A new record label from London, as well as a record shop and a club night, Love Vinyl is the ambitious new project led by Zaf Chowdhry and 3 of his mates!

Love Vinyl is at the same time a record shop, a record label and a club night. Can you explain how you make everything works together?
Nothing is easy, but we have many years of experience between us and it’s just the love of music that drives us to keep on keepin’ on. We need to work harder on the club nights though, that’s the hardest part, we have some plans this year to do some killer club nights with some special Dj’s.

Your shop sells both new and second hand records, do you think this is the only way to make a record shop working these days?
When we started it just made sense to offer the best of both worlds to our customers. The best record shops are the ones with the most choices and variety.

Who’s buying your label records? DJ’s, collectors or just music lovers?
DJ’s, collectors are music Lovers!

On a more personal tip, when did you start digging records?
Simple answer to that question is around 10 years old. My first digging trip as a record dealer was in the late 80s.

What LP’s did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
I started collecting singles first, then 12’s and Lp’s and my tastes changed as I got older, but I love all the first records I bought and always will.

Do you have a particular style or favourite period?
I love all styles of music but my fave period would be the 1970’s if I had to pick one.

Are you still diggin’, buying vinyl, visiting other record shops?
When I go abroad yes I love to check other record shops, not so much in the UK. I buy records most days of the week.

What was your first release on Love Vinyl?
It was Eugene Record-Overdose Of Joy on 7’.

What could be your editorial/esthetic line?
Love Vinyl is synonymous with quality music whether that’s new or vintage vinyl.
We offer the best from the fields of soul, funk, disco, house, techno, jazz, hip hop and even pop in a warm and friendly environment. Why not pop in for a perusal whilst you’re in London!

What could be the label’s leitmotif?
We believe that our beauty is that the four partners love music and that we hope that our enthusiasm comes across with the stock that we hold on site.

LP’s, 7’’ or 12’’, do you have a favorite format, and will you publish all formats on your label?
Plan is to do all formats…

You just reissue the fabulous Wally Badarou ‘Back To Scales To-Night’ LP! Any plans to focus on african/tropical disco sounds or just a one-off?
Our tastes in the shop cover a wide variety of genres and limiting ourselves by focussing in on one style isn’t in our plans and doesn’t tell our story.

There’s a huge competition on the reissue market and getting the rights to reissue LP’s getting harder and harder…
Yes, everybody is doing it now… It’s sometimes a problem as you have an idea to possibly release a record but then find out some other label is doing it.

There are more and more reissues of old LP’s, and more and more record labels (major or indie) now release their new artists on LP, or EP. Do you think that the LP reissue market could ever reach saturation point?
Like most sectors everything has a peak before declines. We like to think that we’ll be ahead of any curves whilst maintaining our approach for high quality releases.

What are your other next releases ? And could you give us your feeling about each?
We have a number of releases in the pipeline which focus in on quality across all musical genres some of which are re-issues and some of which are unissued that haven’t been heard for decades. We are also working with current artists that we believe in. Quality is the key of all.

What is the LP you dream of issuing/reissuing?
An unissued recording from the 1960s of a Siberian modern jazz quartet that’s sat in a can unheard of until its release. One that wows all with a majestical spell for all upon first listens.

Rob Sevier with John Kirby (left)…

 
 

Each month, we are focusing on a record label founded by an active digger. We are stopping with Rob Sevier, one of the souls behind the Chicago-based Numero Group, the label that has specialized in giving new birth to the unknown musical faces of the other America.

When did you start digging records?
I guess that’s hard to pin down exactly, depending on what your definition of “digging” is. My first experiences experimenting with buying records that I didn’t know anything about was in high school. You could argue that I did something similar to digging simply by taping music off the radio, some of the arcane college radio shows played original recordings I’ve never seen or heard since (in some cases I believe I might have written the names down wrong.) My first record purchases were fifth and sixth grade, buying 45s that I heard on the oldies station.

What Lps did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
I still listen to a lot of the music I consumed in my youth, particularly rap which I never bought but rather taped off friends, or jazz that I taped off CDs and cassettes borrowed from the library. Of course I listened to classic rock and at one point bought a Roy Harper LP after reading that Led Zeppelin played on it (the internet has revealed this was misinformation, only Jimmy Page plays on one song, but it was a definitely a new experience to listen to Valentine as a freshman in high school.) The first LPs I started being seriously were jazz LPs, particularly jazz fusion but a chance purchase got me John Coltrane’s ‘Interstellar Space’. And that sent me deeper into weirdo shit, especially after reading Thurston Moore’s article in Grand Royal (Top Ten From The Free Jazz Underground). Simultaneously of course I was buying indie rap records, instant classics like “End To End Burners”, “Dead Bent”, “Agent Orange”, Fortified Live… pretty much anything that the dude at Beat Parlor recommended from ’96-’98. That was some of the most excitement I ever experienced about an underground scene as it was happening. I still own a lot of these records but had to rebuy them all over the last few years… wish I had my original 12”s which all had miscellaneous stickers stuck to the blank sleeves.

Do you have a particular style or favorite period?
Broadly I collect soul music on 45 from the 1970s most fervently. I have at various times collected other styles more aggressively but arrived at some sort of impasse or completion with them enough that I’ve moved on.

Are you still digging’, buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
Yes, but there are definitely diminishing returns on digging in the purest sense, and it’s virtually impossible to find anything you actually personally want to file in your collection. Best case scenario you find something rare and sought-after by someone else that you can trade for something you want, or sell to buy something you want. Even having omnivorous tendencies its still fairly impossible to get a record “in the wild”.

What was your first release on Numero Group ?
‘001 Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label’.

Kool Blues
I Want To Be Ready

Why did you choose this name : Numero Group ? Were inspired by Library music series?
It was Ken’s choice, he had already selected the name by the time I partnered with him. However, it is very much about putting the catalog numbers front and center, and building a library not just individual releases.

Do you feel close to a label like Folkways ?
Very close. Both Ken and I consider Moe Asch a hero. Our Numerophon imprint is an attempt (not a very vigorous one, but nonetheless) to cover some of the same diverse ground as Folkways did.

You mentioned before that UK labels such as Soul Jazz or Honest John’s were a marking influence on your work. Can you think of any specific project?
I always loved the ‘NuYorican’ comps that Soul Jazz did, and the first ‘New Orleans Funk’ comp is seminal of course. These were survey collections, overviews, and from the start we wanted to do something lazer-focused and less “greatest hits” feeling, perhaps in friendly opposition or as a complement to these broader looks.

Ken Shipley told us that you had also been influenced by the BYG/Actuel series, mainly on the visual aesthetics, the number artwork … What else did you like in BYG?
I’ve listened to most if not all of the series and definitely have my favorites. ‘Africanasia’ by Jacques Coursil and Arthur Jones is a sleeper hit and probably the only one I still listen to regularly. ‘Echo’ by Dave Burrell is a large ensemble monster and featured prominently in the aforementioned Thurston Moore list and was one of the earlier records in the series I acquired (from the Antiquarium, if I remember correctly, or maybe a Len Bukowski list.) The Archie Shepp ‘Live at the PanAfrikan Fest’ is really beautiful, particularly the side with the tuareg musicians. That Alan Silva triple set is excellent but I made it through the thing exactly once, and that was a struggle. Both M.E.V. LPs are strong and still filed and might be the best non-jazz things on the label (‘Camembert Electrique’ is one I got rid of because I never quite connected with it… probably worth revisiting.)

What could be your editorial/aesthetic line?
With the exception of the 200 line, which focuses on 80s and 90s indie rock and DIY, the editorial line is probably something like this: We will prioritize the completely unknown over the known every time. Our goal is to thoroughly investigate the most unlikely motherlodes of unknown independently-produced recordings from the fifties through the eighties that contain visionary, artistic, underground statements, in any style from any genre.

Spirit Of Israel
Daniel

How do you decide on the choice of reissues?
The releases that I’m most proud of don’t happen by choice necessarily… I see it as boring into an aquifer and if there’s a bounty there, it pushes itself into existence (through the well we’ve dug.) What we decide to release feels really obvious and necessary to us.

One of our favorite (and one of our store’s best sellers) is ‘Soul Message From Dimona’. What an incredible story! How did you get in touch with those guys?
They have deep connections with Chicago and before we knew about the music we visited their restaurants on the South Side to enjoy some of the most unhealthy vegetarian food available. When we first became aware of the music we went there asking questions and a member of one of the bands happened to be working in the kitchen and he started putting us in touch with the right people. Eventually some of the elders came over from Israel and met with us and we finalized the project.

What Numero record are you most proud of and why?
I’m proudest of the records that couldn’t have existed without our inexhaustible curiosity and inquisitiveness, records that were unearthed because of, in hindsight, totally absurd pursuits that should not have borne any fruit. Examples include 24 Carat Black, The Final Solution Brotherman OST, Universal Togetherness Band, Downriver Revival, debatably the Pisces LP. I’m also particularly proud of our forthcoming Ork Records box set which was a hard-fought from beginning to end and involved aligning personalities that were deliberately unaligned for many decades. We also managed to dig out a bunch of unreleased material that was painful at times to get our hands on. But it’s genuinely one of the most important and influential record labels and no one really knew that until their vision was assembled the way we did here.

You released a boxset dedicated to Syl Johnson, 45 boxsets, you add photos, sleevenotes, etc… After 12 years, do you still believe this rigorous, in-depth editorial line is still your main strength?
Yes. We also do very simple, straightforward LP replicas but I think our supporters are generally less excited about these. We have more fights than anything over liner notes, and they are probably the part of our releases that the fewest people really focus on (music first, photos second, overall package third…) but its still really important that they’re there and document artists that will no longer be with us before long. I have a hunch these biographies we wring our hands over will became valuable to someone someday in an academic setting.

Express Rising
Memorabilia

What about the Omnibus 45 boxset? It was a huge success. Are you planning to put out a second volume?
We will make another thing that massive and sprawling and ridiculous, I imagine, but not a second volume of that exact project. We don’t want to dwell on the same ideas, we want to move on to other ones.

Numero Group has recently started to release contemporary music, like Dante Carfagna’s ‘Express Rising’. Is this a direction you are intending to pursue with more intensity?
We manufactured Dante’s record for him, but it’s not on our label (per his requirements its not on any label). We have no plans to release any contemporary music but we do try to support our friends, like Ryley Walker who is signed to our sister label Dead Oceans.

You published many LPs with a strong political message… Is it an important aspect in your decisions ? Or is it simply an echo of that era ?
It’s an echo of the era, and the political messages of sixties and seventies soul and funk are rarely relevant in the same way today (same goes for eighties and nineties punk and indie)

What could be the label’s leitmotif?
Visionary has a wealth of ability but personal choices, paranoia, lack of funding (or lack of ambition), and poor location conspire to keep his or her creations unknown and isolated.

Nowadays, there are many reissue labels who follow your model, we mean more quality even if it’s more expensive… but at same time, there is also another « new » LP market, with major and smaller labels trying to do high numbers by selling cheaper. Are those 2 different markets or are they compatible?
When we tracked down Thorn Oehrig, the artist behind the Circuit Rider LP, he was insistent upon keeping the re-release identical to the original release, since all the artwork was part of his original vision and concept for the album. This was unusual for us, and really unusual for self-released music from the era since most artists privately-issuing their LPs were deferred at least somewhat from their vision. It unintentionally birthed the line (we call it the 1200 line) because it was an exact replica with no ornamentation or documentation.

Boscoe
He Keeps You Down

There are more and more reissues of old LPs, and more and more record labels (major or indie) now releasing their new artists on LP, or EP. Do you think that the LP reissue market could ever reach saturation point?
Right now the bulwark against true saturation might be the fact that it takes 6 months to get a record pressed and most pressing companies are not taking on new clients. Given unlimited capacity, we’d be past saturation. Most reissues can’t get any press attention, there is arguably already press saturation. But I think we do have our own niche within a niche and I’m not necessarily worried that we’ll oversaturate.

Have you received many negative answers on some of the LPs, artists, unreleased tapes, you were trying to reissue?
Absolutely, we get “no” frequently and it’s not always just about the money. Usually because they’ve moved on and nothing can bring them back.

What are your next releases ?
‘Edge of Daybreak’, the best soul LP ever recorded in state penitentiary, comes out in early october and it’s simply incredible, truly idiosyncratic as something a group cloistered from the outside world can create. The aforementioned Ork Records collection comes out in the month we’ve dubbed Orktober and its maybe our most thorough documentation of a label ever. It takes a totally fresh approach on the most fretted about rock scene in history, downtown Manhattan in the middle and late 1970s.

What is the LP you are dreaming of reissuing?
There are many unreleased rap LPs that, given unlimited ability to clear the samples, I would release in a heartbeat. The period between 1989 and 1995 was so rich with creation in rap music and there are, without exaggeration, hundreds of full-length LPs that are worthy of release that might be known only through one copy of a demo cassette.

To Numero Group website
 

Check his special 45’s TOP5
 

Annette Poindexter
Mama

Each month, we are focusing on a record label founded by an active digger. This month, Hisham Mayet, co-founder and co-owner of Sublime Frequencies, a label which, since 2003, has been documenting many obscure scenes, from eastern psyche pop to sahel post folk, from ancient to more futuristic.

When did you start digging records?
Early 80’s, in my early teens.

What LPs did you buy at first?
I was buying punk and post punk LPs. Some early hardcore singles, stuff on SST (Meat Puppets, Minutemen, Black Flag, UK shit, early Cure, Joy Division, New Order, Mekons, Gang of Four, Wire…).

Do you still listen to them?
Not so much, but I still have most of it.

Do you have any particular style or favorite period?
I don’t have a particular style that I collect. I’m into so many styles and genres. I collect Calypso, Free Jazz, ethnographic records, international sounds from around the globe from the mid-50s to the mid 70s, late 60’s psych from around the world and 60’s/70’s Italian/Euro soundtracks and library LPs… The list is endless. My collection is staggering in its diversity.

Why Sublime Frequencies ?
I think it perfectly captures the mission of the label.

What was your first issue?
We released five titles at once. Three albums (‘Folk And Pop Sounds Of Sumatra Volume 1’, ‘Radio Java’, ‘Night Recordings From Bali’) and two DVDs (Nat Pwe: Burma’s Carnival Of Spirit Soul, by Alan & Richard Bishop, Jemaa El Fna: Morocco’s Rendez-vous Of The Dead ‎by myself).

Were you at the beginning of story, with Alan Bishop ? How and when did you meet him ?
Yes, I approached Alan about the idea to start an ethnographic style label. When we discussed it further, we launched Sublime Frequencies officially in 2003. But, we had already been discussing and collecting for many years prior. I was a fanatical fan of Sun City Girls (Alan’s along with brother Richard and Charles Gocher’s unclassifiable musical universe for some 30 years)… We started communicating with some regularity in the mid-90’s.

What could be the editorial/esthetic line of the label ?
We release things we’re passionate about. We all have our own particular aesthetic and the collective is diversified enough to make it interesting moving forward.

What could be your leitmotif for the label?
I think our mission statement sums it up pretty well. « Sublime Frequencies is a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, and other forms of human and natural expression not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media, or corporate foundations. »

How do you decide on the choice of reissues or new releases? Is it a team decision?
Alan and I often discuss and have a final say on what is released. We both have very similar tastes so there really is a unified vision moving forward.

Are you only focused on oriental/arabic music? or is it more complex ?
If you look at our discography, you’ll see that we are well beyond « oriental/arabic music ». We have outside of SF released (Alan with Abduction/Myself with Outernational/Assophon) over 100 other releases outside of SF. So, we – me as Alan – are not confined to certain geographic regions.

How did you discover musicians like Group Doueh ? Rumors? Listening to a tape?
All the rumors are true. I landed in a house in Dakhla un-annoucned and a cassette and boombox later, history was made.

Were you surprised by the success story of Dabke groover Omar Souleymane?
Yes we were. So much so that we decided he was too big for us.

Are you still digging, buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
Yep. Still digging. I’m writing from Trinidad now and just spent a day digging in a storage space. I was just in Paris and digging at Superfly. I know Paulo, Manu and Nico and have been shopping there over the years…

What is the best deal/business : to make reissue or to produce new records?
Both!

Are they two different jobs?
It can be. Re-issues sometimes deal with dead artists or defunct labels and their archives. Sometimes, there is a lot of missing informations when you are dealing with obscure material from a forgotten location. Lots of archeology in that process. Contemporary artists require a different approach and the variable can be much different. There is touring and new material and a host of logistics involved.

There are more and more reissues of old LPs. Do you think that the LP reissue market could ever reach saturation point?
I think there is a saturation point, but it is always exciting to see what coming out via the mafia of reissue labels. The production values are amazing as well. I don’t know as a collector, it is an exciting time. But then again as a collector it is always exciting!

What are your next releases ?
We are excited about the debut LP of Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band and releasing Thai Pop Spectacular for the first time on vinyl.

What is the LP you dream of reissuing?
An 8 LPs boxset of Ennio Morricone conducting a pygmy orchestra playing free jazz.

http://www.sublimefrequencies.com/
 

Omar Suleyman
Jala
 

Ni Ni Win Shwe
My Darlings Love Arrow
 

Each month, we are focusing on a record label founded by an active digger. Stuart Baker is the man behind one of the most exciting reissue labels : Soul Jazz Records. Since 1992, he has contributed to release numerous reissues of rare LPs and high-end compilations in very diverse styles such as reggae, funk, samba soul, punk, spiritual jazz, folk…

When did you start digging records? 
I started buying records when I was around 10 years old.

What Lps did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
Hmmm… The Sex Pistols ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’, Rolling Stones ‘Get Stoned’, Ian Dury ‘New Boots And Panties’.

Do you have a particular style or favorite period? And why?
No. Growing up my taste in music coincided with the fashions of the day – disco, punk, ska.

What was your first issue?
The first album we released was called ‘Fresh Out’ by Eddie Russ. 

Why have you chosen this name : Soul Jazz ?
The label came out of a shop. We put a sign outside the shop on white board in letra set that said SOUL and JAZZ underneath it. Seemed to make sense at the time!

Does that mean it was actually your main music styles ? 
Well it started off that like this but changed soon after into encompassing many styles of music.
 

Dealin by Richard Davis

 

When and why did you create another sub-division, called Universal Sound ?
I think Universal Sound started a few years later, as a way of releasing more specialist releases, or albums that followed on from our releases on Soul Jazz.
 
What could be your editorial/esthetic line? 
Not completely sure I can express it in words, although it all makes sense in my head.  

You published numerous selections on New Orleans… Do you believe this Crescent City is in the center of all your concerns? Tradition and creation, urban and rural, body and soul, does it combine all that you like in music?
Hmmm, I would not say it is at the centre of my concerns, but I would say it is a reflection of my interests. My interests are in “hot” musical places, points in time and people. Some of these are New Orleans in the 1960s, Jamaica in the 1960s/70s, Chicago in the 1980s, New York in the 1960, 70s, 80s etc.
 

I’ve Never Considered by Inell Young

 

You published many books focused on LP art-work (black jazz, disco…)… Does a LP artwork already tell many about the music played inside the record?
Yes I would say. A good sleeve is a reflection of the values of the music inside and makes you want to hear it.

You also publish books more on the societal aspects. In what the social dimension and the political question are connected to the musical creation?
Music is a cultural expression of a place in a period of time. I am interested in any form of cultural expression, often but not always of a rebellious nature.

Do you think that the buyers of vinyl are the buyers of books ?
Not sure. Some yes, some no.

How do you decide on the choice of reissues? 
Normally what I am interested in at that point of time. I’m actually not that interested in reissuing albums. I like to explore areas and put together records as ideas. We often reissue albums later that follow on from a broader concept album, to fulfill an interest that this may have created.
 
Your were well known for your 100 % Dynamite serie and for your Spiritual jazz reissues/compilations, and still appreciated for that, but now – and for a long time in fact – you do reissues in other styles, like new wave, post punk, or disco. Is it difficult to go out your (supposed) speciality?
I think we would have closed many years ago if we had not consciously moved into different areas of music. For my own sanity and passion I need to look at new areas of music, and this is what I hope I can share on our albums.

 

Get Up and Get It by Jackie Mitoo

 

What is the best deal/business : to make reissue or to produce new records? 
Hmmm, well I like both new music and music from different periods in time. Either way in my head I approach them as if they are new.

Is it two different jobs? 
No, same.
 
Have you received many negative answers on some of the LPs you were trying to reissue?
No!
 

Christmas Time In Nassau

 

There is more and more reissues of old LPs. Do you think that the LP reissue market could ever reach saturation point? and why ?
Well as I say my main interest is in exploring musical themes rather than reissuing albums. I agree there is a lot of these now!
 
What are your next releases?
Punk 45 – Punk from Cleveland, Ohio 1974-80. Punk 45 – Punk from Akron, Ohio 1976-80. ‘Studio One Jump-Up: Jamaican Rhythm and Blues, Gospel, Boogie and Early Ska’, Popul Vuh – ‘Kailash’ (unreleased film and album), Lloyd McNeill – ‘Tanner Suite’, Sounds of the Universe (Hieroglyphic Being, Andres, Kaseem Mosse). That’s all I can think of.
 
What is the LP you dream of reissuing?
‘Nu Yorica! Experiments in Latin Music 1970-77’. It was 20 years ago we first released it!

Idle Hands by Harlem River Drive

 

http://www.souljazzrecords.co.uk/