V.A. Dope Jams NYC Volume 1 2005-2012

Dope Jams NYC Volume 1: 2005-2012 is an essential chronicle of the timeless music, colorful characters and uncompromising spirit that made Paul Nickerson and Francis Englehardt’s original Brooklyn-based brick-and-mortar more than just a record store, but a one-of-a-kind community. Assembled with the same painstaking detail that Nickerson and Englehardt have brought to every facet of their shop since day one, Volume 1 includes a 3x12" compilation and 32-page booklet that's jammed packed with vivid photos, profiles of staff and regulars, shop history, personal reflections, discographies, assorted ephemera; and as much tomfoolery, myth-making and shit-talking as anyone with even a passing familiarity with the place should expect.

The three 12”s boast a selection of reissued and previously unreleased tracks that together encompass the store's multi-faceted musical vision and evolution. Highly coveted golden age masterpieces like Groovestyle's euphoric "L.O.V.E." and lesser known treasures like Funk D’Void’s “Thank You (Slowly)” and Tommy E’s “I Need to Go Away” join the long list of underground house classics Nickerson and Englehardt have resurrected since opening Dope Jams. Celebrate LIFE peaktime favorites "Desolate Cities" and "Old Landmark" and druggy early morning detours "In a Hole" and "Living in a Zome" recall the all-consuming intensity of the shop's monthly parties. And showcasing the store's never-ending quest for mind-bending new dance sounds, Volume 1 features a trio of exciting, previously unreleased jams from current artists -- "Taken," an explosive techno time bomb from shop favorite D'Marc Cantu; Englehardt's dark and demented dub of Spike’s “Magic Table"; and Beige's mystical, slowly unraveling “Hollow Point."