Now-Again Records

Out Now – Soul Cal: Disco and Modern Soul Masterpieces, 1971-1982.

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.”

Announcing: Darling Dears and Funky Heavy’s Sweet Funk Masterworks On 7″ (and a free mp3….)

Now-Again is happy to announce the inaugural release on Orivious Records: the official, from-the-master-tapes issue of the most sought after sweet-funk single ever recorded! Out now.

Now-Again launches New York funk/soul researcher and archivist David Griffith’s Orivious Records with a masterpiece: the sole document of a lost and unlikely teenage “sweet-funk” collaboration between Rochester, NY vocalists The Darling Dears and backing band Funky Heavy. Originally issued in 1972, the record never made it beyond city’s west side. Today, this rare and exquisite blend of fragile female harmony atop an unexpected bed of raw, plodding funk commands four figures at auction when it appears in its original form.

Tracking the band and finding their assumed-lost master tapes took Griffiths the better part of seven years. In recognition of this Herculean task, we’ve spared no cost in assembly: the masters were officially licensed from the band; lacquers were cut directly from the original master tape by vet John Hull at his historic Musicol in Columbus, Ohio; test press after test press were rejected until near-perfect sound quality was achieved.

A limited variation – 100 numbered, hand made silk-screened picture sleeves – will be made available for a while supplies last; more details to come soon. Both of the Darling Dears and Funky Heavy’s songs will appear on the forthcoming anthology Loving On The Flip Side, which is scheduled for release in mid 2012.

Buy: Darling Dears And Funky Heavy “And I Love You/I Don’t Think I’ll Ever Love Another.”
Download: Darling Dears And Funky Heavy “And I Love You.”

Announcing: New World Generation’s Disco-Soul-Boogie Anthology (… download a free MP3 now).

Rare and unreleased late 70s and early 80s disco, soul and boogie recorded by the cult New England ensemble.

We’re happy to present New World Generation’s self-titled anthology, a collection of rare and unreleased soul, disco and boogie by the cult New England ensemble. Presented as a 2CD and as a 2LP; both formats contain extensive liner notes with rare photographs and ephemera. Note: songs from CD disc two are not contained on the 2LP version of this album.

We first got a taste of the New World Generation when Phil Morrison, bassist for avant-garde, Boston-based jazzers Stark Reality, sent us a copy of New World Generation’s solitary recorded document: a five song EP that the band privately released in 1982. We heard echoes of the Roy Ayers produced RAMP sessions and the precise yet sensual vibes of the foundation known as Earth, Wind and Fire. We were intrigued, so we put in a call to New World Generation’s bandleader, Lekan Parsons and found that he had recorded more music in the years leading up to the New World Generation EP. But he’d recorded with different ensembles; finding the first threads of his musical tapestry would take time.

He promised to dig out his masters and send them to us for our consideration. It took years for him to collate the various components of the first phase of his recording career – which stretched from New York to Boston over the course of a decade – but when he did send the music, we were thrilled. The songs he’d recorded with the Universal Rhythms and Orison ensembles were harbingers of the sophisticated soul he’d proffer with New World Generation. They were winsome, hopeful songs – and their existence offered us the chance to present this album.

New World Generation references the faith that carried Parsons through the difficult and demoralizing times accomplished musicians like he and his friends experienced in a post-disco world. Download an example of New World Generation’s music below – “One Of A Kind,” from their 1982 EP.

Download: New World Generation “One Of A Kind.”

East Of Underground – “Hell Below” Box Set.

A few months back we announced that that we’d be releasing an anthology that centered around a mythical album by the US Army band East of Underground. Well, we’re now proud to announce Hell Below: faithful reissues of the three albums released by the winners of the US Army’s First and Second Annual Original Magnificent Special Services Entertainment Showband Contests. Packaged as LP and CD box sets, Hell Below presents nearly two hours of heavy funk and soul music played by United States Army soldiers enlisted during the politically turbulent early 1970s.

East of Underground, SOAP The Black Seeds and The Sound Trek were bands comprised of soldiers stationed in bases across Western Germany during the height of the Vietnam War. While little is known about the bands, the players, and the milieu they came from – other than what can be pieced together from a handful of photos and documents found in a box in the New York Public Library, and the vague recollections of some of those involved – we at Now-Again Records have worked diligently with the United States Army and researchers the country over to present this important document, and some damn good music to boot.

Each of the two double-billed albums contained in this box set is presented as an exact reproduction of the original United States Army issue. The extensive, full-color booklet features essays, annotation and a collection of Army ephemera from the creation of these albums. Also included is a full-color, exact reproduction of East Of Underground’s 1971 tour poster.

Buy: East of Underground: Hell Below.
Download: East Of Underground “Hell Below.”

California Funk

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.