These recordings, along with a handful of photos and an extensive set of ‘explanatory’ notes, were passed to Folk Police Recordings by a musician loosely associated with the label. They were given to him by an obsessive collector of rare folk and psychedelia who has asked us to respect his anonymity. We can tell you nothing about Frugal Puritan – the album or the band. We can’t tell you when or where the songs were recorded, who wrote them or who plays on them. The sleeve notes tell a tale of utopian dreams turning into nightmares, of Jesus Freaks metamorphosising into Crowley-obsessed occultists, of innocents turning from the light and slipping into a darkness of drug-fuelled orgies and madness.

What we can tell you is that here we have ten songs that range from gently pastoral hippy folk to full- on fuzz-drenched acid rock, complete with lashings of devotional frenzy, handclaps and monster guitar solos.  We have plaintive vocals awash with harmonies and subtle psychedelic touches. We have lyrical concerns that stray far from standard issue Christian folk: The Raising of the Dead borrows liberally from a particularly apocalyptical biblical passage; North Street Reign appears to be from the perspective of a murderer; Song for John David seems to quote approvingly from Aleister Crowley. The final track, Seven Stars, is a shimmering lo-fi psychedelic epic.

This album will appeal to anyone who has explored the outer reaches of lost Christian acid folk: Caedmon, Perry Leopold, The Water into Wine Band or The Trees Community. We can also hear echoes of artists as diverse as S.F. Sorrow-era Pretty Things, Spaceman Three and Roy Harper. 

Frugal Puritan is released as a limited edition CD in a vinyl-sleeve gatefold sleeve and 16-page booklet with design by Dom Cooper. It has been remastered by Pete Philipson (Starless and Bible Black/The Woodbine and Ivy Band). It is also available to download.

Released 1st April 2013. Available to pre-order from the Folk Police shop

We are very pleased to announce that Folk Police Recordings has taken its first steps into the world of vinyl with a limited edition release of Ewan D. Rodgers' Tomorrow Might be Monday. We've only had 250 made, so if you'd like a copy please visit our Lyke Wake Dirges page. You'll also be able to find out about forthcoming vinyl releases and our three and five album subscriptions.

"The eclecticism of Clive Palmer provides the blueprint for this engagingly quirky collection ... all filtered through a smoky lens of late 60s/early 70s folk blues." 4/5 R2 Magazine

Raised in a small West Yorkshire town, Ewan D. Rodgers cut his teeth playing in a variety of ceilidh, skiffle and jug bands. He is now based in London after stints in Leeds and Brighton. Whilst the streets of London may not be paved with gold, they are lined with dingy cellars and decaying boozers peopled by those who like their music filtered through the sensibilities of old young men with banjos who value creakiness, honesty and all that is slightly twisted. 

Ewan is equally influenced by the old weird America of the Harry Smith Anthology, maverick innovators like the great Clive Palmer, scratchy 78s of southern and eastern European folk tunes, and the great triumvirate of 60s guitar players, Jansch, Renbourn and Graham.

Ewan’s self-released debut, From Hull, Halifax and Hell, a stark and stripped-down collection of readings of traditional British folk songs, garnered numerous plaudits, being memorably described by Maverick magazine as “an album which captivated from the first second” where “The performance style transports the listener back to when the songs were new and enables the listener to really connect with them.” On Tomorrow Might Be Monday he casts his net further afield, to bring us Appalachian mountain song, Yiddish and Southern European folk songs, delta blues and, closer to home, offerings from both the British musical hall traditional and the songbook of Yorkshire chanteur Jake Thackray - as well as a few of his own compositions. The album features Ewan on guitar, banjo and diatonic accordion as well as a handful of guest musicians helping out on fiddle, dulcimer and musical saw.  
 
Tomorrow Might be Monday is the second release in Folk Police Recordings’ Northwestern Seriesof numbered, limited edition albums. It comes housed in a CD-case-sized card box with an eight-page booklet. Artwork and design is by Dom Cooper.

You can hear Ewan on the first Sunday of every month at Mondegreen Folk Club at The Auld Shilellagh on Stoke Newington Church St, every second and fourth Sunday at Folke Newington at The Waiting Room in Stoke Newington. He also hosts his own folk club in Brighton every third Monday. For details of other forthcoming appearances please visit his website.

Released on CD on Monday 29th October 2012. The first 50 copies include a bonus live e.p. Pre-order HERE

This album will also be released on vinyl in a limited edition of 250 via our new Lyke Wake Dirges vinyl imprint. Contact us to reserve a copy.

Since his debut album How Music Sounds was released in 2003, English singer/songwriter Adam Leonard has   released numerous EPs, albums and mini-albums with a variety of small labels. Incorporating elements of folk, psychedelia and electronic music, his lovingly-crafted handmade sounds channel the spirit of the great lineage of unconventional British songwriting, from Roy Harper to Robin Hitchcock to the Incredible String Band. He regularly collaborates with other musicians, and in 2010, provided vocals for the Owl Service on their album  A View From a Hill. More recently he wrote the soundtrack music for Claudia Heindel's  award winning independent film, Lucky Seven. 

Nature Recordings was originally released on vinyl by The Great Pop Supplement and has long since sold out. Our sister label, The Northwestern Series, brings you a CD version in a hand-numbered edition of 300. The album features contributions from Pat Gubler (PG Six) and Steven Collins of the Owl Service. It has new artwork by Dom Cooper and comes housed in a CD-case-sized handmade card box.   

To order a copy, please visit the Northwestern shop. The album ships June 2012.

“His singing and songs are imbued with the same wonderful eccentric characteristics as people like Roy Harper and Michael Chapman, but in a similar fashion to the aforementioned greats, he never loses sight of ‘the song’ in a quest to be quirky. In other words, he’s what all good singer/songwriters should be in an age when so few are.”

Steven Collins, The Owl Service

“Adam Leonard’s 3rd LP Nature Recordings betrays his Syd Barrett-as-interpreted-by-Robyn Hitchcock influences with excellent results... most intriguing and ambitious of all is The Eighth Tower parts I to IV, a meandering yet still focussed concept exploring both Leonard’s pastoral and more experimental leanings with further nods towards Roy Harper and Barrett/Hitchcock as well as the more meditative school of Krautrock and acid-folk.

This is a curious little gem of an album and one that should delight the discerning listener, time and again."

Terrascope Online

"Another lo-fi vision courtesy of Britain's own Adam Leonard. Having been around for the best part of a decade, Leonard has developed a signature style and it's working well on Nature Recordings. He's a great guitar picker, but perversely his talent shines best when it's as if his beleaguered instrument has been dragged through the mud. Leonard's vocals are only occasional and more like Nico than any pure folkie, and the whole thing has the ramshackle feel of a bumpy journey in the south of France". 

SHINDIG! Magazine

We urge you to clear your diary for Sunday June 10th 2012 and make your way to the Folk House in Bristol, where you will be treated to the array of musical delights and strange goings on that is Weirdlore. It's an all day event featuring Sharron Kraus, Telling the Bees, Mary Hampton Cotillion, Jonny Kearney and Lucy Farrell, Pamela Wyn Shannon and many more. From Folk Police Land there will be Rapunzel & Sedayne and Sproatly Smith. Expect hobby horses, dancing, discourses and a few special surprises. Tickets are a measly £30 and can be had over here. You'll need to hurry - this is a day out that's going to be too good to miss. More details, the full line-up and clues as to how to get there can be found on the Weirdlore website.

To celebrate an event that has not yet happened and a genre that may not even exist, Folk Police Recordings bring you our latest offering - Weirdlore: Notes From the Folk Underground. Featuring 18 exclusive tracks and including contributions from many of the artists that are appearing on the day along with a splendid troupe of fellow travellers and musical miscreants, the album mines the twilight zone between folk and all manner of oddness. We bring you sounds that range from twisted trad to bucolic psychedelia, from fully fledged brass-and-wood-flavoured steamfolk to the sort of songwriting that used to happen before singer-songwriters gave the genre a bad name.
With extensive sleeve notes by Jeanette Leach (author of The Seasons They Change and regular contributor to fRoots and Shindig) and an introduction by Ian Anderson (editor of fRoots), the album comes handsomely packaged in a sleeve designed by Dom Cooper of the Rif Mountain Collective.

Released on 11th June 2012 Pre-order from the Folk Police Shop.  Find out more and listen to samples here.

Now available at the Folk Police Shop.

Folk Police Recordings are very pleased to bring you the news that we will be reissuing The Minstrel's Grave, the third full length album from the wonderful Sproatly Smith. Originally available as a very limited edition CDR release from the Reverb Worship label, the reissue is remastered by Peter Philipson of the Woodbine & Ivy Band and will be available on CD and as a digital download.  

Out on 1st April 2012.

See Sproatly Smith live this summer:
June 10th Bristol, Folk House: Weirdlore, 
July 14th/15th Tintern, Folk On The Lawn
July 19th London, Cecil Sharp House
July 21st Prestiegne, Sheep Music

Ahead of the release of the Woodbine & Ivy Band album, we're releasing the band's version of Spencer the Rover, featuring a lovely vocal from Fay Hield, as a digital single. It will be available from iTunes, Amazon, eMusic and all the usual suspects from 14th November. We'll also be making it available via our Bandcamp page.

We have the slightly grandiose notion that it would make a great Christmas hit single... and we reckon the last time there was a folk rock Christmas hit was way back in 1972 when Steeleye Span took Gaudete to No 14 in the UK charts (we're conveniently ignoring the Pogues' fantastic Fairytale of New York for the purposes of this story, of course). 39 years is, of course, far too long.

We've started a Facebook page to support the single, which you can find at http://www.facebook.com/Spencertherover. If you use Facebook, please 'like' the page, post a link on your wall and spread the word.

The album will be out on 28th November. More news on that to follow.

Thanks for reading. Please indulge our preposterous scheme!