S/D: Tompkins Square Records

SURPRISE LP DROP : SHEFFIELD UK-BASED MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST BOBBY LEE REISSUES ORIGIN MYTHS via TOMPKINS SQUARE !

The 2021 black vinyl LP sold out in a flash.

"Milky Myths" off-white / clear vinyl version available NOW !

North America : Exclusively via bandcamp

x-NA : Shops, online stores, Bobby's bandcamp

(Note : The digital version has 8 songs ; the LP has 12 songs)

“Overdriven drum-machine low slung choogle" - MOJO (4 stars)

“The further Bobby unmoors himself from songs and heads towards long-form abstraction, the more engrossing it becomes” - UNCUT (8/10)

COMING SOON : Endless Skyways
Cassette available now for early adapters !
via Bandcamp:
Endless Skyways is Bobby Lee’s third full album and second release on Tompkins Square. Returning to the full band sound of his debut, the name “Endless Skyways” is borrowed from a line in Woody Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land, one of the cornerstones of American music. That song’s mix of the terrestrial (“ribbons of highway”) and celestial consciousness encapsulates Lee’s brand of widescreen cosmic americana; a duality also evident in the album’s split between deep-fried rural rock and ambient country. Dusty boots but third eye open.

Opener and lead single “Reds For A Blue Planet” inhabits a geographically different realm to any of Lee’s previous work, equal parts Michael Chapman’s Anglo-Primitivism and Tinariwen’s desert-choogle. Slowdive/Mojave 3’s Ian McCutcheon turns in a muscular drum performance, with just a hint of sleng-teng creeping into Mark Armstrong’s bassline. The title hints at an ecological frustration which radiates through the taut, spiraling, modal grooves.

Origin Myths’ “Impregnated by Drops of Rainbow” is revisited here in full band garb, shifting gear from the 117 seconds of skeletal krautrock into almost 7 minutes of soaring Kosmiche Country, complete with a glistening pedal steel solo from Joe Harvey-Whyte. Neu Riders of The Purple Sage, if you will.

“Thunder Travels To Loftier Mountain Heights” is a gradually evolving waking dream of gently chugging tremolo and delicate interplay between Piano (a rare foray away from the drums from Guy Whittaker) and Fender Rhodes, redolent of Brightblack Morning Light, or Spirit of Eden-era Talk Talk. Picture the scene; a gang of slow movin’ outlaws briefly glimpsing eternity after a rare downpour in the desert. McCutcheon’s drums echo through the canyons and out into space…

The woozy swamp rock of “Acid Grassland” is a return to more familiar territory for Bobby; an ancient drum machine moseys along with a loping groove and riff straight outta Cosmo’s Factory. Joe Harvey-Whyte appears again with the most fuzzed-out pedal steel this side of Sneaky Pete on “Christine’s Tune”.

Oh yeah, xpost Origin Myths is already out, except on the updated, tricked-out vinyl pimped above; here's the Bandcamp pitch (alb is streaming there too):

Digital out worldwide March 5th.
Ltd Ed (600) LP out May 7th with FOUR extra songs

“Overdriven drum-machine low slung choogle" - MOJO

“The further Bobby unmoors himself from songs and heads towards long-form abstraction, the more engrossing it becomes” - UNCUT

Bobby Lee trades in a wide screen brand of cosmic country-folk, full of space and pawn shop guitars. There are touches of JJ Cale's analogue Americana, the swampy groove of Tony Joe White and Richard Thompson's sinewy, modal guitar work. Amps hum in the warm afternoon sun, kids and dogs snooze on the grass and broken drum machines keep time with the universe... Open sky/scorched earth improvisations recorded to four track tape during the rare moments of solitude afforded by lockdown and early fatherhood. Bobby Lee's "worn-denim psych-country" remains, but the ancestral spirits of Ashra, Popol Vuh and Terry Riley are present here too. Time and technological limitations have been embraced. A song dreamt up, tracked and mixed in an afternoon, never to be tampered with again. Imperfections allowed to stand; knowing that nothing is ever truly finished. The Bob Ross school of philosophy.
credits
released March 5, 2021

Bobby Lee: Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, Drum Machine, Organ, Acoustic Guitar, Dulcimer, Lap Steel, recording, mixing and artwork.

Tompkins Square is proud to announce a NEW 5CD BOX SET, OUT JUNE 16th !

Rick Deitrick - The Unguitarist : Complete Works, 1969-2022 (Ltd. ed. of 500)

Pre-order starts today via bandcamp

Listen to "Free and Easy", recorded in 2022, via every digital service, worldwide

The box set contains :

Disc 1: Gentle Wilderness - 1978 album. Tompkins Square LP reissue out of print. First time on CD
Disc 2 : River Sun River Moon - Recorded 1977-78. Tompkins Square LP out of print. First time on CD
Disc 3 : Coyote Canyon - Recorded 1972-75, except one song 1999. Tompkins Square LP almost out of print. First time on CD
Disc 4 : Homegrown : Recordings 1969 - 1979 - First time in a physical format
Disc 5 : Sage & Sand - Recorded 1969-2022 - CD of previously unreleased material

Plus :
- A litho card hand-signed by Rick
- Notes by Rick Deitrick and Acoustic Guitar Editor, Adam Perlmutter
- Transcription of Rick’s “Ballet La Jeunesse"
- Design by D. Norsen

Ohio-born Rick Deitrick took up the guitar at 16 and decided to approach his playing as if he was the only guy on an island and the instrument had just washed ashore one day. According to Rick, "I completely divorced my playing from any formal music knowledge, but it was very important to me to use original tuning. During those years, the ‘60s/70's, there was a lot of acoustic guitar playing, often using open tuning as a base. I wanted to create whole tones without de-tuning and keep access to the complex sounds stock tuning provided."

Rick pressed 500 LPs of his tranquil solo guitar record, Gentle Wilderness, in 1978. He gave copies to libraries and left a few in the middle of the wilderness, next to trails, "so people would find them." Rick sought inspiration in nature and in particular the various rivers scattered around the Western United States, often composing songs while seated beside them.

Now, Tompkins Square is proud to present a 5CD retrospective box set, Rick Deitrick - The Unguitarist : Complete Works, 1969 - 2022 , which makes a strong case for Rick as one of the most individual voices in acoustic guitar music over the past half century.

TSQ 5913
856225005913

Thanks for the heads up on that one!

Welcome---Tompkins' prev Rick releases are streaming on their very generous Bandcamp:
https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/music

maginational Anthem vol. XII : I Thought I Told You - A Yorkshire Tribute to Michael Chapman. Available on Cassette, CD, LP and digital October 20th

Hear Henry Parker's cover of "In the Valley"
https://ingrv.es/in-the-valley-r98-7

Michael Chapman (1941-2021) released his debut album Rainmaker in 1969 on Harvest. He went on to release over fifty albums and influence many with his evocative songwriting and guitar prowess. From heady jams to expressive ballads to experimental noise, Chapman’s work continues to inspire. Tompkins Square recruited Henry Parker to curate a collection of covers by working musicians from Chapman’s home turf in Northern England. With stunning artwork by local artist Bunty Marshall mapping the important places in Michael’s life, and package design by D. Norsen, this 12th volume of Tompkins Square’s Imaginational Anthem series is the ultimate tribute to a very dearly missed artist.