Freedom Club

Coming up early 2023 is a new division of Enfant Terrible called Freedom Club. The focus will be on dark beats and rough sounds… and the format could surprise people who have been following ET for some time… as it will be small editions of cd’s and a digital release on bandcamp for this label…

The cd’s will be packaged in fitting artwork and printed by me of course… as always…

First up will be an EP (5 tracks) by Nihilist Sounds entitled “Ritual EP”… expect some hardcore techno with acid and industrial sounds to spice things up… At the same time there well be the “Twilight EP” (6 tracks) by Auva Duhr (new project by Neugeborene Nachtmusik) packed with (post-) rave sounds with references to elektro, idm and techno…

A preview of the artwork is posted on the ET homepage…

M.

Finally…

Finally the IYv LP and the Teahouse Radio 2LP are ready… it took me quite some time… the pressing plant did deliver in time (!) but the finalising of the records was a thingy…

People familiar with the Vrystaete releases know that there is a lot of manual work involved from my side… that is why I am not a big fan of releasing two records in this series at the same time… but well… pressing plant situations leave me no choice basically… but this time it involved also a double LP… as the Teahouse Radio asked for a 2LP release…

Anyway… I am still finishing some last records with applying stamps but most is done so I can start preparing packages and shipping these out… and I am very grateful to all people who pre-ordered these… quite a lot of you did so… meaning the next challenge is trying to ship your records out as soon as possible… and also to the (web)shops as these two albums will also be available through all usual suspects as ever… so thanks to all for your support!

The next two records are at the pressing plant since some weeks… no Vrystaete this time but Gooiland Elektro stuff by the likes of RADKO (finally a full release) and a split 12″ by Roberto Auser and Melting Dogmas (a duo featuring 4Cantons)… I have some other plans and ideas which I will start working on as soon as I have shipped the IYv and Teahouse Radio records out to all of you and to all shops…

So I hope you can enjoy these sounds soon!

M.

Guestmix for Meta Moto

Meta Moto is a platform from London… they run a label and a podcast series for dark beats like dark techno, EBM, elektro, and more… I did a guest mix for their podcast series with a focus on Gooiland Elektro and Enfant Terrible releases… your can find it here…

In this mix you will find tunes by Silver Age People, Monocorpse, Roberto Auser, Max Dahlhaus, FOQL, LCN, Ian Martin, Savage Grounds and Neugeborene Nachtmusik…

There was an interview with the mix but on Soundcloud only a part of it was published… so I decided to publish it here…

  1. Your inspiration

The obvious inspiration is of course the original post-punk scene from the late 1970’s to the early 1980’s. There was a lot of creativity and open mindedness back then. Also it was in a creative way very “anti”… anti rock, anti commercial, anti establishment…  this showed itself in a major DIY scene with a true independent way of working.

Musically not everything is evidently an influence on my label activity… it is mainly the early electronic (pop) music, first wave of industrial music and the darker side of guitar music from back then which is a reference point for my label work…

Also on the “business” side of things this is the era that inspired me a lot for my label… it is this already mentioned DIY, independent and anti commercial attitude that is also my own modus operandi. Factory Records is in that point a major influence. I just adore their way of working and thinking… and you have to give them the credits for being spot on several times… I mean Joy Division, Happy Mondays and the Hacienda club/dance music culture have all had a major influence on music culture…

Factory Records took their name from the early 1960’s art scene around Andy Warhol… an ecosystem on their own that I am fascinated with for many years too… his Factory workspace/living space/art space is legendary of course… and I always listen a lot to the Velvet Underground… for years and years and years… and then there is of course Nico… her music is something like true love to me… influences of her work can be traced back in some of the releases I did on my Vrystaete label…

What is beneath all of this is what you could call radical pop culture or extreme pop culture… pop culture which is neither true pop culture nor high culture… it is against high culture and it is against pop culture… it is in-between… it is against a dogmatic view on culture and against a dogmatic view on reality if you wish… but it is also in some ways an elitist endeavor… a playground for bohemians, artists, intellectuals… I am quite aware of this… and I like contradictions and things that are not clear…  that can be everything and nothing… things that are in-between… but that are never a concession or conformation… “not playing their game” as Ken Kesey put it quite right…

My elitist pop culture idea is born from this… the Elitepop Manifesto I wrote is the basis of my label activities… always… but often in different ways…

  1. Your gear

You mean as dj? I am totally against the standard… so I do not own two SL1200’s… Many wannabe dj’s have these but they do not have a taste of music of their own… what is more important?

What I have are two old turntables… that are not meant for nor are very useful for dj’ing… but I never have aimed at being a star dj/dj star… I am a selecter… selecting outstanding tracks and interesting moods… this way you can tell stories instead of just entertaining people… even when I play for a live audience I do my best to add some “unfitting” stuff and at least you can expect some tracks nobody else plays…

Music I do not produce a lot these days so I sold almost everything I had like my synth module, guitars, effect pedals…

  1. Your religion

Any religion is dogmatic I think… but if we could see “religion” as a sort of feeling deep inside you and an attitude towards life then it would be misanthropy. Not that I am totally against people but I have a certain dislike for human beings on a macro-level… which does dominate my feelings in everyday life… without making it impossible for me to operate in daily life… The reason for this feeling and attitude is that I am disgusted with mediocrity… and human beings in general and life in general I experience as mediocre…

Books (bibles?) I read… and that confirms my worldview and equally fuels it… are by writers like Huysmans, Céline andHouellebecq for example…

  1. What is silence for you

Being away from other people, without the noise pollution they create and without the visual pollution which comes with this “modern” world… impossible to find in this era as the world is overcrowded and people are flying all over the planet whenever they can… so I have to settle with a temporary spot whenever possible to find one and/or create a bubble from time to time for myself to at least experience a sort of temporary “silence”…

 

Various Artists – Reality As A Stage Set

I decided to do a digital  (yes, digital!) release to bring some nice tunes to peoples homes … So this free digital and downloadable compilation was curated for this specific moment, during which COVID-19 goes around the world…

The compilation is called “Reality As A Stage Set”… it has a catalogue number and all and you can find it here…

I selected some (but not including all!) of my personal favourite tracks taken from vinyl records I released in the last few years on my labels… Several of the artists on this compilation have a bandcamp page where you can get the complete release the track featured here is taken from. Please support these artists if you can…

If you look for the download go here…