A while back, we told you that Egon was photographed amidst his record collection for photographer Eilon Paz’s Dust and Grooves project. Well, now Paz has published an extensive interview and a streamable mix highlighting selections from Egon’s collections. Check it out at the Dust and Grooves site now.

Have you ever seen the Heliocentrics live? Well, we won’t lie: we’ve only ever seen them as a trio, in Paris, of all places – as substitutes for Madlib, of all people – but damn was the power of that show enough to reverberate in our craniums until this day. So, with that said: if you happen to be within a reasonably priced plane or train ticket to London, you owe it to yourself to see them at Soundcrash this July 9th.

Buy Tickets: Heliocentrics at Soundcrash, July 9th.
Buy The Album: Heliocentrics 13 Degrees of Reality on Itunes.

Edward “Apple” Nelson is best known for the small clutch of 45s he released under the Apple and The Three Oranges name on local Los Angeles labels in the 1970s.
His run with his own Sagittarius contains six unimpeachable soul and funk numbers released under the Apple and The Three Oranges banner and one issued under his own name, Ed. (sic) Nelson. We at Now-Again are privileged to present Nelson’s complete works in our Free and Easy anthology. His is some of the most unique American funk and soul music we’ve ever come across.

Download: Apple and Three Oranges – Free and Easy.

Manhattan-born and Los Angeles-based, Cook Classics presents a series of songs that combine live instrumentation, modern and vintage synths, programmed beats and live drums. Rich and layered, many of these tracks have a hip-hop backbone – built from samples within the Now-Again catalog – upon which Cook adds pop-music elements. It’s no wonder that Cook’s music has been synched in ads by Pepsi and has been heard in major movies, television and awards shows.

Download: Cook Classics – Cook Classics Vs. Now-Again.

The Heliocentrics have been playing together for over a decade and their collective drive is to find an individual voice. Back at Now-Again after creating amazing albums with the likes of Mulatu Astatke and Madlib with their new 13 Degrees of Reality, the Heliocentrics have returned to develop this epic visi withn of psychedelic funk, while exploring the possibilities created by their myriad influences – Latin, African, and more. Thus, the electro-Latin fusion of “Descarga Electronica” sits next to weeping strings piled atop “Collateral Damage’s” chunky rhythms, which nearly misses the undulating swing of “Wrecking Ball,” a dirge as irresistibly funky as it is devastating. 13 Degrees of Reality is one of the most distinctive musical statements you’ll hear all year.

Download: Heliocentrics – 13 Degrees of Reality.

Free stream/download: Gaslamp Killer Vs. Heliocentrics!

You might have already caught the stream at Rolling Stone or the download at our future web-retailer Rappcats… you might have even read Gaslamp Killer’s words about why this mix is so important to him, personally, on his Tumblr…. but, if you didn’t, you can now feast your ears on what happens when a psychedelic DJ like GLK gets a second stab at the catalog of the Heliocentrics. Of course it’s mayhem, but you already knew that. And it’s a damn good listen all of the way through.

We’ve been talking about making a limited amount of these available on vinyl and we’re pretty damn sure we’re going to do so. More info to come soon.

Download: Helios X GLK via Rappcats
Buy: Heliocentrics 13 Degrees of Reality on Itunes.

Heliocentrics 13 Degrees of Reality album available NOW via Now-Again Deluxe; CD/LP; Itunes. Free MP3 – “Wrecking Ball” – available for download below. Gaslamp Killer Vs. Heliocentrics mix coming soon!

We mentioned it, well, very recently in this forum: over three years in the making, the UK collective Heliocentrics’ sophomore album for Now-Again, 13 Degrees of Reality, is out NOW.

As promised, we’re giving away one freebie from the album – the stalking, smashing, psych-funk dronefest that is “Wrecking Ball.” If you like what you hear – and we’re sure that fans of Jake Ferguson and Malcolm Catto’s dense production will – then you’ll love the album. And if you can’t make up your mind to buy it just yet – well, after you hear Gaslamp Killer’s mix, which will premiere on rollingstone.com and rappcats.com very soon, we think you will.

Download: Heliocentrics “Wrecking Ball”
Subscribe Now: https://drip.fm/nowagain
Buy: Heliocentrics 13 Degrees of Reality on Itunes.

Now-Again and Urban Outfitters present: Zamrock Live! in Los Angeles; WITCH’s Emmanuel “Jagari” Chanda is coming from Zambia to Los Angeles to perform his band’s world-psych-rock classics in America for the first time!

We here at Now-Again have championed the 70s rock scene that originated in Zambia – Zamrock – for years now, releasing anthologies of the giants of the scene: WITCH, Rikki Ililonga, Musi-O-Tunya, Paul Ngozi and Chrissy Zebby Tembo. As we ramp up our undertakings to document the lost gems from this isolated yet genius movement in 2013 – we’ve already mentioned the Paul Ngozi and the Ngozi Family and Musi-O-Tunya Give Love To Your Children albums – we are proud to partner up with Urban Outfitters to bring WITCH’s lead singer and bandleader Emmanuel “Jagari” Chanda – the only member of the ensemble still living – to Los Angeles to perform the band’s world-psych-rock music. While Zamrock Live! has been making the festival circuit in Europe, this is the first time it will be performed in America: at Bazaaaaar, May 3rd, Hollywood, at Space 15 Twenty.

Space is limited so RSVP quick and show up early. They’ll hit the stage at 8.

You’re probably a regular visitor to this site, so you probably already have our Dark Sunrise and We Intend To Cause Havoc! vinyl box sets. But, if you don’t, we have some bad news – we sold out. And we’re not making any more. That means, if you can’t find one at you local record store, or on your favorite online repository, you’re going to be stuck trawling eBay so you can get all of your Musi-O-Tunya, Rikki Ililonga, and WITCH fuzz-funk with detailed booklets packaged in handsome boxes and slipcases.

But fret not – we’ve made the most popular of the single LPs available in just that – single LP formats. No booklets, no download cards – just the straight archival issues of these Zamrock gems. These too are rather limited in supply. So if you want this Zambian music (re)packaged in its original format, you should get it now – after these sell out, it’s CD and digital only.

Following the release of Maker Vs. Now-Again 2, Now-Again presents its first library offering from the producer Cook Classics. Worldwide release date: May 7. Download a free MP3 now!

Manhattan-born and Los Angeles-based, Cook Classics presents a series of songs that combine live instrumentation, modern and vintage synths, programmed beats and live drums. Rich and layered, many of these tracks have a hip-hop backbone – built from samples within the Now-Again catalog – upon which Cook adds pop-music elements. It’s no wonder that Cook’s music has been synched in ads by Pepsi and has been heard in major movies, television and awards shows. And it’s due to Cook’s digging in the Now-Again crates that the likes of Outasight find themselves with backing tracks that feature folks like Mr. Chop and Anubis.

This album is only available digitally on Now-Again Deluxe, and it’s up now. A limited edition is CD is packaged in a “mini-LP” thick cardboard “tip-on” sleeve and is available in limited quantities starting May 7th. Download his flip of a song from our very own Natural Yogurt Band, below.

Download: “Home Is Where The Heart Is”
Subscribe Now: https://drip.fm/nowagain

Exclusive vinyl-only EP by the world-psych-funk ensemble; original artwork by Kevin Lyons, screenprinted by Anti Designs. Download a free MP3 now!

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 release 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.

We’ve yet to set a street date for this EP, but our Now-Again Deluxe subscribers are be able to download this release now.

Download: “Ngunga Yeti Fofa”
Subscribe Now: https://drip.fm/nowagain

Linked below: Egon’s newest Funk Archaeology post at Red Bull Music Academy’s website, this time focusing on new considerations in modal jazz, which fans of this label’s Spiritual Jazz anthology will certainly find intriguing.

The exclusive download this time around: a second selection from Zambia’s Broadway Quintet, a most unique band from Lusaka who issued one of the only jazz albums in the country’s glorious 70s epoch.

The New Series: Reconsidering Modal Jazz – Egon’s Funk Archaeology at Red Bull Music Academy.
The Old Series: Egon’s Funk Archaeology at NPR.
Download: Broadway Quintet “Nifo Fine.”

Last month we announced the inaugural book that our sister company Sinecure Books is launching upon the world on May 21st and we told you all about the companion anthology 2CD/LP that we’re distributing here at Now-Again. Well, for those who think that May is a long way away, we have some good news: Enjoy The Experience will be available as an official Record Store Day release – and thus almost certainly available at your favorite local record store, worldwide – and a deluxe edition is available now as a pre-order at the Sinecure Books website.

The deluxe edition of Enjoy The Experience comes in a handsome slipcase that showcases various private-pressed American albums laid out in the shape and colors of the American flag and contains a full color poster and a facsimile Century Records “How To Press Your Own” record 7″. Pictures of the book and the deluxe package are below. The pre-order ends when either 1) all deluxe versions are sold out or 2) on 04.20 and orders will ship shortly thereafter.

Preorder now: Sinecure Books’ Enjoy The Experience

If you purchased our Stark Reality box set or Apple and The Three Oranges LP, you undoubtably noticed a big change in our vinyl packages. Well, you actually didn’t even need to purchase them, you just needed to look at their stickers: we’re now including download cards with every Now-Again EP and LP. Yes, this is due to “popular demand” and is another example of us taking what you suggest seriously.

Late last year we mentioned that WITCH’s Emmanuel “Jagari” Chanda and Musi-O-Tunya founder Rikki Ililonga were readying to journey from Lusaka to Rennes to perform Zamrock live with Karl HEctor & The Malcouns at France’s Transmusicales Festival. Well the show went off – and it went off well. So well, in fact, that Jagari and Rikki are again traveling to France to perform at Espace Fraternite – Magic Mirror (Aubervilliers) – again with Karl Hector and crew.

So we’re showing you some rehearsal photos, shot by Denis Pernath at the Hector rehearsal space in Munich, and offering two downloads from the Transmusicales Festival below.

Download: Rikki Ililonga with Karl Hector & The Malcouns: Dark Sunrise (Live at Transmusicales 2013)
Download: Rikki Ililonga with Karl Hector & The Malcouns: Munzi Wa Kangwanda (Live at Transmusicales 2013)