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LUAKA BOP

Annie & The Caldwells

Can’t Lose My (Soul)

    Annie & The Caldwells are a family that plays a powerful disco soul from West Point, Mississippi, led by Annie Caldwell (who sings) and her husband of the last fifty years Willie Joe Caldwell, Sr. (who plays guitar).

    Annie is backed by daughters Deborah Caldwell Moore [Pronounced de-BOR-ah, or BORA, not debra, you white ass] and Anjessica Caldwell and goddaughter Toni Rivers; their eldest son Willie Jr. is on the bass and youngest son Abel Aquirius is on the drums.

    'Can’t Lose My (Soul)' is their new album 40 years in the making … and it’s already gotten rave reviews in MOJO and The Guardian even before it’s been announced.


    TRACK LISTING

    1. Wrong
    2. Can’t Lose My Soul
    3. I Made It
    4. Don’t You Hear Me Calling
    5. I’m Going To Rise
    6. Dear Lord

    Staples Jr. Singers

    Searching

      It happens at times that a stone cold classic from a bygone era gets rediscovered. But how often does that rediscovery happen when the band is still around? And how often does it lead to a new album? That’s the surprising circumstance behind the Staples Jr. Singers’ long-awaited second album, Searching.

      You likely know the Staples Jr. Singers—the family band from Aberdeen, Mississippi—from their first and only record, 1975’s When Do We Get Paid (Luaka Bop, 2022). They made that record themselves when they were only teenagers. Finally, in a moment they’ve been waiting for most of their lives, the family is back with their sophomore album, Searching. Recorded in 2023 in West Point, Mississippi, and Nashville, Tennessee, and produced by Ahmed Gallab, aka Sinkane, the first pressing comes with a booklet of photos by Adam Wissing and notes by Anton Spice. 

      TRACK LISTING

      A1. Living In This World Alone Feat. Annie Brown Caldwell
      A2. Lost In A World Of Sin
      A3. You Got To Believe
      A4. Walk Around Heaven
      B1. I’ve Got A Feeling
      B2. Don’t Need No Doctor
      B3. I Don’t Need Nobody But You
      B4. Get On Board 

      Os Mutantes

      World Psychedelic Classics 1: Everything Is Possible: The Best Of Os Mutantes - 2023 Reissue

        The mid to late 1960s in Brazil produced the creative arts and music movement Tropicalia, of which the band Os Mutantes were the most outrageous. Their creative cannibalism produced psychedelic gems unlike anything happening anywhere at the time. They were exactly what their name implies - a mutant genetic recombination of of elements of John Cage, The Beatles (circa "Sgt Pepper") and bossa nova. This collection brings together the best tracks from the four albums they released between 1968 and 1971; "Os Mutantes", "Mutantes", "A Divina Cemedia Ou Ando Meio Desligado" and "Jardim Eletrico".

        TRACK LISTING

        A1. Ando Meio Desligado
        A2. Ave, Lúcifer
        A3. Dia
        A4. Baby (1971)
        A5. Fuga No. II
        A6. Cantor De Mambo
        A7. Adeus, Maria Fulô
        B1. Desculpe, Babe
        B2. El Justiciero
        B3. Panis Et Circenses
        B4. A Minha Menina
        B5. Bat Macumba
        B6. Le Premier Bonheur Du Jour
        B7. Baby (1968)

        Pharoah Sanders

        Pharoah

          With Pharoah Sanders’ blessing, we present the definitive, remastered version of Pharoah, his seminal record from 1977, in an embossed 2 LP box set. Alongside the original record, we’re including two previously unreleased live performances of his masterpiece, “Harvest Time," and a 24-page booklet with rarely seen photographs and ephemera, which tell the story of this album and this moment in Pharoah’s life in a way that has never been done before—including through interviews with many of the participants and a conversation with Pharoah himself.

          For those of you who already know this record, then you know that its origin story is as elusive as Pharoah was about everything Pharoah. It was born out of a misunderstanding between him and the India Navigation producer Bob Cummins, and was recorded when he was at a crossroads in his career with an unlikely crew. Among them was a guitarist who was also a spiritual guru, an organist who would go on to co-write and produce “The Message,” and a classically trained pianist—his wife at the time, Bedria Sanders—who played the harmonium despite never having seen one. At times ambient and serene, at others funky and modal, PHAROAH radically departed from his earlier work. And it became beloved.

          Last fall, we were working with Pharoah on this project when he unexpectedly passed away. At first, it was hard to know what to do. We loved him, and the reason you do all of this is not solely for the music, but also for the person who made it. It’s their personality, their humor, and their wishes that drive you forward. So, we decided to go deep into the research. We set out to create something that showed Pharoah and his music in a new light.

          Over the next few months, we’re going to share with you all the amazing things we found, from personal photos of Pharoah to newspaper clippings that people saved in their time capsules. (Sign up at the link in our bio to get updates.) And we’re going to share the live versions of “Harvest Time,” which turn the original piece on its head.

          For seasoned listeners and new acolytes both, Pharoah will never sound the same.

          TRACK LISTING

          2LP
          Pharoah
          A1. Harvest Time
          B1. Love Will Find A Way
          B2. Memories Of Edith Johnson
          Harvest Time Live 1977
          C1. Harvest Time Live – Version 1
          D1. Harvest Time Live – Version 2

          CD1 - Pharoah
          1. Harvest Time
          2. Love Will Find A Way
          3. Memories Of Edith Johnson
          CD2 - Harvest Time Live 1977
          1. Harvest Time Live – Version 1
          2. Harvest Time Live – Version 2

          The Staples Jr. Singers

          When Do We Get Paid - 2023 Reissue

            The Staples Jr. Singers were part of a vanguard of soul gospel artists in the 1970s that broke from tradition to testify with the groove. They found their inspiration in the secular music they heard on the radio, and wrote songs that were nothing but stone cold soul.

            Like many gospel groups at the time, they were a family band: The Browns from Aberdeen, Mississippi. Annie was 11, A.R.C was 12, and Edward was 13 when they got their start, building a reputation by playing school talent shows and front yards in tow.

            “We were so strange and we were so young,” says Edward Brown, “and a lot of people didn’t understand that.”

            Every weekend, they would pile into their family van and travel across the Bible Belt, performing sometimes as many as three shows in a single day. Back then, the South was desegregated on paper but not always in practice, and the Staples Jr. Singers weren’t always sure what kind of welcome they would receive—whether a new audience would embrace them, whether local restaurants would serve them.

            Forty years, three generations, and countless performances later, the original members of the Staples Jr. Singers are still on the circuit, performing almost every weekend at local churches as the Brown Singers and the Caldwell Singers. While they’ve written an entire catalog of gospel music since 1975’s When Do We Get Paid, for the Staples Jr. Singers, the incantatory funk of this music still holds the power to help make a way out of dark and troubled times.

            “I can be a witness,” Annie says, “Back then you could feel it. You were basing it on yourself. These are the songs that are really going to take us over.”


            TRACK LISTING

            1.Get On Board
            2. I Know You’re Going To Miss Me
            3. I’m Looking For A Man
            4. I’m Going To A City
            5. Somebody Save Me
            6. Trouble Of The World
            7. Waiting For The Trumpet To Sound
            8. I Feel Good
            9. When Do We Get Paid
            10. On My Journey Home
            11. Too Close
            12. Send It On Down
            13. I Got A New Home

            Tom Zé

            Brazil Classics 5: The Hips Of Tradition - The Return Of Tom Zé (Repress)

              Brazil Classics 5: The Hips of Tradition, comes in a limited Amazon Green edition.

              Here’s what you have in store: Household appliances and tools in arrangements with horns, strings, “prepared” guitars (punctuated by grunts, screams and other wild percussion), all melded with eccentric metaphorical lyricism.

              Alice Coltrane

              World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music Of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda - 2023 Repress

                As some of you may know, Alice Coltrane was a legendary pianist, composer, spiritual leader, and the wife of John Coltrane, the most venerated and influential saxophonist in the history of jazz. In 1967, four years after meeting John, he died of liver cancer, leaving Alice a widow with four small children. Bereft of her soul mate, Alice suffered sleepless nights and severe weight loss. At her worst, she weighed only 95 pounds. She had hallucinations in which trees spoke, various beings existed on astral planes, and the sounds of “a planetary ether” spun through her brain, knocking her into a frightening unconsciousness.

                The critical event of this period was not that Alice fell into the nadir of her existence, but rather that she experienced tapas, a vital period of trial. These tapas (a Sanskrit term she used to describe her suffering) helped prepare Alice for the spiritual ally she found in Swami Satchidananda, an Indian guru, with whom Alice made her first trip to India. On her second trip there, Alice had a revelation instructing her to abandon the secular life and become a spiritual teacher in the Hindu tradition – so she moved out West – eventually opening the Shanti Anantam Ashram on 47 acres she’d bought in Agoura Hills, California.

                Music was the foundation of Alice’s spiritual practice. From the mid 1980’s to mid 1990’s, Alice Coltrane self-released four brilliant cassette albums. These cassettes contained a music she invented, inspired by the gospel music of the Detroit churches she grew up in, mixed together with the Indian devotional music of her religious practice, and even finds Alice singing for the first time in her recorded catalog. Originally only made available through her ashram, they are her most obscure body of work and possibly the greatest reflection of her soul.

                TRACK LISTING

                1. Om Rama
                2. Om Shanti
                3. Rama Rama
                4. Rama Guru
                5. Hari Narayan
                6. Journey To Satchidananda
                7. Er Ra
                8. Keshava Murahara
                9. Krishna Japaye*
                10. Rama Katha

                The Staples Jr. Singers

                Tell Heaven

                  Down across the railroad tracks, on a narrow road called Church Street in West Point, Mississippi, there’s a windowless brick building that’s been converted into a house of worship called The Message Center. One chilly January morning, the original members of a little-known gospel group from Aberdeen, Mississippi, called the Staples Jr. Singers gathered there to play some of their early songs for the first time in nearly 50 years.

                  Many of these songs, which they wrote when they were just teenagers, first appeared on their only full-length release in 1975, When Do We Get Paid (Luaka Bop, 2022), but none have been revisited—until now.


                  TRACK LISTING

                  A1 When Do We Get Paid (In Full)
                  B1 Somebody Save Me
                  B2 I’m Looking For A Man
                  B3 Tell Heaven

                  Pastor Champion

                  I Just Want To Be A Good Man

                    This album is a tribute to Pastor Wylie Champion, who died while we were in the process of releasing this, his first record, and his wife, Mother Champion, who died a few months earlier.

                    We met Pastor Champion a few years ago while we were putting together another release, The Time for Peace Is Now: Gospel Music About Us. We found him in a collection of YouTube videos from the 37th Street Baptist Church in Oakland, California, put together by the pastor there, Bishop Dr. W.C. McClinton. There was quite a lot of talent in those videos, and among them was Pastor Champion whom we liked so much that we decided to make a record with him.

                    Pastor Champion wasn’t like any other pastor you’ve ever met. As an itinerant preacher, a carpenter, and a father of five, he made a name for himself traveling up and down the California coast with his electric guitar. He travelled alone and he played alone, well into his seventies. The easiest way to describe him would be as an outsider gospel artist. Other than these bare facts, we never learned much about him—except that he was also the brother of the well-known soul singer Bettye Swann. In fact, most of what we knew about him we got from his sister’s Wikipedia page.

                    We decided that because we met Champion through the 37th Street Baptist Church, we would record him there too. We recorded him live on a two-track Nagra reel to reel, as we wanted the album to be analog in the style of traditional gospel recordings. Over the course of two evenings (when the workday was done), Champion taught his band—musicians who had never played together before—a handful of songs, a small selection of the nearly 2,000 fragments of songs and sermons that he regularly performed. We listened in as they all got more familiar with the material and each other over time.

                    At some point, we mentioned to Champion that he would have to be interviewed by someone to write notes for the album. He wasn’t too pleased with this idea, saying he’d had a hard life and he didn’t want to talk about it. Over the next few months, we kept asking Champion to talk to someone about his life. He told us that he didn’t want to talk about growing up in Louisiana, his mother being accosted by the Klan, or that his father was a gambler. He didn’t want to talk about being jailed for 90 days for using a whites only bathroom, being in gangs or having a street name. We told him that was fine—he could talk about what he wanted to talk about. And he told us that he didn’t want to talk about anything.

                    You know, there are times when you make a record where it’s already made in your mind before you start. But then in the end, the record you thought you were making is not the record you made. We spent years puzzling over this one, trying to figure out what it was saying, who it was for, and how to get people to pay attention to it.

                    But Champion knew that this record wasn’t going to be for everyone. He didn’t really care. The important part for him was just getting the message out there in the same way that he always had, travelling alone with his electric guitar. “I want to say what I mean,” he said, “be practical, precise, to the point, and, at the same time, diplomatic.” In other words, he just wanted to be a good man.

                    God bless Pastor Champion and Mother Champion, peace be with them and their family. Love to all

                    TRACK LISTING

                    01 / A1. Intro
                    02 / A2. I Know That You’ve Been Wounded (Church Hurt)
                    03 / A3. He’ll Make A Way (Trust In The Lord)
                    04 / A4. Talk To God
                    05 / A5. In The Name Of Jesus (everytime)
                    06 / B1. To Be Used By You (I Want To Be A Good Man)
                    07 / B2. Who Do Men Say I Am?
                    08 / B3. Storm Of Life (Stand By Me)
                    09 / B4. In The Service Of The Lord
                    10 / B5. I Just Want To Be A Good Man (To Be Used By You) 

                    Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra

                    Promises

                    Promises is the result of three distinct musical worlds colliding. Pharoah Sanders’ jazz improvisation and Flo Po’s twinkling electronics are layered over the string section of the LSO, bound together by a loose symphonic structure. These are textures that rarely sit together in a single composition, yet somehow they seamlessly knit into a cohesive whole. It’s quite a feat, one that could only be pulled off by artists as accomplished as these.

                    The entire album revolves around a recurring phrase played by Sam Shepherd on the piano, harpsichord and celesta. This phrase becomes the central pulse around which the other textures float, suspended in the space inbetween. The loose tempo allows for the improvised saxophone passages to flow freely and for Pharaoh to lean into the most tender moments of his performance.

                    At the beginning of the album the string section gradually emerges like a delicate silver thread before building through a series of sweeping chord progressions and moments of bittersweet dissonance. This leads into the third movement where Sam Shephard’s deft synth arrangement becomes the focal point. And later on we hear a hushed vocal performance from Pharoah. It’s one of the most touching moments of the album, with years of lived experience seeping through every crack and bend of his voice in a captivating way.

                    Promises is an album of subtle expression which invokes a feeling of boundlessness. It’s a wide open sonic space where each note is allowed to resonate to its full conclusion. There’s a constant feeling of push and pull, of tension and release, though it never really resolves fully. Something is always left hanging in the air - a question, a prayer, an inexplicable feeling. It’s perhaps one of the most surprising and profound releases of the year. 

                    STAFF COMMENTS

                    Matt says: A beautiful orchestral piece that while both resplendent with FP's and PS's wonderful idiosyncrasies; recalls the gorgeous depth of Prefab Sprout's "I Trawl The Megahertz" but without the vocal parts! Epic!

                    TRACK LISTING

                    Side 1
                    1. Promises (Movement 1) (1:16)
                    2. Promises (Movement 2) (3:56)
                    3. Promises (Movement 3) (3:16)
                    4. Promises (Movement 4) (3:39)
                    5. Promises (Movement 5) (6:06)

                    Side 2
                    1. Promises (Movement 6) (8:25)
                    2. Promises (Movement 7) (3:26)
                    3. Promises (Movement 8) (9:57)
                    4. Promises (Movement 9) (5:43)

                    Various Artists

                    Brazil Classics

                      THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2019 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

                      30 year anniversary box seT of David byrne’s legendary brazil Classics series. This is one of the first compilations of pop music from Brazil, and one of the most important compilations of music from anywhere. It became the beginning of a shift to music in other languages and from places other than where you are now. And, it was the beginning of Luaka Bop, which we are pretty happy about. New sleeve notes from David Byrne!

                      William Onyeabor

                      World Psychedelic Classics 5: Who Is William Onyeabor?

                      THE PICCADILLY RECORDS REISSUE/COLLECTION OF THE YEAR 2013.

                      Through its World Psychedelic Classics series, Luaka Bop has succeeded at introducing long-forgotten artists including Os Mutantes, Shuggie Otis and Tim Maia to the world at large. William Onyeabor is as obscure as these other artists were before their Luaka Bop releases, although his recordings from the 70s and 80s are beloved by die-hard record collectors and artists such as Damon Albarn, Devendra Banhart, Four Tet and Caribou, to name a few. The music ranges from synth-heavy electronic dance music to Afrosoul with saxophones and female backup singers, to psychedelic funk with wah-wah guitar and fuzzy keyboards - and often combines all of these elements.

                      'Who Is William Onyeabor?' may be the most complicated, if also one of the richest, undertakings in Luaka Bop's (rarely straightforward) 25-year history. Following the eight albums Onyeabor self-released between 1978 and 1985, he became a Born-Again Christian, refusing ever to speak about himself or his music again. Various biographies can be found online. Some say he studied cinematography in the Soviet Union and returned to Nigeria in the mid-70s to start his own film company, Wilfilms. Some say he was a lawyer with a degree from a university in Great Britain. Others portray him as a businessman who for years worked on government contracts in Enugu, Nigeria.

                      By attempting to speak with Onyeabor himself, and by talking to people who seem to have firsthand knowledge, Luaka Bop has been trying to construct an accurate biography of him for the past 18 months...without success.

                      One thing that's undisputable is that Onyeabor's music is utterly unique and ahead of its time.

                      The vinyl release comprises 13 tracks spanning Onyeabor's body of work and will include artwork by John Akomfrah, Njideka Akunyili, Harrison Haynes, Dave Muller, Odili Donald Odita and Xaviera Simmons. 

                      "The world might just be better off not hearing [Onyeabor's "Atomic Bomb"], which will burrow and propagate its seed exponentially by the second, into the hearts and souls of all humanity. It's the catchiest song I've ever heard; when it gets in my brain, I can't sleep...He's a mythical character from Nigeria." - Devendra Banhart in Uncut

                      "Anyone out there who is making music at the moment...will be quite excited by this..." - Damon Albarn on BBC Radio One

                      "LCD Soundsystem sounds like an American William Onyeabor." - Peaking Lights

                      "Talked to Luaka Bop about details of the William Onyeabor comp they are working on... Gonna blow minds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" - Four Tet

                      "People are really going to freak out!" - Caribou

                      TRACK LISTING

                      1. Body And Soul
                      2. Atomic Bomb
                      3. Good Name
                      4. Something You Will Never Forget
                      5. Why Go To Ware
                      6. Love Is Blind
                      7. Heaven And Hell
                      8. Let’s Fall In Love
                      9. Fantastic Man

                      LP EXCLUSIVES – NOT AVAILABLE ON CD OR DIGITALLY:
                      10. When The Going Is Smooth & Good
                      11. The Way To Win Your Love
                      12. Jungle Gods
                      13. Love Me Now

                      Os Mutantes

                      Live At The Barbican

                        In terms of their status and influence Os Mutantes are often referred to as the Brazilian Beatles. How did 60s Brazil produce the wildest, most psychedelic rock'n'roll group of them all? And why, three decades on, has the rest of the world gone crazy over them? Kurt Cobain, Beck, Super Furry Animals, The Bees and David Byrne are just a few of the musicians that have flown the flag for Os Mutantes. Against all odds, in May 2006 the band reunited for the first time in over 30 years for a euphoric show at the Barbican's Tropicalia Festival. The recording of this historic concert, with special guests Devendra Banhart and Noah Georgeson, is now released on CD and DVD. The live album features the best-loved tracks of this legendary group and the full-length DVD includes the entire Barbican concert plus documentary, backstage footage, video clips and photos.


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