Now-Again Vinyl, CD & Tape 115 Items

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).

Electronic Krautrock in line with Cluster, Harmonia, Neu!, Popul Vuh from Jay Whitefield (Poets of Rhythm/Whitefield Brothers/Karl Hector & The Malcouns). The album includes a download card.

Now-Again Records’ follow up to one of its most well-loved compilations, Forge Your Own Chains, with another batch of rare, largely uncompiled - and sometimes barely heard - heavy psych-rock and funk. Pounding drums, scathing fuzz guitar and morose, contemplative lyrics will bring you up on a downer. Tickets For Doomsday, as the title hints, is and rumination on what might befall the human race – made especially salient by the past year’s trials and tribulations – as performed by prison funk ensembles, Indonesian hippies, Krautrock legends, Icelandic prog-rock bands and even Bay Area rap catalyst E-40’s uncle, the man to rst distribute Master P’s No Limit Records, and the creator of this album’s title track, St. Charles “Chucky” Thurman. A unique and compelling listen, and surely a worthy companion for these times.

Ayalew Mesfin stands aside the likes of Mulatu Astake, Mahmoud Ahmed, Hailu Mergia and Alemayehu Eshete as a legend of 1970s Ethiopia. Mesfin’s music is some of the funkiest to arise from this unconquerable East African nation. Mesfin’s recording career, captured in nearly two dozen 7” singles and numerous reel-to-reel tapes, shows the strata of the most fertile decade in Ethiopia’s 20th century recording industry, when records were pressed constantly by both independent upstarts and corporate behemoths, even if they were only distributed within the confines of this East African nation. Though Mesfin was forced underground by the Derg regime that took control of Ethiopia in 1974, he has returned almost 50 years later with this triumphant set albums – the first time that his music has been presented in this form. These albums give us a chance to discover a rare and beautiful moment in music history, in anthologies built from Mesfin’s uber-rare 7” single releases and from previously unreleased recordings taken from master tapes. Good Aderegechegn gives us a chance to discover a rare & beautiful moment in music history, in an anthology built from his uber-rare 7” single releases.

Following their deft handling of musics from Eastern and Northern Africa alongside Western psychedelia, jazz and funk on "Unstraight Ahead", Karl Hector & The Malcouns combine the previously available only on vinyl tracks from four EP’s - "Tamanrasset", "Ngugna Yeti Fofa", "Coomassi" and "Ka Rica Tar" – into an album as Krautrock as Afro Beat, as Multi-Culti-Psychedelic as Deep Funk.

Following the release of Cook Classics Vs. Now-Again, Now-Again presents its second Oh No library offering.

Chicago beatsmith Maker returns for another volley into the Now-Again Music Library series with his first album to include vocal performances. From well known indie-vets like Bishop Lamont and Guilty Simpson to less known but talented vocalists like Adeem and PremRock - Maker’s beats – all based on samples from the Now-Again Catalog – surround them all with swirling pastiches of soul, funk, jazz, rock and music from all over the globe.

Limited edition deluxe issue of the sought-after debut of the Now-Again Music Library series! Following his theme for Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, production for Mos Def and his lauded Dr. No’s Oxperiement, producer Oh No takes on the Now-Again catalog. Limited Edition of 500 pieces!

A masterful mix of timeless American soul with vintage 1970s African samples in a most rewarding way – musical traveler Eamon teams with production duo Likeminds for No Matter The Season, his second album for Now-Again. “I’ve been singing since I was a tike, promoters used to call me ‘the boy wonder’, but with this record it felt new, almost like I was singing every note as if my life depended on it,” says Eamon from his home in Southern California, a far cry from his native Staten Island, New York City. But you wouldn’t know his birthplace from the way he sings, especially on No Matter The Season, where Eamon put a new spin on vintage samples from the Now-Again catalog, crafting beats from various African rhythms such as Amanaz’s Zamrock, the Hygrades Nigerian funk, and Ayalew Mesfin’s Ethiopian tezetas. Shortly after the release of his last Now-Again project, Captive Thoughts, he began working with the production duo on two original compositions that appear on No Matter The Season. But as time went on, he came upon the idea of completing the album by sending the duo samples from the Now-Again catalog to work with. Which were expanded upon with a multitude of live instruments. “There was something special about combing through the African records at Now-Again,” Eamon reflects. “I had never heard the variety of funk and soul that existed in places like Lagos and Addis Ababa, it was like a history lesson in Rhythm & Blues. I was hearing the godfathers of the movement here in the US. I wanted to pay my respect to that lineage. Since singing in my father’s doo-wop group as a kid, I’ve always used music from the past to create and express something new in the present. But to be able to do that across continents and get back to the roots…that was really impactful for me.” Likeminds, helmed by Chris Soper and Jesse Singer, two East Coast transplants to LA who are as comfortable chopping up samples on an MPC as they are playing classic instruments, using vintage microphones, or recording to tape, offer up what could be described as a West Coast spin on the revivalist soul sound championed by Daptone Records. “For sure, the album is soaked in an old school feel, but to still tap into the depths of my soul today is always the end goal,” Eamon states. All but two tracks are based on Now-Again samples, using the classic rhythms as accompaniment to showcase Eamon’s emotional singing style that is still as honest and raw as when he was a 16, singing about heartbreak. The end result, No Matter the Season, is a celebration of the musical relationship between Africa and America and the thrilling soul music that relationship has spawned since the 60s and 70s. “My hope is people know that I’m not leaving anything on the table in this chapter of my career,” Eamon reflects. “Only thing I can do is pour my heart out on every single line. Even though I’m writing and screaming to the heavens about my joy, my pain, my love…these are songs for everyone, everywhere, anytime. You’re gonna walk away feeling something. This is why I titled the album No Matter The Season.”

Gaslamp Killer chops, edits, echos and scratches The Heliocentrics in two parts.

Now-Again presents its third Oh No library
offering: heavy hip hop based on samples from
the Now-Again Catalog.
Oh No’s debut album for Now-Again was also
the first in our music library series - and was
one of our most successful exercises in
creating modern “library music” for easy
synchronization. For this, his third entry, Oh No
combs through the vast array of Now-Again’s
catalog – from American soul, funk and jazz to
Zambian hard rock to Australian prog to
Swedish psych - create a series of beats that
range in mood and style and all contain Oh
No’s trademark swagger. Fans of the variety of
projects that Oh No is a part – from his
Gangrene project with Alchemist to his
production for the likes of Jedi Mind Tricks,
Action Bronson and Talib Kweli - will
be pleased with the variety of beats
contained within.
This limited edition is CD is packaged in a
“mini-LP” gatefold and is available in limited
quantities. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

On the heels of her Mango Hill records debut single,”Thee Only One” ft. Joey Quiñones from East L.A.’s, Thee Sinseers, Trish Toledo, a devoted fan of soul music, has built her fan base serenading audiences with her sultry voice on soul classics, and earning herself a legion of devotees as a result. Teaming up with The Abuelitos, Trish delivers some of her smokiest vocals yet, with songs like “Coco LaLaLa” & “Do the Wrong Thing”. Understanding that Ms. Toledo is the undisputed queen of the newly coined “Souldies” movement in L.A., the songwriting team decided they wanted to take her to the east coast via Miami for some more tropical sounding vibes. Hearkening back lyrically to such songs as The Supremes, “I Hear a Symphony” or the Toys, “Lovers Concerto”, “Coco LaLaLa” makes that familiar, romantic connection between love and music with some smoldering salsa piano thrown in to spice things up. On the other hand, there’s “Do the Wrong Thing”, a slow-burner with temptation on the rocks. A married woman, a persistent man, and another round of drinks on the way. Will she “Do the Wrong Thing”? You’ll have to listen to find out.

We’re introducing: Johnny! Ghanaian Afro-Rock from German producer/composer J.J. Whitefield and an international cast of top shelf musicians. Whitefield, who in the early ‘90s revived the gritty, analogue Funk sounds of the ‘60s and ‘70s with his Poets Of Rhythm, has been working with Now-Again Records for almost a decade, releasing a flock of acclaimed projects with Karl Hector & The Malcouns, Whitefield Brothers, Rodinia and the “Original Raw Soul” anthology. He first started exploring African rhythms with the Whitefield Brothers in the late ‘90s, continuing in the ‘00s with Karl Hector & The Malcouns. He’s been instrumental in launching Ghanaian Afro Beat/Funk legend Ebo Taylor´s international career, decades after the maestro recorded the landmark albums that have inspired thousands. Whitefield recorded two new studio albums with Taylor and toured in his band between 2009 and 2013, where he met Taylor’s son Henry and percussionist/Singer Eric Owusu. The trio now front the Johnny! band and find inspiration not only in Ghana’s hypnotic grooves, but also the full frontal fuzz guitar assault heard on the legion of 70s Zambian Zamrock albums recently reissued by Now-Again. Indeed, Whitefield credits his tours with Zamrock godfathers Rikki Ililonga and WITCH’s Jagari Chanda as instrumental in creating the Johnny’s sonic backdrop. The band is rounded out by Turkish drummer Bernd Oezsevim (Woima Collective, Rodinia) and Indonesian bassist/multi instrumentalist Tomi Simatupang (Whitefield Brothers). This is Dance Rock at the core with the possibilities to stretch out and go into psychedelic realms. The results, spread out over three 7”singles and pressed in a run of 1000 units each, speak for themselves. Every record comes with a download card for WAV files of all six tracks (vocals and instrumentals from each release) and point at a new direction for the music inspired by the Great Continent.

We’re introducing: Johnny! Ghanaian Afro-Rock from German producer/composer J.J. Whitefield and an international cast of top shelf musicians. Whitefield, who in the early ‘90s revived the gritty, analogue Funk sounds of the ‘60s and ‘70s with his Poets Of Rhythm, has been working with Now-Again Records for almost a decade, releasing a flock of acclaimed projects with Karl Hector & The Malcouns, Whitefield Brothers, Rodinia and the “Original Raw Soul” anthology. He first started exploring African rhythms with the Whitefield Brothers in the late ‘90s, continuing in the ‘00s with Karl Hector & The Malcouns. He’s been instrumental in launching Ghanaian Afro Beat/Funk legend Ebo Taylor´s international career, decades after the maestro recorded the landmark albums that have inspired thousands. Whitefield recorded two new studio albums with Taylor and toured in his band between 2009 and 2013, where he met Taylor’s son Henry and percussionist/Singer Eric Owusu. The trio now front the Johnny! band and find inspiration not only in Ghana’s hypnotic grooves, but also the full frontal fuzz guitar assault heard on the legion of 70s Zambian Zamrock albums recently reissued by Now-Again. Indeed, Whitefield credits his tours with Zamrock godfathers Rikki Ililonga and WITCH’s Jagari Chanda as instrumental in creating the Johnny’s sonic backdrop. The band is rounded out by Turkish drummer Bernd Oezsevim (Woima Collective, Rodinia) and Indonesian bassist/multi instrumentalist Tomi Simatupang (Whitefield Brothers). This is Dance Rock at the core with the possibilities to stretch out and go into psychedelic realms. The results, spread out over three 7”singles and pressed in a run of 1000 units each, speak for themselves. Every record comes with a download card for WAV files of all six tracks (vocals and instrumentals from each release) and point at a new direction for the music inspired by the Great Continent.

We’re introducing: Johnny! Ghanaian Afro-Rock from German producer/composer J.J. Whitefield and an international cast of top shelf musicians. Whitefield, who in the early ‘90s revived the gritty, analogue Funk sounds of the ‘60s and ‘70s with his Poets Of Rhythm, has been working with Now-Again Records for almost a decade, releasing a flock of acclaimed projects with Karl Hector & The Malcouns, Whitefield Brothers, Rodinia and the “Original Raw Soul” anthology. He first started exploring African rhythms with the Whitefield Brothers in the late ‘90s, continuing in the ‘00s with Karl Hector & The Malcouns. He’s been instrumental in launching Ghanaian Afro Beat/Funk legend Ebo Taylor´s international career, decades after the maestro recorded the landmark albums that have inspired thousands. Whitefield recorded two new studio albums with Taylor and toured in his band between 2009 and 2013, where he met Taylor’s son Henry and percussionist/Singer Eric Owusu. The trio now front the Johnny! band and find inspiration not only in Ghana’s hypnotic grooves, but also the full frontal fuzz guitar assault heard on the legion of 70s Zambian Zamrock albums recently reissued by Now-Again. Indeed, Whitefield credits his tours with Zamrock godfathers Rikki Ililonga and WITCH’s Jagari Chanda as instrumental in creating the Johnny’s sonic backdrop. The band is rounded out by Turkish drummer Bernd Oezsevim (Woima Collective, Rodinia) and Indonesian bassist/multi instrumentalist Tomi Simatupang (Whitefield Brothers). This is Dance Rock at the core with the possibilities to stretch out and go into psychedelic realms. The results, spread out over three 7”singles and pressed in a run of 1000 units each, speak for themselves. Every record comes with a download card for WAV files of all six tracks (vocals and instrumentals from each release) and point at a new direction for the music inspired by the Great Continent.

This was the Fan Club 45 for the Whitefield Brother's Earthology album!