INTERVIEW WITH DEATH STROBE RECORDS

Death Strobe records is a new boutique record label set up in the sunny hills of Sydney’s inner east by two young multi-talented music enthusiasts Ash Le Rouge and Andy Webb (the driving force behind one of Australia’s best music blogs – Disco Delicious). With a shared appreciation for the old and new, and for the forgotten past, these dudes look as though they will be changing the landscape of music by releasing amazing and exciting records from a multitude of Australian and international artists.
With their release from Indonesian native ‘Midnight Savari‘ already gaining a spot in Erol Alkan’s crate it seems as though the sidewalk has already been paved in loud gold for them.

We caught up with Ash (the redder haired one of the 2) for a quick low-down on where, when and how it’s all going to happen, and already has, happened.

When and where did the idea to start a record label come about?
Andy posted a mix I did a few years back on his seminal tribal-folk blog Disco Delicious. We ended up meeting in real life at a Joakim gig and drunken plans were hatched to press records.

Where did the name ‘Death Strobe’ came from?
I DJ’d a lot at a club called YU back in the day and was friendly with the lighting dude – this was sweet because he’d let me play with the effects whenever I wanted. My favourite setting was the “Death Strobe” which basically turned the place into an epileptic’s worst nightmare. It also makes us sound a bit badass which couldn’t be further from the truth.

You have started a label that is pressing vinyl at a time when it seems that it is almost as hard as selling sand to the arabs. Do you find this challenging ? What are the attractions of practising an old trade?
We are both avid record collectors who truly love the vinyl format. There was never really an option of not pressing records – this is an important part of our culture and we felt an obligation to do it. Obviously it can be a bit of a challenge but at the moment we are looking at this operation as a labour of love. We also put a lot of focus on the design aspect and the 12″ sleeve is the perfect format to get creative. Labels like Warp or Output are amazing at this and that kind of attention to detail is impossible to attain with an MP3.

Now – it goes to say that some DJ’s can make or break a small label when it is still on its training wheels, and you have already gained support in the huge form of Erol Alkan – how did this come about ? Was it a surprise for you?
We have absolutely no idea. The Midnight Savari digital release hasn’t been sent out yet as we wanted to release the vinyl on its own for a few weeks. I went to the Erol show in Sydney and he dropped ‘Rimshots’. Needless to say we were pretty stoked.

Can you tell us about any future releases and projects you will be working on?
Andy is releasing some of his favourite edits under the Disco Delicious moniker. The first 12″ featured some sweet rerub action from Joystick Jay and has been on heavy rotation all summer. I’m currently working on some original material with co-production from Nile Delta and Midnight Savari which should come out in the not too distant future. We also have an EP coming up from Will Hawthorn – a Sydney producer who makes some pretty sexy deep house. Pretty excited about that one… apart from that more design and more parties!

Do you have a motto?
If it feels (sounds?) good do it.  We don’t have any set model in the kind of stuff we plan to put out. Our first release by Sydney noise men Domeyko/Gonzalez is a pretty deep and glitchy affair – it contrasts really nicely with the Midnight Savari EP which is more of a dance thing. Both are great records but are lifetimes apart in terms of style. We want to have a unifying theme running throughout the the way everything is presented though.

Andy and Ash’s Top Tracks To Strobe To:

It’s a Fine Line – Grease
Atmosphere – Gesaffelstein
Suck and Run (Sonic Flight Remix) – Console
To The Music (Midnight Mike Remix) – Colder
The Big Fake – Traffic Signs
Now Phreeq – Justus Kohncke
Azul Blue – Toby Tobias
Spindle – Brinton McKay
Nobody Loves A Computer Because A Computer Does Not Dance – Computer
Joyous (DJ Harvey Re-Edit) – Pleasure

www.deathstrobe.com
www.facebook.com/deathstrobe
www.soundcloud.com/deathstrobe

By Angus Gruzman