France’s Radio Nova just broadcast Egon’s exclusive Soul Cal mix and if you don’t live in our second favorite country in the world, well, we’ve some good news: the mix is archived on Radio Nova’s podcast page. Included in the mix are a few unique companions to our definitive survey of America’s best, independent, 70s soul-ensembles, Soul Cal: in stores now.

Pictured above – Anubis, whose “Ecology” appears on Soul Cal and whose self titled jam kicks off this mix.

Tracklist:

1) Anubis – Anubis
2) Cross Bronx Expressway – Help Your Brother
3) Apple & Three Oranges – Love Brings Out The Best In You
4) Hamilton Movement – She’s Gone
5) Key & Cleary – What It Takes To Live (from Soul Cal)
6) Mixed Feelings – Sha La La (from Soul Cal)
7) Elephant Sunrise – Sugar Free
8) Courtial – Losing You
9) Pure Essence – Wake Up (from Soul Cal)

Download: Egon’s Soul Cal mix for Radio Nova.

Buy Introduction here.
Buy In The Past here.
Buy Lazy Bones!! here.
Buy Lukombo Vibes here.
Buy Including Janet (Hit Single) here.

This compilation produced by Eothen “Egon” Alapatt.
Original sessions produced by WITCH.

Liner notes and interview by Eothen Alapatt.
Additional coordination and transcription by Henoch Moore.

Restoration and remastering by Dave Cooley for Elysian Masters, Los Angeles, USA.
Master Tape Transfers by Platinum Studios, Randburg, South Africa.
Album Transfers by Dave Cooley; “Up The Sky” 7” by Adam Watson.
Art direction by Errol Richardson for Busy Monster, Toronto, Canada.

4CD Tracklist:

CD:

Disc One – Introduction and In The Past:
1. Introduction
2. Home Town
3. You Better Now
4. Feeling High
5. Like A Chicken
6. See Your Mama
7. That’s What I Want
8. Try Me
9. No Time
10. Living In the Past
11. Young Lady
12. Chance
13. It’s Alright
14. I’ve Been Away
15. I Like The Way I Am
16. The Only Way
17. Smiling Face
18. She Is Mine
19. Mashed Potato
Disc Two – Lazy Bones!! and Bonus Tracks:
1. Black Tears
2. Motherless Child
3. Tooth Factory
4. Strange Dream
5. Look Out
6. Havoc
7. October Night
8. Off My Boots
9. Lazy Bones
10. Little Clown
11. Talking Universe
12. Evil Woman
13. Sweet Sixteen
14. Toloka
15. 81st Crowd Confusion
16. Up The Sky
Disc Three – Lukombo Vibes and Bonus Tracks:
1. Thou Shalt Not Cry
2. Bleeding Thunder
3. Devil’s Flight
4. Blood Donor
5. Nasauka
6. Evening Of My Life
7. Kangalaitoito
8. See – Saw
9. Fool’s Ride
10. Chifundo
Disc Four – Including Janet (Hit Single):
1. Janet
2. As Days Go By
3. Ntedelakumbi
4. In Flight
5. Nazingwa
6. Silver Lady
7. Anyinamwana
8. Mama Feel Good
9. The Way I Feel

LP Tracklist:

As above, except that each song appears on the album on which it was originally issued and bonus tracks are all contained on a separate album.

6LP/4CD. NA 5091. 2012.

Download high res cover art here.

The definitive survey of America’s best, independent 70s soul-ensembles. 15 rare and unreleased tracks; 2LP or CD with 80-page book filled with rare photos and each band’s story. Out NOW.

A decade in the making, Soul Cal is the definitive survey of America’s best, independent, 70s soul-ensembles. Profiled within this album and book are the bands that transitioned from funk to disco; the bands that kept up the backbeat as rhythm moved to the backseat. Against the odds, they left recorded artifacts for we at Now-Again to dig out, dust off and restore. Collected here for the first time are the musical dreams of dozens, dreams that were deferred but were never discarded.

Soul Cal 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. Photos of each format are presented below; you can also download Luther Davis’ “You Can Be A Star” – the song whose reissue kick started the Soul Cal series ten years ago.

Buy: Soul Cal
Download: Luther Davis “You Can Be A Star.”

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We told you that it was a decade in the making: Soul Cal, the definitive survey of America’s best, independent, 70s soul-ensembles. Of course, even though the book has been published, the CDs burned, the records pressed, our investigation continues – and continues to unearth artifacts, like the above photo of Pure Essence that we received today. (Yes, that is a bare-chested LA Reid on the middle right).

The latest post in Egon’s NPR series Funk Archaeology investigates the hard-to-describe music that shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) jazzer Minoru Muraoka recorded in the psychedelic era of the late 60s and early 70s. And, offered as a free download below, the Cut Chemist edit of Muraoka’s masterpiece “The Positive & The Negative” which Egon refers to in his piece.

Link: The Shakuhachi Jazz of Minoru Muraoka – Egon’s Funk Archaeology at NPR
Download: Minoru Muraoka: “The Positive & The Negative (Cut Chemist Edit).”
More: Egon’s Funk Archaeology at NPR.