Now-Again Reserve: a deluxe vinyl subscription.

Custom-made LPs delivered once per quarter, presenting some of the rarest records in their respective genres in highest quality LP format. Each release is produced with the direct participation of the artist.

Subscribe now to begin with the next upcoming release. Catch me up to subscribe and include previous releases.

In response to subscriber comments, Now-Again has made some changes to the Now-Again Reserve subscription: Lower price ($50/quarter); more exclusive music on vinyl; gatefold jackets made in N. America on standard cardstock; vinyl manufacturing will now take place at both Quality and United Record Pressing. The wooden case is discontinued. See full specs below.

Current release: James Reese and the Progressions – Wait For Me: The Complete Works 1967- 1972

Trombonist, bandleader, songwriter, arranger and producer James Reese never issued an album with his Progressions band, only a series of 45s – some under his own name, some under that of his collaboraors – out of Spartanburg, South Carolina on his Najma label, from the late 1960s until the mid 1970s. He was as ambitious as he was talented, and his ouevre ranges from brutal, deep soul to sophisticated instrumental ballads to jazz-inflected funk. Now-Again’s Egon first discovered Reese’s music on a 24 lock-in in Concord, North Carolina’s legendary record and antique clock repository, Ye Olde Clock Shoppe, in 1999. After he tracked down Reese, he officially reissued two of Reese’s songs on his seminal Stones Throw anthology The Funky 16 Corners. He later issued more of Reese’s music on the Now-Again anthology Loving On The Flipside.

Sourced from rare 45s and multi-track master tapes, Wait For Me: The Complete Works 1967-1972 presents both issued and recently-rediscovered songs in the full-length format, in a cohesive set that shows the brilliance still arising from the American soul and funk sub-strata. Long time Now-Again associate Kenny Dope presents a remix of the song “Throwing Stones,” and Now-Again mastering engineer Jason Bitner presents alternate mixes of various cuts on a bonus second LP, available only to subscribers. Those mixes are also included as part of the 2 CD set that accompanies the vinyl album. Both LP and CD version contain an extensive booklet detailing the trajectory of Reese and his band. Download card for WAV files included with the LP.

CATCH ME UP:

• LAMP Records – It Glowed Like The Sun: The Story of Naptown’s Motown, 1969-1972 The collected soul, funk, gospel and rock releases from Indianapolis’ greatest label.
• Tom Nehls – I Always Catch the Last Second of a Yellow Light A rock concept album, as progressive as it is psychedelic, recorded by a 17 year old Tom Nehls and his high school friends in Minneapolis over a three month period in late 1972.
• Al Manfredi – Blue Gold Al Manfredi is the father of hip-hop producer Exile, and Blue Gold is his little-known West Coast rock masterpiece from 1973.
• Key & Cleary – Love Is The Way Drum-machine soul, funk, disco and boogie from Buffalo, NYC. Rare 7” singles and previously unreleased tracks presented as an album for the first time.
• Paternoster – Die Ersten Tage 2/LP. The OST to Herbert Holba’s 1971 hippie sci-fi film Die ersten Tage (The First Days). Transferred directly from master tapes, never before released in any form.
• Mike Nyoni & Born Free 2/LP. Anthology of Zamrock musician Mike Nyoni’s 1970s recordings, with bonus LP.
• Hunger 2/LP. Late ‘60s West Coast psych–rock, including the user-rare test press version of this sought after album.
• Michael Cosmic & Phill Musra Group – 3/LP set of spiritual and deep jazz, including previously unreleased music by Worlds Experience Orchestra.
• German Oak – 3/LP. Rare Krautrock, the most mysterious in the genre, including previously unreleased music.
• Split Decision Band – 1/LP and 7-inch single. Previously unreleased disco boogie album from Des Moines, Iowa.
• Rob Thomsett– 2/LP. Australian guitarist/visionary Rob Thomsett’s collected works, combined into one package. Originally privately pressed in Canberra, 1975 and ’76, rarely heard examples of the best in progressive jazz/rock.
• The Mark III – 1/LP, 1976. Late-era funk concept album by vocalist backed by a trio of Las Vegas high school kids, produced by Cholly Williams, embellished by session musicians in Hollywood.
• World’s Experience Orchestra – 2/LP set of the group’s 1975 and 1980 albums.
• Paternoster – 1/LP, 1972. This is the band sanctioned, official reissue of an Austrian prog-psych masterpiece, its story told for the first time.