The relative silence of dirtybird can mean only one thing: they are impossibly busy.
All four main elements of the camp are involved in different projects soon to come, particularly the "Hyphy House" style they are protecting in their studio.
Most recently, they leaked the new single "Groundhog Day" from Christian Martin and Claude VonStroke. Rather than a digital tease, though, they dropped the 12" vinyl in only three locations: Juno (UK), Freebase (Frankfurt) and Tweekin (USA).
Only 500 are available as clear vinyl and each comes with an equally-limited remix from the hotly-tipped Chaim on the flip.
We spoke with Martin on the webternet. Read the interview after the jump here
When most people hear the word "techno" the image of beefcakes touting whistles and razorshades is the first thing that comes to mind. It's a shame, really, because the first thing that should pop into their heads is Detroit. Although lately the Motor City has become infamous as a crime center, America's most diverse musical metropolis (Parliament, Bob Seger, Motown, Eminem, Stooges, etc.) gave birth to the computer-driven sound in the ’80s and continues to nurture the genre with things like the Detroit Electronic Music Festival.
Two of RCRD LBL's partners have strong ties to the five-million-strong city and as it turns out both are coming together this Saturday in Los Angeles. This is your chance to get on the guestlist. Matthew Dear (aka Audion) and Claude VonStroke play Avalon Hollywood together and rep Detroit hard. Dear records for the Ghostly label, whose headquarters are in neighboring Ann Arbor, while VonStroke is from the city and became a legit global superstar when his 2006 track "Who's Afraid of Detroit" was named best track of the year by Richie Hawtin (who, as it turns out, also is a Detroit legend).
The opening set come courtesy of Clark Werner, who himself worked in Detroit, for Hawtin's pioneering minimal label M_Nus. So Motown is coming correct to Lalaland and it will be a blast.
If you'd like to get a pair of VIP ticktes for the show, email us at info at rcrdlbl.com by 5PM EST tomm with "Contest" in the subject line and we'll pick two lucky winners to receive a pair each.
The runaway hit "Viktor Casanova" is not offically a dirtybird record -- it's released by VonStroke's new label mothership music -- but it is very much in the style of dirtybird. mothership is designed to mainly release techno hits, but the imprint retains the fanciful nature of VonStroke's attitude.
By runaway hit, we mean that "Viktor Casanova" was a star if the latest Ibiza season. Each year, dance tracks compete to be the most-heard, the most-loved on the island, and "Viktor" was a clear winner. Spun at most every club to whooping throngs of drug-addled partygoers, its lilting operatic hook made light of the minimal groove. It's sexy, timeless and modern.
Remixes from hot name Samim and the club-cultured Lee Curtiss could do no wrong, but the genius novelty of the original track remains. Very soon, it became clear that the next step in the "minimal techno" revolution was to bring odd or ancient sounds into the form. Whether the accordian of Samim's uber-hit "Heater" or the ironic lyrics of Marc Houle's "Techno Vocals," taking something inspirational and odd and putting it to a serpentine groove is dancefloor TNT.
The dirtybird label is stocked with party jams and nearly every weekend its founder, Claude VonStroke, is in another part of the world making heads swim and knees buckle with his deliberately wobbly beat. This Saturday he's in Los Angeles at Avalon with Audion and a week later he takes up the nest at dirtybird's residency at NYC's Apt.
One of VonStroke's most rabid fanbase is in the UK niteclub/festival scene. Forever the land of Ecstacy and true rave lifestyle, the British have a special affinity for dirtybird and the realm of rubber it reps.
Perhaps most telling is VonStroke's recent appearance on the BBC essential mix, a spotlight reserved only for the giants of clubland. VonStroke blows through remixes from labelmate Justin Martin, the East-German wobblefunk of Robag Whrume, Hyphy legends The Pack and yet-to-be-released gems from the catalog of his own labels: dirtybird records and mothership music.
The delectable tracklisting (sans anything but the music) is posted after the jump (just click on post title to view)
dirtybird (it's lowercase) is something like a phenomenon. In 2003, while young filmmaker Barclay Crenshaw (aka Claude VonStroke) was finishing his film ("Intellect") about how to become a famous DJ, he ran into a problem. Namely, how to license the classic tracks from the over 40 DJs he interviewed for the lengthy project. Ever the industrious mind, Crenshaw recruited a few friends to start making original music for the project, including one Justin Martin. As they cut tracks, it suddenly became apparent that musicmaking was the next step in the game.
dirtybird records was soon born and almost immediately the label had a bona-fide hit. "Deep Throat" from the amicable VonStroke took off on an international level and Martin's "Cicada" soon followed suite. Once Crenshaw dropped "The Whistler" the table was set: dirtybird became an imprint even the largest DJs followed in earnest.
The winning formula sprung from dirtybird's approach to dance music. "It's dance music, it's supposed to be fun" became a kind of mantra to the core producers: VonStroke, Justin and Christian Martin and their friend Worthy, who provided the soundsystem (and name) that bore the label's identity. Dirtybird was originally an outdoor, Golden Gate Park party where the four met.
So now, four years on, the label has come to represent a dance music that is a bit tongue-in-cheek, a bit cheeky, even. From VonStroke's "Beware of the Bird" to Worthy's debut hit "Irst_te?" there is little elitist about dirtybird. The idea, frankly, is to make dance music with a kind of whimsy that overlooks scenes, genre and pretensions. Dance music made for one thing -- to make you dance.
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