If you’re a regular here, you’re probably aware of Egon’s semi-regular column at NPR, Funk Archaeology.
Every once in a while, he composes an update that NPR – in their all-power – can’t get the rights to post. Thus, his recent pieces on French icon Serge Gainsbourg went unpublished. We hadn’t updated our Picks section in a while, so we figured we’d give it a go here.
So for the next week, it’s one piece on one Serge Gainsbourg song with one mp3 every day. Read Egon’s introduction here.
The Jazzman/Now-Again Funk series has offered surveys as broad as they are deep: Midwest Funk, Texas Funk, Florida Funk, Carolina Funk. Yet this might be the most important trawl of all: California Funk. Over a decade in the making, this – from compilers Malcolm Catto and Gerald “Jazzman” Short – is the Funk masterpiece. This anthology examines what happened to the independent ensembles who gigged during Sly and the Family Stone’s Bay-area renaissance. It delves into the stories sidemen who worked alongside LA’s Charles Wright and the Watt’s 103rd Street Rhythm Bands and offers answers to elusive questions. At the same time, it offers thunderous drums, fuzzy wah-wah, fat basslines, blistering horns and exhortations akin to James Brown and his many disciples over its 21 track selection.
This official reissue was licensed by the lost bandleaders, bass players, drummers, label owners and studio-vets – independents, all, lost to history no more. This CD is packaged as a “mini-LP” in a thick, “paste-on” gatefold cardboard sleeve Now-Again’s issue of California Funk also comes with a 24 page full color booklet with full liner notes, annotation, and never-before-seen photos of these most impressive organizations.
Download a representative track L.A.’s own Apple and Three Oranges’ “Curse Upon The World” here.
Official Now-Again French Photographer Mr. Mass hung out with Dimlite, Benji B, Dam Funk and a bunch of other folks in Paris and snapped some shots.
Check ’em here.
Dimlite Prismic Tops EP is available for sale at Rappcats now.
Along with Dam Funk, Benji B, Floating Points and a bunch of cool Parisians. Photos by Mr. Mass.
We’re working on a compilation with Christophe Lemaire, and Mssr. Lemaire is quite the fan of the music of Dr. Lloyd Miller – the man behind the stunning “Gol E Gandom” on our Spiritual Jazz anthology. He wanted to include a track of Miller’s on our comp, but, you know, we always ask permission. Miller denied the use, but his explanation was so thorough – and damning! – that we almost felt like we should burn all of our psych albums and listen to nothing but Miles’ Kind Of Blue.
Link: For Those About To Rock, We Condemn You at Stones Throw.