Numero Group

Ed Henry - Your Replacement is Here - Eccentric Soul: The Big Mack Label (Numero 2006)


Manhattens - The Feeling is Mutual - Eccentric Soul: The Big Mack Label (Numero 2006)


Bob & Fred - Bob & Fred - Eccentric Soul: The Big Mack Label (Numero 2006)


So I have been ridiculous busy lately not to mention my interweb has been down since Friday, so I apologize for the lack of updates. And sadly, they will be continuing for a bit longer since my sister is coming into town tomorrow and I will probably not get a chance to add something substantial till next Wednesday. Exciting news though, Napster has contacted me about maybe teaming up with the music wiki (Your Subculture Soundtrack) I started a little less than a year ago. That would be an amazing boost for the site that has been stagnating a bit as of late. We are over 2000 pages though, so I don’t think that is too shabby for a start up wiki in 10 months. Do you have some music knowledge? Why not drop a few pages on your favorite artists/albums/labels/etc? Jump on the bandwagon while it’s still cool to jump on. Check it out now.

Chicago’s amazing reissue ‘non-label,’ Numero Group deserves a lot more attention than I’m about to give it now, but as I mentioned earlier, I’m pretty busy at the moment. But they just released a new comp, Eccentric Soul: The Big Mack Label, and it is the best thing I’ve come across lately, so I will spill a few words on it.

Chicago’s Numero Group may very well be the best product of the recent crate digging epidemic infecting music lovers and audiophiles everywhere for the last 10 years. America’s only counterpoint to the UK’s amazing Soul Jazz records (except L.A.’s Now Again), Numero has been bringing lost eclectic music out of dusty crates and into eager ears for three years now and the releases keep getting better and better. The most popular of their releases are included in the Eccentric Soul series, rediscovered soul, funk and R&B gems that were ignored upon initial pressings for one reason or another. Included in the series are collections from Columbus, Ohio’s Capsoul Label, Chicago’s Bandit Label, Miami’s Deep City Label and the latest Numero release, Detroit’s Big Mack Label. Other releases include acts as diverse as French-Belgian electro-samba from Antena, power-pop curated by Jordan Oakes in his Yellow Pills comps, a collection of Fern Jones tracks cleverly described as ‘Elvis without the pelvis,’ amazing and much recommended Brazilian R&B, calypso, disco, funk, reggae and soul from Belize City and deep folk billed as ‘Ladies from the Canyon.’ Numero is one of those labels that you know every release is straight quality no matter whether you are into that particular album’s genre or not. It is certainly one of the few labels that I will purchase an album from without a screening first.

The latest installment of the Eccentric Soul series highlights Detroit’s Big Mack label, a record studio that doubled as an ice cream truck dispatcher and gave everyday people a chance to record whatever they wished for the more than affordable price of $14.95. Imagined and brought to life by music lover/business man Ed McCoy, Big Mack recorded anyone who was able to pay the fee, and thanks to it’s prime location in Detroit, the funk/soul capitol of the late 60s, McCoy recorded some of the most infectious music of the time, though the boxes and boxes of homemade 45s were never given a chance lost deep in the shadows of Motown and other majors. This comp features 19 tracks of butter funk, sugary doo-wop, driving instrumentals and pristine soul-pop, all featuring that raw, unpolished sound that is cherished among crate diggers everywhere. I’ve included three tracks to give you an idea of the amazingness you are in store for if you pick up the album.

Now 9 albums deep, Numero has not come close to letting us down.