Little White Earbuds: Talking Shopcast with Acid Test @ MNS

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Talking Shopcast with Acid Test Posted: 04 May 2014 10:01 PM PDT Rarely do you find a record label as focused as Acid Test that delivers on its promise. Many times concept labels grow tiring after their first few dispatches, struggling to unearth new material that’s relevant to the cause. The Los Angeles-based Acid Test has avoided this by challenging its artists to find novel new ways of interpreting the acid sound. And thanks to a stellar core group of artists like Tin Man, Recondite, Donato Dozzy, and Achterbahn D’Amour, as well as exceptional guests like Pepe Bradock, they’ve had no problem wringing compelling tunes from this oft-abused sub-genre of dance music. Label owner Oliver Bristow is a steady, assured hand at the wheel, building on his experience running Absurd Recordings in years past and serving as a manager at Amoeba Records, the world’s largest independent record shop (by their count). He’s also launched the Avenue 66 label with a promising 12″ from Joey Anderson. LWE reached out to find out where Bristow is coming from and where he’s aiming to go. Acid Test’s most frequent artist (and LWE fave) Tin Man returned to add a killer exclusive DJ mix, as well — Talking Shopcast 21.

Little White Earbuds: Talking Shopcast with West Norwood Cassette Library Recordings @ MNS

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Talking Shopcast with West Norwood Cassette Library Recordings Posted: 16 Mar 2014 10:01 PM PDT Bob Bhamra was by no means new to the music world when his West Norwood Cassette Library Recordings launched in 2010. As far back as 1996 the South East London producer had been releasing drum & bass, house and techno on some reputable labels under the names Plastic Soul and The Bob Bhamra Project. Though Bhamra hit on a small run of success, from 2000 he fell quiet again and it wasn’t until 2008s At Home With… by No.1 Astronaut that we heard from him again. Although the release was actually taken from old material, it showed Bhamra in full experimental mode as he dissected and stitched back together selections of old cassette tapes. Two years later the first WNCL Recordings 10″ was released by Bhamra under the elongated form of the name. It was a taut, dubstep/techno track called “What It Is” embellished with a Brackles remix on the flip, that together with the sublime homage to Larry Heard on the follow up, Mrs Fingers, all of a sudden marked WNCL as a name to keep an eye on. As the label started amassing new recruits for its releases, it became clear that there was no set style for the label, or at least if there was, it was buried beneath layers of open-mindedness. With this in mind, LWE quizzed Bhamra on the WNCL release policy, how he managed to squeeze an EP out of Ultramarine, and just how far reaching a moniker can be. Hot out of West Norwood studios as well, Bob mixed together our 20th Talking Shopcast feature with an exclusive clutch of freshly pressed dubplates and future classics.

Little White Earbuds: Talking Shopcast with Udacha @ MNS

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Talking Shopcast with Udacha Posted: 08 Dec 2013 10:01 PM PST For a while there, Russia was practically silent. House and techno may have been global phenomenons by the 90s, but we heard precious little about it from the planet’s ninth most-populous nation. Recently, however, that’s begun to change. Alexey Kalik, who runs Udacha with his wife Oksana, can’t explain the quiet revolution. All he knows is, “three to four years ago, we had an absolutely different situation here.” At the time, there were no labels like Arma or Ethereal Sound, and artists Anton Zap were barely known outside the country. Now, though, having achieved a “certain level of self-expression,” Russians are finally beginning to attract international attention. 29-year-old Kalik, who produces under the moniker A5, is one of a number of artists and label owners helping to lift the lid from the native scene. “It’s difficult to say about the future,” he admits, “but I’m sure we will find a lot of new names.” Udacha, which means “luck” in Russian, has showcased a good number of them already, as well as cultivating an approachable and subtly unique brand of music. Its seven 12″s have been a tour de force fusion of house, jazz and good-natured synth weirdness. Udacha 5, for instance, is bookended by two slices of sharp jazz swagger, while the middle is dominated by Kurvenschreiber, a Russian trio who record their rambling, dream-like tracks live. Oksana & Alexey Kalik

Little White Earbuds: Talking Shopcast with Don’t Be Afraid @ MNS

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Talking Shopcast with Don’t Be Afraid Posted: 23 Sep 2013 05:58 AM PDT There is a chance that had Benjamin Roth not been so determined his Don't Be Afraid label would never have gotten off the ground. When LWE first spoke to Roth just over a year ago for the podcast he did for the site, he disclosed that he had been sending out his tracks for three years before the advent of DBA, with not one response. Despite the lack of encouragement — or perhaps because of it — Roth set up his own label to release a number of his own EPs under the name Semtek. Realizing he was entering a competitive market as an unknown artist on an unknown label, he enlisted the talents of people like Mr. G and Neville Watson to remix some of his tracks. Although the names would have helped gain the label a small amount of attention, it was the later Mr. Beatnick records that really set the label on course. More recently EPs by MGUN and Disco Nihilist have furthered the label’s credentials, with DBA and its two off-shoot labels nearing towards 20 releases. We got in touch with Roth to talk about creating a successful label, where he discovered some of the new talent on DBA, and telling your heroes that you don’t like their work. New signing to the DBA Special Editions imprint, Disco Nihilist, was the man in charge of mixing our 18th Talking Shopcast podcast. Unfortunately, he fell ill right as he was set to deliver the mix. We’ll post it as soon as we receive it, and wish him a speedy recovery in the meantime.