The Numero Group

NUM003: Light: On The South Side (Release Date: 11/24/2009)

This morning, I spent some time browsing the brilliantly curated catalog of The Numero Group. Numero, an archival record label, researches, compiles, and preserves the work of great artists who found little commercial success upon releasing their albums.

Combined with stories and photographs about the artists, their labels, and the time period, the Numero compilations shine a light on great music and the stories behind it (both of which you probably never heard before).

You can listen to and read previews from each of their compilations in the online catalog. Most of them are available in vinyl. I especially love the Eccentric Soul series, starting at Capsoul Records in NUM001.

Here's a bit about them from their site. I love what they stand for.

Anything but another record label. Please, we don't need another one of those clogging up the bins. Accountants with coke habits, lawyers using Pitchfork as a tip sheet, 60 year-old executives awkwardly trying to converse with 17 year-old groupies. Marketing meetings. Junior VP's.

Enter the Numero Group. Founded by Tom Lunt, Rob Sevier, and Ken Shipley in 2003, the three self-proclaimed "record obsessives" decided to approach the record business backwards. No corporate hierarchy; no company stationary. Just a big pile of music that no one had ever heard of.

The mission was simple: to dig deep into the recesses of our record collections with the goal of finding the dustiest gems begging to be released from their exile on geek street. No longer would $500 singles sit in a temperature-controlled room dying for a chance to be played. No more would the artists, writers, and entrepreneurs who made these records happen go unknown and unappreciated.

Numero releases are sound with substance, living at the nexus of song and story. Scrupulously researched, painstakingly re-mastered, and with an attention to detail that is unmatched in the reissue field, the end result is a top-of-the-line compact disc (and LPs)

There is no "Numero" sound; instead, Numero offers an aesthetic. A shelf of Numero discs feels less like a "record collection" and more like a library. The library to date is a mix of thrift shop soul, skinny tie pop, Belizean funk, and hillbilly gospel. Numero makes records for people who may have everything from indigenous Central American drumming to Canadian chanteuses stacked next to their CD players.

Useful links

• Browse the entire Numero catalog here.
• Numero: Digital Dig - Dig through alphabetized "boxes" of artists, read their stories, and preview their work
• An interview with Ken Shipley of Numero over on Pitchfork from 2006 here.