Stones Throw Records is an imprint best known for hip-hop releases, but its roster – including the multi-faceted producer Madlib, who records under his own name, Quasimoto, Yesterdays New Quintet and The Beat Konducta – reflects a mix of genres. No stranger to funk, Stones Throw has released both new funk classics (Breakestra’s Live Mix Part Two) and anthologies of lost funk gems (the lauded Funky 16 Corners). Stones Throw label manager Egon, who served as A&R for the Breakestra’s LP and produced The 16 Corners and Stark Reality anthologies for the label, saw raw funk as the perfect companion to Stones Throw’s grass-roots hip hop.

“After we released our first funk 7” (The Highlighters’ lauded “Poppin’ Popcorn”), I began to notice that folks who hadn’t necessarily checked for Stones Throw in the past were looking forward to our funk reissues,” he states. “And with access to so many lost treasures, I figured that what better way to give them proper light than to form my own company dedicated to the preservation of one of America’s great musical forms?”

Founded in late 2001, Now-Again Records began releasing 7s and 12s by Breakestra off-shoot Connie Price and The Keystones, alongside reissues by bands canonized in the deep funk scene (Soul Seven), unknowns (Amnesty and Diplomatics) and downright musical revolutionaries (L.A. Carnival). Cut Chemist’s desirable edit of L.A. Carnival’s “Blind Man” was a Now-Again release, and the aforementioned Stark Reality anthology Now was followed by Now Again’s release of The Stark Reality’s unreleased opus, titled 1969. Recently, Now-Again has taken more to new artist development and signings, with bands such as Malcolm Catto’s Heliocentrics and production team MRR-ADM (formerly known as MHE).

Now-Again offers the same attention to detail (meticulously researched liner notes, insight from the bands, archival photo reproductions), sound quality (Egon has been known to fly across the country in search of missing master tapes), and presentation (the label’s graphic design is helmed by Matt Rowland, art director of funk legend Galt MacDermot’s Kilmarnock label) as its distributor Stones Throw.

Pictured: (top, L-R) Madlib, Egon, Jeff Jank, Peanut Butter Wolf – photo by Joao Canziani; (bottom) Monty Stark of Stark Reality and Egon – photo by B+.