Forge Your Own Chains: Psychedelic Ballads and Dirges 1968-1974
A while back in the comment section, some semi-anonymous seer inveighed against my admiration for what Stones Throw is doing. I don’t get it. Unlike most of the now mostly moribund labels of the indie-rap boom, they’ve managed to keep quality control high, output steady, and craft a sensible and generous promotional policy for the digital age. Granted, the Atwater-based label isn’t above putting out the occasional dud, but they’ve been few and far between. And over the last two years, with the launch of Egon’s Now-Again spinoff, few imprints are able to match the impeccable excavation they’ve done in unearthing lost gems from all ends of the earth.
There is competition (Tompkins Square, Light in the Attic, Soundways, Strut, Subliminal Sounds), but Forge Your Own Chains provides unimpeachable evidence for Now-Again’s excellence in the field of excellence. The crate-digging equivalent of shale oil extraction. Compiling largely anonymous American, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern acts united by their love of lysergics and their skill at creating haunting and woozy one-offs, it’s one of the more essential compilations in a year with a lot of essential compilations. You probably haven’t heard any of these groups before, but you probably should have. To boot, the packaging comes with a 40 page book complete with extensive mini-bios about each group, it’s an impressive touch and a wise move to entice wary buyers. Doc Ellis would approve.
Download:
MP3: Damon-”Don’t You Feel Me”
MP3: Guilty Simpson & Oh No-”My Time to Shine”
Stumble It!
November 18th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Bought it online last night. I’m not the BIGGEST fan of Stones Throw, but I could easily toss down a couple hundred bucks really easy on their site
November 18th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Yeah, regardless what you think of the new stuff those Carolina Funk, Esoteric Jazz, and Whitefield Bros. records are just phenomenal. If you don’t have those, they’re well worth it.
November 19th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Wait, wait, wait. Who isn’t loving Stone’s Throw?
Hell, i had them pull a cease & desist for posting essentially a handjob review of how much i love the label and i STILL love them. My tastes run odd, but it’s my fave hip hoppish label out there. Period. End of story.
(After a quick convo w/ their PR dept, the C&D was pulled because they admittedly hadn’t read the post just saw i posted a bunch of mp3s, but it’s good to know the fat cats at ST still can show love to the little guy.)
November 19th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Probably one of those “street minded” and rugged denizens of the Internet blog world. You gotta’ be careful not to accidentally step into the wrong IP address.
November 23rd, 2009 at 4:52 pm
[…] though to justify my recent rave about their archival efforts, Now-Again strikes uh, again, with the announcement of the Nigerian […]
November 28th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Stones Throw is based in Highland Park, not Atwater. Do you understand the difference?
November 28th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Their mailing address is:
Stones Throw Records
2658 Griffith Park Blvd. #504
Los Angeles CA 90039-2520
info@stonesthrow.com
http://www.stonesthrow.com/company/contact
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Been jamming this rather non stop since getting the day before Thanksgiving.A great compilation. I’d love to hear someone make a bunch of songs using samples from this bad boy.