Record nerds of the world are greeted daily by news of the music industry’s impending doom. Yet record labels — in dance music, at least — have refused to fade away. All profitability aside, might the concept of the record label in 2009 be as strong as it’s ever been? As record stores continue closing at an alarming rate (Manhattan’s Etherea Records, one of my personal favorite spots for dance vinyl, shuttered this past February), there exist less shelf space for the familiar sleeve designs and logos of your favorite imprints to stare down enticingly at you. But in this digital era, where dance music is more easily disseminated than ever before, the filter of a reputable record label has taken on supreme importance in separating wheat from chaff. Tellingly, some of 2009’s most exciting labels have de-emphasized genre affiliation in favor of amping up their reputation for quality output. Others, realizing how quickly novel sounds can weave their way through the scene via the blogosphere (ahem), are starting labels as incubators for daring new tracks that might not have found an outlet otherwise. And despite the seemingly endless tide of new music gushing through the cracks of record bags and hard drives, some of the best labels have resisted the urge to flood the market with their brand, releasing only the choicest of cuts.
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Various Artists, All Night Long EP’s 1 & 2
Dubstep may have found a novel approach to its inherent darkness and sparseness in techno; might there be an alternate path, though, one in which dubstep finds less subterranean manifestations in the dapper grooves of house? Aus Music, the debonair and slightly experimental tech-house imprint founded by Will Saul and Fin Greenall, answered in the affirmative with its recent and astounding Appleblim & Komonazmuk rework of (Greenall-fronted) Sideshow’s “If Alone.” The label continues its genre-melding trek with two new EPs of exclusive tracks from All Night Long, Saul’s new mix celebrating Aus’s twentieth release. Though never quite reaching the sublime heights of “If Alone,” Saul has curated four generally strong sides of house music in flux.
The Chain, Letting Go
London’s Dan Foat and Nathan Boddy released “Droidnosh” on Mule Electronic last year as Foat & Boddy. But just because they’ve named their new project after a song on Rumours doesn’t mean the newly resurgent R & S has gone soft on us. If the pounding rhythms and undulating synths found on the first release since their rechristening are any indication, The Chain wish to have their name taken quite literally. “Letting Go” contains the sort of well-oiled machine music you’d expect from the Belgian, home-away-from-home of Detroit techno. Can The Chain take the label’s classic rave style and, like Radio Slave and Shed (remixing Steve Lawler) on its last two slabs, give us a reason to buy off the new release shelf instead of digging through the used bin for the classics?
Stimming, Reflections
Martin Stimming doesn’t sound anything like Villalobos or Ben Klock. None of the records in his increasingly label-diverse discography evoke frozen tundras, k-holes or the post-industrial cathedral of Berghain on Sunday morning. His distinctively unmechanized house grooves are neither a vintage call to jack nor a dive into the depths. The longer I’ve sat on Reflections, Stimming’s debut full-length, the more I’ve realized what an awesome anomaly this young producer’s music is in 2009: his sound decidedly skirts the zeitgeist, but the undeniable quality and sensitivity of his handiwork renders him a perennial must-listen in a dance music scene moving more and more away from the organic tech-house that earns him his living.
Milton Bradley, Dystopian Vision
Do Not Resist The Beat!—should we consider that a listening strategy? “Dystopian Vision,” Milton Bradley’s second release this year for his own willfully obscure label, encapsulates some of the most abrasive, pulverizing techno sound design a producer can commit to record without completely alienating the floor. But if you’re willing to stick your head over Mr. Bradley’s 500 copy, limited-edition hole into hell, you might just find some serious, sulfury funk gurgling up from the deep.
Hector & Bryant, Tension
Berlin’s Hardwax, that Berghain-staffed den of alluringly anonymous white labels, might be the vinyl emporium of the moment. But what about London’s Phonica? Resembling more a design-minded record nerd’s studio apartment than a storefront adjacent to a Soho parking garage, Phonica has built an international reputation not by genre affiliation but on the high quality of the wax lining its walls. As a very green DJ studying abroad a few years back, I received my unofficial techno education at the shop, saddling up at a listening station once or twice a week with an employee-curated stack of new 12″s. I returned to the States with two suitcases full of Phonica’s wares (and a decimated savings account), and the bulk of my purchases still sound fresh today. So it’s no surprise that “Tension,” the first release on the shop’s eponymous label, features some of the most finely honed, built-to-last dance music on the shelves right now (not to mention some of the prettiest packaging).