‘Down there in the Gypsy camp a banjo was jiggling with a popular melody.., one had the impression of distant dance music, dizzying waltzes one the sweetness of an accordion. Camp fires were everywhere, each with its cooking pot. Everywhere chickens were stewing and banjos going wild…’
This was the setting in which Django grew up - in a world that today has become the stuff of legend, the world of the bohemian and the vagabond on the doorstep of a great city… — Django Reinhardt a biography by Alain Antonietto
Django featured with the Quintet of the Hot Club of France and performing ‘Swing’ (1939)
The continued vitality of microlabel experimental, psych, drone and folk is perhaps best witnessed in the continued success of live festivals like Terrastock 7 or Bottled Smoke. Both festivals, unfortunately, were outside my reach. Thankfully, Terrastock and BS event hosts have been thoughtful enough, with the festival chaos and crowds dispersed, to remember their most geographically challenged followers, sharing the musical spoils with photos and videos aplenty.
Terrastock is not just a festival, it’s a family. There’s a feeling of community that you won’t get anywhere else and you can’t help but feel caught up in it all. This isn’t Boneroo, Lollapalooza, or Austin City Limits. People aren’t here for spectacle or to be seen - they are here for the music and the community that surrounds the psych genre whose umbrella is the zine Ptolemaic Terrascope. That sense of community extends from the biggest acts to the smallest. This is, when you get down to it, nothing more than a big house party at (founding editor of PT) Phil McMullen’s pad. The pad this year just happened to be in lovely Louisville, Kentucky in the Mellwood Arts and Entertainment Center - a former factory turned multi-use facility. — Ramon Medina, TX
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