August 23–30, 2001

music

Dug-Up Soul

David L. Brown finds lost local sounds for his Philly Archives label.

You don’t need massive catalogs, grandiose packages and sprawling budgets to make a reissue label. Philadelphian David L. Brown has been running different labels since the early ’80s, more often than not to shine a light on long-forgotten local musicians. Brown’s current label, Philly Archives, sets out to remind that Philly Soul existed before Gamble and Huff, via the likes of Herb Johnson and the Impacts, Ronnie Walker, DJ Sonny Hopson and Del-Val Records. "I thought it would be good to have a Philly-only label of Philly R&B and soul," Brown says, "and not the big groups that you always hear about, but the more obscure groups."

Philly Archives is pretty much a one-man show, a labor of love. Brown tracks down the artists or producers to get permission. He remasters the music, going from reel-to-reel to DAT ("If it’s hissy, try to get the hiss out. Or if it’s scratchy, get the pops out…. I don’t try to redo the thing."). He also writes the liner notes, designs the packaging and contacts the distributors.

What the CDs lack in state-of-the-art sound and design, they more than make up in the obvious love and enthusiasm that go into making them. To say nothing of the music, vibrant stuff that shows that even in the late ’50s and early ’60s, the Philly Sound was already highly evolved — not Motown, not Stax, but something uniquely Philly, equally funky and sophisticated.

Brown and Philly Archives don’t get much love back from the city. Most oldies stations aren’t interested in music this arcane, with exception of legendary AM jocks like Jerry Blavat. The label generates most of its profits from sales from England, where "there’s a whole big soul scene… since the ’70s. There’s a lot of soul clubs everywhere, and there’s all these magazines, fanzines, radio, dances…. They really appreciate it more there than here."

In addition to running the label, Brown plays drums for local dream-popsters Clock Strikes Thirteen. He and that band’s frontman, Benjamin Xavier Kim, have also been playing with Herb Johnson, as, after all these years, Herb Johnson and the Impacts.

Still, it’s hard for Brown not to notice the music’s seemingly dwindling fan base. What happened to the people who bought these records when they came out? "[They] just kind of get old and lose interest, and they forget what they liked when they were younger," he muses. "They forget what it’s like to be young."

— Michael Pelusi

For more information, go to www.phillyarchives.com.