Clone Label Finishes

Today my weekly Clone mailout had a surprising text in it, wherein Serge and the crew announced the end of the Clone label, which had been running for over 15yrs.

Thankfully it didn’t contain any talk of lack of sales and while they touch on the idea that they aren’t really down with a lot of dance music currently coming out, it would seem that they just feel that they have done more than what they set out to do with the label. Instead of repeating themselves they have opted to finish up. It’s a very sad day as Clone has been responsible for some fantastic releases over the years, varying in many styles from electro and techno to italo and disco influenced material. But it’s not all doom and gloom as they certainly hint at the idea that we will see more from them in the future. In a time when every Tom, Dick and Harry can set up a half-arsed digital label from his bedroom and other labels continue to pump out material even though there has been a noticeable dip in quality, it’s commendable that Clone have decided to call it quits on this venture when they could keep on flogging it, without their hearts in it. Gladly it isn’t effecting their shop/distribution and the peerless re-issue sub label Clone Classic Cuts should still be continuing. Here is the full mail…

* Closure of the Clone record label*
After running the label since 1993/ 94 we recently noticed that we were going to repeat ourselves. We started as a label influenced by the first wave of techno and house labels who were just releasing music for the sake of good and personal music (we cloned what they did… by just having fun and release music which we enjoyed ourselves).
We have started very immature and without having an idea in mind that we we’re going to make this a business…

At that moment we were exploring the field of minimalish techno and acid. Then our attention slowly moved to electro, post Detroit techno and the new sonic territories with modern electronica. We’ve had the return of disco in the late 90’s and the nu-disco thing and a fusion of styles in the early ’00. Simultaneously we’ve released dark electro techno, campy nu-disco ,advanced modern electronica and personal favorites in the rebound.

Artists developed into different directions and there is not much we haven’t touched in our field… from very ‘obscure’ records to ‘underground’ dance floor hits that got big festival crowds and balearic holiday ravers moving.
So what is there left to do? Basically there is no challenge at this moment… we can continue releasing everything we like (from people we like) without a marketing strategy and without a potential buyers in mind as we used to do… but we already did so for many years.

At this moment we don’t understand the popularity of many artists and releases….or… actually we do!. We do, to a certain level, because we’ve tried many things when we just started our journey into music when we were teenagers and when we started the label +/- 15 years ago! By now we do understand the tricks and formulas of dance music and the different users. However using these tricks and formulas just to ensure maximum effect would be betrayal to our own musical ethics because our goal with Clone records is to entertain ourself with the music we release (and to be clear… with the music…and not the side effects). Somehow we feel we’ve had an almost complete life cycle of personal evolution in dance music and thats also how we developed the label into a versatile label which is releasing different styles of dance music for different purposes. Its a difficult decision because the label is doing very well and we get warm reactions from the strangest places in this world and we could do this for another 10 years!
But in order to remain passioned about what we do, we feel we should not continue the label as it is.. so we won’t.

but no worries.. there will be new things coming, but its just not exactly clear what, how (and when). More news on that in a few weeks time!

There will be to two remaining releases (scheduled for Februari.)
C#55 – I-f ft Fred Ventura/ Ajello – I cut my heart out (Craig Richards edit)/ I’m ready
C#56 – Marco Bernardi – Mystery Of Nazerus (plus a limited Marcus Bernardi rmx 12″)
then it will be quiet on the label…

oh… and Clone Clasic Cuts still has some releases lined up (incl a Unit Moebius CD release), so for now we don’t know what will happen with that.. but most likely we will continue with the Classic Cuts Series.

ps. no worries about the rest of our activities!! the store, the distribution, publishing and digital distribution are continuing as they are!