Unknown Artists

jtsuited

A few months back I stumbled across a vinyl only release series that and went under the name of Slowhouse.

Of course in true anonymous style the tracks were untitled, and all that was known was that this series came out of Zurich. Which gave us a big clue as it was obvious that it was someone from the drumpoet community/sthlmaudio camp. Of course it unsurprisingly turned out to be a collaboration of agnes and quarion, although officially nobody's taken credit.

Anywho, just found a new 'unknown artist release that could easily be a few people' type of record. Posted in the track of the day thread but I figure you lads might have some idea who's behind it. The only internet rumour I've heard so far is that it's Quantec, but for some reason I doubt it. Doesn't really seem very quantec apart from the big whopper chords in it.

Anyways here's one of the tracks from the project

I should be getting their two hand-stamped individually sealed 12's in post tomorrow (fedex tracking ftw!).:D

Anywho, anymore examples of anonymous mysterious releases that had limited pressings and now trade for over 100 euro on discogs?

Or any info on the 1xa stuff?

Zascar

Reminds me of an article I read a while back
http://www.beatportal.com/feed/item/the-function-of-identity-in-techno/

While I do really like the tracks posted above, and yes I agree with 'letting the music stand for itself' etc etc, I find that some of this 'I'm so uber cool my music doesn't even have an identity' - a little bit w@nky really

I am however very impressed how these guys can make a success of themselves with absolutely no promotion

jtsuited

I used to think it was a bit w@nky myself, but it really does show balls and a belief in your talent.

Also we really need it in this day and age of ridiculous hype and over-promotion of releases.
Was reading something somewhere a while back on how music should really be made to be discovered as opposed to be made to be targeted. An interesting discussion methinks.

I guess the success of records like these reaffirms people's faith in the whole 'quality always wins out' idea. And in these days of facebook spam overload and hypermarketing bull**** (Hawtin take a bow), it's a comfort to see.

seannash

This used to be common practice years ago(jesus get out the old walking cane sean)

it used to be done when people had used a sample that was uncleared or just wanted to put out a different sounding track.

id imaine this is only really a vinyl thing as theres no real sense of discovery of you just download it off the internet.

its definitely an advantage that the record shops have over digital and also because they normally appear in limited runs makes it even more special.

good to see the whitelabel still lives on.you could always find clues writtn on the actual centre of the vinyl as t who made it too.there was normally something written there.

next up will be the rarer find a good whitelable thats done on coloured vinyl!!!
coloured vinyl always seemed to be a bit of a marketing ploy,was rare to find any decent releases on colored vinyl

hans aus dtschl

Cottam

Zascar

Electronic music does suffer from a little bit of over promotion, but its still miles better than pop culture where it's almost impossible to make a success without huge amounts of promotion. At least with a techno track you can just release it and it can become successful on its own accord. Sure yourself Jeff and the Hypertic guys got big successes in the Beatport charts without alreday being global superstars and I didn't see much promotion. Out of interest what promotion did you guys do? and apart from the tracks themselves, what others aspects do you owe to the success of the release?

I do like the fact that people are doing this for the sake of the music itself, but I just cannot help but think some of them are not as purist as this and they are also trying to strengthen their super cool reputations - it may be officially released anonymously but plenty of people in the scene are going to know who its by, and I'm sure in some cases it can be better than releasing it in your own name.

BaZmO*

jtsuited wrote: »

Also we really need it in this day and age of ridiculous hype and over-promotion of releases.

Hype and over-promotion has been, and always will be, part of music releases. It even happens with the anonymous releases too.
I remember back in 93 when all the English dance mags where all over the US House sound, any track that was from the US (on import) always cost a good bit more and were always released under so much hype.

Slo Moshun - Bells of N.Y. was released anonymously by 6x6, and the hype around the track was ridiculous. They even released the track in shrink wrap cellophane to give it that genuine Us Import look.
Turns out the track was by the two lads in Altern-8. Doubt it would've received as much attention if that'd been known when first released.

seannash

BaZmO* wrote: »

Hype and over-promotion has been, and always will be, part of music releases. It even happens with the anonymous releases too.
I remember back in 93 when all the English dance mags where all over the US House sound, any track that was from the US (on import) always cost a good bit more and were always released under so much hype.

Slo Moshun - Bells of N.Y. was released anonymously by 6x6, and the hype around the track was ridiculous. They even released the track in shrink wrap cellophane to give it that genuine Us Import look.
Turns out the track was by the two lads in Altern-8. Doubt it would've received as much attention if that'd been known when first released.

but even back then you had to almost discover the hype.you had to buy the magazines to read up on what was going on.

you really had to be dedicated back then.now its too easy to find tracks.

aw nostalgia is nice

MikeHoncho

seannash wrote: »

but even back then you had to almost discover the hype.you had to buy the magazines to read up on what was going on.

you really had to be dedicated back then.now its too easy to find tracks.

aw nostalgia is nice

I don't think its too easy to discover decent music now. Its a chore. Sifting through loads and loads of complete rubbish to find a few gems is not fun. At least when you walked in to a record store there was an element of quality control that went in even before you were handed your pile to listen to.

I spent about 2 hours over the weekend listening to stuff on Beatport and the like and came away with 2 tracks and after listening to them again I actually don't even like them that much.

On the subject of unknown artists a few of my favorite pieces of vinyl I have no clue who they are by. White labels with just Side A and Side B if you were lucky. I like the idea of artists just putting stuff out there and hoping it will stand on its own merits.

Zascar

One of the problems is that once you get more than just a niche group of people interested in something, the quality of the overall average goes down - the beatport top 10 chart is a perfect example. Every teenage bedroom DJ uses it now and the lower quality mass appeal stuff will sell more than the real proper quality tracks. Same with with Top 100 DJ's poll etc. Crowdsourcing and the Wisdom of the Crowd don't always work to the best advantage.

This is why beatport have the Recommended Selection and DJ Charts which have far more substance than the overall sales charts

seannash

MikeHoncho wrote: »

I don't think its too easy to discover decent music now. Its a chore. Sifting through loads and loads of complete rubbish to find a few gems is not fun. At least when you walked in to a record store there was an element of quality control that went in even before you were handed your pile to listen to.

I spent about 2 hours over the weekend listening to stuff on Beatport and the like and came away with 2 tracks and after listening to them again I actually don't even like them that much.

On the subject of unknown artists a few of my favorite pieces of vinyl I have no clue who they are by. White labels with just Side A and Side B if you were lucky. I like the idea of artists just putting stuff out there and hoping it will stand on its own merits.

ah yeah but look at how much info is out there about releases and tracklistings of djs.

before it was all unheard of.if you had a good tune chances are that noone else had it in your town and if they wanted it they would have to hunt it down,order it.

MikeHoncho

seannash wrote: »

ah yeah but look at how much info is out there about releases and tracklistings of djs.

before it was all unheard of.if you had a good tune chances are that noone else had it in your town and if they wanted it they would have to hunt it down,order it.

This is true. I suppose the difference is that now hype is no indication of quality where as 10 years ago if a tune was hyped then 90% of the time it probably deserved it.

BaZmO*

seannash wrote: »

but even back then you had to almost discover the hype.you had to buy the magazines to read up on what was going on.

Yeah good point. It was there though, just not as prevalent as it today I suppose.

seannash wrote: »

aw nostalgia is nice

It's not what it used to be either.

seannash wrote: »

if you had a good tune chances are that noone else had it in your town and if they wanted it they would have to hunt it down,order it.

God, I used to love that. It used to be so cool having the rare piece of vinyl that no one else had. Or that random day flicking to the vinyl section and finding something you'd been looking for for yonks. I miss those days......although I don't miss the empty pockets!

BaZmO*

MikeHoncho wrote: »

I suppose the difference is that now hype is no indication of quality where as 10 years ago if a tune was hyped then 90% of the time it probably deserved it.

Oh I don't know about that. Plenty of times I've been shocked when I actually got around to hearing the uber hyped track. That was thing though. You could buy all the magazines in the world and look at all the playlists but you actually had to go into a shop/club to hear the tracks. Now you can just sit at your computer and listen away to your hearts content. As Sean said, you really had to work for your music.

Suppose to problem today is not the lack of availability, it's glut of availability!

Executive Steve

seannash wrote: »

This used to be common practice years ago(jesus get out the old walking cane sean)

it used to be done when people had used a sample that was uncleared or just wanted to put out a different sounding track.

id imaine this is only really a vinyl thing as theres no real sense of discovery of you just download it off the internet.

its definitely an advantage that the record shops have over digital and also because they normally appear in limited runs makes it even more special.

good to see the whitelabel still lives on.you could always find clues writtn on the actual centre of the vinyl as t who made it too.there was normally something written there.

next up will be the rarer find a good whitelable thats done on coloured vinyl!!!
coloured vinyl always seemed to be a bit of a marketing ploy,was rare to find any decent releases on colored vinyl

I've got ****loads of savage releases on coloured vinyl or on picture discs...

Maybe it's a genre thing?

Lots of the "unknowns" were indeed related to uncleared samples etc, but since the advent of the internet and an army of nerds doing research it's become easier and easier to figure it all out, not to mention the fact that nine times out of ten you can spot someone's production style a mile off anyway

Executive Steve

BaZmO* wrote: »

Oh I don't know about that. Plenty of times I've been shocked when I actually got around to hearing the uber hyped track. That was thing though. You could buy all the magazines in the world and look at all the playlists but you actually had to go into a shop/club to hear the tracks. Now you can just sit at your computer and listen away to your hearts content. As Sean said, you really had to work for your music.

Suppose to problem today is not the lack of availability, it's glut of availability!

There's hype and there's hype though...

Always look at who's doing the hyping, you can generally tell before you even listen if it's running or not...

BaZmO*

Executive Steve wrote: »

There's hype and there's hype though...

Always look at who's doing the hyping, you can generally tell before you even listen if it's running or not...

Ah I'm a little bit more savvy (and cynical) nowadays so I don't get drawn in by all the hype any more.

jtsuited

MikeHoncho wrote: »

I don't think its too easy to discover decent music now. Its a chore. Sifting through loads and loads of complete rubbish to find a few gems is not fun. At least when you walked in to a record store there was an element of quality control that went in even before you were handed your pile to listen to.

I spent about 2 hours over the weekend listening to stuff on Beatport and the like and came away with 2 tracks and after listening to them again I actually don't even like them that much.

On the subject of unknown artists a few of my favorite pieces of vinyl I have no clue who they are by. White labels with just Side A and Side B if you were lucky. I like the idea of artists just putting stuff out there and hoping it will stand on its own merits.

Right give this a go if you're having that problem. Go to juno and only browse through the vinyl (in a specific genre). See how ya get on compared to beatport browsing.

Far better way of finding music. Unfortunately, you'll be seriously tempted to go (back to?) vinyl.

MikeHoncho

jtsuited wrote: »

Right give this a go if you're having that problem. Go to juno and only browse through the vinyl (in a specific genre). See how ya get on compared to beatport browsing.

Far better way of finding music. Unfortunately, you'll be seriously tempted to go (back to?) vinyl.

No hope of me going back to vinyl while I'm living in my current apartment but as soon as I have space again I am going back. Will have a look at the vinyl only section of Juno later as an experiment.

joker77

Executive Steve wrote: »

I've got ****loads of savage releases on coloured vinyl or on picture discs...

Maybe it's a genre thing?

Lots of the "unknowns" were indeed related to uncleared samples etc, but since the advent of the internet and an army of nerds doing research it's become easier and easier to figure it all out, not to mention the fact that nine times out of ten you can spot someone's production style a mile off anyway

Yea I'd go along with both here - I've a good few coloured vinyl that are excellent, but with a lot of them the quality was very poor. Haven't seen any in years but came across one recently on Tsuba records - and looking at their catalogue they've a few pressings on coloured vinyl:
http://twitpic.com/1f1wps
Wonder what the quality is like these days

On the untitled white labels, yes my understanding was also it was down to samples being used that shouldn't have been etc, but I think the stuff that jtsuited has linked to is not really about that.

Savage releases though jtsuited - cheers for the heads up on them - really like the 1XA ones

Zascar

So Jeff are you going to rip to mp3 and share with us or are you going to hold us ransom on your quest to convert the world back to Vinyl?

Executive Steve

jtsuited wrote: »

Right give this a go if you're having that problem. Go to juno and only browse through the vinyl (in a specific genre). See how ya get on compared to beatport browsing.

Far better way of finding music. Unfortunately, you'll be seriously tempted to go (back to?) vinyl.

Oddly enough it's almost the reverse in DnB nowadays - you get torrents of unlistenable ****e on wax and there's some pretty decent digital-only labels around if you know where to look.

brianc27

Executive Steve wrote: »

Oddly enough it's almost the reverse in DnB nowadays - you get torrents of unlistenable ****e on wax and there's some pretty decent digital-only labels around if you know where to look.

with proper techno (not beatport techno) there's just as good digital releases as vinyl, some of the older stuff is harder to get on digital but over all anything i want i can find on good legal digital download site's, there's also a nice amount of free net labels churning out some savage techno, they dont hype themselves up, most of them i've just stumbled across on forums and such. ante-rasa being the pick of the bunch.

c_o_ck p_i_ss chillage

My best advice would be to steer clear of any hype whatsoever. Don't look at any dj charts etc. Discover your own tunes. Believe in your own taste.

Executive Steve

c_o_ck p_i_ss chillage wrote: »

My best advice would be to steer clear of any hype whatsoever. Don't look at any dj charts etc. Discover your own tunes. Believe in your own taste.

I agree with that 100% when you're just getting into a style of music, personally I read charts just to get a sense of where things are headed over the next six months and to check for any names I don't know yet, although Soundcloud sort of tentatively begun replace them for me in that respect.

xdeletiax

jtsuited wrote: »

Of course in true anonymous style the tracks were untitled, and all that was known was that this series came out of Zurich. Which gave us a big clue as it was obvious that it was someone from the drumpoet community/sthlmaudio camp. Of course it unsurprisingly turned out to be a collaboration of agnes and quarion, although officially nobody's taken credit.

Anywho, anymore examples of anonymous mysterious releases that had limited pressings and now trade for over 100 euro on discogs?

Or any info on the 1xa stuff?

didnt know 1XA was connected with slowhouse. slowhouse 3 is my fav:D
theres a label called frozen border releasing anon techno tracks which are excellent- some rumours are that shed and dettmann are involved. its always fun trying to figure this stuff out, i wouldnt be too cynical about it- maybe producers want to release stuff which might be a bit different to what they usually do and see what the reaction is like when their name isnt attached to the release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjUTL72_YgE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NursDZbFwME

jtsuited

1xa aren't connected with slowhouse.

joker77

Came across this one to add to the list:

Artist: Unknown
Titel: KNOWONE 001 (WHITE MARBLED VINYL)
Label: Knowone / KO001
Limited to 250

http://www.decks.de/t/unknown-knowone_001/bvg-3o

Very nice tracks, but a part of me is saying that this is just a ploy to sell a guaranteed 250 records? What do you reckon?

By the way - haven't been buying much since I had that row with the credit card last month, but that decks.de site seems very well stocked, have been browsing it for a while, well worth checking out.

Executive Steve

joker77 wrote: »

Came across this one to add to the list:

Artist: Unknown
Titel: KNOWONE 001 (WHITE MARBLED VINYL)
Label: Knowone / KO001
Limited to 250

http://www.decks.de/t/unknown-knowone_001/bvg-3o

Very nice tracks, but a part of me is saying that this is just a ploy to sell a guaranteed 250 records? What do you reckon?

By the way - haven't been buying much since I had that row with the credit card last month, but that decks.de site seems very well stocked, have been browsing it for a while, well worth checking out.

How hard is it to sell 250 records though? Unless it's reeeeally **** or a complete niche product you'll sell 300 odd easily enough

joker77

Yea I suppose - if it was a ploy they wouldn't be so strict saying no repressing / no digital release etc.

How many copies would your average 12" sell these days? Any numbers released anywhere?

jtsuited

Executive Steve wrote: »

How hard is it to sell 250 records though? Unless it's reeeeally **** or a complete niche product you'll sell 300 odd easily enough

from what i hear it's very difficult to sell more than 600 these days. The figures I've heard from reputable sources have been that labels that used to sell 4-5 thousand 3 years ago, are barely selling 500 now.

I think there is a flaw in using that as an indicator though as the labels i have heard mentioned in this situation are simply not as popular as they were three years ago.

Scubadevils

joker77 wrote: »

Came across this one to add to the list:

Artist: Unknown
Titel: KNOWONE 001 (WHITE MARBLED VINYL)
Label: Knowone / KO001
Limited to 250

http://www.decks.de/t/unknown-knowone_001/bvg-3o

Very nice tracks, but a part of me is saying that this is just a ploy to sell a guaranteed 250 records? What do you reckon?

By the way - haven't been buying much since I had that row with the credit card last month, but that decks.de site seems very well stocked, have been browsing it for a while, well worth checking out.

Nice track alright.

I've seen many a 12", CD etc come out in limited numbers, some around the 200-500 mark and be still available for months after... just goes to show the state of the music industry.

I remember scrambling to buy a 12" back in the day that might have been limited to 5000 copies!