You’ve been hearing the sounds of Chop (used to be Mister – as you’re probably already aware) for some time – from his first EP on Now-Again, the retro-futuristic Lightworlds, to his work on DOOM’s Born Like This, to his reworkings of Pete Rock’s hip hop classics on For Pete’s Sake to Switched On, his Moog synthesizer interpretations of classic 70s funk and rock breakbeats. But our recently issued Illuminate album, his real “debut,” sounds nothing like those albums – and we don’t really have words to describe it. It’s a singular vision, at once pastoral and electrified, of this current zeitgeist, and out of time, both rootsy and intellectual.

Your man Chop’s studio is a temple to gear the likes of which is fetishized on message board posts by those who mastered your favorite musician’s album, and it’s located on a dirt road, abutting an estuary in Northern England. That this type of music comes from this setting is confusing, but it’s also, well, cool. Chop just loves him some crazy gear and some weird processes to make music: those processes lead to the types of tunes you hear in this mix, which he assembled for Jerusalem’s Raash Hour – which draws from Illuminate, and previously unreleased Chop music. Featuring the usual lot of Chop collaborators, including The Heliocentrics Malcolm Catto.

Buy: Chop Illuminate on Rappcats
Download: Chop “Building Blocks”
More: Raash Hour.

We know you’ve been waiting patiently for our Paul Ngozi and The Ngozi Family anthology – it’s certainly been one of the most complicated and intensive investigations we’ve done of one group’s music, and it looks like we’ll have it out in early to mid 2014. So, as a primer, we’re presenting you with a selection of songs from one of our favorite albums from Ngozi’s classic period – 45,000 Volts – available in two weeks via Now-Again Deluxe at Drip.fm. In this four track sampler, you’ll get a feel for where Ngozi headed with his third album: the template for his sound had changed, as he’d found a polished-yet-rugged middleground; he’d encompassed punk, funk and hard rock into his sound; he’d started hinting at the direction his later 70s albums would head, with tracks that can only be described as Zamrock-meets-Kalindula hybrids.

Subscribe Now: Now-Again Deluxe at Drip.fm.

Buy it here.

Original sessions and album produced by David Del Conte
This issue produced, annotated, researched and with liner notes by: Eothen “Egon” Alapatt
Interview transcribed by Nargis Sheerazie and Henoch Moore.
Restoration and remastering by Dave Cooley for Elysian Masters.
Art direction by Errol Richardson

Tracklist:

CD Disc 1:

1. Song of a Gypsy
2. Poor Poor Genie
3. Don’t You Feel Me
4. Did You Ever
5. Funky Funky Blues
6. Do You
7. The Night
8. Feel Your Love
9. Birds Fly So High
10. The Road of Life
11. Oh What A Good Boy Am I
12. Song of a Gypsy (45 version)
13. Song of a Gypsy (Demo version)
14. Poor Poor Genie (Demo version)

CD Disc 2:

1. The Lonely Surfer
2. Don’t Cry
3. Bowlin’ Alley Jane
4. Don’t Cry Davy
5. A Face in the Crowd
6. I Lie
7. Cry
8. I’ve Got My Pride
9. Lovin’ Man
10. They Call Me a Fool
11. The Battle Hymn (of the Republic)
12. Everything is Alright
13. The Little White Cloud That Cried
14. I Wonder Why
15. Seems Like I Traveled
16. Dirty Daddy Blues

LP Side A:

1. Song of a Gypsy:
2. Poor Poor Genie
3. Don’t You Feel Me
4. Did you Ever
5. Funky Funky Blues
11. Oh What A Good Boy Am I

LP Side B:

6., Do You
7. The Night
8. Feel Your Love
9. Birds Fly So High
10. The Road of Life

LP Side C: (Bonus Disc):

12. Song of a Gypsy (45 version)
13. Song of a Gypsy (Demo version)
14. Poor Poor Genie (Demo version)

LP Side D: (Bonus Disc):

15. The Lonely Surfer
16. I Lie
17. Lovin Man’
18. I Wonder Why
19. Seems Like I Traveled
20. Dirty Daddy Blues

LP,CD and Digital. 2013. NA5107 (Delxue LP version NA4107).