{"title":"Label: Athens Of The North","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"dance-and-resist","title":"Dance and Resist","description":"[[Release Detail]][[Release Description]]\n\n\u003cp\u003eA band born from a UK-only JBs compilation and a refusal to be bored by rockism, Boots For Dancing present “Dance \u0026amp; Resist” — ten tracks of funk, protest, and dancefloor testimony.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBoots For Dancing (BFD) trace their roots to probably one single record: Giving Up Food For Funk, a UK-only JBs compilation released in March 1976. The band cross-pollinated P-Funk with the raw energy of Richard Hell \u0026amp; The Voidoids and No Wave. They were chasing a deliberate drift away from the “1,2,3,4” boredom of rockist punk, and toward something else entirely, band members all pulling in different musical directions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe band came up during the era of the euphemistically-named Standard Music Business Contract — young, naive, and part of Thatcher’s mass youth unemployed, willing to be exploited by the “honest capitalism” of the music industry with little expectation of reward. Anything to get off the Giro.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAbout the Album: The title Dance \u0026amp; Resist captures the band’s guiding contradiction: that you can acclaim and celebrate something while still seeking to change, challenge, disrupt, or overturn it — the same spirit found decades later in people doing the Electric Slide at BLM protests.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTracks:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSouth Pacific — The desire for the unobtainable, and the question of just where “anywhere since sunset” might be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eShout \u0026amp; Testify — A booty-shaking call to dancefloor action.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDifferent From You? — Inspired by Winston Rodney’s “Social Living” and the Rastafarian concept of positive livity: peace, love, and respect toward others, with no room for tribalism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHold Up Half The Sky — A phrase drawn from the women’s movement, particularly the Grunwick Picket of South Asian textile workers, and later used more broadly in the fight for women’s rights. BFD’s attempt to align themselves with that struggle — with a nod to Rosie the Riveter.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBlue 4 U — On mass media’s ability to manufacture personal disquiet and a desire to escape — “affectionate propaganda” becoming suffocating, answered with open minds and open hearts. Written well before algorithms and AI.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHesitate — The band’s attempt at a Chic-style arrangement, about putting things off until “mañana.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRain Song — A celebration of Edinburgh’s micro-climate — four seasons in a day — and one of the album’s few strictly narrative lyrics, inspired by August Darnell and film noir.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWild Jazz Summers — Title lifted from a Tennessee Williams biography. An attempt at West Side Story meets beat poetry, with a Hammond B organ outro.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBFD — In their later days, the band closed live sets with this percussion-heavy number, breaking the fourth wall in a manner indebted to the Sun Ra Arkestra.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eGet Off Your Ass And Jam — A loose, live take on the Funkadelic tune, capturing the band’s earliest iteration — recorded at their first ever hometown gig.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n[[Selling Points]]\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePressed on standard black vinyl\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTen tracks of funk, protest, and dancefloor testimony\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCross-pollinated P-Funk with the raw energy of Richard Hell \u0026amp; The Voidoids and No Wave\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n[[Catalog Number]]AOTNLP071[[Artist]]Boots for Dancing","brand":"Athens Of The North","offers":[{"title":"Dance and Resist \/ Album \/ LP Black","offer_id":48859712520437,"sku":"AOTNLP071","price":31.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0080\/6417\/2096\/files\/5050580867147.jpg?v=1789500390"},{"product_id":"my-babys-gone","title":"My Baby's Gone","description":"[[Release Detail]][[Release Description]]\n\n\u003cp\u003eInsane rare Boogie, Soul, Disco, and Floaty goodness all on one LP, High Rise (Harry Malone and Tony Poe) recorded these belters around 1985 in Chicago, Illinois. Harry's previous band The Elusions only released two Chicago 7\" which are also incredibly rare, also included on this expanded LP. Solid all the way through, like all Athens of the North releases.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n[[Selling Points]]\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eInsane rare Boogie, Soul, and Disco\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRecorded around 1985 in Chicago, Illinois\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIncludes two rare Chicago 7\" tracks from The Elusions\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n[[Catalog Number]]AOTNLP074[[Artist]]High Rise","brand":"Athens Of The North","offers":[{"title":"My Baby's Gone \/ Album \/ LP Black","offer_id":48859712487669,"sku":"AOTNLP074","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0080\/6417\/2096\/files\/5050580869455.jpg?v=1789500415"},{"product_id":"here-i-am-baby","title":"Here I Am Baby","description":"[[Release Detail]][[Release Description]]\n\n\u003cp\u003eLost Soul Super Rarity “Here I Am Baby” by Lady Jane reissued by Athens of the North.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRare 1980 Detroit funk-soul LP finally surfaces after 45 years, revealing a powerful story of survival and artistic resilience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEdinburgh based label Athens of the North is pleased to announce the reissue of Here I Am Baby, the only studio album by soul and funk vocalist Lady Jane (Jane Brice), originally recorded at Studio A, in Dearborn Heights and privately released in 1980.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLady Jane recorded these sessions during a turbulent period in Detroit in the late 1970s, working with respected engineer Eric Morgeson and a studio band on material largely written by her then-husband. The album remained virtually unknown for decades, with copies destroyed in a flood and masters held by her ex-husband. A chance discovery by Friends of Sound Records founder David Haffner in 2022 set the reissue in motion. Remarkably, before his death, Jane’s ex-husband returned the original master tapes to her—yielding not only the complete multitracks for Here I Am Baby, but an entire album’s worth of unreleased material, also coming soon on AOTN.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHere I Am Baby showcases Jane’s extraordinary voice across a compelling blend of soul, funk, and disco, from the opening ballad through heavy funk excursions like “Never Lived In The Ghetto” and “Space Flight.” The album’s final track, “She’s A Star” - the only song Jane wrote herself - carries profound personal significance. Recorded without her husband’s knowledge, the song directly addresses her survival of childhood sexual abuse and stands as a moving testament to resilience and self-belief.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNow an ordained minister, Jane Brice has spent decades away from the spotlight. But her voice—at once forceful, delicate, and vulnerable—deserves to be heard. Newly mastered from the recovered tapes, Here I Am Baby and the forthcoming Miss Disco present not merely a rare funk-soul artifact, but a powerful document of a woman’s courage in reclaiming her own story.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n[[Selling Points]]\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eReissued by Athens of the North\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRare 1980 Detroit funk-soul LP finally surfaces after 45 years\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNewly remastered from the recovered tapes\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe only studio album by soul and funk vocalist Lady Jane (Jane Brice)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n[[Catalog Number]]AOTNLP090[[Artist]]Lady Jane","brand":"Athens Of The North","offers":[{"title":"Here I Am Baby \/ Album \/ LP Black","offer_id":48859712454901,"sku":"AOTNLP090","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0080\/6417\/2096\/files\/5050580872127.jpg?v=1789500377"},{"product_id":"salir-del-agujero","title":"Salir Del Agujero","description":"\u003cp\u003e[[Release Detail]][[Release Description]]\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEl Calefón's 1985 LP Salir Del Agujero is a rare bird.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSelf-produced and privately released in Zurich, the album documents one of the very few South American groups that were resident in Europe at the time, and certainly the only such band working in Switzerland. Co-founded by two Argentinians in Europe – the multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and composer Coqui Recaand the guitarist Pablo Miguez–the group consisted of Argentinian and Brazilian musicians, most of whom were present initially Europe as tourists, but had stayed on, without official sanction, as immigrants. Their music gathered its primary influences from the varied sounds of their home countries, fusing these elements drawn from the manifold indigenous styles of Argentina and Brazil with the international sounds of rock, jazz, pop and pan-Latin music.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHoned and polished by the steady gigging through which the group earned their living in Zurich, the music that appeared on Salir Del Agujero was sophisticated, original and filled with light. Resonating with a freshness undiminished in forty years, the album brims with possibility and hums with tropical warmth, bearing testament to the open-hearted musical freedoms of a mercurial musical era.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[[Selling Points]]\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSelf-produced and privately released in Zurich\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFuses elements from indigenous styles of Agentina and Brazil with international sounds of rock, jazz, and pop\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSophisticated, original and filled with light\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[[Catalog Number]]AOTNLP094[[Artist]]El Calefón\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Athens Of The North","offers":[{"title":"Salir Del Agujero \/ Album \/ LP Black","offer_id":48859712585973,"sku":"AOTNLP094","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0080\/6417\/2096\/files\/5050580864252.jpg?v=1789500428"}],"url":"https:\/\/lightintheattic.net\/collections\/athens-of-the-north.oembed","provider":"Light in the Attic","version":"1.0","type":"link"}