The Folklords - Release The Sunshine (Reissue) (1968/2008)

Fourteen perfect examples of dreamy, sunshine-infused Pop Psychedelia with a folk bent, originally released by independent Canadian label Allied Records in 1968. When we first issued this terrific album on CD many years ago, our booklet featured the few scraps of information on the band we could find. We challenged anyone out there to find some information on this elusive and intriguing band. Well, were pleased to say that someone took us up on that offer, and that someone was band leader Tom Waschkowski (credited on the album as Tom Martin). He graciously offered us a band history, lyrics, some terrific photos, and best of all, a rare pre-album single that the trio had self-released. This allows us to offer up as perfect a reissue of this album as humanly possible. The Folklords Release the Sunshine is a captivating album, a notion shared by the many collectors worldwide who fight for original copies, which are few and far between. Strange thing is, if someone were to say to us that the Folklords album was released by Creation Records in 1987, it would be difficult to argue. Why?, you well may ask. Our answer: the chiming guitars, the rattle of tambourine, the dreaminess, and the meandering harmony vocals of Martha Johnson place the Folklords closer to Biff Bang Pow, the Jesus and Mary Chain, the Revolving Paint Dream, or even My Bloody Valentines debut Ecstasy and Wine (granted, at a much slower speed, and without the rampant fuzz guitar). Glorious remastered sound, as the twelve LP tracks were taken directly from the master tapes; the two bonus tracks come from the rare, privately issued non-LP single, which features haunting, drum-less versions of "Forty Second River" and "Unspoken Love", both of which were re-recorded for the original Allied album. A 16-page booklet includes a band history, lyrics and comments on the songs by Tom Martin.