Now-Again Records

Out Now: Loving On The Flip Side, Sweet Funk and Beat-Heavy Ballads, 1969-1977.

Loving On The Flip Side – Sweet Funk and Beat-Heavy Ballads, 1969-1977. 21 rare and unreleased tracks; 2LP or CD with 80-page book filled with rare photos and each band’s story. CD/book, 2LP/book, digital album Out NOW!

Loving On The Flip Side collects the overlooked ballads from the flip sides of the funk 45s in the Now-Again and Truth and Soul vaults and is presented in the same format that we developed for our Soul Cal anthology. The music contained on Loving On The Flip Side is too damn good to be anonymously relaunched, decades after musical visionaries blended the best of heavy funk and sweet soul into a unified whole. Thus, Loving On The Flip Side again offers the enthused a chance to listen to, read about and reflect on another great burst of black American creativity: the creation of the sublime genre we like to call “sweet funk.”

It was the Darling Dears and Funky Heavy’s beautiful two-sider that set this record in motion, nearly ten years back. Those two songs precipitated the sweet funk genre: the dichotomy of Funky Heavy’s skull snapping rhythm section and the teenage Dears’ angelic harmonies didn’t sound like anything we’d heard before. That discovery set off a decade long search for the band and culminated in their discovery, the documenting of their stories, the emergence of their master tapes and the inclusion of their songs on Loving On The Flip Side.

The excitement we felt while listening to the Darling Dears and Funky Heavy’s masterworks forced us and the New York-based production team known as Truth & Soul back into the field, in search of other sweet funk swooners and beat-heavy ballads to round out this anthology. The opportunity to present anew such wondrous soul music made the exhaustive process that produced Loving On The Flip Side worthwhile, and allowed us to collect one-offs that escaped prior investigations into the deep funk and sweet soul genres.

Loving On The Flip Side is presented as both a gatefold 2LP and a CD – both formats come with a perfect-bound, 80 page book printed on heavyweight, uncoated paper stock. You can purchase the CD/book anywhere good music is sold and on Itunes. You also get Loving On The Flip Side as one of three albums if you subscribe to Now-Again Deluxe at drip.fm.

Buy On Rappcats: Loving On The Flip Side
Get Loving On The Flip Side When You Subscribe: https://drip.fm/nowagain
Download: Darling Dears And Funky Heavy “And I Love You.”

Exclusive! Now-Again X Hit & Run – hand silkscreened Chrissy Zebby Tembo tee shirts.

We’re STILL in the process of building out our new webstore (at least we can now say we’re somewhere in the middle of phase two), but every once in a while we just have to present you with an opportunity to grab something exclusive. Well, the fine folks over at Hit & Run hit us up with a great looking, hand silkscreened tee shirt based off the artwork for the Zamrock Chrissy Zebby Tembo classic My Ancestors album. We wanted some for ourselves – who wouldn’t want to rep the legendary Ngozi Family drummer in the dog days of L.A.’s Indian Summer? – so we decided to make a small run in both black and fuschia. They’re printed on high quality American Apparel combed cotton tees and are comfy, trust.

We only have a small amount of these shirts available and we’re making them available, on a first come first serve basis. Price is $25 plus shipping (we only offer first class United States Postal Service). If you want in, here’s what to do:

1.email us with subject line CHRISSY SHIRT at: witch@nowagainrecords.com

2.tell us your preferred color, size and address. You have to send us all three!

3.we’ll email you back to tell you your total, and give you our Paypal address. Note: if you prefer to pay by credit card, you can, but we will have to process your card manually.

Announcing: Stark Reality “Acting, Thinking, Feeling” Complete Works 6LP/3CD Box Set.

Acting, Thinking, Feeling: the Stark Reality’s complete works coming Feb. 5th, 2013 as a 6LP/3CD box set.

Earlier this year, we announced we were preparing to present the complete works of psychedelic jazz ensemble Stark Reality’s complete works as a box set. Well, we’re happy to announce that both the 6LP and 3CD versions of this anthology – which we’re calling Acting, Thinking, Feeling – are now in production.

This marks the first time that all of Stark Reality’s music will be available on vinyl and CD. Included will be the entirety of their AJP-issued album The Stark Reality Discovers Hoagy Carmichael’s Music Shop, their out-of-print 1969 (first issued on this label in 2003), the two sides of their Big Yellow 7″ single, the three part song “Acting, Thinking, Feeling” and a series of unreleased tracks discovered by Porter Records’ Luke Mosling – issued here for the first time!

While we have yet to set a street date (we’re hoping for late 2012 or early 2013), our loyal Now-Again Deluxe subscribers will be able to feast their ears on this band’s impossible to categorize, yet undeniable sound – restored and remastered from brand new master tape transfers in two installments, starting on October 30th.

More information, pictures of the box set packaging, and a free download to come.

Maker – Maker Vs. Now-Again 2

After tracks from Maker Vs. Now Again were used in Entourage, CSI and a series of feature films and documentaries, Maker went back to the lab and created V.2, another boom-bap era hip hop exercise in dusty drum breaks and two bar loops. Again, this accessible series of tracks is clearly made for easy synchronization – but it knocks even harder than the first.

Download: Maker Vs. Now-Again 2

Regional Garland – Mixed Sugar, The Complete Works 1970-1987

This is the collected works of the Flint, Michigan soul singer/songwriter and his band, including the crossover masterpiece “It’s A Bad Feeling” and entries by Hunts Determination Band, 21st Generations, Reggie and Vann and Brilliance. Mixed Sugar, The Complete Works contains awesome symphonic soul, heavy funk, pleading ballads, proto-disco and boogie in the vein of Motown’s classic recordings. As an added bonus – much of it came from master tapes and is previously unreleased!

Download: Regional Garland – Mixed Sugar, The Complete Works.