Garage-psych holy grail Kaleidoscope finally available digitally!

It’s a great pleasure that we can present one of our favorite garage-psych records of all times – the self titled, and only, record by the Puerto Rican band Kaleidoscope, who recorded their album in the Dominican Republic and saw it issued in a promotional run of two-hundred copies on Mexico’s Orfeon label. It’s gone on to become one of the sought after artifacts of the late 60s world-rock scene, with clean copies – when the surface – selling for upwards of $8,000.

The German reissue label Shadoks – with whom we’ve issued a number of Zamrock titles – licensed the album through the band’s leader, guitarist and vocalist Frank Tirado, and issued it on CD and LP. We approached Frank and got the rights to license Kaleidoscope’s impossible to imitate music on both master and publishing sides – and, at the urging of Shadoks Thomas Hartlage, have made it available for digital purchase for the first time ever. Download a sample song below and if you like what you hear – and we’re almost certain you will – support the release of global wonders by purchasing the entire album.

Download: Kaleidoscope – Let Me Try
Buy: Kaleidoscope: Kaleidoscope on Itunes.

Announcing: Salty Dog, deep fuzz and folk Zamrock via Strawberry Rain

An EP compiled from Strawberry Rain’s essential Zamrock reissue of Salty Dog via our subscription service, Now-Again Deluxe!

We’re pleased that we were able to broker a license for our friends at Strawberry Rain Records – they behind the Benny Soebardja Lizard Years anthology that we told you about last year – for this important Zamrock album from bandleader and graphic designer Norman Muntemba.

According to an interview Strawberry Rain’s Jason Connoy conducted with Muntemba, we find that Salty Dog was a three piece, modeled after the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Their name? Well, it wasn’t a reference to Procol Harum: Muntemba wanted to base the band around the concept of the force of life, so Salty Dog was chosen: Zambian slang for sperm. Their self titled album was the eighth release on the Zambezi imprint, the same label that released WITCH’s landmark Lazy Bones!! But unlike Lazy Bones!!, Salty Dog is one of the most obscure Zambian titles from the era – a rarity amongst rarities. This has been a shame for aficionados, as the album is a beautiful combination of psychedelic, blues and folk songs, all with a Zamrock twist, and with many songs sung in English.

As a bonus for their release, Strawberry Rain pressed up the non-lp single that was released before the album: “Sunday Morning Sunshine.” This release is limited edition and comes in a handsome paste on cover, full of photos and liner notes written by the band. We here at Now-Again are happy to present this preview of the album as an EP of our four favorite songs. If you like what you hear, go out and support our pals at Strawberry Rain and help them on their mission to release some of the best, lost music from the global canon.

Subscribe Now: Now-Again Deluxe at Drip.fm.
More Info: Strawberry Rain’s Website.

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Damon x True Blood: “Don’t You Feel Me” – Season 6, Episode 6

This Sunday, July 21st, peep out HBO’s vampire drama True Blood for the episode “Don’t You Feel Me,” named after – we’re not kidding – the psychedelic masterpiece that we featured on our Forge Your Own Chains compilation some four years ago, and one of the highlights from Damon’s legendary Song of a Gypsy album – which we’ll be issuing in an expanded, deluxe format later this year.

It went something like this: the episode’s writer, Daniel Kenneth, received our compilation when he was an assistant on the show. He loved the song and, when he was commissioned to write his first episode he named it, well, you know…. Gives another spin to Damon’s line “in the sunlight/in the moonlight/in the dark night/when the time’s right” that’s for sure.

More Info: Forge Your Own Chains: Damon’s Story
Buy: “Don’t You Feel Me” on Rappcats

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Stream: Chop Mix 2013

Stream: Chop Mix 2013 – a steady stream of the influences on his forthcoming album Illuminate album out August 13th!

Our friends at the UK’s Quietus have been so kind as to host Chop’s Mix 2013, which he assembled as he was putting the finishing touches on Illuminate. As they write, Chop excels at “taking the listener on a jagged journey all the way from Broadcast to the uneasy thrum of Suicide, kosmische flavours from Popol Vuh and Cluster, Alexander Robotnik and many more.”

Download: Chop “Building Blocks”

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Out Now: Karl Hector “Ngunga Yeti Fofa” EP

Limited edition vinyl EP by the world-psych-funk ensemble; original artwork by Kevin Lyons, screenprinted by Anti Designs. Download a free MP3 now or buy the EP on Itunes.

For all intents and purposes, Karl Hector might as well be another nom-de-plume of Jay Whitefield (producer and guitarist for the Poets of Rhythm and the Whitefield Brothers) who, along with Thomas Myland and Zdenko Curlija, founded Karl Hector and The Malcouns in the early 2000s. Alongside Bo Baral, other members of the Poets of Rhythm and crack Munich-based session musicians, Whitefield, Myland and Curlija crafted nearly twenty tracks for their debut, Sahara Swing, an album that swung with influences from across the African diaspora.

The trio are releasing a series of vinyl-only EPs – Tamanrasset was the first; Ngunga Yeti Fofa is the second – that will culminate in their second album. Ngunga Yeti Fofa’s five songs demonstrate The Malcouns’ deft handling of musics from both Eastern and Western Africa alongside Western psychedelia, jazz and funk; the title track- a swinging horn-lead highlife jam that would sound perfect next to the Ghanaian classics by the likes of K.Frimpong and Ebo Taylor- is a great representation. If you don’t believe us, download it for free, below.

Download: “Ngunga Yeti Fofa”
Buy: Ngunga Yeti Fofa EP on Rappcats

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