superhotsongs

[superhotsongs]

Various Artists - Brias & Ivy [1970]

Probably one of my favourite folk albums, published by a school. Normally most of the folk albums from a school I hear are in Japan but this is a American one. Which is amazing! it makes finding information about it way easier.

This album was made by Briarcliff High School which is based in New York City. It's a very rare collector item. Most copies usually come with a generic cover, A small amount of them actually do have a proper cover. There is scans of it online but there very low quality...

Brias & Ivy - Cover

Despite it being made in a school, the music is better than I thought. the producing of, Gordon Lee & Peter Glazer are very good. Gordon Lee actually has worked on other music and played in multiple bands. Which is surprising. You don't normally see producers who work on stuff like this credited much. is a American jazz pianist. Sadly Pater Glazer isn't credited anything other than this album on discogs.

Gordon Lee

Each track is from a different student in the school. There is some really good vocals in this album, really powerful and emotional stuff.

The combination of amateur innocence and skilful producing makes for a great album. It might be a corny opinion to have but i think the lack of skill doesn't really matter in music like this. To me it's all about the passion you feel from the artists. And i feel a lot of passion from this record. Peter Glaze and Gordon Lee's track, "To Get By" is a brilliant example of that. It probably has my favourite production on the album. The vocals sound emotional and personal. I also love the jazzy piano in this track, it has a really good solo that you hear halfway through the track, that I just love. I wonder if Gordon Lee recorded it. That would make sense since he is a pianist.

"I met you in the morning" By Annie Nininger Reminds me of the works of Karen Brook with her soft quiet vocals and even her guitar playing is similar to Karen Brooks playing. I do think Annie Nininger's playing is slightly more cleaner than Karen Brooks but the simplistic playing is still very similar.

Even though it's not my favourite track heck i didn't even enjoy a lot of the parts in it. The finally track is a massive 15 minute monolith. And i respect a lot of what it tries to do. The track has a prog rock sound too it. It starts off with a flute and a bass. Next you hear a chord organy synth not really sure what it is but you do tend to hear it a lot in 1970/1980s folk music. Later on you hear these muddy vocals not really sure what there saying but apparently it's from a book called, "The World of Christopher Robin" by A.A.Milne Specifically the poem in the book, "The Engineer" Its a very short poem. It's about a young child who doesn't care about the rain's because they have a train that they customized. The train works in weird ways it jerks because the break was made with a string type thing. The wheels also don't work because it was made with a break. Obviously the kid used the wrong parts... 4 minutes in and I started to actually really like it the intro felt a bit long and unnecessary but once it picks up it's pretty enjoyable. Not really sure how much of A. A Milne work they used but apparently a guy named, "Steve Worthy" also wrote some stuff for it.

High recommend checking this album out. The full thing is available on archive.org so you might as well give it a listen.

[superhotsongs]

Karl Thaler - Phoebe / The Storm

A two track ep by Karl thaler in America recorded when he was a College Student

The first track on this ep is "Phoebe"

a beautifully recorded song. Especially for an instrumental track, it's quite expressive. I feel like usually harmonicas are terrible sounding, but just the way it sound under the guitar sounds so beutiful and rich

The second track is called "The storm"

This track reminds me off a folk artist called Dave Bixby an american folk artist from America

I high recommended you check this release out it a criminally underrated release. You can watch the full release on wheredidshefly's YouTube channel

[superhotsongs]

Karen Brooks - Lost silence [1972]

This is a 4 track ep recorded by a then 17 year old Karen Brooks. Recorded on to a reel-to-reel tape recorder in an open courtyard at there boarding school. Karen Brooks had no idea their parents would have it edited and pressed into an album. Unlike most old folk artist like this you can still contact her. https://www.youtube.com/@karenbrooks1292 After this upload of the album surfaced on the internet and got popular on sites like rym. Karen Brooks actually commented on the video talking about how she is planning on making physicals for the project.

Miss Brooks intends to re-issue this EP with some bonus stuff (It's bin 3 months since then and i have no idea if this ever happened.)

This record is really unique in how it sounds. The fact that it was recorded in some court yard on a tape recorder and you can hear people talking in the background just makes the listening experience really special. Karen's voice is so soft and comforting the whole album feels very vulnerable. I think my favourite track on the album is the first track "king of fantasy" every time I listen too it I go on a emotional roller coaster. Highly recommend you give this one a listen. It's really easy to find a download link for this album so there is no excuse to not give it a shot.

[superhotsongs]

Unknown artist - Untitled

Released on, Mountain Fuji Record and recorded at Oto No Meruhenya in shibuya city (Which has sadly bin closed now)

There really isn’t much information about this record at all other than the label and the recording studio. We don't know the artist, we don't know the track titles. But we can speculate.

The album is speculated to be released between 1972 & 1975 when Mountain Fuji Record was active.

The album seems to be a collection of demos. recorded by who? You may ask, well no one knows. His voice reminds me of another Japanese folk artist though he’s much more popular. He goes by the name of Morio Agata. I think this one track from his album Chikuon Ban really shows this the most.

Obviously I don’t think they're the same person who made this record. I just think they have a very similar voice. I think the unknown artist's vocal register is a bit higher if it was somehow a Morio Agata demo acetate that would unironically be a historical discovery for folk because of how influential Morio is for the folk scene. But no i don’t think there is the same person there just isn’t enough evidence other than there similar vocals. Not only that I don't speak japanese so i would be the last person to figure that out.

This record is a must have if you want to get into Japanese private folk. It's warm but also cold with emotional raw vocals. The low quality demo feel that the record has makes it so much more personal almost like you are right in front of him while he sings his heart out. There are moments in the album where he has to cough to clear his throat which always made me feel cold while listening to it. My favourite thing about this record is how much I just don’t understand. The lyrics seem so personal yet I can't understand a single word. I tried to get people to help me understand the lyrics but it was no use. Maybe it was for the better though because my imagination goes wild whenever I listen to this record. All the songs in Japanese, except for B1 which is a cover of "El Cóndor Pasa (If I Could)" (Robles/Simon). A song about valuing movement. Not being stuck. Not wanting to be tied to one place and to not have the freedom to move around and make changes. I wonder if the other tracks in the album have meanings like that.

My personal favourite tracks are:

A2

B3

A3

I would really like to thank the person who archived this record “banana” (banana420) . He has a youtube video with the full album and not only that, an almost uncompressed download to the full album in Flac. Which is absolutely amazing. I'm so glad there are people who are willing to go all out spending money on rare records and not only do that but make it public is just beautiful!

I would really like to thank the person who archived this record “banana” (banana420). He has a youtube video with the full album and not only that, an almost uncompressed download to the full album in Flac. Which is absolutely amazing. I'm so glad there are people who are willing to go all out spending money on rare records and not only do that but make it public is just beautiful! I think it just shows how obscure this record is that the person who owns the album doesn't even know much about it too.

This is one of my favourite Japanese folk album's and i enjoyed writing everything i know about it.