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2LP
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NA 5156LP
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"Revolutionary, spiritual jazz from the unlikely city of Houston, Texas, reissued for the first time. Drummer, bandleader and activist Bubbha Thomas had toured America with R&B revues, served as a session musician for Peacock and Back Beat Records, and played straight ahead jazz with legends before the political and social upheaval of the late 1960s led him to a path first charted by Coltrane. Fancy Pants is his second LP with his Lightmen band and, like the deep-set, maverick jazz issued by the likes of Tribe and Strata East, is amongst the best of the 1970s jazz underground, a collective voice of resistance to the musical and cultural status quo. Presented in both stereo and mono mixes. Extensive booklet, download card for WAV files and footage of live performances included."
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3CD
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NA 5163CD
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"The latest release in Now-Again's Reserve Series is Hunger -- Strictly From Hunger: the band's preferred version of the album, unedited, fuzz-guitar heavy late 60s psych-rock, restored and remastered from a rare test press. Hunger arrived in L.A. from Portland in late 1967 as the Outcasts, a teenage cover band, but within six months they had signed with a connected manager, played all over Los Angeles, embraced psychedelia and signed on to record an album of original music for the label their manager founded for them: Public! Records. They showed tremendous promise -- and their producers invested heavily into a band that was going to be the next marquee act at the Whiskey A Go-Go, bringing in members of Strawberry Alarm Clock, including future Lynyrd Skynyrd star Ed King, to produce an album. But Hunger broke up before their album's release and their entry in rock's canon was shadowed for years. This is the definitive Reserve Edition reissue of a late '60s psych-rock classic, overseen by Hunger's band members John Morton, Steve Hansen and Mike Lane: the band's preferred, unedited, fuzz-guitar heavy version of the album, restored and remastered from a rare test press. This is the first time that band's vision for the album has been issued in full on vinyl. Contains an extensive booklet by Jim Cherry, Eothen Alapatt and Clark Faville that corrects many factual inaccuracies told over the record's celebrated past three decades as one of rock's holy grails. The booklet is filled with never-published photos from lead guitarist John Morton's archive. Here's an example of what's in store ? the full version of 'Open Your Eyes' featuring Ed King's lead guitar lines -- all but absent on the Public! Records issue -- and nearly double the length of the issued version!" The CD is presented as a triple disc issue -- packed with bonus material and a 31-page booklet filled with rare photos and liner notes by Clark Faville, Eothen Alapatt, and Jim Cherry.
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LP
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NA 5163LP
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LP version. Download card for WAV files and bonus tracks -- including the full
Public! Records version of the album and 7" single tracks -- included. "The latest release in Now-Again's Reserve Series is Hunger -- Strictly From Hunger: the band's preferred version of the album, unedited, fuzz-guitar heavy late 60s psych-rock, restored and remastered from a rare test press. Hunger arrived in L.A. from Portland in late 1967 as the Outcasts, a teenage cover band, but within six months they had signed with a connected manager, played all over Los Angeles, embraced psychedelia and signed on to record an album of original music for the label their manager founded for them: Public! Records. They showed tremendous promise -- and their producers invested heavily into a band that was going to be the next marquee act at the Whiskey A Go-Go, bringing in members of Strawberry Alarm Clock, including future Lynyrd Skynyrd star Ed King, to produce an album. But Hunger broke up before their album's release and their entry in rock's canon was shadowed for years. This is the definitive Reserve Edition reissue of a late '60s psych-rock classic, overseen by Hunger's band members John Morton, Steve Hansen and Mike Lane: the band's preferred, unedited, fuzz-guitar heavy version of the album, restored and remastered from a rare test press. This is the first time that band's vision for the album has been issued in full on vinyl. Contains an extensive booklet by Jim Cherry, Eothen Alapatt and Clark Faville that corrects many factual inaccuracies told over the record's celebrated past three decades as one of rock's holy grails. The booklet is filled with never-published photos from lead guitarist John Morton's archive. Here's an example of what's in store ? the full version of 'Open Your Eyes' featuring Ed King's lead guitar lines -- all but absent on the Public! Records issue -- and nearly double the length of the issued version!"
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LP
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NA 5153LP
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Originally released for Black Friday RSD 2017. "Texas funk music is amongst the highest regarded styles in the genre, a unique mixture of jazz, blues, R&B and James Brown's syncopation that evolved in metropolises like Houston (Kashmere Stage Band), San Antonio (Mickey and the Soul Generation), Austin (James Polk and the Brothers) and Dallas. Dallas birthed a variety of independent labels, Soultex and Doin Our Thing amongst them. But no one in Dallas, Texas or America, created a run of 7" singles like Timothy McNealy did on his Shawn imprint. When it comes to heavy, funk music, in Dallas -- in Texas -- Timothy McNealy is king. This means that when it comes to funk music, in general, McNealy is hallowed. Yet McNealy's music has never been collected as an album, nor reappraised in its totality. A series of 7" single reissues have come out in the past 15 years, including his masterpiece 'Sagittarius Black,' a psychedelic funk instrumental that has been a cornerstone in every fan's rediscovery of the genre for the past 20 years. But this is the first time that his music is presented in its totality, giving the enlightened fan an opportunity to hear the breadth and depth of his Funky Movement."
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2LP
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NA 5150LP
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"Drummer, bandleader and activist Bubbha Thomas had toured America with R&B revues, served as a session musician for Peacock and Back Beat Records, and played straight ahead jazz with legends before the political and social upheaval of the late 1960s led him to a path first charted by Coltrane. Free As You Wanna Be predates the deep-set, maverick jazz issued by the likes of Tribe and Strata East and is a harbinger of best of the 1970s jazz underground, a collective voice of resistance to the musical and cultural status quo. This is the first time that Free As You Wanna Be has seen reissue, and it is presented in both the issued stereo and previously unissued mono mixes as a double LP. Bubbha and his band's story is told in great detail by Houston music and cultural historian Lance Scott Walker (Houston Rap/Houston Rap Tapes) and Now-Again's Eothen Alapatt, in a booklet that contains dozens of unpublished photographs."
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LP
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NA 5160LP
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"Paternoster, that UFO of a rock album released unceremoniously on a custom-pressed CBS Austria long player in 1972, is the stuff of legend. It's been known to the rock collecting elite since the 1980s, when it was first rediscovered, and it quickly became one of those rock records, the records you hear about only if you know someone who knows someone with a copy, much like Damon's Song of a Gypsy. Paternoster is a terrifying album, a collection of songs that traverses the sublime, and thus necessitates a bowel-loosening acceptance of beauty too complicated to merely admire, bowing under the weight of a tremendous atmosphere, accentuated by Gothic organs and scorching fuzz guitar, punctuated by wailing vocals detailing visceral, Bosch-like images, and carried by enveloping bass and syncopated, mixed-well-too-loud-and-thankfully-so drums. Includes download card for WAV files of the entire album and a digital version of the booklet with the story of this mysterious album, told for the first time, in English and German."
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2LP
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NA 5155LP
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Repressed; double LP version. "Potent mixes of spirituality, expressionist fire and electrified newness, these LPs are presented as the 7th entry in the Now-Again Reserve Edition, mastered from the original tapes. Contains download card for .Wav files of the full release -- including bonus tracks by Phill Musra Group and World's Experience Orchestra -- and a booklet with extensive liner notes by jazz historian Clifford Allen, photos, show flyers and many other unpublished gems. In an homage to the original issues, both front and back cover feature hand-printed, pasted-on slicks."
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3CD
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NA 5155CD
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"The latest release in Now-Again's Reserve series is Michael Cosmic's Peace In The World and Phill Musra Group's Creator Spaces, packaged as a triple CD featuring unreleased music by The Phill Musra Group and World's Experience Orchestra. Also includes extensive liner notes featuring rare photos and much more. Free improvisation, first touched on by messengers like John Coltrane, Sun Ra and Albert Ayler, gives us an exuberant maelstrom that rejoices in life while it shoves back at complex, unforgiving social-political environments. The '70s Boston underground brought twin brothers Phill Musra and Michael Cosmic together with Turkish-born drummer Hüseyin Ertunç; as a trio, and with other Boston jazzers (John Jamyll Jones of Worlds Experience Orchestra, the 2nd Now-Again Reserve Edition entry), the twins each privately issued an album. Potent mixes of spirituality, expressionist fire and electrified newness."
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LP
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NA 5162LP
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"World's Experience Orchestra's As Time Flows On has not been available as a stand-alone vinyl release since first being issued as a private pressing out of Boston in 1980. And those pressings where in small runs -- set in motion by a visionary, bassist/composer/arranger John Jamyll Jones. Jones is a magical type, who communicates with his instrument, his ensembles, and jazz's ancient lineage in a manner so profound that his late-'70s album are out of time with jazz's trajectory, but timeless when presented today. By the late '90s the music of World's Experience Orchestra was circulating throughout the collections of esoteric jazz fans, the likes of Gerald 'Jazzman' Short and Gilles Peterson, who played WEO for those, the Coltrane-enthralled searching for something new, something different. Something spiritual and honest. As interest in spiritual jazz and WEO grew, Now-Again set about an ambitious plan to reissue Jones' landmark works. 'I knew it was going to happen, but I didn't know when,' says Jones of the road to seeing his music re-issued. 'It's 35 years or more now, and I've been waiting for this, and I'm quite sure I'm not the only one.'"
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2LP
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NA 5151LP
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Double LP version. "The 6th entry in the Now-Again Reserve Edition series is the definitive reissue of a lauded and misunderstood Krautrock album as well as the first band-sanctioned reissue in the series. The most mysterious Krautrock album, German Oak's Down In The Bunker has been fetishized and demonized, lauded and misunderstood for nearly four decades. In this definitive Reserve Edition of the album, the German Oak trio -- together again after 30 years apart -- have approved the remastering of their 70s music; finally tell the story behind the creation of their dark, brooding album -- and the occult-obsessed record collector behind the original album's release and its myth -- and they share previously unreleased music and photos."
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3CD
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NA 5151CD
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"The 6th entry in the Now-Again Reserve Edition series is the definitive reissue of a lauded and misunderstood Krautrock album as well as the first band-sanctioned reissue in the series. The most mysterious Krautrock album, German Oak's Down In The Bunker has been fetishized and demonized, lauded and misunderstood for nearly four decades. In this definitive Reserve Edition of the album, the German Oak trio -- together again after 30 years apart -- have approved the remastering of their 70s music; finally tell the story behind the creation of their dark, brooding album -- and the occult-obsessed record collector behind the original album's release and its myth -- and they share previously unreleased music and photos. This three CD set presents the album as it was initially released, the previously unreleased full versions of the two main songs on the original album, and other songs by the band, both rare and previously unreleased."
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CD
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NA 5154CD
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"Electronic Krautrock in line with Cluster, Harmonia, Neu!, Popul Vuh from Jay Whitefield (Poets of Rhythm/Whitefield Brothers/Karl Hector & The Malcouns). Now-Again Records has enjoyed a long and creative partnership with Munich-based multi-instrumentalist JJ Whitefield, creative force behind the Poets of Rhythm, Whitefield Brothers and Karl Hector & The Malcouns. Rodinia, his latest project, is quite different than anything that's come from his oeuvre to date, but follows in the line of the Poets of Rhythm's great Discern/Define, as it reaches back to Krautrock's experimental heyday but pushes its boundaries with a post-hip-hop approach. Rodinia's first album, Drumside/Dreamside, featured two, side-long suites, with synthesizers taking the fore on an overarching ambient approach (featuring over-dubbed reeds, drums and guitar, and self-made Moroccan field recordings introducing the project on its Drumside.) For Ex Anima, Rodinia has incorporated more of the mid-70s approach of Krautrock forebears Neu!, Cluster and Harmonia, with shorter, self-contained songs. The result is winsome and exploratory, respectfully distanced from the past's trappings while celebrating a musical spirit still very much alive and influential. With original artwork by Jason Jagel (DOOM's MM..Food, Operation: Doomsday)."
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LP
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NA 5154LP
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LP version. Includes download card. "Electronic Krautrock in line with Cluster, Harmonia, Neu!, Popul Vuh from Jay Whitefield (Poets of Rhythm/Whitefield Brothers/Karl Hector & The Malcouns). Now-Again Records has enjoyed a long and creative partnership with Munich-based multi-instrumentalist JJ Whitefield, creative force behind the Poets of Rhythm, Whitefield Brothers and Karl Hector & The Malcouns. Rodinia, his latest project, is quite different than anything that's come from his oeuvre to date, but follows in the line of the Poets of Rhythm's great Discern/Define, as it reaches back to Krautrock's experimental heyday but pushes its boundaries with a post-hip-hop approach. Rodinia's first album, Drumside/Dreamside, featured two, side-long suites, with synthesizers taking the fore on an overarching ambient approach (featuring over-dubbed reeds, drums and guitar, and self-made Moroccan field recordings introducing the project on its Drumside.) For Ex Anima, Rodinia has incorporated more of the mid-70s approach of Krautrock forebears Neu!, Cluster and Harmonia, with shorter, self-contained songs. The result is winsome and exploratory, respectfully distanced from the past's trappings while celebrating a musical spirit still very much alive and influential. With original artwork by Jason Jagel (DOOM's MM..Food, Operation: Doomsday)."
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LP
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NA 5062LP
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2017 vinyl repress of this 2010 reissue that contains the track "Merry-Go-Round," featured on the Netflix series Master of None. "The stories of great high school funk bands are, thanks to an abundance of reissues, commonplace. The tales of great high school soul-bands are still rare. A ballad or two on the random Douglass High School Stage Band album or Timeless Legend's mesmerizing entry on Columbus's 1972 1st Annual Inner City Talent Expo notwithstanding, high school bands rarely struck into the realm of 'grown folks' music. Enter The Equatics and their brooding masterpiece Doin' It!!!! If this is categorized as a 'funk' album -- and it was for the last ten years, by those few lucky enough to own an original copy -- it holds its own. But it was as a soul band, one as inspired by the melancholic musings of Bill Withers as the psychedelic-pop of the self-proclaimed 'Black Moses,' Issac Hayes -- that the Equatics shone. These young souls offered world-weary, beat-heavy ballads that stand on par with any of the great independent organizations of the early 1970s. That a group of teenagers could offer such an angst-ridden plea as that of Leo Davis's 'Merry Go Round' not only transcends the limitations that came from the band's average age (seventeen, at the time of the album's recording), but also the barriers the stood in front of this group of small-city hopefuls. This official reissue was licensed by the Equatics' bandleader, bass player Benjamin Crawford."
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CD
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NA 5140CD
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"They have been known to deep soul, funk and disco collectors for decades for their sought after 7" 'Watching Out/Dazed,' long thought to be the band's only recordings. Egon tracked down Split Decision Band's vocalist and songwriter Gordon Starr Flipping in the hopes of more and got it -- with Split Decision Band, Now-Again presents a never-before-released album of devastatingly good disco and boogie from the unlikely city of Des Moines, Iowa. Flipping's collaborations with Prince's stable made him a Midwestern legend, but his band's music is more than an urban tall tale -- this album finally proves to the world their merits." The CD is presented in a six-panel eco-wallet with a 16-page booklet with the story of this mysterious band, told for the first time, and many unpublished photos.
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LP
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NA 5140LP
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LP version. Now-Again Reserve Edition gatefold jacket; Hand-numbered edition of 1000; 160 gram vinyl from Quality Record Production; OBI strip and resealable "Japanese-style" plastic sleeve; Download card for WAV files of the album; Contains booklet with the story of this mysterious band, told for the first time, and many unpublished photos. "They have been known to deep soul, funk and disco collectors for decades for their sought after 7" 'Watching Out/Dazed,' long thought to be the band's only recordings. Egon tracked down Split Decision Band's vocalist and songwriter Gordon Starr Flipping in the hopes of more and got it -- with Split Decision Band, Now-Again presents a never-before-released album of devastatingly good disco and boogie from the unlikely city of Des Moines, Iowa. Flipping's collaborations with Prince's stable made him a Midwestern legend, but his band's music is more than an urban tall tale -- this album finally proves to the world their merits."
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2LP
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NA 5148LP
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Double LP version. "By the mid-1970s, the Southern African nation known as the Republic of Zambia had fallen on hard times. Though the country's first president Kenneth Kaunda had thrown off the yoke of British colonialism, the new federation found itself under his self-imposed, autocratic rule. Conflict loomed on all sides of this landlocked nation. Kaunda protected Zambia from war, but his country descended into isolation and poverty. This is the environment in which the '70s rock revolution that has come to be known as Zamrock flourished. Fuzz guitars were commonplace, as were driving rhythms as influenced by James Brown's funk as Jimi Hendrix's rock predominated. Musical themes, mainly sung in the country's constitutional language, English, were often bleak. In present day Zambia, Zamrock markers were few. Only a small number of the original Zamrock godfathers that remained in the country survived through the late '90s. AIDS decimated this country, and uncontrollable inflation forced the Zambian rockers that could afford to flee into something resembling exile. This was not a likely scene to survive -- but it did. Welcome To Zamrock!, presented in two volumes, is an overview of its most beloved ensembles, and a trace of its arc from its ascension, to its fall, to its resurgence. Explore Zambia's liberation and its impact on the country's rock revolution. The book, written by Eothen Alapatt and Leonard Koloko is the first investigation into the Zamrock scene, and is filled with original record artwork and rarely-seen photos of Zamrock's best ensembles."
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NA 5148CD
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"By the mid-1970s, the Southern African nation known as the Republic of Zambia had fallen on hard times. Though the country's first president Kenneth Kaunda had thrown off the yoke of British colonialism, the new federation found itself under his self-imposed, autocratic rule. Conflict loomed on all sides of this landlocked nation. Kaunda protected Zambia from war, but his country descended into isolation and poverty. This is the environment in which the '70s rock revolution that has come to be known as Zamrock flourished. Fuzz guitars were commonplace, as were driving rhythms as influenced by James Brown's funk as Jimi Hendrix's rock predominated. Musical themes, mainly sung in the country's constitutional language, English, were often bleak. In present day Zambia, Zamrock markers were few. Only a small number of the original Zamrock godfathers that remained in the country survived through the late '90s. AIDS decimated this country, and uncontrollable inflation forced the Zambian rockers that could afford to flee into something resembling exile. This was not a likely scene to survive -- but it did. Welcome To Zamrock!, presented in two volumes, is an overview of its most beloved ensembles, and a trace of its arc from its ascension, to its fall, to its resurgence. 103-page hard cover book with CD. Explore Zambia's liberation and its impact on the country's rock revolution. The book, written by Eothen Alapatt and Leonard Koloko is the first investigation into the Zamrock scene, and is filled with original record artwork and rarely-seen photos of Zamrock's best ensembles."
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2LP
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NA 5147LP
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Double LP version. Includes download card. Featuring Nogzi Family, Witch, Musi-O-Tunya, Chrissy Zebby Tembo, Amanaz, Blackfoot, "and every important Zamrock band." "Explore Zambia's liberation and its impact on the country's rock revolution. By the mid-1970s, the Southern African nation known as the Republic of Zambia had fallen on hard times. Though the country's first president Kenneth Kaunda had thrown off the yoke of British colonialism, the new federation found itself under his self-imposed, autocratic rule. Conflict loomed on all sides of this landlocked nation. Kaunda protected Zambia from war, but his country descended into isolation and poverty. This is the environment in which the '70s rock revolution that has come to be known as Zamrock flourished. Fuzz guitars were commonplace, as were driving rhythms as influenced by James Brown's funk as Jimi Hendrix's rock predominated. Musical themes, mainly sung in the country's constitutional language, English, were often bleak. In present day Zambia, Zamrock markers were few. Only a small number of the original Zamrock godfathers that remained in the country survived through the late '90s. AIDS decimated this country, and uncontrollable inflation forced the Zambian rockers that could afford to flee into something resembling exile. This was not a likely scene to survive -- but it did. Welcome To Zamrock!, presented in two volumes, is an overview of its most beloved ensembles, and a trace of its arc from its ascension, to its fall, to its resurgence."
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NA 5147CD
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Featuring Nogzi Family, Witch, Musi-O-Tunya, Chrissy Zebby Tembo, Amanaz, Blackfoot, "and every important Zamrock band." "Explore Zambia's liberation and its impact on the country's rock revolution. The book, written by Eothen Alapatt and Leonard Koloko is the first investigation into the Zamrock scene, and is filled with original record artwork and rarely-seen photos of Zamrock's best ensembles. By the mid-1970s, the Southern African nation known as the Republic of Zambia had fallen on hard times. Though the country's first president Kenneth Kaunda had thrown off the yoke of British colonialism, the new federation found itself under his self-imposed, autocratic rule. Conflict loomed on all sides of this landlocked nation. Kaunda protected Zambia from war, but his country descended into isolation and poverty. This is the environment in which the '70s rock revolution that has come to be known as Zamrock flourished. Fuzz guitars were commonplace, as were driving rhythms as influenced by James Brown's funk as Jimi Hendrix's rock predominated. Musical themes, mainly sung in the country's constitutional language, English, were often bleak. In present day Zambia, Zamrock markers were few. Only a small number of the original Zamrock godfathers that remained in the country survived through the late '90s. AIDS decimated this country, and uncontrollable inflation forced the Zambian rockers that could afford to flee into something resembling exile. This was not a likely scene to survive -- but it did. Welcome To Zamrock!, presented in two volumes, is an overview of its most beloved ensembles, and a trace of its arc from its ascension, to its fall, to its resurgence." 103-page hard cover book with CD.
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NA 5149CD
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"The CD includes a 24-page booklet with extensive notes on an overlooked and important portion of rock n' roll's history. Nearly everyone in the world can rattle off the great African-American musical forms. Jazz, blues, R&B, soul, hip-hop, house, gospel. One influential genre is always left off of the list: a folk music known as rock n' roll. Rock n' roll was a term originally coined to market the white-friendly version of a genre that already existed; prior to 1965, the line between rock n' roll and R&B was thin: Ike Turner recorded and released 'Rocket '88' ' in 1951 and, while its Chess Records release reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart, it is regarded by many as the first rock n' roll record. The Great Divide between R&B and rock n' roll came after the Beatles and the British Invasion decimated the Top 40 chart in 1964. Simultaneously, R&B entered a new phase, soon to be labeled 'soul,' which upped the music's gospel quotient and turned its frantic twang. So somewhere in the mid to late-1960s, rock n' roll became perceived as something for the Caucasian kids. When Jimi Hendrix and Arthur Lee made the scene, they were said to be black musicians entering into a white world. While that couldn't be farther from the truth, that false dichotomy has existed in America's popular conscious ever since, to the point where the idea of a black rock musician is on the level with the idea of a black cowboy. In the mid-1960s, funk replaced soul as the rhythm that was going to move the world. We know all its progenitor - James Brown, The Meters, Kool & The Gang - and their innovations: the syncopated, 4/4 dance between the bass and drums, horns repurposed as percussion, chicken-scratch and wah-wah guitar. We can trace where they came from. But there is one crucial funk influence that no one seems to want to acknowledge -- a devil-may-care attitude we can attribute to rock n' roll. It's not a stretch to say that funk is the African-American answer to psychedelia and hard rock rolled into one. The idea of 'progressivism' that took over rock music after psychedelia's heyday in the late 1960s belatedly spilled over to funk. In the early 1970s, as the underground/psychedelic fire burnt out in the white rock world, it roared to a blaze in the black musical community. Nearly every American city with a large black population boasted self-contained funk bands that didn't consider themselves simply revues or backup groups, but rather fully-operational ensembles. In these bands, everything from composing, arranging, record production and distribution, was handled in house by band members. These are the bands whose music comprises this anthology, and while they're all different, they're unique in one way: they kept their ears open for new developments in funk and rock music. This anthology presents earnest questions as to why we know so little about these bands and the movement of which they were a part. While we don't anticipate that we'll ever find a definitive answer as to what these ensembles' true goals were, then, we do know that they took their charges seriously. And they knew they were onto something different, something that, though only they and their immediate kin might recognize it, was more interesting than the status quo. Function Underground shines light on an important and overlooked part of rock n' roll's history and talented ensembles that toiled in the shadows, derided by their peers 'Do you realize that Hendrix was dead before most black people in America knew he was a black man?' Ebony Rhythm Band drummer Matthew Watson questions rhetorically. 'We was scorned. In that era, everybody else in the black community was wearing three-piece suits, processes and Afro wigs and that shit. We was the first guys to wear bell bottoms. The first guys to wear big hats. We were off into a whole other thing.' "
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LP
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NA 5149LP
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Now fully available, previously RSD 2017 release. "14 tracks by Jimi Macon, Black Maffia, Blacklites and more, many reissued for the first time. Includes a 16 page booklet with extensive notes on an overlooked and important portion of rock n' roll's history & a download card to WAV files of the full album. Nearly everyone in the world can rattle off the great African-American musical forms. Jazz, blues, R&B, soul, hip-hop, house, gospel. One influential genre is always left off of the list: a folk music known as rock n' roll. Rock n' roll was a term originally coined to market the white-friendly version of a genre that already existed; prior to 1965, the line between rock n' roll and R&B was thin: Ike Turner recorded and released 'Rocket '88' ' in 1951 and, while its Chess Records release reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart, it is regarded by many as the first rock n' roll record. The Great Divide between R&B and rock n' roll came after the Beatles and the British Invasion decimated the Top 40 chart in 1964. Simultaneously, R&B entered a new phase, soon to be labeled 'soul,' which upped the music's gospel quotient and turned its frantic twang. So somewhere in the mid to late-1960s, rock n' roll became perceived as something for the Caucasian kids. When Jimi Hendrix and Arthur Lee made the scene, they were said to be black musicians entering into a white world. While that couldn't be farther from the truth, that false dichotomy has existed in America's popular conscious ever since, to the point where the idea of a black rock musician is on the level with the idea of a black cowboy. In the mid-1960s, funk replaced soul as the rhythm that was going to move the world. We know all its progenitor - James Brown, The Meters, Kool & The Gang - and their innovations: the syncopated, 4/4 dance between the bass and drums, horns repurposed as percussion, chicken-scratch and wah-wah guitar. We can trace where they came from. But there is one crucial funk influence that no one seems to want to acknowledge -- a devil-may-care attitude we can attribute to rock n' roll. It's not a stretch to say that funk is the African-American answer to psychedelia and hard rock rolled into one. The idea of 'progressivism' that took over rock music after psychedelia's heyday in the late 1960s belatedly spilled over to funk. In the early 1970s, as the underground/psychedelic fire burnt out in the white rock world, it roared to a blaze in the black musical community. Nearly every American city with a large black population boasted self-contained funk bands that didn't consider themselves simply revues or backup groups, but rather fully-operational ensembles in these bands, everything from composing, arranging, record production and distribution, was handled in house by band members. These are the bands whose music comprises this anthology, and while they're all different, they're unique in one way: they kept their ears open for new developments in funk and rock music. This anthology presents earnest questions as to why we know so little about these bands and the movement of which they were a part. While we don't anticipate that we'll ever find a definitive answer as to what these ensembles' true goals were, then, we do know that they took their charges seriously. And they knew they were onto something different, something that, though only they and their immediate kin might recognize it, was more interesting than the status quo. Function Underground shines light on an important and overlooked part of rock n' roll's history and talented ensembles that toiled in the shadows, derided by their peers 'Do you realize that Hendrix was dead before most black people in America knew he was a black man?' Ebony Rhythm Band drummer Matthew Watson questions rhetorically. 'We was scorned. In that era, everybody else in the black community was wearing three-piece suits, processes and Afro wigs and that shit. We was the first guys to wear bell bottoms. The first guys to wear big hats. We were off into a whole other thing.' "
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LP
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NA 5130LP
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2017 repress; LP version. "First official reissue of this essential Zamrock album, painstakingly restored, remastered and pieced together from multiple copies of the incredibly rare original album. Contains extensive booklet with never before published photos, an overview of the Zamrock scene, and the history of Peace and Black Power. Includes download card."
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2LP
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NA 5127LP
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LP version. "Australian guitarist/visionary Rob Thomsett's collected works -- two LPs -- are combined into one package as the fourth release in the Now Again Reserve series. Custom made, thick-cardboard, tip-on Now-Again Reserve Edition gatefold jacket. Hand numbered edition of 1000. 160 gram vinyl from Quality Record Production. OBI strip and re-sealable 'Japanese-style' plastic sleeve. Download card for WAV files of the album. Contains booklet with the story of this band, told for the first time, and many unpublished photos." "Australian guitarist/visionary Rob Thomsett's collected works -- two LPs -- are combined into one package as the fourth release in the Now Again Reserve series. Originally privately pressed in tiny numbers in Canberra in the mid-'70s, Yaraandoo & Hara have become sought after examples of the best in progressive jazz/rock.'Taking in impressionistic hazy instrumental jazz ... muscular fusion moves, solo Mellotron pieces as heavenly as anything Beethoven or Handel ever concocted, extremely loose-limbed ethno-fusion soundscapes of the Don Cherry/Pharoah Sanders variety, film soundtracks ... and electronic experimentalism ... hair-raising, soul-searching beauty -- with an overall dreamy, hazy quality that perhaps could only be written by an Australian fully conversant with the 'Dreamtime' cultural feel for the myths and legends of the Outback.' --Julian Cope's Head Heritage"
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CD
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NA 5127CD
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"Australian guitarist/visionary Rob Thomsett's collected works -- two LPs -- are combined into one package as the fourth release in the Now Again Reserve series. Originally privately pressed in tiny numbers in Canberra in the mid-'70s, Yaraandoo & Hara have become sought after examples of the best in progressive jazz/rock. Custom made, 'mini-LP', tip-on CD packaged with perfect-bound booklet packaged in O card. 'Taking in impressionistic hazy instrumental jazz ... muscular fusion moves, solo Mellotron pieces as heavenly as anything Beethoven or Handel ever concocted, extremely loose-limbed ethno-fusion soundscapes of the Don Cherry/Pharoah Sanders variety, film soundtracks ... and electronic experimentalism ... hair-raising, soul-searching beauty -- with an overall dreamy, hazy quality that perhaps could only be written by an Australian fully conversant with the 'Dreamtime' cultural feel for the myths and legends of the Outback." --Julian Cope's Head Heritage
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