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The re-discovered third album by India’s best known psychedelic-rock ensemble, presented in its entirety. The companion piece our Atomic Forest anthology Obsession (NA 5087) Covers of Deodato, Stevie Wonder and “Spectrum,” the heaviest Indian psych-funk jam unearthed to date.Over the course of four years, culminating in 2011, we at Now-Again Records assembled the Atomic Forest anthology Obsession, which delved into and told the story of India’s 70s rock underground and this psychedelic ensemble’s story. At the time we issued Obsession, we were not aware of the third album that the Atomic Forest had recorded, issued under Kanga’s name as Disco Roar. When it came to our attention, we figured that we owed it to anyone entranced by this hard-to-believe, underground, Indian rock scene to issue this, the first album that the Atomic Forest recorded. “That Disco Roar album was the first time we were doing anything like that. It was the first thing we did. It progressed into the Hit Film Themes album. Then these guys came with more commercial potential songs (which became Obsession ’77).But originally it was just a band, the live performances that we did, that made us very popular, these simple songs,” guitarist Abraham Mammen recalls.Atomic Forest’s story stands in for the untold stories of many of India’s underground bands, bands remembered vividly by those who witnessed their performances, bands that often homemade, cassette recordings – that have been lost to time. Mammen, now a traveling preacher splitting his time between India and the United States, reflects on the unlikely reissue of the Atomic Forest’s recordings: “What’s left of the Atomic Forest? It’s just like smoke: smoke on the water.’ With the release of Disco Roar, that smoke keeps rising.

The rediscovery of the music of David Axelrod in the 1990s was a revelation to the scores of hip-hop and breakbeat DJs that sampled him, but his composition genius was on display as early as the 1960s. After producing and arranging major critical and commercial hits for Lou Rawls, The Electric Prunes, David McCallum, and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, he was encouraged by Capitol Records to record and produce solo material. Coming right on the heels of The Beatles' revolutionary 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, Axelrod would produce a slew of instrumental baroque pop records, which were intricately orchestrated, fused elements of jazz, psychedelic rock, chamber music, and neo-classical, and tackled issues of mental enlightenment, environmental impact, and would be hailed by critics as highly ambitious pieces of conceptual art. The albums Song Of Innocence (1968), Songs Of Experience (1969), and Earth Rot (1970) are most often hailed as David Axelrod's finest moments, but little is mentioned of the producer's 1970s material. Among these records is Seriously Deep, his lone album recorded for Polydor, and an unheralded gem of jazz-rock fusion. On Seriously Deep, Axelrod dispenses with the heavily orchestrated measures of previous works to conduct a powerhouse crew of session musicians, including Leon Ndugu Chancler of Santana on drums, Mailto Correa on percussion, Jim Hughart on bass, Joe Sample on electric keys, and many others, with production from frequent Axelrod collaborators Cannonball Adderley and Jimmy Bowen. Seriously Deep is an obscure release, but also one of David Axlerod's tightest, and most exploratory ones. Across six tracks, Axelrod and his collective of players dip in and out of bounding jazz-funk, Afro-Latin grooves, cinematic flourishes, psychedelic synth washes, and blaring big band horns. It's a singularly insular curiosity of musical impressionism that's equal parts brooding and joyous, a definitive part of Axelrod's discography, and a well of sample material for tracks by Mobb Deep, Large Professor, The Black Eyed Peas, and Beanie Siegel, among others.

Earth Rot is visionary composer/arranger/producer David Axelrod’s third album, and the last of his Capitol trilogy. Recorded as a concept album about the decrepit state of the environment in 1970 Los Angeles, and scheduled for release on the first Earth Day, it features choral vocals and marks a departure for Axelrod’s signature sound, which would take on a jazzier feel in the 1970s. This definitive version of Earth Rot, overseen by Now-Again’s Eothen Alapatt in conjunction with Axelrod’s estate is an audiophile reissue, with the vocal version lacquered directly from Axelrod’s original master tapes at Capitol Records by Ron McMaster. The master was approved by Axelrod’s son Michael, who adapted ancient lyrics for the album in one of three collaborative projects he did with his father.Contains a 28 page booklet that delves into Axelrod’s incredible life and music, replete with never before published photos and an interview. “There are very few people who see the Grand Picture of the Universe and understand the Nothingness that it all comes from. There are even fewer who can express these ideas through music - David could do it all.” – T-RayCOMES PACKAGED IN A GATEFOLD JACKET WITH A 28-PAGE BOOKLET!