Checking through black shuck comments on discogs, next year we should see also Colonel Bagshot, Bob Hughes, and new editions of Dark, Soho Orange, Team Dokus...

Seelie court releases are really cool even though i don't know anything about the founder or the people behind it. It's great to see a new label coming up with unknown recordings or great reissues (apparently a reissue of dark is on the way i'm waiting for it). The only thing that bothers me is that there is no demo, some album seem cool but I can only find one song to listen to and it's not enough to make an opinion. I think it's a rather strange way of advertising your products + having no site seems weird for a label in 2022, if they can sell then good for them but having no sound demo for some releases that never released before is quite ironic!

@blanchistone On this page you will find thirty second samples, this is all I can recommend. Type Seelie Court in the search box, then I recommend you to tick a Out Of Stock on the left, too.

https://www.juno.co.uk/search/

I searched online and couldn't find much information about Seelie Court either, there's no website (although theres a registered domain name), but there's a new article on Its Psychedelic Baby website which has photos and downloads of 3 bands and mentions there will be further collaborations with the label and interviews with the bands they are releasing.

This link has music and photographs of Mythicus, The Windfall and Team Dokus, some excellent psychedelic folk from what looks like unreleased albums, I've never heard of any of these before, and a totally hippie photo of Mythicus -


https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2022/02/seelie-court-the-mysterious-archive-label-exclusive-stream-of-unissued-tracks-from-the-70s.html

Windfall track is really promising! I've already a few tracks from Mythica and they are very good!

Yeah I like the Mythica and Windfall tracks, also found these links and by far my favourite is the moody Great Crash song;


Great Crash - Deaddire Echoes


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=26wDdIjHC14



Rainbird Maidenvale (Full album, I don't like this one!)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oMw7PEiib10


Flux Full Album (Very intense Prog)


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SeGBFlBmVvY

Man ,i'm really enjoying what Seelie Court is doing,giving plebs like me the chance to not just hear but also have the opportunity to own some version on cd and vinyl of mega rare private pressings,acetates,local studio demos etc. from the 60s and 70s of all types of music,but in Seelie Court,it seems to be mainly little known or heard recordings and albums,mainly in the folk,psychedelic,progressive genre,which is tremendous to hear "different" and not the ones we all know and love ,but for our ears,when you think a genre you love,is near the empty,and this WHOLE private and other world of records and sounds from many local groups doing it as a hobby.in small and mainly demo studios,recording album a few copies for them,their family and friends,and many sound good,actual good songwriting,musicianship and for rather good sound quality on tape and when its cut too..........ok yes,some do sound awful in every way with low quality sound,awful singing or group,.......but for those that where strictly amateur,there were those examples of extremely well recorded ,great fresh sounding quality mixed with fab musicianship,good songwriting and strong material,and lofty ideas to record their own very low cost Sgt Pepper,or something rather more mundane,is BRILLIANT,and whenever i hear Seelie Court are issuing another 8 little known or totally unheard and local recorded albums,i always show real interest ,as i'm still a music nut and appreciate a very low cost example of Moody Blues kind of music, as the real moody blues with top studio sound and budget.Both excite me.

One complaint,is not the sound,as Seelie Court seem to try and get the best quality sound possible from some crumbling acetate....so it can be listenable and not total hiss and crackles and not enjoyable to hear........as many do end up sounding.So i appreciate that,because so many of those private presses,vanity projects,demo albums etc are being saved from total rot,and many had so little budget they could only press 10 copies of that album ,so say 50 years later ,many of those seelie court releases sound very good,even though you can only do so much with very poor quality recordings or poor sounding equipment having been used back then,or the presser of the record totally cocking up the sound on the wax.Hats off to them for unearthing some cracking albums,....but their print on many of their cds,liners and artwork,clash,so you can dark colour on dark colour,so you cant really read the notes,or see the artwork,it is very small to read as the letters are in tiny print,mix that with the clash of similar colours,the liners can be unreadablde for many.......a TINY grouch,..........i know.

More interesting unknown music to be released soon, Nemesis looks very good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-QkmOeHcIo&ab_channel=iamdamosuzuki_

and also Marvelous Kid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1Z0so0BCz8&ab_channel=KernowBeat

Greenfly, Aardvark (not the Decca ones) and more Great Crash recordings sound promising too

You can read more about Marvelous Kid here http://kernowbeat.co.uk/marvelous.html

I had the pleasure of digitising all of Tony's MK archive and there is some good stuff in there. If this release goes well there are hopefully several more MK releases to come on Seelie Court

RP - there's an article about Marvelous Kid in the next issue of Shindig Magazine, they are an excellent Art Rock band, its unbelievable they never had any releases at the time as they were way better than many bands that got signed.

PsychedelicBaby are now on board with Marvelous Kid, a very extensive article including interviews.

https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2023/09/marvelous-kid-interview-incredible-70s-progressive-rock.html

Rough Trade site has a bit of history about SC

https://www.discogs.com/user/WestCoastDreams/reviews?header=1

From Discogs
WestCoastDreams
Seelie Court as reviewed by WestCoastDreams October 8, 2023
This label is owned by Steven Smith. And yes, he is the same guy that owned Kissing Spell, a rich collector who owns many rare albums/acetates etc. He also is the one who edited recordings from bands such as Charge and Axe against the artists wishes. He is responsible for many rare recordings being discovered, and that is a blessing. But the way he does it is hardly commendable. Unecessary editing, making up completely fake artists, bad mastering on Seelie Court releases, being unable to handle criticism...

Hopefully there will come a day where we can here rare music easily without dealing with weirdo gatekeeping collectors.
Reply

Dear Psychedelic Forum,

Replying to the above dimwit,

The remastering on most Kissing Spell releases is credited on the sleeves to Gary Ramon, the talented musician behind Sundial. Including Axe. To suggest otherwise is a lie.

Kissing Spell LLC is a registered company with 7 named Directors, none of whom are "Steven Smith". This information is freely available via Company Searches with the British Government. It is part of a larger financial/legal group and nothing to do with Seelie Court. If it was, quite obviously, Seelie Court would release those magnificent LPs like Shire and Acorn, Stone Angel and Dancer, along with the entire Holy ground series. However, those rights are tied up, and no other label can release them.

Rights in Charge are owned by Dave Ellis and Seelie Court, they are currently working TOGETHER on releasing their 2nd unissued LP. Eg they are collaborating. Seelie Court outbid Guerssen for that deal, which is why the LP switched labels. Eg the artists were paid more money by Seelie Court. That's nothing against Guerssen, just business.

Suggesting Charge etc is fake is absurd

Nothing on either label or any other similar label is "Faked", that's vindictive nonsense. The artists signed to Seelie Court are mostly documented via old gig ads and press cuttings, and are being interviewed in an ongoing series of articles on the famous It's Psychedelic Baby website.

Alco, The Great Crash, Lifeblud, Aardvark (Scotland) etc are all interviewed. To claim any of these people are "Fake" is absurd.

Nobody would spend the time and money trying to recreate old sounds by uncommercial bands when the market for reissues is capped at about 500. They don't make money, to pay musicians to 'fake' them is a monumentally stupid concept.

Personally I do not believe any such reissue lps have ever been faked. There are LPs on other labels that are seemingly Backdated, but not on Seelie Court.


There are THOUSANDS of unreleased bands and LPs. So let's spend £6000 to try to sound like a 1973 band who are not as good as Stray and will struggle to sell 300 lps? Yes, sure. Financial genius.

Mastering on Seelie Court is top notch. Every LP is approved by the artists at every stage, artwork, sleevenotes and Mastering.

Many of the artists have been studio engineers themselves, eg the Great Crash created LOCO Studios in Wales, where Oasis and the Verve recorded their classic 90s LPs. These people know more about mastering than the nobody who posted above.

There have however been 3 Recalls on Seelie Court. That's down to pressing problems during Covid and the Vinyl Shortage, when quality control declined. Those LPs were recalled, recycled and repressed at cost as swiftly as possible.

Abbey Road has mastered some Seelie Court lps, one of the greatest studios of all time.

The above post is by a known internet troll who was asked to stop contacting Seelie Court after bombarding them with literally hundreds of emails begging to be involved. There's something wrong with him. Eg why is he posting this nonsense all over the net and this forum ? He's bitter and feels rejected.

Many people have kindly assisted Seelie Court, a label that operates at non-profit and is bankrolled by the owners.

It has brought 100 lps to public attention in just 3 years, many of which were lost and unknown prior to that.

It has done the exact opposite of "Gatekeeping", it has done a service to British Rock Music, to the best of its ability, and issued material that no one else has issued in over 50 years.

It has possibly the largest repertoire of unissued lps of any such label and is doing its damnedest to issue them all in a failing niche market.

It is simply not possible to issue them all at once. It released 24 lps in a short period this year, too much for the small market to handle.

It works closely with all the artists and is currently involved with some very important material and struggling through complex rights issues to enable it to be released. It will be of extreme interest to anyone on this forum into genuine British psychedelia as it forms an historic bridging point to the formation of the world's greatest rock band. To some that may be Marmalade. To others there's an obvious band name we hope you may guess.

The label welcomes any constructive criticism. In fact intelligent criticism is actively sought. The label is an ongoing organically expanding entity that is a work in progress, it has for example responded to legitimate criticism that back covers were rather weakly designed,and changed the designers and style.

A staggering amount of work goes into each release. The Dark series cost £100,000. To suggest the people doing that, releasing uncommercial archival music that will struggle to break even, are working AGAINST music is bizarre.

Falsely stating artists are 'Fake' is not criticism, and a normal reviewer would not mount personal attacks on individuals he/she has never met, any music fan would focus on the music.

So the above post is transparently suspicious and vindictive and not trustworthy.

If the individual responsible would like to kindly name any "fake" artists on Seelie Court please do so, £50k says he cannot, because there are none.

It's an extreme shame this forum and others allow their sites to be exploited by people like this, it's frankly embarrassing.

As an (uninteresting) aside, it is actually a fact that the owners of Seelie Court do NOT collect records and are non-materialistic.

Seelie Court is actively looking for people who may be able to provide sleevenotes or anything of interest to the label that may benefit releases and the artists. The label is also working on some behind the scenes collaborations with other labels and different forms of media.

Specifically, if anyone out there has a strong local knowledge of SCOTTISH music especially 1965-1976, we would love to get in touch with a view to researching bands, trying to liberate important recordings, and possibly providing sleevenotes. No cash would be involved, as the label doesn't make any, but free copies of available records would be provided.

If someone feels they could do that post an email here. Yes Stuart Robertson, if you made it this far, and I understand if you didn't, you should contact Seelie Court direct. If you love Scotland. Hint, what were Robert Burns and William Mc Gonagall ?

Forum member GIAN has helped Seelie Court, I believe he received about 25 free albums in exchange with more to come, he could possibly confirm that if asked.

Whoever Steve Smith is probably a fake name wether he bought or was a partner of Kissing Spell. Kissing Spell at least at the very beginning was started by Pete Sarfas. Seelie Court Label Not On Social Media And No Website.

Eh, copying and pasting from another site with an unkind "review"is unfair, and to do it in anonymous fashion is ingenuine,and this IS clearly an attack of sorts, with incorrect information and naming people is again not fair particularly when you don't give your OWN name..
I DO believe in free speech and expression, but the details have to be correct and factual, and NOT just an attack on a person, if it was a fair critique of a product bought, that IS different

Theres enough nastiness out there, so let's not bring it in here eh?

I did have a rather heated conversation with the chap behind Kissing Spell on here last year after I criticized their Axe CD release as part of a review I did on the Guerssen CD reissue of Crystalline Axe Music,
I stated the fact that the Guerssen cd had 5 tracks, while the first Kissing Spell Axe CD had created other tracks and also added effects, in essence it had been mucked about with, the chap took deep offence at me stating those facts in my review,but I replied that I paid for it, like I do for every CD review I do, there's no freebies like magazines etc, get,i buy my own cds, which as far as I'm concerned gave me the right to point out to others any issues with said bought cd

It was NOT a personal attack on the individual,it was a critique on a product he released, on the music contained within the cd, but he certainly took it personally, even though I have ALL the Kissing Spell cds released,I bought them ALL,including the many 70s folk cds, and elsewhere on this forum I've hyped up Kissing Spell cd releases... so I suggested when you're in business of producing product to be sold, having feedback from customers is ALWAYS beneficial whether it's good or bad feedback,as you learn from mistakes and make that product better, it's common sense.
So we had a ding dong, back and forth, it got to the stage,i had"real"issues to deal with in life, and having to deal with an adult with a bruised sensitive ego was NOT one of then,so i said if he's not happy to fuck off and take his legal threats to someone who gives a shit,as I literally couldn't give a shit about his hurt feelings,I thought to myself grow up and have a pair of balls mate, this is a wee discussion group NOT some big magazine
.

It was so surreal having a complete stranger threatening legal guff, and being rather nasty, THAT does not work with me,it makes me more determined to NOT be cooperative,I did leave the whole thread of posts up for others to read,so others could comment if they wanted,as I'm a believer in free speech, free expression, but NOONE seemed to have any comments,so because that thread of Posts were so toxic and uncomfortable,I deleted my discussion with him,as I did NOT want that negativity effecting anyone else.

So I've NO idea if this individual is once again taking part on here, but one thing I did take from my ding dong with him, everyone is mental or deranged according to him, but he was the one who came across as deranged on this wee discussing group with his threats and behavior over 1 fucking cd, THAT is deranged behavior!!

So if this bloke IS here again,he can bugger off as far as I'm concerned as I DON'T deal with people who threaten and intimidate, and act like a bully,so If it is him, BUGGER OFF,I certainly DON'T welcome your presence.

Well said Stuart.

Threatening legal action over an opinion on a forum is just pathetic. This is meant to be a fun place to share music and opinions, not unhinged stuff like that, life is too short and there is more than enough conflict on the internet already.

In the interests of reality:

Steve Smith does exist and it is his real name. He was the founder and sole operator of Kissing Spell records.He sold the catalogue and brand name to a major reissue label many years ago, but the vast majority of the releases were his, certainly pretty much anything that would interest members of this forum. Some were authorised, some were not. Before Kissing Spell he issued a couple of other LPs: Samantha Productions Vol 1 and Sindelfingen. After Kissing Spell he had a short-lived Drum and Bass label, Nocturnal. He then ceased to be active in making records until he started up Seelie Court Records a couple of years ago, which is pretty much Kissing Spell Mk 2. Again,this is a one man operation, Seelie Court is just his trading name. He has lived outside the UK for many years, firstly in the Czech Republic now in Italy.

On this forum he has appeared as both Pict Power and May Twitz. On Discogs he is Black Shuck.

Hopefully that helps clear things up!

Casual Observation, and excuse the language but;

WHO GIVES A FUCK? (Rapturous applause, thank you.)


Besides which here's something blindingly obvious and it all checks out if you research it ;

1.Kissing Spell is named after a CHILEAN PSYCHEDELIC BAND

2.Gary Ramon is named on the CDs as Engineer and did the labels remastering

3.Gary Ramon (SUNDIAL) was Signed to MAGIC MIXTURE RECORDS, a record shop in London

4. Magic Mixture was owned by HUGO CHAVEZ,A CHILEAN, sometimes known as HUGO CHAVEZ SMITH, used pseudonyms, and was also owner of Background, he's the guy who first started all these old reissues, with editions of Andromeda, Magic Mixture and Necromandus.

5. Spriguns of Tolgus was issued on Kissing Spell AND Background same year.

5. Hugo was from CHILE. He left London for Chile same year Kissing Spell was sold. Background Records was also sold same year, possibly to someone called Graham Brooke?

Everyone said Hugo started Kissing Spell, and named it after his favourite band, this was all discussed in an old thread years ago by people using their real names who knew everybody back then, eg WALTER GEERTSEN, PATRICK LUNDBORG, MARK PAYTRESS.

Steve Smith was known to take the piss out of other dealers in the 3 or 4 catalogues of rare lps he made, the people above also discussed him and said he was quote "fond of a joke".

PS Melton Constable was... Lost in the post. That's true.

Reality Check:

Hugo Chavez is not Steve Smith. However Mark P is, his third identity on this forum.

And Hugo had nothing whatsoever to do with Kissing Spell. That was all Steve, not sure why it's such a problem for him to take credit for it (or indeed to his sole ownership of Seelie Court). It was a great, pioneering reissue label. And Seelie Court is its worthy successor.

That's wrong.

Hugo is credited on early Spell releases, they were ordered and pressed by him using a guy in London who had bought a Vinyl Press from Poland. One such release is the Double LP of Sindelfingen. That credits Hugo and Ramon, with other credits to Steve. It was a prototype Spell release.

There's a clear connection, including the label being named after the Chilean Band.

At that date I don't believe anyone even knew about bands like Aguaturbia, Pax, Kissing Spell outside of South America. Hugo brought those lps here to england.

Spell issued Pax, Peruvian but active in Chile. That was Hugo. He knew the band from college days. Hugo was a Political refugee.

If anyone can really be bothered they should check matrix carving on early Kissing Spell, the Sindelfingen Double, and compare with Reflection/Magic Mixture releases. They won't be like any major/known presses. It will be that tiny press connected to Hugo, who may have part owned it.

Jessie Harper was in the hands of Hugo. Reflection dealt a lot with John Du Cann and that's why so many Andromeda releases are on both Reflection and Kissing Spell. There's also the Sarfras connection mentioned above , eg Necromandus. One of Hugo's early releases is The Attack.

If anyone knows if that London press still exists post here.

In my opinion Steve warehoused Hugo's stock in barns in Suffolk.

Well I dug out the Sindelfingen reissue and whilst it's not a Kissing Spell release, fair enough it does have a credit to H.Chavez for jointly remixing and editing the Triangle bonus disc with Gary Ramon. As far as I know he hasn't any credit or involvement with any Kissing Spell releases though, which was the point, it was just Gary Ramon, certainly that's the case on KSLP 002, Spriguns of Tolgus and all the others I've looked at. Stephen however is credited with "Co-ordination, Design, Post-Production" on Sindelfingen so it was clearly his thing and equally clearly H.Chavez and Stephen Smith were different people. Equally clearly Mark P is Stephen, as were May Twitz and Pict Power and, possibly, Pornstar (although there weren't enough words on that one posting to be sure, his style of communication is shall we say very "distinctive". It is, also clearly, dead easy to have multiple, concealed, identities on this forum. Why anyone would bother is unclear. It does make you wonder why anyone would turn such cartwheels trying to pretend he isn't someone he clearly is when what is at question is something excellent. One for Mr Freud I think. Anyway, I'm out of here now I only had a look because I wondered what had happened to the September SC releases and thought there might have been some inside knowledge.

Just been looking on Juno and there's a half a dozen new Seelie Court titles showing all with a release date of 3 November.

Thanks for the heads up. Wonder what the delay was

Just had another look on Juno and now no date on the new ones, just says "forthcoming" plus theres a lot of massive price reductions on the last couple of lots of LPs up there: Col Bagshot £9.99, Alco £10.99 that top Dark reissue £21.99 (which is annoying as I paid nearly twice that!). Wonder if theres some sort of problem? Hope not!

Webcaw-

Simple Explanation - The label has a 50% Sale on all remaining back catalogue.

Dealers are buying the releases at Half Price from Lasgo Distribution. The prices should therefore be Half Price in Shops/Mail Order. Some dealers try to charge extra, but Juno etc should be fair. That means they are being sold at less than cost price.

I think all CDs are sold out at Lasgo. Many earlier Vinyl LPs are sold out. All the Dark lps are either sold out or close to being sold out individually.

Sales went up 700% last month due to the sale. It's likely every single back catalogue item will be sold out at Lasgo by Christmas. Some shops may continue to have stock but prices will likely climb.

When F-Minor Distribution closed all CDs were sold by the label at £1 each to rescue them from the warehouse, so many suddenly appeared online at £3.99. But now they are almost all unavailable, they were mostly pressings of just 380 copies.

All Seelie Court releases have been pressed in Limited Quantities of 100-600 max per release and prices for Sold Out albums seem to climb dramatically. Eg someone was offering the Grannie CD at 150 euros (or dollars?) on Discogs and it has a recorded selling price of over 80 euros, a tad more than the £3 the label received for copies. The Dark LPs may never be repressed so don't worry too much about your investment. The Dark 'Doodle' sleeve release has sold for £300. (The label received £7 per copy sold.)

The 6 new CDs are delayed but due any day, it was decided to add Booklets to most of them and Klemen Breznikar of Its Psychedelic Baby has interviewed some of the bands.

Steve Giles of Dark is working on a connected project for the label.

There may also be 4 Vinyl LPs out before Christmas. All are completely unknown except Marvelous Kid. There will be a very important Psychedelic release amongst those vinyl LPs, the aforementioned Marvelous Kid (brilliant Canterbury style from Masters for an unissued 1973 LP), a mind blowing masterpiece of Heavy Prog, and a killer unknown Hard Rock/Art-Rock/Glam LP from 1974 by Windlord entitled Lady Heroin.

The label is entering Phase II and the best releases are yet to come. Behind the scenes it's working on some collaborations and other projects. There's likely to be some Limited Cassette issues in America, including Dark.

Thanks, reassuring, will start saving up!

Been waiting for the Dark box set as well, what happened to that? And I think there was going to be a Bob Hughes box set. I loved Hooknorton, is that going to happen?

https://www.discogs.com/label/1913411-Seelie-Court/reviews/list#c5050899

https://www.discogs.com/user/WestCoastDreams/reviews?header=1

link to video not working? Yesterday was ok, this is it anyway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMvgNggkfxE&t=1s&ab_channel=rd03gian

I've been looking forward to this new batch of Seelie Court cd releases for a while,but i see on Heyday mailorder theyre still marked as delayed but coming soon.


Good to hear there will be booklets too,i always love that wee bit of extra effort and it is appreciated when a label gives the Music enthusiasts that wee bit extra.

As for Dark box set,i bought 5 cds from Steve Giles that contained unreleased recordings and demos of Dark,a couple of year ago,and its impressive stuff,funnily enough before the Guerrsen Crystaline Axe Music cd reissue,i also bought that from Steve Giles on cd and It sounded good, i've kept that version even though i have the original Kissing Spell Axe cd and the newer Guerrsen cd.

As for Gian, yes Nightwings was a fab wee label,in particular Tim Hollier and Mayfields Mule cds,i do have all the cds Nightwings issued, its a shame Nightwings didnt carry on and release more cdds,but i understand the grief,stress, and risks involved in setting Up a small label,to even break even financially can be difficult.
Nightwings released quality product, with booklets and good sound, and the obsure artists covered..

Whatever Happened to Sunbeam Records?he last 3 cds i bought Where 2 cd versions of Arcadium"Breathe Awhile"&"Raw Material"and finally Someones Band sole album on cd.

Thanks for the nice words Stuart, I'm proud of what I was able to do, especially giving visibility again to Fuchsia, Mayfield's Mule, Five Day Rain and Tim Hollier. The main reason I stopped is that I had no more useful contacts for new releases, living far from the UK didn't help! I was in touch with Universe and Clown though, but at the time it didn't work, so....

So it says January 26th on Juno for these CDs which is the day after tomorrow which seems a bit unlikely. And the Dark super dooper best ever release is now available for £15.98 including postage. Which makes my £42 look a bit sick. And that vendor says he has 20+ copies!! Feels like this label has hit the wall, its nearly a year since the last vinyl releases ( albeit a deluge!) and all the recent stock is available at fire sale prices. I saw Across the Water 2 go for £4.99 and all those Darks are around £10. Really feels like these have been over-pressed and over priced: minimum 600 often over a thousand. Interesting that Bright Carvings only release 227 of theirs, no CDs, no downloads and the price is solid. Prefer the laminated sleeves too!

I really hope Marvelous Kid, Nemesis and Aardvwak will come out soon, they deserve to!

The band (Marvelous Kid) tell me there have been further delays, and as far as they are aware it’s definitely not coming out tomorrow. No word on actual release date yet though unfortunately.

Just looked on Juno and it now says April for those 6 CDs!! And the Lifeblud 2nd LP is down to £7.25 and my sooper dooper Dark best ever issue now £14…. What’s going on?

Well, now Juno have removed the April date for release! Is this label defunct? Be a real shame.