Who are you?

As we’ve all seen over the years, labels appear and disappear in the blink of an eye, pushing out a few releases here and there and then disappearing off, sometimes leaving a short history of great music – leaving the punter wanting more – other times folding because nobody else could give a shit. It goes without saying that this situation is probably more  prevalent than before thanks to everyone and their granny launching digital labels from their bedroom (or bathroom, going on the quality of some of the muck). It’s hard to tell how many of them will have any lastability as the commitment isn’t in the same realm as pushing a vinyl label these days. Or in the case of Dissident, pushing a label that seems to have little care for any monetary gain or a noticeable profile compared with most. Started last year, don’t be too surprised if you haven’t come across this label as of yet (though obviously some have). It’s roster is made up mostly of artists who have released little if anything before, all it’s releases are limited to 100 or 200 pressings, most only contain one track, are one sided pressings and retail on-line at 11 to 13 euro. I was put on to it by a shop owner a couple of months ago who wouldn’t actually stock any of them because financially it was fairly risky getting them in and having to charge even more. Yet  they have amassed a whopping 38 releases in little over a year!

So what can one expect from them? The purchases I’ve made range from slo-mo italo and disco influenced bombs to glitchy techno, ebm grooves and electro. They also take a stab at punk/funk and chicago sounds. I’m not going to fool anyone into thinking it’s a buy on sight label – some of it isn’t too exciting – but it has gathered together and released a surprisingly high rate of excellent tracks in a very short space of time. From what I’ve chosen  so far first up is Gweilo, a producer I don’t know anything about past the two releases for the label (he only has one more track out, on mp3). Ghosts crawls along at a snails pace, slowly but surely grabbing a hold of you with its grinding synths and irresistable bleeps. It slowly builds to not a whole lot – it rises an octave or so for a short moment, breaks down and resumes to what was was going on before  – but I just feel compelled to listen to the whole track through, everytime. Acolyte picks up the pace somewhat, again without doing very much. As a pointer to what to expect, when I first put it on I was drawn to pick out Roni Griffith’s Spys to mix out of it (even though the two were somewhat out of tune with each other, oh well).

Up next is Casionova, who’s one release for the label so far isn’t an original, but a remix by Ali Renault of his Shoreham Harbour Blues cut. I’d compare it to the original, but it hasn’t actually been released anywhere! Regardless, it’s the sort of new school italo jam that the likes of Alden Tyrell has perfected over the years, and it easily holds it’s own. Once again, it isn’t interested in going anywhere fast (this is  somewhat of a recurring theme with quite a bit of Dissident’s output), but when it does, it pays off beautifully. Renault’s own Cuffs and Muravchix’s Tropical Warrior follow in a similar style, swimming in a sea of 80’s influences, but in the best possible taste.

So, to a name that everyone will recognise; Mark Broom has also dropped a twelve for them. Scouring through Discogs there seems be a connection  along the way with Broom’s Pure Plastic to Dissident. How close it is, I couldn’t fully say. Anyways, he has followed the same path as Casionova by just releasing a remix of Mandate, this time by Kruton. The original appeared on Pure Plastic 10 years ago on a twelve that also had an original track by Kruton and is one of the releases on the label that takes its cues from EBM and old school Chicago. Compared with some of the others I’ve mentioned, this dares to go above 100bpm and from the get go is demanding you get on the floor.

There are quite a few more releases that I could recommend but instead I urge you to check them out for yourself and see what does it for you. Some of them have sold out their run and going on their rate of releases the label is more interested in getting new material out instead of sitting around waiting for everyone to take notice. Many facetes of electronic music have been too long obsessed with the concept of sounding as “original” as possible but Dissident is following in the footsteps of some other labels at the moment that are less bothered with this and are more interested in putting out music that unashamedly wears it’s influences on its sleeve while doing enough to make it more than a pointless exercise in studied retro chic. You could argue ’till you’re blue in the face about the high cost of getting a hold of their releases but that shouldn’t really matter when the quality is of such a high standard. It’s hard to tell how long a label such as this can go on putting out  releases at the speed it is, and maybe it will fold sooner rather than later, but it’s already looking like it could leave a history far more entertaining than a lot of labels would hope to attain over many years.

On a final note, It has crossed my mind more than once to investigate the label further, to see how long it has spent gathering together the artists and tracks it has thus far released, to see what its plan is for the future and to actually find out who is behind it, but if they aren’t even willing to have a myspace page wouldn’t it be nicer to just leave it as a mystery for as long as possible?