Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Truth crushed to earth will rise again


And because Comb & Razor is the truth (and I mean the whole and the nothing-but): STILL WE RISE!

Okay, I'm getting some Maya Angelou in my William Cullen Bryant, but I'm pretty sure you all get the gist of it: We're back!

Why did we go away in the first place, though? Man... I can't even give you a straight answer. Life catches up with you sometimes. As you all know, I had just returned from an extended sojourn in Nigeria and there were a lot of odds and ends in my personal life that had to be attended to. Also, a few experiences I had in Nigeria made me feel ambivalent about continuing to do this.

(For example, if you look through the archives here, you might notice all posts on a certain Mr. William Onyeabor have been crossed out. There is a reason for that. I won't get into details right now but let's just say that that man damn near killed my spirit.)

Actually, you might have noticed that pretty much ALL the old links on this blog are now dead. That's a bummer, I know... I had some trouble renewing my hosting subscription while I was away so my service was interrupted, pulling the plug on all the links. That was a big part of why I stepped away, really... The idea of renewing all the links was just overwhelming and I contemplated just starting the blog from scratch somewhere else.

But hey... this page is home. This is where we've had so many good times, and I'm not going to be chased out of here that easily! So pardon the dust while I try to get things back to shape around here... You might have to bear with some Divshare links for a while (if they stop suspending my account, that is!).

Of course, another reason for the long hiatus is that I've just been busy. Among other things, my time has been taken up by my decision to throw my hat into the record industry. (Which I am sure we will all agree was a very wise move to make now in the second decade of the twenty-first century, as the imminent death of the industry is forecast on a daily basis. I'm having fun, though!) So although I am sure most of you are already aware of it, allow me formally debut my fine record label, COMB & RAZOR SOUND.

I'm quite aware that fewer and fewer people these days buy records or CD or any other kind of physical media, but the goal of Comb & Razor Sound is to create packages that hopefully you will feel are worthy of your hard-earned pfennig. I'm talking about dope music, packaged with loads of information and photos and other stuff related to the world that produced the music you're listening to. I'm talking about stuff you can put on your shelf or display on your coffee table so you can look all cultured in front of your friends.

We already did a vinyl-only "pre-release" of sorts on the first compilation but it comes out officially on... *looks at calendar* Wait a minute... It comes out on May 17th. That's today, isn't it? How serendipitous is that?

You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to make a separate post about that in a little bit...

In the meantime, enjoy this video I uploaded like six months ago and planned to post before everything went pear-shaped:

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi, hello, great that you are back.
hope that you give me and all of us, anonynous followers, more insight in the dazzling world of west african music from the seventies and eighties, when so much good music was produced that has been lost if not a few good people would reveal it

Richard

Comb & Razor said...

Thanks, Richard... I hated having to take that long break, but it's good to be back!

Nick said...

WELCOME BACK!

Comb & Razor said...

Thanks Nick!

Anonymous said...

Great back,sure !
Goods news from Africa are so rare !

Welcome Back !

Amina's World - Aminas Welt said...

Comb it is just wonderful what you are doing! You are so courageous and brave, just trust that all will be well!

DJ Flagship said...

Welcome back Comb & Razor, and I'm looking forward to lots of new posts! The best of luck on your new label! Commendable that you're trying to trag the record industry back from the track of extinction! You have my full support mate! The very best of wishes!

John B. said...

Welcome back to the blogosphere, Uchenna!

Anonymous said...

Great to have you back, Uchenna. Nigeria is a tough place to do things! Also congrats on the Brand New Wayo release. Can you shed some light when the CD version is scheduled for release? Despite the fallout with Mr. Onyeabor, are we not going to have his works and the likes of Tony Okoroji and Emma Ogosi re-issued by Comb & razor Sound any soon?

Comb & Razor said...

@Haiku forever, Void Jumper, John B.: Thanks a lot... It feels a bit weird as I'm a bit out of practice here, but I guess it'll come back to me like riding a bike!

@Anonymous: The Brand New Wayo CD is out TODAY! (I've done a terrible job of pre-hyping it here) You will indeed be seeing (or rather hearing some music from both Tony Okoroji and Emma Ogosi on some upcoming C&R releases. In Okoroji's case, Brand New Wayo does not feature any of his solo cuts, but does have some tracks he produced for other artists.

dat 1 okrika babe said...

welcome back and congrats on the new label!

Comb & Razor said...

Thanks okrika babe!

Anonymous said...

news of the day !

Kendo said...

Uche. Good to have this place up and running again. I believe the last 12 months have been one great experience for you. Tough times are for the indomitable in spirit. You have shown you have the fire to get it done and it is working. Looking forward to great stuff here.

Sam Telford said...

Good to have you back! With your fine taste, guidance and wealth of knowledge I look forward to making that list of records that I have even longer.

100% Naija said...

Now that you are back, let's get cracking!

Anonymous said...

Welcome back, U.!!! I'm not sure I'm representative of "the market", but I definitely DO buy CDs from independent labels with the guts to reissue 70s African music, and every time a new CD comes out I like to think, "hey, I contributed to this new one by buying the one before". Also, well, these are hard times for the big record companies that depend on traditional advertising, sure, but the small labels seem to be having a ball: I don't think there's always been so many, and so many new ones, popping out of nowhere, and everyone in the world who is interested gets to know about them instantly thru the Web. The ones doing a good job seem to survice fine. So, to sum it up: form what you've done in your blog, my guess is you are going to succeed, and you can definitely count on me as a customer and follower. Best!

-CALUMBINHO (can't log into my google acount from blogspot lately)

zim said...

Hey Uchenna, good to see you back again. Can't wait to see the CD - I blieve Dusty Groove's got on ewith my name on it, just waiting for me to get down there and pick it up.

ledenn said...

welcome back! Cant wait to see what's coming.

dailyleftover said...

hey U welcome back on homebase solid ground, man who would have known that this here would spawn yor future ..but i do see you wearing shades cos yours is bright
*respect*

Unknown said...

Welcome back

pamela said...

yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! and congratulations. im so glad u came to facebook. the conversations and stories unearthed there have been a blessing to behold.

Comb & Razor said...

It's been a joy interacting with you as well, Pamela!

Anonymous said...

congrats mr.CnR

bilge

Ambi nwokeabia said...

Good Job as always.......

Comb & Razor said...

Thank you, Ambi...