Conch Records
BOOK: Soul Jazz Records presents Reggae Soundsystem!
Due out November 2012, to reserve a copy please contact us at info@conch.co.nz
Original Reggae Album Cover Art: A visual history of Jamaican music from Mento to Dancehall. Compiled by Steve Barrow and Stuart Baker
Reggae Soundsystem! is a new deluxe 200 page hard-back 12”x12” book featuring hundreds of stunning full size record cover designs that span the history of reggae music.
The book is compiled by the celebrated author and reggae expert Steve Barrow (Rough Guide to Reggae/ Blood and Fire Records) and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records).
Beginning in the 1950s, Jamaican music developed into one of the most important and influential music industries in the world. From its early Mento (Jamaican Calypso) beginnings through to the invention of Ska, Rocksteady, Roots, Dub and Dancehall, Jamaican music is also one of the richest and innovative veins in popular music.
This stunning hardback deluxe book is a timely look at the endless visually creativity of reggae record cover designs, iconic, classic, rare and unique artwork spanning sixty years of Jamaican sounds.
The book includes a fascinating introductory essay on the history of reggae by Steve Barrow and the book is edited by Stuart Baker (founder of Soul Jazz Records and editor of the book Dancehall, and cover art books on Bossa Nova, Freedom, Rhythm & Sound and Studio One Records).
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 DownThe 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.
UPCOMING: Wax Poetics Issue 50: 10th Anniversary
Prince / Frank Ocean
Due out soon, to reserve a copy please contact us at info@conch.co.nz
In December of 2001, Wax Poetics debuted its first issue to a small following of record collectors and “beat diggers.” Ten years later, Wax Poetics has carved out a niche for itself in the world of music journalism and expanded its audience to a worldwide congregation of music lovers.
Issue 50 marks our ten-year anniversary and does so with one of the most iconic musicians in the history of African American music, the one and only Prince.
We’ve also done a full redesign, making the magazine slightly larger—8 × 10.5 inches—and we’ve embraced a new paper stock. Wax Poetics will look a bit different on the newsstand, with a new mark making its debut in place of our old logo, but the magazine will continue to be a collectible objet d’art, something to be saved on your shelf as a musical reference manual, not recycled like other mags.
Wax Poetics has also returned to its roots as a journal and is back to being quarterly. The new price reflects not only radical changes in the publishing industry and the economy, but also the guarantee of continued quality from the paper stock to the writing and photographs. We vow to keep Wax Poetics in print as a tangible entity, bucking the trend of ridding our culture of old-school reading products.
Join us as we embark on our tenth year of celebrating the unprecedented and untouchable African American musical tradition!
In the Issue: Prince, Frank Ocean, Larry Graham, Morris Day, Toro y Moi, DJ Quick Record Rundown, Blood Orange, Questlove on Prince, Jesse Johnson, Madhouse, The Family, Grand Central, and 94 East Re:Discovered. To order back issues please contact us at info@conch.co.nzBOOK: 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:
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