Conch Records
Reggae Soundsystem 45! is a new stunning deluxe 500 page flexibound book that features over 1000 full size record label 45 rpm single designs that span the history of reggae music. The book is compiled by the renowned author and reggae expert Steve Barrow (Rough Guide to Reggae/Blood and Fire Records) and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records). Text by Steve Barrow and Noel Hawks. As well as the stunning full-size 45 designs, this book is ram-jam filled with text on many of the records, artists, producers and record companies featured in the book. The 45rpm 7” single is at the heart of reggae music, the main tool in which reggae music has been communicated to the public by the deejays in the dancehalls of Kingston, through to its dissemination worldwide, over the last 50+years. These unique label designs give us a hidden history of design that is raw, innovative and hip. Ever since the birth of the Jamaican music industry through to the present day, these idiosyncratic label designs have helped illustrate, signify and energise the music that they accompany. Reggae 45 Soundsystem is released to coincide with the publication of a second large format hardback 12x12" book, Reggae Soundsystem which features original album cover art of reggae, also published by Soul Jazz Books.
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.
BOOK: Gil Scott-Heron - The Last Holiday: A Memoir
Available Here
In the autumn of 1980, Stevie Wonder invited Gil Scott-Heron to join him on a forty-one-city tour across America, ending in Washington in January 1981, to gather popular support for the creation of a holiday in honour of the great civil-rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. Scott-Heron uses this history-making tour as the backbone of his fascinating memoir.
Raised by his grandmother in Jackson, Tennessee, Scott-Heron's journey from humble beginnings to becoming one of the most uncompromising and influential musicians and songwriters of his generation is a remarkable one. Politically savvy and savagely satirical, socially conscious and tender-hearted, Gil Scott-Heron has been called the godfather of rap, and his unexpected death in May 2011 marked the loss of one of the world's most vocal and articulate artists. Chuck D of Public Enemy said of Scott-Heron, 'we do what we do and who we do because of you' and Eminem added, 'Scott-Heron influenced all of hip-hop'. And as Sarah Silverman said, "he mirrored ugliness with beauty, audacity, and valour'.
A compelling testament to Gil Scott-Heron's career and achievements, The Last Holiday is full of Scott-Heron's keen insights into the music industry, the civil rights movement, modern America, governmental hypocrisy and our wider place in the world. MORE:UPCOMING: Studio One Cover Art (SOUL JAZZ)
The Cover Art Of Studio One Records
Due for release November 2011, to pre-order please contact us at info@conch.co.nzThis deluxe 200 page hard-back 12”x12”book features hundreds of stunning full size record cover designs from the legendary Studio One Records.
Described by Chris Blackwell as the University of Reggae, Studio One is by far the most important record label in the history of Reggae music, an A-Z of Jamaican music as iconic as Motown was to soul, or Blue Note for Jazz.
The book features classic artwork from Bob Marley and the Wailers, Horace Andy, Alton Ellis, Freddie McGregor, The Skatalites, Marcia Griffiths, Burning Spear, The Heptones, Toots and the Maytals and many more artists all of whom launched their careers at Studio One.
As well as many classic sleeves there are numerous rare designs including a collectors’ section featuring many alternate, silkscreen and rarely seen designs.
As Jamaica approaches the 50th anniversary of independence, this stunning deluxe book is a timely look at Reggae music’s legendary record label and the artists and musicians that it made famous.
The book also introductory essay by Steve Barrow (author of Rough Guide to Reggae) and is edited by Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records).
BOOK: The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl
Available Here
The Record is the full-color catalog accompanying the groundbreaking exhibition The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl at the ICA April 15 through September 5 2011. The first exhibition to explore the culture of vinyl records in the history of contemporary art, The Record features rarely exhibited work and recent and newly commissioned pieces by thirty-three artists from around the world. These artists have taken vinyl records as their subject or medium, producing sound work, sculpture, installation, drawing, painting, photography, video, and performance.
Works by well-known artists such as Laurie Anderson, Jasper Johns, Ed Ruscha, and Carrie Mae Weems appear alongside those of other North American artists, and of artists from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America, some of whom have never before exhibited in a U.S. museum. Among the works shown are David Byrne’s original Polaroid photomontage used for the cover of the 1978 Talking Heads album More Songs about Buildings and Food, the fictive soul “album covers” created by the outsider artist Mingering Mike in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and Wheel of Steel (2006), an arresting narrative of record-playing told through digital photos by the South African-born and Berlin-based artist Robin Rhode. In addition to the 225 images, 200 of which appear in color, the catalog includes personal reflections and critical analyses.
All of the artists in the exhibition contribute personal statements about their work in relation to the vinyl record, and critics and scholars explore the historical impact of the record on art and music and the ways the medium has helped shape individual and collective identities.
Contributors. Jeff Chang, Vivien Goldman, Jennifer Kabat, Mark Katz, Josh Kun, Barbara London, Mac McCaughan, Carlo McCormick, Charlie McGovern , Mark Anthony Neal, Piotr Orlov, Luc Sante, Trevor Schoonmaker, Dave Tompkins
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