Interview with Jaki Lieberzeit and Burnt Friedman recorded in Brussels in 2012

Brooklin Funk Essentials’ “I Got Cash”, a cut from their album “Make Them Like It” released in 2000.

Skug #92 (10-12/2012) mit Grime-Special! Erhältlich um EUR 4,- in gut sortierten Zeitschriften- und Plattenläden. Make sure u cop that!

More black plastic is coming from Graz this month as Offseason are kicking off their 7″ vinyl series. The first release features two ultra-dark killers by Re-lay. 002 brings two versions of ’5am’ by IZC, the original and a beatless ‘devil mix’. Both releases are stricktly limited to 111 records. Offseason 001 and 002 are vailable at Hardwax Distribution and at your favorite recordshop.

Disko 404 have finally launched their very own record-label. Over the past years, the Graz-based collective has earned a reputation as one of the most forward-thinking promoters in the region, amongst artists and their crowd alike. The first release features five Juke/Footwork-tracks by Sun People and Franjazzco. Whereas Sun People’s side is reminiscent of early 90s Jungle, Franjazzco reworked several gems from his record collection, turning them into 160bpm monsters. The release is available as 12″ vinyl and digital.

The idea to form a label developed in end of 2011, when Franjazzco and Simon/off – the person behind Sun People and also part of the Disko 404 collective – met for the first time while guesting the very last Dubsquare Radioshow on Sub.FM. With this release finally materializing, you could claim that in a way the end of the radio-show gave birth to something new. So there are quite a few reasons why this is a very special one!

Monoton feat. Sela, June 29, 2012 at Fluc

Earlier this year, the New York Times named electronic dance music “the concert industry’s new favorite genre“. Ben Sisario, the author of the respecting article, had a striking argument to do so: profit. He describes DJ-fees of up to one million USD for a single festival appearance, festivals with more than 150.000 spectators and ticket-prices easily exceeding $100.

Tiësto’s »Sensation White« show, a remarkable example of hilarious stadium rave pathos

Dubstep is of course no exception. With the rise of “23-year-old dubstep wunderkind” Skrillex, even commercial Dubstep-hotshots from a few months ago and their 5 million youtube-views have quickly become a pubertal side-note. The genre has undergone a fundamental shift in terms of reference points, from DMZ to Tiësto, from Croydon to Las Vegas and from Black Market to iTunes.

Martin Clark aka Blackdown, blogger, radio-host and label-owner, has been following London’s music scene for many years. In a pessimistic article entitled “End of the road: the rise of road rap and the uncertain future of the hardcore continuum“, Clark laments the declining relevance of Pirate Radio and the rise of YouTube-culture. Ironically, his station Rinse FM has finally been granted a community radio licence in 2010, after more than 16 years on air.

In one or another way, the club-culture scenes are increasingly loosing their institutions: record shops, radios and – clubs. Whereas in the past city councils were usually the greatest threats to venues, the situation is changing. Governments have started to recognise club-culture as economic factor, and so do investors.

In the 90s, Vienna’s club-culture used to be strongly interweaved with the punk-movement and the local squatting scene. In 2012, however, the two most renowned techno-venues involve a billionaire in one case, and the family of a property shark with strong ties to the far-right Freedom Party in the other. Some of the clubs realise their often impressive lineups by offering significantly higher fees to the agencies of their desired main artists. Obviously the strategy seems to pay, not least as smaller clubs and festivals find it increasingly hard to compete on the market of constantly raising artist-fees.

Let’s build a new underground!
The Trancecracker at Ishkur.com (2005)

For the mayority of small players – artists, promoters, venues and label alike – the situation has become rather difficult. Some clubs have started to sell their warm-up slots to DJs who are willing to pay in order to play. And despite festival ticket prices of between €89 (Urban Artforms, Graz), £145 (Outlook, Pula) and around £200 (Glastonbury), many of the less-famous acts will play for little or even no money at all.

Thus, it’s no surprise, that profit margins in electronic dance music have started to attract the finance business. Some managers are already speaking of a “gold rush atmosphere”, comparing the situation with the “dot-com era”.

In 1939 Billie Holiday recorded the song Strange Fruit. It is based on a poem by Abel Meeropol, who at that time was a school teacher, trade union activist and member of the Communist Party in New York. Meeropol wrote the poem in 1937 after seeing a photograph showing the dead bodies of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, two black teenagers, hanging on a tree in Marion, Indiana. They had been lynched by a racist mob on August 7, 1930. According to the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, between 1889 and 1940, 3,833 mostly black people were lynched in the US.

When the poem was first published in the New York School Teacher magazine, Meeropol used the name Lewis Allan as he was worried about anti-semitism. When Billie Holiday wanted to release her version on the Columbia label, it was rejected by her producer for being too political. Eventually she managed to have it published by Commodore Records, a small specialst label in 1939.

Strange Fruit
by Abel Meeropol (1937)

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
And the sudden smell of burning flesh!
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

Dossier:
- Caryl Phillips in the Guardian on his first encounter with Strange Fruit in 1983 in Alabama: Blood at the root
- Peter Daniels on Strange Fruit: the story of a song

Trust Records, the city’s notorious stronghold of Oldschool Electro, have just released Clatterbox’ Semi-automatic EP. It includes four stunning tracks unleashing an almost grimey side of classic 808 breakbeat. Two of the tracks are remixes by Lok44 and Creepy Autograph. Also not to forget is the related video by 6703.

Clatterbox aka David Kempston started his career with a couple of releases on the legendary Clear imprint in the mid-90s. At that time, his “Clatterbeats” were probably the freshest instrumental Hip-Hop you could find. After the label was suspended, Kempston too seemed to have disappeared in the ‘nuum for almost a decade. In 2007 Trust released his EP Storm Drain. From there it took another five years before Semi-automatic came out, without doubt his strongest release for a long time. Being dark and muddy in its very own way, this is an absolutely essential 12″!