Neofolk comps / Neofolk-Freakfolk crossover

[Manny]

" I'm surprised how many dark-alt community folk I've met who've never 
heard of CMI (Cold Meat Industry)."

what can we say, eric, despite the internet, a lot of people are as 
uninformed as ever. i think the super-specialized nature of the 
internet actually encourages many people to crawl further up their own 
butts rather than smell the flowers across the meadow :)

also, maybe some neofolk people dont' know about ColdMeat because it is 
still an obscure label that never promotes itself. i would more easliy 
wonder why there isn't more crossover between dark folk/dark music and 
the very WELL promoted freak/psych folk scene that's in all the 
magazines. after all, there are some huge connections between them.

for example, the same mid-size indie-oriented booking agency that 
handles famed freak-harpist Joanna Newsom also handles Current 93 and 
Nurse With Wound (as well as Neubauten and Nick Cave). another booking 
agency books both freak-folk star Devendra Banhart and Kid Congo Powers 
(Gun Club, Bad Seeds). you might want to look into cabaret-folk icons 
Antony & the Johnsons after knowing that C93's Durtro put out their 
first CD, and then check out their other ones on the Secretly Canadian 
label. magazines like The Wire and Arthur cover both David Tibet and 
Whitehouse and folkies like My Brightest Diamond and Vashti Bunyan. 
Staunch indie label Drag City is about to release a CD for 
folksinger/harpist Baby Dee, who's played on stage with both C93 and 
PTV. And so on.

anyway, if you want to find some neo-folk/apocalyptic folk, look at the 
Middle Pillar and Strange Fortune catalogs.
I just looked there, and while they don't have many comps right now, 
they do have a quite a decent sampling of
individual artists in that genre that should keep you busy for quite a 
while.

happy hunting

-mt