Inside Numero Group: Behind the scenes at America’s finest reissue label

With their 50th release just around the corner, we look around the Chicago home of the ever-expanding Numero Group.

2013 has been a vintage year for Ken Shipley and Rob Sevier. Prolific, but never to a fault, Numero Group have stepped up operations in all directions across the last twelve months, seeing them rescue the forgotten sound of The Forte Label in their stunning Eccentric Soul series, tame the “feral maelstrom” of noise-rock outfit Unwound and shed new light on the celestial, (whisper it) New Age ambiance of Iasos.

Culminating in what already looks to be one of their most exciting pieces of aural archaeology, Numero are on the cusp of NUM050, the catalogue number carried by Minneapolis funk compilation Purple Snow, which will be released as a 4xLP set with hardbound book on 3rd December.

In the latest dispatch from Dust & Grooves’ travels across the US to track down the nation’s biggest vinyl heads, collectors and eccentrics, Eilon Paz has a poke around Numero Group’s Chicago HQ, grabs a bit of couch time with Shipley and Sevier and gets an exclusive look at the produce of soul legend Syl Johnson’s vegetable patch.

See more from Dust & Grooves on their website and find out the 5 rarest funk & soul records as chosen by San Francisco institution Groove Merchant records here.

Find out more about The Numero Group at www.numerogroup.com.