaster gathered everyone in the hall and said:

"Now, children. We've a special surprise for you today. Old Mrs Meeker an 'er husband are going to play the drums and flute - 'jus like 'e did in olden times. Maybe some of you 'ave seen this dancing too. Shall we listen together?"

^that clears that up!

I wonder how I got stuck on that idea.I might be thinking of Belbury Poly in it's original namesake - as a university in a country village in a CS Lewis book. With Folklore tapes I just assumed it was more 60s-70s era British library music homage (generally speaking I know it's more complicated than that) but with more of a countryside sensibility. I was born in Suffolk at RAF Lakenheath and lived there again as a teen, so my memories of England are party in this perspective where I juxtapose rural life with a menacing jets and ominous nuke bunkers in the background.

folklore tapes is more like the smithsonian folkways records in that it's more of a documentation of folklore (in this case, british). unlike folkways though, each record is treated like a library record in that there is a particular theme or subject being "documented/researched" and spilt betwix two "researchers" or in the case of calendar customs, a compilation. where it can get confusing is that folkways actually released library records whereas folklore tapes are an amalgamation of both without totally being one or the other

  On 11/24/2015 at 12:49 PM, fumi said:

DFT is like when you were at primary school and the headmaster gathered everyone in the hall and said:

 

"Now, children. We've a special surprise for you today. Old Mrs Meeker an 'er husband are going to play the drums and flute - 'jus like 'e did in olden times. Maybe some of you 'ave seen this dancing too. Shall we listen together?"

 

folkways released that record, except old mrs meeker an 'er husband were high off magic mushrooms and bypassed the drums and flute

The Folklore Newsletter mix was really good and creepy, it didn't get much of a run and was in their early dayz.

What does this one sound like? Lots of yammering or just chunes?

Mid-winter is the low ebb of the year, the heart of the lifeless season when the sun describes a wearily flattened arc across the sky: its luminosity dimmed and wan, its passage brief. Shadows lengthen, branches grow bare and bony, temperatures drop and darkness prevails. There is a need for cheer, for hope and conviviality, for reminders of Spring’s renewal to come. Old mid-winter rites and rituals, centring around Christmastide observances and celebrations, bring a little warmth and light to this chill time of scarcity and spiritual despond. And it is these rites to which Folklore Tapes turn their collective eye in this the fourth season of the solar year.

The artists contributing to this limited edition cassette compilation have each researched a particular mid-winter ritual and, informed by their findings, conjured a sound piece in response. The movements take their listener on an audiological journey around the old ways of winter, with acousmatic carolling, text-sound collage, composed music and augmented field-recording. These are playful retellings of long-forgotten observances: library sounds, carried on a wisp of smoke from the bonfires of winters past.

The cassette comes housed in a hand-numbered and stamped box, accompanied by a detailed booklet and essay focussing on the customs and rituals covered. Also inside is a poster and evergreen bough to cheer the peruser through the long, dank night. So come gather round the ceremonial fire as Folklore Tapes toll the Devil’s knell, hunt the sacred wren, light the Yule Log and enact saturnalic mischief in the deepest depths of winter’s long night.

Sold out now.

  On 11/24/2015 at 7:44 PM, Nebraska said:

folkways released that record, except old mrs meeker an 'er husband were high off magic mushrooms and bypassed the drums and flute

death is not the end has re-issued this record. there's really nothing quite like it- head-damagingly crazy stuff.

maria, unfortunately, didn't like the popularity her "children" (the psilocybin mushrooms) got after this record came out and regretted allowing wasson to record her claiming they lost their "purity" after western civilization discovered them 

https://youtu.be/-yGNWBEwvlU