Ten Seats At King Arthur's Table   Random plays from the wyrd media player   We have 10,000 wyrd folk songs old and new on a portable media player.  We put it on random play and write a little about the first ten songs that result, drawing out the connections, themes and similarities.  This may also suggest potential artists or albums the reader had not known or considered previously.

30th April 2005, May Eve

Track 1:  Pat's Song by Prdwyn, source album 'Buried All Me Before'.

The leader of Green Crown is here solo singing a delightful Celtic folk song over harp, violin and cello, complemented towards the end by great whistle playing.  Prydwyn is one of the first generation of post-1980 'new wyrd' artists and is dedicated to the bardic tradition. Although from USA he is now living in the UK.  This is an early song of his and connects the acoustic psychedelia of Incredible String Band with the modern era.  For recent Prydwyn demos to hear exclusively at this site click here.

Track 2:  Time For the Leaving by Magna Carta, source album 'Songs From Wasties Orchard'. 

 A rolling mid-tempo acoustic folk song with excellent production, french horn, wonderful piercing electric guitar and a great early 70s folk-rock feeling.   Magna Carta were a UK band, initially sounding like fey Simon and Garfunkal copyists they progressed quickly incorporating folk-rock, whimsy, psychedelia and concepts into their music.  They are mostly forgotten and overlooked but deserve reappraisal, particularly 'Seasons' their folk-concept album.  Fans of Trees or Fairport Convention would love this song.

Track 3:  Moons and Cattails by Linda Perhacs, source album 'Parallelograms'.

One of the most psychedelic albums released back in the late 60s/early 70s period.  The sole album by the female singer which is genuinely surreal but with stunning songs.  This song has Indian percussion, flute swirls and chiming acoustic guitar.  The vocals whirl around alternately strident or hushed, moving around a central drone-chord structure. At the song's end it seems to ascend to the heavens.  A genuinely beguiling and strange experience, everyone should hear this album.

Track 4:  Music For Evening Shuttles by Tower Recordings, source album 'Furniture Music For Evening Shuttles'.

Bringing together talents also known for their solo work such as Matt Valentine and P.G.Six this band is one of the longest enduring in new wyrd folk.  Their sound encompasses folk, avant-garde German 70s rock, experimental music, drones and middle-eastern elements.   They are exploring the boundaries with a deeply psychedelic style.  Interestingly this sounds like a more 'far out' version of the preceding Linda Perhacs track with a foggy surreal element over the music.  This has the sound of acoustic guitars and electric piano echoing endlessly in space with a lonesome female vocal almost hidden in the mix.  With it's space type sound delivered acousticly it reminds of early Pink Floyd on such as 'Remember A Day' or 'Julia Dream'.  After a minute or so it touches down to earth, sounding more conventional folk music before just fading away.  You may read our extended feature on the evolution of new wyrd folk if you click here.

Track 5:  Fire In The Water (Phoenix) by Xenis Emputae Travelling Band source album 'New Etheric Muse'.

From UK we have a recent artist who combines experimental instrumental music with folk elements.  The music uses synthisizer type sounds but sounding like 60s British science fiction films, as though imagining some 'Quatermass and the cursed Plough' type film.  Woven in are rural folk melodies, fragments of song, nature and landscape field recordings.  It's a unique style and one that captures some of the contrast and compression of Britain.   If the preceding Tower Recordings track was lost in space, this is trapped in underground caverns.  It sounds like droning accordion and keyboards melded together into a droning, surging piece over which a wordless female vocal sings.  This is music for imaginary lost British villages, of eroded shorelines, fields growing crops over the blood of the warring middle ages.  For more information see http://www.larkfall.co.uk.  This artist is part of our promotion of British Wyrd 'Strangeness of the Plough' which you may access if you click here.

Track 6:  King of the Rambling Spires by Tyrannosaurus Rex, source album 'Unicorn (expanded edition)'.

A single release back in 1969 from Marc Bolan's first band that would go on to become the pop-rock phenomenon T-Rex.  Before this they did four albums of fey psychedelic folk that progressively came closer to the preening pop of the more successful incarnation.  This straddles the two styles with a fantasy folk song done with crunching guitar riffs, mellotron keyboards and flute. It's a singular sound that was intended to be their breakthrough but wasn't.  All the four albums have been reissued cheaply with extensive sleeve notes and bonus tracks.  This is a good folk-pop song that shows Bolan clearly trying to leave behind his pixie-hippyness and receive the acclaim that would soon be his.

Track 7: You Live In A Dream by Fit & Limo, source album 'That Almost Tore My Head Off'.

German duo Fit and Limo have been producing great music for nearly twenty years.  They have evolved from psychedelic folk through folk towards an eclectic psychedelia that incorporates many styles amongst the folk including those of electronic dance.  Before they received wider attention as wyrd-folk gradually appeared in many places, they were releasing albums such as this.  Instead of the sitar-drone folk songs they became known for, here we have Sonics / Seeds style 60s low-fi garage-rock.  Not very folk based but enjoyable all the less and now sounding like a precursor to the mid-90s Brit Pop boom.  You may read our extended feature on the evolution of new wyrd folk if you click here.

Track 8:  Azrrrra by DuHex, source album 'Tididii Tididii TididiiTididii'.

A band I don't know but they appear on this seminal collection of experimental music from Finland via the 267 Latattjja label.  This is threashed folk mixed with primal electronics.  It's odd but compelling.  Through artists like Paivansade, Killa, Kupuu, Islaja, Avarus, Anaksimandros and others we have seem the emergence of improvised, experimental acoustic based music often tagged 'free folk' or more often 'forest folk'.  A lot of it is beyond genres and this is a blast of synapse clearing noise.  To see the record company page check our table of labels by using this click here.

Track 9:  Queen Mab by Donovan, source album 'HMS Donovan'.

On this album Donovan was self-produced and made of his most personal (and self-indulgent) epics full of songs, stories, nonsense, nursery rhymes and more.  It alienated the public from him and afterwards he spent some time away, settling and raising his family.  However at this remove it's a wonderfully eccentric, strange and entertaining album.   No matter how eccentric he can be, at the heart of every Donovan album will be great acoustic folk songs such as this beautiful ballad.  Tucked away, unnoticed but life affirming.  To see our extended Donovan feature click here.

Track 10:  Sign of the Cross by It's Jo and Danny, source album 'Thug's Life'.

A modern UK indie-folk pop band who have quietly done much to create a climate in which folk music is more easily received.  They have been going for a few years doing lovely acoustic folk-pop and founded the important 'Green Man' festival which is coming up soon.  This is excellent acoustic guitar layers and vocals song that sounds like The Sundays stripped down to the bare essentials.  Gorgeous melodies and xylophone crown this song which like all of theirs deserves a much wider audience.  To see their web site click here.