Music-lover and DJ, Jan Hagenkötter is the mind behind the internationally renowned music publishing company and record label INFRACom!, the “jazznotjazz” club brand/series and the festival of the same name in Frankfurt. Located between Saigon and Frankfurt since 2012, he has just released a great compilation, ‘Saigon Supersound’, dedicated on the so-called Golden Era between 1965 and 1975 in the South of Vietnam. The perfect occasion to ask to go back to his own story…

When did you start digging records?
I started digging in the eighties while being a kid around ten years old. It all begun with The Beatles. I tried to get all albums.

What Lp´s did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
The first album I ever had was a compilation named ‘Disco Fever’..a crappy chart-compilation, but it contained a xl poster of the Spanish disco girl duo «Baccara». Not sure if I bought it for the poster or the music. Still have the LP, but the poster is gone :-). This was followed by the «red and the blue» double compilation album of the Beatles and a Cat Stevens album named ‘Foreigner’ which is not considered as one of his best albums…but for me it´s a great soulful album and I still listen to it. It was recorded in Jamaica. Drums by Bernard Purdie. Also Johnny Guitar Watson ‘A real Mother’ was a big influence to me by that time and is still one of my fave albums today. He was such an outstanding artist in his own universe…like Prince later. Last but not least I bought Kraftwerk´s ‘Computerwelt’ which was just released in 1981. A milestone that changed everything for me.

Do you have a particular style or favourite period?
I´m very much into jazz and I love the fifties/sixties period of Latin Jazz, Bossa Nova, Hard Bop and Soul Jazz as well as the Spiritual Jazz of this time. But all in all I listen to many genres and periods and I grew up with a lot of Funk & Soul or R&B as my mother was in a relationship with an Afro-American soldier by that time. So as a kid I spent some time on military bases and had barbecues on the weekends. I bought my first sound-system from an American (dj) soldier when he left Germany. The two 1210MK2 from the sound-system are still my turntables today. I was lucky to experience a rich influence of many styles in my youth…and except for Hard-Rock and Heavy Metal I listen to many different styles until today. I believe there is only good and bad music… No matter which style… I would call myself a «freestyler», but for some styles you need more time to get into them like Jazz… It needs some time and musical knowledge to be ready for this. I started in the early nineties when Hip Hop was flirting with Jazz and the so called «Acid Jazz» movement out of London was taking off. This was, as for many kids of my generation, a key trigger to dig deeper into Jazz I guess.

Are you still digging, buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
Yes, but I now do not find enough time to dig record shops, or flea-markets personally anymore, but those days I only look for very specific records. Mostly albums, not 12 inches, that I really want to listen to. So thanks to the internet it´s easier to get hold of specific copies.

What was your first release on InfraCom?
The very first release was a compilation album we named ‘Home-taping’. We asked many different artists from the Frankfurt area to contribute one title. From techno-producers, reggae / hip hop producers to even art ppl. The album was sold in coffee bars around Frankfurt and we had a big party with all the people involved to re-finance the project. After this they asked us to do another one. So this his how the label started, it was not planned in the first place.

Why did you choose this name: InfraCom? What does that mean?
I used to have a partner and very close friend «Namé Vaughn». Sadly he passed away in 2004. When we started around 1990 to do parties and other stuff we were looking for a name, so we sit together and thought about what are the key things that interests us in life beside the music… What do we want to archive with everything we do, so he came up with «communication» and I came up with «infrastructure». So this is how the name was chosen. Nobody could think about that this term might refer more to IT or telecommunication companies in the future… Back then we were quite ahead of our time with the name:-)

What could be your editorial/aesthetic line?
We do have an idea about the aesthetic aspect. Namé studied communication design and did a lot in the beginning, like the logo of our label. But I have to give a credit to Rafael Jiminez Heckman (www.fuku.org). He is working with us since the first days of the label and he has done at least 70% of all cover artworks and much other stuff. I really enjoy working with him. First because he is good in what he is doing and second we can talk about things without the “ego” problem between two creative ppl. I think we have found kind of an aesthetic-line over the years for the label, but we try to not overwhelm the project or artists with it. So it is still «open». It´s interesting to see how other graphic designers that contributed things to the label fit into this.

Jan & Namé…

[re-jazz] Alice Russell
Gabrielle

What could be the label’s leitmotif?
We have always been interested in people itself in the first place. The way we thought was, if a person is interesting and has something to say his musical output must have some kind of value. Also we had a lot of artists on the label that had a proper musical education. Even if they did not use it directly in their productions like Kabuki (from the Megashira project) for example… a Drum & Bass producer, but also a classical trained guitar player in his youth. Or Andrea Benini from Mop Mop who is a drummer… Matthias Vogt from [re:jazz], Motorcitysoul who studied jazz piano and church organ. Shantel who played the guitar. So with a lot of the artists/project we started to work even they had no production/release before or a final « demo-tape ». But we believed in their ideas and wanted to help to develop them.
A main interest was also the connection between «pop» and so called «underground» music. As Namé (who was American german mixed with a father who was a blues guitar player from Detroit) and myself have a more multicultural background with the families we were not so much into segregation. This also reflects in our output I think. We liked the idea of doing something underground or with new styles that interested us like Drum&Bass but at the same time we wanted to release quality albums that could make this music (theoretical) accessible to a bigger audience – in case they have a chance to listen to it. This often leads us to the point were the so called underground ppl said it’s too pop and the radio, it´s too underground. Not all the time this was good for the sales aspect, but somehow we did something right in our opinion. We mainly focused on artist and album projects rather than on pure 12 inch release for the clubs. Also we released a lot 12” with remixes etc… but always to support the artist/album release.

For a long time, you collaborated with musicians as a publisher. How did this activity help you consolidate your label?
As I said, it helps if ppl are trained musicians. Otherwise they will be limited and can not go beyond a certain level. But sometimes it can be the other way around and hold back your creativity to do something (with the machines for example) a musician would not try in the first place. I think their is not «one» single truth wether this is good or bad.

You are known also for jazznotjazz festival. Do you believe the electro jazz scene is still something relevant in 2017?
Let me answer this question with the hook-line line of a great tune by Ten City : «Nothing changed, inside the same, going in circles there´s just different names.» So yes in the moment it is not that fashionable in the moment. But pretty sure it will return in a slightly different way and wasn’t the so called electro-jazz or nu jazz wave just the answer to Acid Jazz ten to fifteen years before?

Mop Mop
Living Beat

How do you decide on the choice of issues and reissues?
I like to focus the answer on the reissue aspect. On the label we haven´t released so many re-issues. Beside the ‘Saigon Supersound’ I only did the ‘Frankfurt Sound from the 60ties up to now’ project, so the reason to do a re-issue is always driven by a personal aspect for me. In this case it was a book by the same name that was released and even won a book price. I read it because I was interested in the jazz history of «my» city. It had two CD attached, but none with music, just the recording of a radio-series, mainly spoken, about the topics in the book. So I felt like I want to hear the music, that´s what it´s about. I called the author and then we published the CD in media-book-format concentrated in the liner-notes on the music and the musicians.

What is the InfraCom LP you are prouder?
Always a difficult question… How to judge this? For the success of an album? For the musical quality… and if you still can listen to it today? In the end there should be a good reason to be proud of every album one put out. But surely some will not stand the test of time and some you would not put out today anymore. But by the time you worked on it it felt right. Personally I´m very proud of the ‘[re:jazz] live in Yokohama’ album and DVD from 2005. That´s because I was so much involved in the filming of the tour documentary in Japan. We went there for three weeks…recorded 8 shows and a lot of interviews etc. Just me and my friend Markus Bader who is a director. We planed it all by ourself, and did everything by ourself from filming, cutting etc. It was kind of a guerrilla action… took us over a year to finish everything, but was a great experience. Also the dvd-doc. is much to long and its maybe not the best production we have released on INFRACom!
All in all the [re:jazz] project, which was not planned to go on for 5 albums… In the beginning we just hat this idea for our 10th anniversary because we were tired of all this label-best of compilations everyone else did. We never ever imagined that this would turn out to be our best selling project on the label. The Saigon Supersound project is the most personal project I have done. So it means a lot to me. It took me a few years to finish it. So there is a story somehow behind each project or release in the end.

You have just published a compilation on the Vietnamese scene of the 70s. How did the idea come to you?
In 2011 me and my wife (who is born Vietnamese) decided to live in Saigon for a while. My very close friend “Edge” who is living in Vietnam was asking if I can help him with a series of half-legal parties (dOse) he did back then. So I had a good reason to go because I could do something in Vietnam and inviting affiliated artists like Quantic / Jazzanova / Alice Russel to Saigon for the first time.
During this time I met the french vinyl selector and DJ Antoine «Datodeo» Touissant and we became friends. He introduced me to his selection of Vietnamese pre75 tunes on 7inch vinyl. So this way I get infected and started to become more interested in the “musical” history of Vietnam. I did not know about it before and you don´t see/hear the music in your daily life in Vietnam… There are no record shops that have these kind of music for sale. I explain this a bit more in the liner notes. It´s also my contribution to preserve some of the music of that period and bring it to a new audience of people outside of Vietnam.
A lot of the people do not know about this music, even younger Vietnamese and Viet-kieu people living abroad I talked to. So I thought this is a project that has to be done… Also for my kids. It was a good way for me to do something connected to them and it had to do with my lives-passion and work. As they are mixed they will ask questions when they grow up. Beside that it was something I haven´t done before and as I´m always looking for new experience and the same time was a bit tired after all those years with the label and the struggle we all went through in the last decade this was something new to me as well.

Connie Kim
Ly Luan Tinh Yeu

How did you make the selection? And is the choice of electism a way of showing, demonstrating, the aesthetic diversity of this scene, even though it is very influenced by the United States?
And the French I must add. I think even more by the French then the US. If you look into Vietnam today you still see the french influences everywhere. In the architecture of the old houses, in the food like the Bánh mì which is a french baguette or the pâté. So it is with the music till 75. The Chanson had an influence on the vocal style of Vietnamese singers. Unfortunately today Vietnam (after the doi Moi in 1986) is ruled more by influences from the US. Not always to their best interest in my opinion! Who needs Mc Donald’s and EDM if you living in a country with the best fast food of the world and a rich (musical) culture? But this is how capitalism and globalisation work. And I do understand the ppl in Vietnam why they want this… Like the saying «The grass is always greener on the other side». Somehow you could think the US won through the back-door. Which absolutely does not mean I support or idealize the system before ´86 in Vietnam. But as a European and foreigner it´s not on me to judge about all this anyway.
The selection of tracks for this compilation is a subjective sample of popular music in that era, informed – of course – by personal likes and influences. This means, for example, that I was interested in latin, rock and soul-flavoured pieces which clearly show elements of fusion with western popular music.
But it was important to me to also include a Vọng Cổ, which is a piece of the Cải Lương, best translated as «theatre music». It was hard to find one that matched with the selection, so I´m more then happy about the one I included in the final track-listing. The Bolero is surly the most popular from. So it was clear to me that that it had to be represented on the album…but not as the dominant theme. So yes, it´s still diverse but also a personal selection in the end and not one on a certificated historical base.
Which would make no sense for me because I also want to attract new ppl to this music …and like back in the days when Hip-Hop-Jazz made me diggin´deeper I believe that if one find the entrance through the compilation then a first step is made…and yes there are many more great Bolero tunes to explore as well.

How long did it take to you to finish that?
I started to work on it more focused in 2013…

Is it easier to make reissues?
No! Absolutely not.

Nowadays, there are many LP labels who follow this model, I mean more quality even if it’s more expensive… but in same time, there are also another « new » LP market, with majors’ come-back and other labels, who prefer to sell cheaper. Is it the (re)creation of two camps for the LP?
Not sure if I understood the question right. But as I see it : There are different kind of target groups for the Vinyl that have different needs and objectives why they buy Vinyl. So record companies follow this trend. But I can not see that this is something very separated. Also I have to say some of the audiophile-hypes like the 180g Vinyl I personally do not understand. I can not hear that sound quality is better when pressed on 180g compared to 140g which is enough to cut a deep groove into the vinyl..everything deeper does not make it sound better anymore. In the end the mastering and cutting are much more important I believe. This you can also see (hear) with the re-issues often.

There are more and more reissues of old LPs, and more and more record labels (major or indie) now release their new artists on LP, or EP. Do you think that the LP reissue market could ever reach saturation point?
Yes it can, but I think not the vinyl market in general, just sections of it like re-issues of African music for example. There might be a point ppl have heard/bought enough and get tired of it or just have no demand to buy more of the same… But then also maybe only for a period of time, because with a new/next «music-virgin» generation the demand might come back, like with the musical styles.Vinyl is here to stay… It´s a yin and yang thing. Digital needs an equivalent and therefor Vinyl is the best medium.

Have you received many negative answers on some of the LPs, artists, unrealeased tapes, you were trying to reissue?
No.

What are your next releases?
I´m working hard to finish ‘Saigon Supersound Vol.2’ in the moment and I´m back to Vietnam therefor in october.
I also have the idea to release a series of limited 7inches with pre75 Vietnamese tunes on one side and a «rework» on the flip-side… Done by Vietnamese producers/musicians and producers who also share roots in Vietnam but living around the globe. It´s an update of the compositions and hopefully make it accessible to a younger and bigger audience. Together with some Viet Kieu guys from Sweden I´m in the preparation process for a small documentary too. We want to start filming in January in Vietnam.
And a few DJ Gigs with Saigon Supersound are also planed. So this project keeps me quite busy and concentrated in the next month… I did not make any plans what will happen afterwards on the label. Matthias Vogt is working on a new Trio album…but we haven´t made plans yet where/when/how to release it.

What is the LP you dream of reissuing?
No further dreams in the moment, and if I think I should re-issue something in the future, I will try to make it happen.

Each month, we are focusing on a record label founded by an active digger. This month, Miles Cleret from Soundway Records, one of our favorite labels around! From their amazing compilation series to beautiful reissues and great new tropical acts (think the mighty Meridian Brothers!), Miles Cleret’s choices and opinions are clearly worth checking!
 
 
 

When did you start digging records?
Properly when I was a teenager I guess – my dad was a digger (Jazz & Soul and 50s RnB and Rock & Roll mostly) so there were plenty in his house when I was growing up. It was hard though as money wasn’t an easy thing to get at the age of 14 but back then (the 80s) you could get good stuff in little record fairs and market stalls and there were just tons of record shops everywhere – even outside of London. The age of expensive rare records hadn’t really begun apart from the mega-fans who collected the big names in Rock and Pop (of which the UK had a lot). I wasn’t looking for rare stuff then though – just music that seemed exciting and new.

What Lps did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
Well not the very first records I bought – they were mostly really terrible pop records from when I was about 10. There was a store in the UK called Woolworths and you could buy discounted ex-chart 45s for about 20 pence so I’d spend all my pocket money on them for a few years until I was about 13. I remember buying most of the Beatles albums really cheaply on Spanish editions on a holiday in Barcelona when I was about 13 at a record store that was closing down. That changed my musical life a lot (my dad hated the Beatles so never had those records in the house) and then David Bowie, The Clash, the Cure and and then when I was about 14 or 15 I got into bands like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Hawkwind, Gong, The Grateful Dead, Caravan, Traffic etc – and yes I still listen to those LPs but I didn’t for a long time until recently – they have a way of transporting me back to my youth. Then I got into funk, jazz, hip hop and reggae and electronic music a few years later and dropped the guitar sound for quite a few years.

Do you have a particular style or favourite period?
No, not really now. I have pretty wide ranging tastes from the 1950s right up until yesterday. I know I don’t like much really heavy Thrash Metal, Goa Trance & also commercial pop etc to name a few styles. For quite a few years just before Soundway started in the late 90s I was pretty entrenched in records (mostly jazz, funk, soul, afro & latin) made between 65-76, but at some point or other over the last 20 years I’ve been into Detroit style techno, underground House, Psych-Rock, Prog-Rock, Synth-pop, Electronica, Boogie, Disco, Soca, Reggae, Dub and more. I just love hearing new kinds of music and I would get really bored if I stuck to one area exclusively. That kind of happened with West African music for about 8 years – I still love it and collect it but had to get out of solely listening to that stuff after soaking myself in it for all the comps we did back then.

Are you still digging, buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
Yes but nothing like as much as I used to – I have kids now so I’d be neglecting them if I was digging as much as I used to (I am in Indonesia as I type though about to go digging in Java for three days starting tomorrow). I try to be less obsessive than I used to be and let stuff go occasionally if I don’t DJ with it (Can’t afford not to really) – Personally I believe it can be un-healthy to obsess too much on the collection – you can never have them all so best just to enjoy the music and get your fix from the musicians and people involved in the music scene (easier said than done with some records though!). I also move around a lot and we have been out of the UK a bit recently so I don’t currently have a record “cave” – most of my records are in storage.

What was your first release?
“Ghana Soundz”: Afro-Beat, Funk & Fusion in 70s Ghana…
 

 
Gyedu Blay Ambolley
Simigwad
 

Why did you choose this name, Soundway? what does that represent?
It’s the title of a track by a band called Wrinkar Experience from Nigeria and was quite a big hit in West Africa in the 70s on EMI. The name just stuck as I was listening to it a lot in Ghana when I was starting the label and it kind of sounded right.

Among your first releases were the Ghana Soundz series which gained cult status. How did you work on it? how did you prepare that? Was it a longtime project?
It took about 2 years to do the first Volume. I went travelling in Ghana with my wife in 2001 and at the end of the trip had a couple of days digging records in Kumasi & Accra. The stuff I found was mind-blowing to me at the time. I’d spent a few years previously getting into afro stuff after all the American jazz, soul & funk etc and would try and find records in the UK at record fairs etc but it was hard to find and this was before the days when you could really get much real African stuff on ebay or the internet (with some notable exceptions). There’s an English collector named Duncan Brooker who works with Strut and he had been in Nairobi working when we were about 18 – he came back with some incredible 45s and some Kenyan presses of Nigerian recordings that he traded and sold at the time, but Ghana stuff was invisible – especially the ‘afro’ stuff. So I went back to Ghana on-and-off for a year just really going deep into looking for records, artists, producers and decided to do a compilation of non-highlife music. It was a great time and I was lucky enough not to have any competition from other labels for the styles i wanted to license at the time so I could take my time and really concentrate on it without there being any other people there from outside Ghana doing what I was doing or looking for records. Records would sit on the street with second-hand dealers and in stores for months without being bought and were cheap so there was no pressure to buy quickly – nobody really wanted them apart from a few Ghanaian collectors who helped school me. Hard to imagine now. There were also still some ‘recording studios’- relics of the 80s, where a shop would have a big collection of vinyl but would use it to record custom-made cassettes for customers – the internet killed most of them off a few years back. It was all just trial and error and great times getting to know people like Ebo Taylor, K. Frimpong, K. Gyasi’s son, Dick Essiebons and Kwadwo Donkor and hanging out with them at their homes and prising the stories and the pieces of the jigsaw from them over time.

After those you released a whole bunch of other records in the same mould such as the Kenya Special record. Has this become your trademark? Which one was the most fulfilling?
Ghana Soundz and the Nigeria Special series were the most fulfilling because the music was all so new to me at the time. I had no kids then so time wasn’t an issue and when you start a label and you’re young you have to keep pinching yourself that this is what you’re actually doing as a job. Its just so exhilarating and fresh and records you had no idea existed were popping up on an almost daily basis. That is still the case on certain projects but as the label gets bigger and bigger you can get bogged down in the administration side of things which is not something you need to worry about so much when you only have a handful of releases in your catalogue. and you’re starting out.

One of the lesser known parts of your activity is record-digging. When did you go to Africa first for that purpose?
In 2001. I was in Ghana, Benin, Togo, Ethiopia & Nigeria a lot between the years 2001-2005.
 

Fubura Sekibo
Psychedelic Bab
 

How was Nigeria when you first got there? What’s your best record digging story in Lagos?
Nigeria is huge and so full of incredible music it still astounds and surprises me now. I first went there in 2002 – Strut had just put out their Nigeria 70 comp and I’d been in touch with Quinton Scott so had a few contacts from him. There were amazing records there then but much harder to find than in Accra – Lagos is a big big place with terrible traffic so getting around the city is a problem. Its just a vast metropolis but those places always have great records if you look hard. I travelled out of Lagos a few times as well but again you really need to live there to get consistent record hauls – it’s not the sort of place you find stuff immediately in so all the Nigerian dealers and collectors are the ones who usually get the best stuff. For this reason (and because they are very good) Nigerian records have gone bananas price-wise recently though so you need to mortgage your house or be very rich these days to be able to buy from the dealers. I was lucky to get a lot of great records before it all went sky-high. I once found a box of mint Afrodisia 45s (50 different titles) whilst visiting the house of a retired producer who had subsequently become pretty wealthy in the pharmaceutical business. Its very hard to find 45s in that kind of condition over there and some of those titles I’ve never seen anywhere since. When I asked him how much he wanted for them he said I could just have them all and that he no longer wanted them. Finds don’t come much better than that.

You are responsible for remarkable selections, reissues, as music from Siam, or Nigerian disco… How do you decide on the choice of reissues/issues?
Just what we have time and money to do and feels right really – music that I like – it’s no more exact a science than that. But I do like to try not to rush things.

You released a great selection of highlife, but there wasn’t a big echo in the press (in France anyway). How could you explain this?
I guess you mean the “Highlife On the Move” compilation? It got some good attention but I think 1950s highlife is not particularly hip for journalists right now – maybe will never be. I think that was a very important compilation to make though. Its the genesis of the afrobeat story so it will be a solid catalogue title for a few years to come – not one that blows up at the beginning but chugs along nicely. I think it looks and sounds beautiful as well.

Family Atlantica, musicians from both sides of the Atlantic

 

Have you received many negative answers on some of the LPs you were trying to reissue?
One or two – mostly by people who believe they can out-perform the market and sell hundreds of thousands of copies more than all the other releases in the same genre! There are some big egos out there and the music industry has more than it’s fair share- always has and always will. Most people (95%) are cool though – but occasionally some do take a bit of convincing. Some are also worried that they don’t technically have the rights sign a master contract as they signed the rights away when they were young. Others have no such worries at all!

There are more and more reissues of old LPs, and more and more record labels (major or indie) now release their new artists on LP, or EP. Do you think that the LP reissue market could ever reach saturation point?
I think it’s possible yes. There are certainly a lot of people who buy vinyl because either they think it’s cool (often these people are just rich and don’t actually ever listen to music properly) and or because they see it as a good investment, which it often is these days. I think it’s inevitable that many of those people will offload it all in spades in a few years and the market could see a glut of cut-price titles. The whole vinyl speculator thing is a pain in the arse to be honest. Its just people with money buying up stock and then letting it back out at way over the odds – and these are people who can afford to sit on it. It’s not necessarily a bad things for labels as they sell out quickly on limited runs but it just means the vinyl market is controlled by investors and real music fans with not enough money to keep up can’t get the releases they want for the right price. Simple economics I guess but I never really thought it would hit the new vinyl world in quite the way it has.

You are not only focused on « old » Lp, compilations. What is the best deal/business: to make reissues or to produce/coproduce new records?
New records are a better thing to do for me personally right now but not necessarily always the best business in the short term – it’s a commitment and emotional investment in the music scene right now. Re-issues and compilations may sell quicker in the short run but over time for a label I think new releases and building catalogue in that area is the best way to go. Also we run a publishing company that publishes much of our new output – This is potentially a far better way to pay the bills in the long term but it takes time and is far from always predictable. People’s attitude to old music is that it’s somehow validated by time – they have a solid idea about the 60s or the 70s or the 80s (or now the 90s) in their heads that’s been confirmed by hundreds of books, documentaries, social commentaries and articles in a way that whats happening now isn’t. Some people play safe and wait or tell themselves they only like music of a certain era – it’s very much like vintage fashion. The idea of music existing in a far-off pre-internet time (and somewhere more exotic) makes many people trust it more somehow especially if it’s a bit wonky, loveable or low-fi. Of course music can be very evocative of a certain time and eras go in and out of fashion with different generations. Occasionally records turn up that are meant to look old and people aren’t sure. There was a Caribbean calypso-funk 45 a few years ago that was made in 1999 but sold as a 70s record – I remember a few people going nuts over it but then were upset when they found out it wasn’t old – the music remained exactly the same but the provenance had changed so it became less ‘real’ somehow in their eyes.

Batida feat Sacerdote
Bantu
 

Are they two different jobs?
New bands are obviously more demanding and the process of promoting new records is much more involved – compilations and re-issues often sell themselves – so yes a little bit.

Dexter Story looks like a vintage record, just like Ghana Soundz. What is this project about, and how does it fit into your catalogue ?
Dex is a very experienced musician who has played on a lot of amazing musicians’ records from Kamasi Washington to Gaslamp Killer and way beyond. He is from Los Angeles but like many people over the past ten years became obsessed with classic Ethiopian and East African music. The Wondem project has it’s feet rooted in the 1960s, 70s & 80s music of that region but is also extremely modern in many ways and not just a straight retro duplicate – that was what attracted me to it.

Could you tell us more about Fumaça Preta and Batida. Is there a « luso » connection ? How did you discover them ?
Fumaça Preta are a band that again struck me because of the way they took wigged out Brazilian psychedelic rock from the 70s but melded it with bits of acid house, punk and metal in a way I hadn’t really heard anyone else do. They reference a ‘smorgasbord’ of musical styles from Funaná to Funk but wrap it up in their own unique, lysergic way. Alex the drummer is a big time record collector who co-runs a store in Amsterdam called Vintage Voodou – he sent me the demos and I was hooked immediately.
Batida is an electronic dance act from Lisbon run by DJ Pedro Coquenão. He grew up in Angola and so was immersed in the sounds of classic 70s Angolan music all around him which he sampled and incorporated into his sets. These morphed into the Batida live show that features dancers, live musicians and slide shows – he entertains and educates people in equal measure at his gigs. I heard Batida on a compilation that came out a few years ago on Crammed by the Radioclit/Secousse crew and got in touch with Pedro tyo see if we could work on an album.

Meridian Brothers, Bomba Estereo, Los Miticos Del Ritmo, Family Atlantica, again another branch of Soundway, more South American. What could be the meeting point of all these releases?
I guess they are all in some way referencing the music we re-issued on compilations and re-issues and so it was an obvious progression – I think we’ll get further and further away from that in time though and already this year we are signing some acts that have nothing at all to do with South America or Africa.

 
Meridian Brothers
Doctor Trompeta
 

Can we mention a certain eclecticism in terms of catalogue? Is it more difficult to be well received, well identified, by the media and record shops or is it in fact a force?
Again I think it’s harder in the short term – Many journalists and distributors/stores just want to put you in a one genre box and keep you there but I couldn’t think of doing that – As I said before I have very wide tastes musically so want to keep moving and surprising rather than getting stuck in one place. Its tough sometimes but as the catalogue grows people start to get it. Major labels can do it so why not independents?

What could be the label’s leitmotif?
Music from Planet Earth : Past, Present, Future.

What are your next releases?
New Albums by Fumaca Preta (Darker and more introspective than the first maybe) & Family Atlantica (featuring Marshall Allen and Orlando Julius). Psychedelic pop from Flamingods with “Majesty” – I saw these guys in a tent I was DJing in at Glastonbury last year and was blown away – a whole band of multi-instrumentalists who met in London and the Middle East. This is their third album and has shades of early Pink Floyd, Os Mutantes, the Beatles & Sun City Girls, crashing into Les Baxter and Martin Denny. Then we have a new 45 by Chico Mann, Kenya Special Volume 2 , re-issues of People Rock Outfit and Jay-U experience from Nigeria and some edit 12s. Later on in the year I hope the new Ondatropica album will drop alongside some more new signings and re-issues etc and a comp of Nigerian Disco and Boogie.

What is the LP you dream of reissuing?
If I tell you that 100’s of other people will try and do it first!
 
 

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