Where Are You From?

Christophe LeMaire and Now-Again Records Present a Series of Global Psychedelic Rock, Funk, and Rare Groove


Where Are You From? is a compilation of sixteen songs, selected by someone who works for Lacoste who was given access to the Now-Again vaults.  In the liner notes, he talks about how he selected music for which it is hard to pin down a location.  There is Afro-funk from Germany, and rock from Iran and Indonesia.

This is an excellent introduction to the Now-Again catalogue, and I have been enjoying listening to it quite a bit.  I rather wish that the whole compilation was new to me though.  There are three tracks off the incredible Rikki Ililonga and Musi-O-Tunya collection Dark Sunrise, and a Panbers track off the Indonesian compilation Those Shocking, Shaking Days.  Also, some of the Karl Hector & The Malcouns tracks (there are two) sound familiar.  I also wish there was a little more information in the liner notes about where some of the artists that are unknown to me, such as Damon, Dan Lambert, and Mrr-Adm can be found.

This album did convince me that I want to pick up the Iranian Kourosh Yaghamaei's album Back from the Brink, which I was previously on the fence about.

Also included here are some Now-Again/Stones Throw mainstays, such as Koushik and Gary Wilson (who I can't hear now without thinking about a strip that Jim Mahfood drew about listening to him.  Gaaaarrrrryyyyyy!).  In all, another fantastic disc from the fine people at Now-Again.

Dark Sunrise

by Rikki Ililonga and Musi-O- Tunya

I have been giving this incredible double-disc set a lot of play since December, but just realised that I never wrote about it here.

On Dark Sunrise, Egon (the man behind Now-Again Records) has worked his usual magic, pulling together some thirty-one cuts representing the early history of Zam-rock, or rock music from Zambia.  The set focuses on Rikki Ililonga, who is seen as the father of this musical movement.  The first disc holds thirteen tracks by Ililonga's band, Musi-O-Tunya, recorded between 1973 and 1975, when Ililonga left the group.  The second disc has Ililonga on his own, and encompasses his first two solo albums from 1975 and 1976.

The music is very nice.  It's an African-influenced rock music, and many of the lyrics (at least in the songs sung in English - I have no dead what's going on in the others) deal with the political and socioeconomic realities that Ililonga lived in.  "In the township / where I live / there is so much / pain and misery," starts 'The Nature of Man', my favourite song in the collection.  Others are 'One Reply', with its hopeful horns, 'Walk and Fight', 'Stop Dreaming Mr. D', 'The Queen Blues', and 'Love is the Way'.

This is a very impressive collection of music, and as always, Egon and the people at Now-Again have outdone themselves on the detailed liner notes and lovely hardcover book style packaging.