Various - Soul Cal (Funky Disco & Modern Soul 71-82) (NOW AGAIN)
Available here on CD+Book, here on 2LP+Book
SIDE A
1. Luther Davis: You Can Be A Star
2. UPC All Stars: Don’t Get Discouraged
3. Pure Essence: Wake Up
4. Anubis: Ecology
SIDE B
5. Rhythm Machine: Put A Smile On Time
6. Ellis & Cephas: I’m Gonna Miss You Girl
7. Mixed Sugar: It’s A Bad Feeling
8. Mixed Feelings: Sha La La
SIDE C
9. Keys & Clearly: What It Takes To Live
10. Leon Mitchison: Love Is
11. Clifford Nyren: Keep Running Away
12. Stanton Davis/Ghetto Mysticism: Things Cannot Stop Forever
SIDE D
13. C. Henry Woods Troupe: The Stranger
14. Record Player: Free Your Mind
15. Freedom Express: Get Down
The Definitive Survey Of America's Best, Independent 70's Soul-Ensembles. 15 rare and unreleased funky disco and modern soul tracks from 1971-1982, including songs never issued on the long out-of-print Soul Cal 12" single series. The double gatefold LP is presented with a perfect bound 80 page book printed on 150 gsm uncoated paper stock. The book is filled with rare photos and each band’s story.
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 features some well-known figures from the various "soul" scenes that paved the way for their resurgence. The Northern Soul, Modern Soul and Deep Disco and Funk circles have all obsessed over the likes of Luther Davis, Rhythm Machine, Mixed Sugar and Record Player. But these and Soul Cal's other bands - many of whom managed only to release a solitary 7" single in their heyday - will be unknown to most.
Their obscurity notwithstanding, the music made by these bands is sure to strike a chord within the soul of any person taken by black American music from the latter half of the 20th century. In his long-running investigation into this flux-period in black American music, compiler and key researcher Eothen "Egon" Alapatt sought not only licenses, records and master tapes - but the stories and backdrops of these
majestic soul songs and the ensembles that created them.
It is due to the immense research that his investigation demanded - and the trove of information and music he unearthed - that we at Now-Again decided to present Soul Cal as an album and a book at the same time. Soul Cal's music is too good to be anonymously relaunched and a CD or LP booklet can only hold so much information. Simply telling the stories of these bands without unleashing their largely unheard music just seemed unfair. Thus, Soul Cal offers the enthused a chance to listen to, read about and reflect on this great burst of black American creativity in the decade after funk, the decade before hip-hop.
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