Our Nigerian Vinyl Record Store Day Pop Up At Rappcats

Now-Again’s Record Store Day at Rappcats:
Nigerian vinyl popup record shop.

Saturday, April 16, 2016
Noon — 5PM
5636 York Blvd,
Los Angeles CA 90042

Rappcats has two officially sanctioned Record Store Day releases: J Dilla’s The Diary and our Wake Up You: The Rise & Fall of Nigerian Rock, both of which topped Pitchfork’s “Record Store Day 2016’s Best and Weirdest Bets”.

Nigerian popup record shop: We’re going to be selling Vol. 1 of Wake Up You in CD and LP formats. Egon and Uchenna Ikonne, who put together the Wake Up You anthology, will be selling rare, original Nigerian LPs and 45s the day of – a few hundred handpicked records from the 70s and the 80s in Afro Rock, Afro Beat, Funk, Disco, Boogie and Deep Highlife styles, pictured below.

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A “Wake Up You!” Preview – War-Head Constriction’s Devastating Nigerian Proto-Metal

Now-Again Records’ decade long investigation into Nigeria’s rock music scene during the 1970s culminates in Wake Up You: The Rise & Fall of Nigerian Rock. Vol. 1 comes out on Record Store Day.

Here’s a track from Wake Up You, Vol. 2, coming in May: War-Head Constriction’s “Shower of Stone”

Pitchfork.com – Record Store Day 2016’s Best and Weirdest Bets: “#1. Various Artists, Wake Up You V.1 : The Rise And Fall Of Nigerian Rock Music, 1972-1977. This 2xLP compilation of scene that catapulted Fela Kuti to global renown looks to be the type of carefully packaged set that will be well worth checking for at your local store. Nigerian-born writer Uchenna Ikonne, who helped make William Onyeabor’s 2013 album Who Is William Onyeabor? a reality, provides liner notes in a 104-page book that also includes previously unpublished photos.”

The Western world was in the throes of peace, love, and flower power as Nigeria descended into Civil War in 1967. The rock scene that developed during the following three years of bloodshed and destruction would come to heal the country, propagate the world-wide ideal of the Modern Nigerian, and propel Fela Kuti to stardom after conflict ended in 1970.

Wake Up You! tells the story of this time, pays homage to these now-forgotten musicians and their struggle, and brings to light the funk and psychedelic fury they created as they wrested free of the ravages of the late 1960s and created thrilling, original Nigerian rock music throughout the 1970s.

Wake Up You! is presented in two 100+ page books full of never-seen photos and the story of the best Nigerian rock bands told in vivid detail by musicologist and researcher Uchenna Ikonne.

Listen to Ify Jerry Krusade’s “Everybody Likes Something Good” (Wake Up You! Vol. 1)

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Announcing: “Can’t You Hear Me” -African Nuggets, compiled by Christophe Lemaire

Shipping at our webstore at Rappcats

Globetrotter of parallel subcontinents and digger of rare, forgotten records, Eothen “Egon” Alapatt tracks sounds from the dawn of time to the four corners of the world. On the other side of the globe, French designer Christophe Lemaire stays forward thinking and audacious in his choices: far from our deified present, he cultivates a love of timeless designs and mixed influences; a passion for iconoclastic music hidden in the dark corners of a global cultural industry.

This extraordinary openness has been at the heart of their friendship since 2007. Their exceedingly eclectic, fierce rock discoveries gave birth to a first anthology, Where Are You From? (Now-Again, 2010), the fruit of Lemaire’s excavating Alapatt’s archives. That was a post-geographic exploration in psych, rock and funk territories from 1968 to now; this second anthology celebrates their impressionist vision and explores garage rock from the 1970s, voicing the struggles of independence in Zambia, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

Can’t You Hear Me comes from a track by charismatic Zamrock icon Paul Ngozi, a Lemaire favorite. Ngozi’s title track sets the tone for a drastic selection of seventeen songs with rebellious undertones, riddled by an infectious groove, the forsaken writing about a forgotten chapter in the history of music. Ngozi, WITCH, Chrissy Zebby Tembo, Amanaz, Wells Fargo, Eye Q and the Funkees represent a generation fighting for their freedom, armed with fuzz guitars, symbolic objects of a new movement. They played in Fela’s kingly shadow, were influenced by Hendrix’s psychedelic solos, Jefferson Airplane’s penetrating chords and Cream’s repetitive melodies. The music of their colonial oppressors they reassembled and reinterpreted with pure energy, without nod to hymn or flag.

A halo of cosmic design and pure lines, the cover for the anthology by Sanghon Kim transports us in this whirling odyssey in space and time while composer/producer Pilooski concludes the album with an edit of WITCH’s “No Time,” an expression of the critical need to open up to new perspectives, new imaginations and to keep unearthing riches of our universal heritage.

“Through these tracks we can feel the communicative energy, this pure vitality, not only of Africa , but of youth and hope,” Lemaire states. “And I find it quite universal and timeless. It is not about music as an industry , or as product , but music as a craft . And one can immediately recognized when music is created with heart and soul.”

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Egon’s Pop Up Record Shop at Rappcats – March 12th

Egon pop up record shop at Rappcats
Saturday, March 12, 2016
Noon — 5PM
5636 York Blvd,
Los Angeles CA 90042

On March 12th, Egon’s hosting a record store at Rappcats, selling records from his collection, one-day only. This is the first pop up of 2016, and will be done every quarter, with unique records being made available at each event. For this event, he’s selling records from jazz legend Stanton Davis’s collection, which he and Madlib purchased in 2011 (see NPR’s “Excavating Stanton Davis Storage Unit Funk”) amidst rarities culled just for this event.

Also available will be the entire Now-Again catalog — for a one day discount of 25% less than our normal retail. If you can’t make it to Highland Park, all online Now-Again orders from the Rappcats store placed on 12/12 will receive a 25% discount as well.

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Worlds Experience Orchestra – The Beginning of a New Birth / As Time Flows On

Buy it here

This album was part of the Now-Again Reserve Edition subscription series.

The Beginning Of A New Birth

The Beginning Of A New Birth 24:53
The Prayer 14:40

As Time Flows On

Intro 0:34
Rain 9:25
Nine Degrees And Cold 8:21
Black Woman 5:51
To Do Nothing 19:44
The Mind

Original sessions produced by John Jamyll Jones and Seymour-Moore.
Produced for reissue by Eothen Alapatt.

Liner notes by John Adamian.

The Beginning of a New Birth recorded August 3rd, 1975 at the Oasis, Boston, Mass., by Sidney W. Burton Jr. As Time Flows On recorded February 2nd 1977 in Boston, Mass. By Sidney W. Burton Jr.

Restored and remastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters, Los Angeles, USA.
Lacquered by Chris Potter at Electric Mastering, London.

Original covers designed by John Jamyll Jones and Atelier 2000, The Beginning of a New Birth cover photographs by Larry Roland.

Art Direction by Errol Richardson.

Licensed courtesy John Jamyll Jones, with thanks to Michael McFaddin.
The Beginning of a New Birth originally issued as J-World-BSE1 and As Time Flows On originally issued as J-Worlds’-BSE-2.

2LP, 2CD, Digital. Originally issued as part of the Now-Again Reserve Subscription Service. Later split into individual LP issues. 2016. NA 5128.