22 years of indie folk on this domain: from 2002 to 2023
The earlier site on this domain ran from 2002 to 2023, a span of 22 years with captures, and it was an independent world, folk and jam music address that documented the small label scene that releases and distributes that music. This page is the retrospective of that era, written only from the archive record of what the domain served, and it is set apart from the site you are reading now, which is a new, unaffiliated project built in 2026 that did not exist before 2026 and makes no claim to the old site's catalogue. The era on this domain left 3535 archive captures across 400 distinct paths, and those captures are the only facts this page works from. This is the history of the 22 years, told from the capture record and nothing else.
This is the retrospective: it follows the domain year by year through the 3 phases the capture record shows, and it names what the site was at each phase, so a reader knows what the address was before the 2026 rebuild.
What the archive record shows
What the archive record shows is a 22 year span with a clear peak and a clear shape, and the numbers are the record, not a memory. The era runs from 2002 to 2023, and the 3535 captures and 400 paths in the record are the whole of what is documented. The peak is 2006, the year with 1483 captures, more than any other year in the span, and the capture count then falls to a few hundred a year and then to a few dozen. The homepage title in the earliest capture, 2002, was the plain name of the label, and in 2013 the title carried a Japanese home page marker, which is the first sign of the import side of the site. The record is the source, and every date and name on this page comes from it, because the rule of the retrospective is that nothing else is a fact.
The first phase, the early 2000s
The first phase, the early 2000s, is the years the capture record shows before the peak, and it is the period when the address was being built. The captures are modest in these years, 38 in 2002, 89 in 2003, 92 in 2004, and 90 in 2005, and the paths that appear are the image folders and the early item pages that carry the catalogue of the scene. The 2003 image folders are the first dated paths in the record, and they are the photos of the artists and the events the site was documenting. The first phase is the building of the address, and the capture count grows from a few dozen a year toward the peak that comes in 2006. The small label scene the site documents is the world, folk and jam music the site is about, and the early years are when the documentation of that scene began on this domain.
The peak, the .asp catalogue era
The peak, the .asp catalogue era, is 2006 and the years that follow it, and it is the period the capture record shows at its densest. The 2006 paths are the catalogue pages, the item view with 807 captures, the artist view with 570, the news detail with 255, the news list with 229, and the special page with 89, and they are the pages of the catalogue and the news that carried the scene. The .asp pages ran from 2006 to 2009, and the capture count holds in the hundreds through 2007 and 2008 before it falls. The peak is the era of the catalogue, and it is the period when the site was documenting the world, folk and jam music of the small label scene at its fullest. The 2006 numbers are the highest in the record, and they are the years the address was at its most active.
The rebuild and the long tail
The rebuild and the long tail is the period after the .asp catalogue, and it is the period the capture record shows in a new shape. In 2011 the site moves to a new structure, with the artists page, the news topics page, the about page, and the shopping page, each captured 26 to 31 times, and the capture count holds in the hundreds through 2012 and 2013 before it falls to a few dozen a year. The long tail is the years the address is still up but quiet, with a capture or two a year, and the 2023 captures are the last of the era, a parking page, a search page, and an info page. After 2023 the record shows the domain lapsed, with a 2024 capture of an expired domain notice. The rebuild and the long tail are the end of the 22 year era, and they are the period the capture record shows before the gap that the 2026 site fills.
Where the old era ends and the new site begins
Where the old era ends and the new site begins is the gap between 2023 and 2026, and it is the line this page draws clearly. The old site on this domain ran from 2002 to 2023, and the site you are reading now was built in 2026 as a new, unaffiliated project on the same domain, and it did not exist before 2026. The new site is a standing reference on the independent world, folk and jam music and the small label scene that releases and distributes it, and it is not the owner of the old site and it makes no claim to the old catalogue. The 22 years are the era, the 3535 captures are the record, and the 2026 site is the new project that stands on the same address and writes about the same scene, with the line between the two kept where the record puts it.