Funk | Soul Vinyl 301 Items

Cover with slightly bumped corner

Vinyl with a couple of light scuffs

few scuffs and tiny wear

Red vinyl. Copy n° 761

Cover has tiny wear. Vinyl is close to NM.

Originally released on Fat Beats Records in 2009, El Michels Affair’s landmark album “Enter the 37th Chamber” is celebrating its 15th Anniversary in 2024. Featuring reinterpretations of hip hop anthems from the Wu-Tang Clan, the album took stripped-down, raw hip hop bangers and flipped them into richly-arranged instrumentals. Cover versions of tracks such as “C.R.E.A.M.” and “Can It All Be So Simple” instantly sounded as vintage as the records that RZA had sampled to create the originals, with the familiar melodies and driving rhythms elevated by expertly-arranged horns and strings. The gritty and bottom-heavy style of these analog recordings—dubbed “Cinematic Soul”—has been both widely celebrated and often imitated. El Michels Affair namesake Leon Michels has since gone on to produce for and collaborate with artists as diverse as Adele, Black Thought, Lana Del Rey, and The Carters (Beyonce & Jay-Z). Now 15 years from its initial release, “Enter the 37th Chamber” has proven to be one of the true classic instrumental albums of its era, every bit as enduring as the music it had meant to pay homage to.

Still sealed. With OBI. Tiny corner wear. 2022 reissue 180gr vinyl.

180g vinyl.

Repress as black vinyl! The world moves faster than ever these days, and even in the digital age, things can always be counted on to go in cycles. Despite all of the advances in computer recording technology, home studios, and electronic instruments, there is a flourishing interest in analog recording techniques and in recreating the mood and sound of vintage soul records. With one foot in the past but their eyes firmly set on the future, El Michels Affair are among the leaders of a resurgent funk & soul movement from New York City that’s sweeping both the music community and the charts.

Led by saxophonist/organist Leon Michels and producer/engineer Jeff Silverman, El Michels Affair began as a loose collaboration of session musicians (including members of top-selling acts Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, the Budos Band, and Antibalas) that looked to blend some of the vibrant quality of soundtrack records with the recording aesthetic of early reggae, and the rawness of 60's rock--they called it 'Cinematic Soul.' This delicate balance was evident on their 2005 debut album Sounding Out the City, which earned critical acclaim and acted as the inaugural full-length release for Michels and Silverman’s burgeoning label Truth & Soul (also the moniker for the duo as a production team).

The buzz generated from the album and a series of moderately successful 7” vinyl singles from Truth & Soul led to an invitation by Toyota’s Scion division for El Michels Affair to accompany the rapper Raekwon of Wu-Tang Clan for a promotional concert. As avid Wu-Tang fans, not only were the band leaders thrilled with the opportunity, but Michels found that the ‘Cinematic Soul’ sound was consistent with the moods of RZA’s gritty soundscapes on the classic Wu-Tang releases. The concert was such as success, El Michels Affair went oan to play several more concerts nationwide backing Raekwon and other members of the Clan, and the shows led to the recording of two smash 7” singles featuring instrumental reinterpretations of the Wu-Tang classiac songs “C.R.E.A.M.” and “Bring Da Ruckus.” The singles combined to sell an extraordinary amount of over 7,000 units worldwide, and their success led to a contract in 2007 with indie hip hop powerhouse Fat Beats Records to record an entire album of Wu-Tang Clan interpolations entitled Enter the 37th Chamber.

Since the contract was inked, a worldwide explosion of retro soul led by Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson, and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings has transformed the pop music landscape, and the Truth & Soul production duo have been in strong demand, recording with everyone from breakthrough Grammy-nominated artist Adele to punk rock innovator Iggy Pop. They’ve been commissioned for official remixes of Amy Winehouse and Dinah Washington (for the popular Verve Remixed series), and produced for Australian multi-platinum acts Jet and Gabriella Cilmi.

Despite the eclectic group of clients for the Truth & Soul production company, El Michels Affair continued to build an audience within the hip hop community. A track from Sounding out the City was sampled for Ghostface Killah’s 2007 track “Shakey Dog Lolita,” and a horn part written and performed by Michels (for Menahan Street Band) was famously lifted for Jay-Z’s smash single “Roc Boys.” Truth & Soul also worked in the studio on original productions with multi-platinum producer Just Blaze (T.I.’s “Live Your Life,” Jay-Z, Usher).

With their increasing presence behind the scenes in the industry, El Michels Affair looks to have their status as recording artists rise significantly in 2009. With the release of their finally-completed album Enter the 37th Chamber, they can finally step out of the shadows of the retro-soul trend and establish their status as one of the most exciting and versatile bands in modern recorded music.

Reissue! Poets of Rhythm founding members first crucial piece of the funk spectrum recorded as The Whitefield Brothers. A wear-your heart-on-your-sleeve, hypnotic, defiantly psychedelic funk album that is as modern as it is grounded in the great musical traditions from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Featuring members of the Dap Kings, El Michels Affair and Poets of Rhythm. “The Whitefield Brothers In The Raw remains as potent in 2022 as the day it dropped twenty years ago. Originally released in 2002, and later reissued via Now-Again, the LP’s panglobal brew of ragged psychedelic funk dripped different, defying easy markers of genre, era, and locality...live breakbeat drums and tribal chants...anchor the set’s twelve tracks. Hypnotic and humid, come for the polyrhythms, stay for the swirling dub adjacent blasts of trumpet.” - Aquarium Drunkard

US original.
Promo. Marbled Vinyl.
Records are close to NM.

Gone: The Promises Of Yesterday is by no means a sequel to Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth - missing are the poignant and bleak sermons on the pain of inner-city existence, replaced by dusky, sensuous re-workings of tainted love songs Warren had written as far back as 1965, during his time as a songwriter at Shrine and Motown. Still, his unfinished self-reinvention, even heard through the prism of these skeletal remnants, delivers on a remarkable purity of vision: one man's corner of black culture, 24 carats pure and mishandled perhaps until now, finally a bit less misunderstood.

"Vermillion Plaza," the second single from Deastro's full-length debut, Moondagger, miniaturizes the album's best assets and shoots them out of a cannon. Plucky synth arpeggios, end-of-the-world choruses, joyously careening melody lines-it's all there, squashed into a life-affirming three minutes and 50 seconds. "Vermillion Plaza"'s hidden weapon is its songcraft, which may easily goes unnoticed as the pop-music blur flies by-the song lives uneasily in its skin, buttressing its fireworks display of a chorus with odd moments of synthesizer psychedelia, funk, and disco. And when Deastro's Randolph Chabot pleads for contact, singing, "Would you be my son / 'cause all of mine have died?," it's less a cry of self-pity than a salute to the power of human connection.The B-side is Mux Mool's lumbering, half-time remix of "Vermillion Plaza." The former Ghostly Swim featured artist plunges Chabot's vocal into a sinister electronic nightmare-scape, squelching through mud puddles of bass as synthesized strings circle the skies.

Back in 1968 a pair of Germanic behind-the-scenes sound librarians called Horst Ackermann and Heribert Thusek left a tiny, but indelible, pinprick on the history of German Pop in the misshaped form of a sexy horror cash-in concept album called Dracula’s Music Cabinet. Shelved at a micro-cosmic axis where Krautrock meets lesbian vampire Horrortica and easy listening meets psychedelia the delayed reaction of this mutant concoction eventually exploded in the mid-1990s in the hands of a generation of ‘record diggers’ sending currencycrushing tremors through the wallets of mods, rockers, hip hoppers, psych nuts and kraut kompletists around the plastic-pillaging planet. The vinyl junkies had resurrected a monster, but, like addicts do, they ravenously sucked it dry and moved on looking for the next fix to feed their habit. Luckily for some, Ackermann and Thusek were also creatures of habit. And it wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that they were holding the next dose, but by the turn of the millennium the mad scientists had been given a thirty-five-year head start on the pop archeologists and their mythical sequel was literally light-years ahead of their previous draconian installment... Encouragingly the unclosed cabinet left a shiny white clue in the form of it’s closing track Frankenstein Meets Alpha 7... Perhaps space was the place. Always read the label. The Ackermann and Thusek duo were far from dynamic. They were undercover agents hiding behind user-friendly mock-rock monikers and, like most B-Musicians, the only way to sniff them out would be to read the small print. But when an unidentified record on an unknown label with a title like Science Fiction Dance Partycrops up in the Eins Deutschmark crates it’s not exactly rocket science - although the track titles might suggest otherwise. The End Of A Robot, Monster On Saturn 1, Galactic Adventures Of The Outer Space Fleet , The Whistling Astronauts, Death Rays Out Of The Universe’.. The telltale signs are all there and if that vintage psycoplasmodic Colored Vinyl doesn’t clench the deal then what will. When rumours about a space-age follow-up to Dracula’s Music Cabinet hit the straße Deutsche-o-phile diggers fingers started twitching nervously

In 2009, Jalapeno Records was approached with some incredible music by the super talented Mixmonster and Schoolmaster, founding members of the jazz funk band 'The Apples'.

Produced under their 'Radio Trip' moniker, the album was a glorious cut & paste journey into sound, with overtones of musique concrete, brought to life by their fascination with vinyl culture, turntablism and sampling.

The first EP taken from the album featured the up-tempo 'Computers Singing' with its crunchy drums, organic horn stabs, bleep FXs, synth bass tones and a myriad of sampled vocals, all deftly arranged into a constantly evolving b boy battle weapon.

Now released for the first time on a limited 45, this little gem also features the sought-after psych-funk remix by fellow DJ, digger and music archivist Markey Funk, who is another a staple of the Israeli groove scene.

17 Rare tracks by folk unknowns Jim Schoenfeld, Jim Ransom, Richard Smyrnios, Tucker Zimmermann, Kierian White, Les Moore, Rob Carr, Jack Hardy, George Cromarty, Jay Bolotin, Tony Trosley, Roger Lewis, Tim Ward, David Kaufmann, John Villemonte, Bob Brown and Robb Kunkel.

/ Bet Your Lucky Star

This compilation introduces a new direction for Now-Again Records and its owner, Stones Throw Records GM, A&R and producer Egon. With the same detailed, no-stone-unturned approach he used for Deep Funk (The Funky 16 Corners, Cold Heat), he tackles beat-heavy global psychedelia with Forge Your Own Chains. Forge Your Own Chains showcases music from all corners of the world: Colombia, Nigeria, Sweden, South Korea, Thailand and Iran. The focus – in keeping with Now-Again’s tradition – is on melody, driving rhythms and accessibility. Not one song is included on this
compilation because it is from a “rare” album. Certainly, many of these songs do spring from albums that exchange hands for many thousands of dollars and many of these songs have never seen reissue. But these songs are all beautiful in their own right and work to form a coherent album.

Glass Pyramid hails from Oklahoma City, with their unique blend of country meets 80s synth funk!

180g vinyl

- "Let's Stay Together" sampled by Little Brother for "Light it Up"

180g vinyl

- "Look What You've Done to Me" sampled by Arrested Development for "Warm Sentiments"

- "Simply Beautiful" sampled by Mike Zoot for "Fat Chance",
Nefarius for "Ill Rhyme" and
Talib Kweli for "Good to You"

- "Love and Happiness" sampled by Above the Law for "G-Rupies Best Friend",
Al Tariq for "Think Not",
Busta Rhymes for "Turn it Up",
Cannibal Ox for "Painkillers",
Deacon for "Soul Saviour",
Encore for "Love and Hate",
Ganjah K for "Love Got My Mind Trippin'",
Mobb Deep for "3 from NYC",
Prodigy for "Freestyle",
Redman for "On Fire",
Special Ed for "The Bush" and
Tony, Toni, Tone for "Thinking of You"

- "I'm Glad You're Mine" (Drums) sampled by 113 for "Face A La Police",
A-Track for "Enter Ralph Wigum",
Abstract Rude for "Musically Inclined",
East Flatbush Project for "Tried by 12",
Eric B & Rakim for "Mahogany",
Freestyle Fellowship for "We Will Not Tolerate",
High & Mighty for "Open Mic Night Remix",
India Arie for "Video",
Jodeci for "S-More",
K-Otix for "Take My Life",
Lauryn Hill for "Sweetest Thing (Mahogany Mix)",
Mary J. Blige for "Time",
Massive Attack for "Five Men Army",
MC Lyte for "Paper Thin",
Morcheeba for "Trigger Hippie",
Mormon Ghetto Projectz for "Blaring Broadcast + Rap Professionals",
Notorious B.I.G. for "Dead Wrong" & "Story to Tell",
Obie Trice for "I'm a Hustler" and
RZA for "My Lovin is Digi"

/ In The Country / Do What You Will / You Are The World

All these tunes reek of booze, dames, nostalgia and fighting, blending to the combination of a great Funk cocktail straight from the Philippines … Limited Edition Of 300 Copies!