IN STOCK
1LP - TIDAL WAVES
2020

SOLD OUT
1LP - TIDAL WAVES MUSIC
2019

IN STOCK
LIMITED - 1LP - TIDAL WAVES MUSIC
2021

BIS => 2022 05 27
1LP - TIDAL WAVES
2020

BIS => 2022 02 04
WHITE
1LP - TIDAL WAVES MUSIC
2020

SOLD OUT
1LP - PMG
2016

IN STOCK
1LP - PMG
2017

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1LP - PMG
2016

IN STOCK
1LP - PMG
2017

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1LP - PMG
2016

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1LP - OOM DOOBY DOCHAS
2018

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
2LP - BBE
2019

SOLD OUT
1LP - NOW-AGAIN RESERVE SERIES
2022 03 04

SOLD OUT
1LP - PMG
2017

IN STOCK
1LP - PMG
2016

SOLD OUT
1LP - PMG
2016

IN STOCK
LP - PMG
2016

SOLD OUT
1LP - PMG
2018

BIS => 2022 04 01
1LP - PMG
2017

SOLD OUT
1LP - PMG
2016

BIS => 2022 04 01
1LP - PMG
2017

BIS => 2022 04 01
1LP - PMG
2017

BIS => 2022 04 01
1LP - PMG
2016

BIS => 2022 04 01
1LP - PMG
2017

BIS => 2022 04 01
1LP - PMG
2016

IN STOCK
1LP - PMG
2016

BIS => 2022 04 01
1LP - PMG
2016

BIS => 2022 04 01
1LP - PMG
2016

BIS => 2022 04 01
12 INCH - PMG
2016

SOLD OUT
1LP - 8TH RECORDS
2017

SOLD OUT
3LP - BBE
2018

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1LP - BBE
2019

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
2LP - BBE
2021

SOLD OUT
BLACK ICE
1LP - TIDAL WAVES MUSIC
2022 02 25

BIS => 2022 02 04
1LP - PMG
2016

SOLD OUT
1LP - TAMBORINE PARTY
1981 => 2020

SOLD OUT
1LP - UBIQUITY RECORDINGS
2011

BIS => 2022 03 18
1LP - UBIQUITY
2009

IN STOCK
1LP - PMG
2016

BIS => 2022 02 04
1LP - MR BONGO
2021 03 05

SOLD OUT
1LP - NOW AGAIN
2013

BIS => 2022 02 04
1LP - PMG
2018

IN STOCK
DROP 1 - RSD 2021
1LP - TIDAL WAVES MUSIC
2021 06 12

IN STOCK
1LP - TOKUMA JAPAN COMMUNICATIONS
2021 12 17

SOLD OUT
RSD ESSENTIAL INDIE COLORWAY - DEEP PURPLE
2LP - MADLIB INVAZION
2010 => 2022

SOLD OUT
RED
1LP - MR BONGO
RSD 2022
1977 => 2022

SOLD OUT
1LP - TIDAL WAVES
2020

SOLD OUT
1LP - TIDAL WAVES MUSIC
2019

SOLD OUT
1LP - NOW AGAIN
2012

IN STOCK
1LP - HOT CASA
2021 02 26

SOLD OUT
1LP - HOT CASA
2021 06 18

SOLD OUT
2LP - OSTINATO RECORDS
2021 05 28

SOLD OUT
LIMITED NUMBERED
2LP - PLANET ILUNGA
2021 05 28

IN STOCK
LIMITED - 1LP - JET RECORDS
1973 => 2020

SOLD OUT
1LP - ACID JAZZ
2021 06 18

IN STOCK
1LP - ACID JAZZ
2021 02 26

SOLD OUT
1LP - ACID JAZZ
2021 01 22

2LP - STRUT
2021 05 14

BIS => 2022 05 13
7 IINCH - HOT CASA
2021 05 28

IN STOCK
1LP - TIDAL WAVES MUSIC
2021 04 16

SOLD OUT
2LP - ANALOG AFRICA
2021 03 26

BIS => 2023 10 06
2LP - ANALOG AFRICA
2010

SOLD OUT
1LP - CULTURES OF SOUL
2021 02 05

SOLD OUT
1LP - STRAWBERRY RAIN MUSIC
2021 01 22

SOLD OUT
2LP - PLANET ILUNGA
2020 10 16

SOLD OUT
LIMITED NUMBERED - 2LP + 7 INCH x 1 - PLANET ILUNGA
2020 10 16

IN STOCK
1LP - NOW AGAIN
1976 => 2012

IN STOCK
LIMITED - 10INCH - ANALOG AFRICA
2020

SOLD OUT
1LP - AGOGO RECORDS
2020

SOLD OUT
1LP - PLANET ILUNGA
2020

IN STOCK
LIMITED - 10INCH - TRAMP RECORDS
2020

SOLD OUT
1LP - UBIQUITY RECORDINGS
2021 01 08

SOLD OUT
1LP - MR BONGO
1977 => 2019

SOLD OUT
1LP - HOT CASA
2019

IN STOCK
1LP - EVERLAND
2019

1LP - PMG
2016
BACK IN STOCK => 2021 10 15

1LP - PMG
2017
BACK IN STOCK => 2021 10 15

SOLD OUT
1LP - PMG
2017

1LP - PMG
2018
BACK IN STOCK => 2021 10 15

1LP - PMG
2018
BACK IN STOCK => 2021 10 15

IN STOCK
1LP - PMG
2017

IN STOCK
1LP - PMG
2016

1LP - PMG
2016

1LP - PMG
2016
BACK IN STOCK => 2021 10 15

SOLD OUT
2LP - NOW AGAIN
2016

SOLD OUT
2LP - STRUT
2008

7INCH - MATASUNA

SOLD OUT
2LP - HORS CADRE
2018

IN STOCK
1LP - JET RECORDS
2019

SOLD OUT
5LP - NOW AGAIN
2020 09 11

BIS => 2025 05 02
2LP - NOW-AGAIN
2014

TRACKLIST
A1 Introduction
A2 Push Na Ya
A3 El Gusto
A4 Transition >S<
A5 Karadeniz
A6 The Spirit Of Gine
B1 Transition >T<
B2 Girma's Lament
B3 Sharpville Massacre
B4 Samai Thaqil
C1 Jo Nibunga
C2 Omebele (Makossa)
C3 M'Hammad
C4 Transition >A<
C5 Who's Foolin' Who?
C6 Transition >C<
D1 Hymnin S
D2 Bring It On Down
D3 Mission Control
D4 Kaifa Part 1+2

DESCRIPTION
Karl Hector aka the German producer and guitarist JJ Whitefield, Whitefield is the visionary behind the Poets of Rhythm and the Whitefield Brothers, the ensembles whose rough analog sound and return to the funk archetypes of the late 60s to early 70s paved the way for labels like Daptone, Truth & Soul, Timmion. Whitefield, along with Thomas Myland and Zdenko Curlija, founded Karl Hector and The Malcouns in the early 2000s. Their debut, Sahara Swing, saw release on Now-Again in 2008. The album swung with influences from across the African diaspora and set the stage for a cult, but influential following. Festival promoters intrigued by the possibility of resurrecting the careers of once forgotten African mavericks from Ghana's Ebo Taylor to the progenitors of Zambia's Zamrock scene brought Hector and crew across Europe playing festivals for ecstatic fans. A grueling tour schedule made recording a follow up album to Sahara Swing quite the challenge, and as a result, the band opted to release limited edition, hand-silkscreened EP's, which continued to show their deft handling of musics from Eastern and Northern Africa alongside Western psychedelia, jazz and funk. Whitefield gave himself 2013 to finish the album that would become Unstraight Ahead, which will see release on Now-Again this summer. Unstraight Ahead finds the band exploring territories even outside of the expansive scope of Sahara Swing. On this album, the West African sounds of Ghana and Mali meet the East African sounds of Mulatu Astatke's Ethiopian jazz and are tied together with the groove heavy experimentalism of The Malcouns' 70s Krautrock godfathers: Can, of course, but also more obscure and equally adventurous groups like Agitation Free, Ibliss and Tomorrow's Gift. We look to Middle Eastern funk and psychedelic fusions, and to various ethnic records for sound and phrasing, Whitefield states. We're trying to combine the global experimentalism of Krautrock with the backbeat of funk. This explains how songs in uneven meters 5/4, 7/8 always sound so accessible and natural on Unstraight Ahead. It's mainly an instrumental affair, but guest artists appear throughout, from across the African diaspora to those from the worldly Krautrock forebears of their German fatherland: it's Marja, daughter of Embryo founder Christian Burchard, whose vocals open the album. It's an album out of time, one that couldn't have been made in the era its aural aesthetics reference, as its scope is so broad. But it's an album focused by funk and an ambition to expand funk's reaches. The Malcouns including Poets of Rhythm songwriter and vocalist Bo Baral - created their own instruments to fashion an album that stands alongside the great albums of its progenitors but charges Unstraight Ahead into a curious musical future.

SOLD OUT
2LP - OSTINATO
2021 02 12

1LP - FUNKIWALA
2021 02 12

1LP - FUNKIWALA
2021 02 05

IN STOCK
1LP - SONORAMA
2019

SOLD OUT
2LP - ANALOG AFRICA
2008

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
YELLOW
12 INCH - MR BONGO
2020

SOLD OUT
2LP - STRUT
2009

SOLD OUT
RED
3LP - COLEMINE
2020 04 13

SOLD OUT
2LP - STRUT
2017