Various - Forge Your Own Chains

Subtitled ‘Psychedelic Ballads And Dirges 1968 – 1974’, this is Now-Again’s foray into funky psychedelia, via American gospel, paranoiac soul, loner folk, East-Nigerian fuzz, Thai rock, Iranian ballads and more. This compilation introduces a new direction for Now-Again. With the same detailed, no-stone-unturned approach label owner Egon used for the Deep Funk scene (on ‘The Funky 16 Corners’ and ‘Cold Heat’ collections), here he tackles beat-heavy global psychedelia. As he writes in his sleeve-note introduction, “Those of us birthed into record collecting by the hip hop midwife revered Jimi Hendrix as well as James Brown. We searched for albums by Mulatu Astatke and Power of Zeus with the same fervor”. ‘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 just because it is from a “rare” album. Certainly, many of these songs do spring from albums that change hands for thousands of dollars, and many of these songs have never seen reissue. But all are beautiful in their own right and work together to form a coherent collection. Psychedelic records, long the mainstay of older, grizzled collectors and seemingly quaint, are, in the hands of Egon and those of his generation, giving up new ghosts. And, with comps like ‘Forge Your Own Chains’, inspiring new investigations into our not so distant (and still very much alive) musical past. Deluxe gatefold jacket containing extensive and detailed liner notes and annotation by Egon, rare photos and other ephemera.

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