10 years of Hyperdub

Celebrations for Hyperdub’s 10th birthday are kicking off in fine style this week with the release of the first in a set of 2 disc compilations, Hyperdub 10.1, and a 3 room full takeover party at Fabric. The track list and line up make for exciting  reading, throwing into dramatic relief the dynamism and influence of one of electronic music’s most lauded labels.

Perusing the back catalogue, it’s striking how many game changing artists and seminal releases have come through from the Hyperdub stable. The mix is eclectic yet consistencies are apparent. As if the label’s earliest releases from Kode 9 and Burial set the tone for what was to come there runs a lean toward the haunting, the stark, an atmosphere that evokes rain, the night bus and darkened streets in the shadier parts of town.

The most unwavering of these consistencies is innovation. Never resting on their I’m sure not uncomfortable laurels, Hyperdub has managed to remain consistently at the forefront, leading the charge rather than waiting till change is safe. They’ve never fallen into the trap that’s clutched too many long lasting labels,  of finding their sound and then making it forever. Like Tetsuo crossed with a roaring Godzilla soundsystem Hyperdub maintains a perpetual twisted growth, where distorted fronds sprout ever new mutated rhythms.

I’m celebrating the 10th birthday of this, one of my favourite labels, by listening to 10 beloved tunes. After that I’ll doubtless listen to 10 more.

Kode 9 and the Spaceape – Sine of the Dub 

 

 

Burial – Ghost Hardware 

 

 

King Midas Sound – Dahlin

 

 

Cooly G – Playin Me

 

 

Ikonika feat Jessy Lanza – Beach Mode Keep It Simple

 

 

Darkstar – Aidy’s Girl is A Computer

 

 

Terror Danjah – Breaking Bad

 

 

Kyle Hall – Girl U So Strong

 

 

LV feat Okmalumkoolkat – Boomslang

 

 

DJ Rashad – Rollin’

 

 

You can check the line up and get your tickets to Friday’s party on the Fabric website: http://www.fabriclondon.com/club/listing/900

If you’re not in London or have other plans (Warning: not recommended) then you can buy Hyperdub: 10.1 along with a host of other incredible release on their website and all in good record stores: http://www.hyperdub.net/

This is Neoterika (aka wow the internet is so big)

Neoterika is a monthly music show dedicated to uncovering and sharing amazing music flying under the radar. This is our blog. Time to wax lyrical about why we exist.

The internet has given a lot to modern music – we watch as the idea of adhering to a single genre fades away, leaving boundaries dissolved and possibilities endless. The rise of the micro-scene and the fall of the mass movement monolith along with the easy connectivity of anybody anywhere allows for collaboration and experimentation that would have been impossible in any other era. Producers, bands and artists of all kinds can create whatever they want, upload it to the ether and there are billions of people who from there could potentially consume it.

On the other hand, to a large extent it’s stolen the slow burn, that gradual progression from amateur creation to public performance and along with it the idea of music as tangible and important art that requires effort and investment to create. Things move at a pace that can make music seem ephemeral, even trivial. Is this just another flash in the pan? Will it endure? Personally I’m not sure if that matters. My early teenage years were defined by a series of scene obsessions picked up and discarded with lightning speed. Today’s love of my musical life could be looked upon with derision a month later – but fast forward all these years later and the great tracks from every single one of these forgotten loves retains the ability to make my heart beat faster and a joyous grin plaster itself across my face. The immersion was often fleeting but the bangers endure. My attitude is fuck context, how does this sound?

The other issue with the internet is it’s bloody big. Just…so….much…stuff. Some of it (loads of it) is rubbish, but inevitably wonderful artists get lost in the sheer immensity of information, slip through the spaces between the threads of the web.

It’s with all this in mind we started Neoterika. I kept stumbling across incredible tracks with criminally few listens and eventually decided they deserved to be compiled and shared – played through in their entirety and mixed up with no regard for genre and an assumption that the people who’d want to listen to such a thing will be open minded and up for experimentation.

So that’s us.

You can listen to the show by following the link below, and I’ll be writing stuff here about music and culture and that from time to time.