Record Store Day / Wah Wah 50th 7″

As you are quite possibly aware by now 2014 marks our 15th birthday year and we have been conjuring as many opportunities as we can to celebrate.

We’ve got gigs around the UK and Europe (plus a little party with Henri-Pierre Noël in Montreal), a massive party with Kenny Dope, Hackney Colliery Band, Resonators and more in October in our home, London town, plus some very special releases.

And the first of them, a massive milestone, is our 50th 7″ vinyl release. To some it may be an arbitrary catalogue number, but to us it is very important indeed, particularly in this 15th year.

In The Beginning

(Hit the links throughout to hear all of the mentioned releases)

Our very first release in 1999 (WAH7001) was on 7 inches of wax; the classic “Magnetica” by Espen Horne, along with the reissue “Pearl Baby Pearl” by Benny Poole.

A new artist release plus a reissue was the format of all our early 7s. These included classics like Cheyenne’s “Come Back To Me“, Richard “Groove” Holmes’ “No Trouble On The Mountain” and Barbara Acklin’s “I Can’t Do My Thing”.

That method continued until, in 2002, we began a more artist led approach with our first artist-single proper: Alison Crockett’s  “Nappy”.  Alison’s debut for Wah Wah happened to have the now infamous B-Side “Like Rain” which went on to become a Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards nominee.

Record Store Day

But for WAH7050 we wanted to return to that traditional approach and mark our 15th and 50th the right way.

This Record Store Day (Saturday 19th April) we are releasing “Wah Wah Fifty” on seven inches of heavyweight vinyl (we only do the heavy stuff, love).

For our “new” side we have two artists synonymous with the label at 15; one of our biggest groups (in actual size as much as anything else) The Hackney Colliery Band and label boss Scrimshire.

Hackney Colliery Band’s cover of Kanye West’s “All Of The Lights” caused a stir on it’s release as a part of the “Common Decency” album last year. On this version Scrimshire donned his edit hat, working without multi-tracks, straight off the mastered recording. Of course he added a few little bits of his own and created something a little more aggressive and VERY ready for your dancefloors. Check it out here:

Reissue Tradition

The release also includes an incredible reissue in the form of Henri-Pierre Noël‘s “Diskette”.

We first re-released this in 2012 as a part of the classic and incredibly hard-to-find album “Piano“. With all tracks remastered from the unearthed, original multi-track tapes we had a unique opportunity to get one or two remixes commissioned too. And at this point in time, it seems, for disco-influenced, heavy hitting revisions of classics, there is just one man for the job The Reflex! Have a listen here:

So there we have it, two tracks very much in the Wah Wah style, grabbing a little of 1999 and 2014 at the same time.

Add to that a unique and beautiful reversed-out card sleeve designed by our in-house genius Animisiewasz of ArtVaders, commemorating both our 15th Birthday and 50th release and you have something quite special.

We hope you’ll add it to your list for this Saturday.

Get out and support independent record shops and the independent record labels that love them this Saturday. There is so much to choose from by the hard working UK independent scene we’re very proud to be a part of. Enjoy!

(EDIT: Now available direct and in online stores. Get more info in our shop: https://www.wahwah45s.com/shop/various-wah-wah-50/)

P.S. For those of you in Hamburg, or willing to travel in Germany… Dom Servini and Scrimshire will be playing records at Groove City in Hamburg on the afternoon of the 19th and can be found at a 15th Birthday special at the Mojo Club later that night.

P.P.S. Many of the original tracks mentioned here are still available through our compilations like Underground Hits and Exclusive Bits 1 – find all our compilations in the Wah Wah Shop.

P.P.P.S. Checkout this little video of us unwrapping Wah Wah Fifty for the first time…