Now-Again Records

The Heliocentrics

The Heliocentrics are a UK-based collective centered around drummer Malcolm Catto and bassist Jake Ferguson, both of whom produce and record the band’s singular music. Their debut album, Out There (2007) was a confounding piece of work. It drew from the funk universe of James Brown, the disorienting asymmetry of Sun Ra’s music, the cinematic scope of Ennio Morricone and the sublime fusion of David Axelrod. It pointed the way towards a brand new kind of psychedelia, the kind that could only come from many years of musical evolution, from never conforming long enough to any particular musical genre, from the melting pot of musique concrete, post punk, Krautrock and, of course, those other genres already mentioned.

The follow up to Out There, 13 Degrees of Reality (2013), found the Heliocentrics returning to develop their epic vision of psychedelic funk, while exploring the possibilities created by their Latin and African influences, among others. Their third Now-Again album The Last Transmission (2014) paired them with maverick filmmaker, musician, songwriter, vocalist and activist Melvin Van Peebles, in something resembling an intergalactic “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”

The bands collective drive is to find an individual voice, and they search for it in an alternate galaxy where the orbits of funk, jazz, psychedelic, electronic, avant-garde and “ethnic” music all revolve around “The One.” While Catto and Ferguson are the two only constants in the ensemble, Nigerian guitarist Ade Owusu is the irregular but important third. They are equal parts musicians and music fans and they have been playing together for over a decade: the Heliocentrics have realized that their strongest statements are made somewhere amongst the persistent fuzz of Owusu’s distorted guitar, Catto’s impossible syncopation and Ferguson’s loping bass lines.

They have earned lifetime fans in the likes of Madlib (with whom Catto has collaborated on numerous Yesterdays New Quintet projects), The Gaslamp Killer, DJ Shadow (both as a touring ensemble and in the studio), Quantic and Ethiopian jazz giant Mulatu Astatke, with whom the Heliocentrics recorded and released Inspiration Information 3, the fourth classic Mulatu album – released nearly forty years after his other three.

Amnesty

Fans of the exquisite, often never-before-released funk championed by Now Again Records are no stranger to Amnesty. Based in Indianapolis in the early 1970s, the group released only two obscure 45s in their recording career. Birthed from the same scene as the Ebony Rhythm Band (Soul Heart Transplant – NA 5011), Amnesty had a poltical edge similar to LA Carnival (Would Like To Pose A Question – NA 5009) and the hardest brass section since The Kashmere Stage Band (Texas Thunder Soul – NA 5023).

This previously unreleased anthology comes from the same sessions as “Free Your Mind”. In 1973 Amnesty recorded five hard, vocal funk numbers alongside some ballads and a handful of demos based around nothing more than guitar accompaniment. Only two songs were ever released; Amnesty’s biting, difficult-to-categorize prog/rock/soul/funk stretched far beyond Indianpolis’s bounds and the band didn’t have a label to take them to the next level.

Obviously influenced by, but by no means simply imitators of, the sound of early Parliament and Funkadelic, Amnesty also responds to the grooves of Earth Wind and Fire and Sly and The Family Stone in their own way. Finally made available thirty three years after they were recorded, these songs are funk arranged with dangerous complexity and performed with precision – arguably the most unique funk to originate from Naptown, and some of the best music of its kind.

Amnesty – Photos

The LAMP Reissue Series

Now-Again has issued many “one-off” projects associated with Herb Miller’s Indianapolis, Indiana based LAMP Records. As of this date, only one album – the Ebony Rhythm Band anthology – has seen issue. Now-Again’s LAMP Reissue Series includes entries by Amnesty, the Diplomatics, the Vanguards and the Fabulous Souls, pictured above.

Lil’ Lavair and the Fabulous Jades

Screaming out of the sleepy city of San Bernadino, 60 miles to the northwest of Los Angeles, Lil’ Lavair and The Fabulous Jades were a monstrous, late 60s ensemble that confounded researchers and record collectors from the late 70s, when the A side of their solitary seven inch single first hit the UK’s Northern Soul scene. Thus, when the Godfather of Deep Funk, Keb Darge, started spinning their rarely heard B side – “Cold Heat” – in the late 90s at London’s legendary nightspot Madame JoJo’s, he only fanned the flames of a collecting fury that had been burning for quite some time. It wasn’t until we discovered the band – still alive and well (and, for the most part, completely removed from music) in 2004 that their story was told.

It’s nearly understandable why the two copies of the record that have turned up since Keb’s playlist translated to every deep-funk junkies want list have been sold by astute dealers for over $2000 – each! A vicious guitar lead groove, balanced out by bubbling organ, intricately arranged horns, two chunky breakdowns and Lil’ Lavair’s all-too-cool vocal call-and-response appeal to even the funkily naïve’s groove sensibility.