“Power To The People!” – A Survey of Zimbabwe’s Revolutionary 70s Rock Scene

Exclusive digital compilation offering a peak into Zimbabwe’s hitherto unknown rock scene, just in time for our issue of Well’s Fargo Watch Out! album with Vinyl Me Please

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More Wells Fargo info at Vinyl Me Please.

Following our announcement the first ever issue of Zimbabwean heavy rock band Wells Fargo’s Watch Out! album as Vinyl Me Please’s June 2016 album of the month, we’re presenting an exclusive digital compilation surveying Zimbabwe’s 70s revolutionary rock scene. Power to the People! draws on output from some of the archetypal bands from the scene, including Wells Fargo, Eye Q and Gypsy Caravan. The music ranges from hard rock to James Brown inspired funk and electrified Zimbabwean folkloric music. This is a digital only release; a preamble to an overarching anthology that we’re currently preparing.


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Announcing: Wells Fargo’s Heavy Zimbabwean Rock Via Vinyl Me Please

Wells Fargo’s heavy rock music exploded in Zimbabwe in the 1970s, during the last decade of the country’s War of Independence. This is the first time Wells Fargo’s revolutionary music has been released outside of Zimbabwe – Watch Out!, for the first time in album form, is available via Vinyl Me Please’s subscription service in June.

MORE INFO AT VINYL ME PLEASE.

We’ve hinted at the work that we’re doing in Zimbabwe, researching, archiving and reissuing the best of the country’s 70s rock and funk scene. It’s difficult to describe in a few words how complicated this process has been to date – and our associate Matthew Shechmeister has done the music gods’ work in the country, tirelessly attempting to document a scene before its scattered remnants are discarded or, quite literally, burned.

Egon talked about the scene in a three part interview with BBC DJ Gilles Peterson, and Now-Again has issued Zimbabwean rock songs as part of our 7″ Sure Shots series and the Christophe Lemaire anthology Can’t You Hear Me?

Now, in conjunction with Vinyl Me Please’s LP subscription service, we are issuing the first album from this scene, from one of Zimbabwe’s great rock bands: Wells Fargo. It comes out in June. In extensive liner notes packaged with the Vinyl Me Please issue, Matthew Shechmeister tells the story of just how black Zimbabweans were able to pen, record and release revolutionary music under dire circumstances, oppressed by a systematically racist Rhodesian government.

This project is exclusive to Vinyl Me Please for six months. The Vinyl Me Please issue includes:

– 180 gram, yellow + green tie dye vinyl
– Gatefold jacket
– 20-pg liner notes books
– 12” x 12” original art print by Sanghon Kim
– Original cocktail recipe courtesy of Zach Wilks.

Now-Again will issue a version of the album with an expanded book in January 2017. It will be pressed on 145 gram vinyl, and will not come with the art print or cocktail recipe. The LP will come in single, 2 panel jacket and will be packaged as a “Now-Again Book,” with a custom 12″ x 12″ book holder containing a softcover book. The CD version will come as a hard-cover book. MORE

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Listen – Egon’s May Residency on NTS Radio

Egon is done with hisone month residency on NTS Radio – four two hour shows of music from around the globe. The fourth show went live today. Listen to the full show on the NTS Radio website and stream the first half of each show via our Soundcloud, below.

Show Four Tracklist:

12:49 J&H Productions Intro
11:19 German Oak Untitled
3:50 Michel Colombier Canon
4:38 Gilberto Gil 2001 MORE

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Photos: Prepping For Tropicalia In Furs Rappcats Takeover with Egon, Madlib, Mao

While Egon and Madlib were in New York this past week for Madlib’s talk at the Red Bull Music Academy, they headed over to meet Joel Stones and peruse some of the records he’d staged at Revival Vintage Boutique in Hoboken, NJ. Caio Ferreira was there to document the proceedings. Even veteran collector Chairman Mao was overwhelmed. And though Madlib bought two crates, there was plenty left over to ship before Joel headed back to Brasil to buy more.

Joel Stones is bringing record store Tropicalia in Furs, from NYC to Los Angeles for a 2-day popup shop at Rappcats

Sat & Sun, May 21-22
Noon-6PM
5636 York Blvd,
Los Angeles CA 90042

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Mark III – Marvin Whoremonger

Buy it here

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

Street Scene 5:22
Pusher Man 4:01
Sex In Motion 7.10
Funky Heaven 3.19
Going To The Top 2.56
The Party Is Over 3.32
Sex In Motion (Instrumental) 7:10
Funky Heaven (Instrumental) 3.19

Original sessions produced by Cholly Williams
Produced for reissue, with liner notes, by Eothen Alapatt.

Recorded at E.C.P and Sunset Sound Studios, Hollywood, California in 1976 by Roger Dollarhide.
Restored and remastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters, Los Angeles, USA. Audio transfer courtesy Chris Neuenkirk.
Lacquered by Chris Potter at Electric Mastering, London.

Original art direction overseen by Cholly Williams.
Art Direction by Errol Richardson.

Licensed courtesy Richard Thompson and Clifford Johnson, with thanks to Nate Bosshard, Brandon Newberg and Matt Newberg.

LP, CD, Digital. Originally issued as part of the Now-Again Reserve Subscription Service. 2016. NA 5129.