Starting your own record label is the ‘in’ thing to do, it seems. Regardless of the fact that you’re almost certain to lose some money, there’s something intrinsically appealing about putting out records by some of your favourite bands. Whilst someone valiantly railing against the decline of the music industry to put out a few vinyls by acts that not many people have heard of is brave, it’s usually an exercise in futility. However, most record labels don’t start out with a roster of three of the most hyped acts of a region, backed by two of the most important members of the emerging music scene.
When not getting hyped to high heaven by everyone from Vice to Transparent, Mazes member Jack is putting his efforts into Suffering Jukebox. Starting out life as a club night, it’s followed the time-honoured tradition of evolving into it’s own publishing arm under the same name. Whilst Manchester’s influential Deaf Institute hosts the night, venue owner Joel is also half of driving force behind the label. Having such creative weight behind it means that the short list of artists with scheduled releases on the label is already highly impressive. Unsurprisingly, Mazes are the first to put out material, with Go Between/Cenetaph seeing the light of day sometime soon. Next month will see Former Bullies put out an EP on the imprint, adding yet more weight to the sentiment that they’re the rainy city’s most under appreciated band of the new millennium. Following that, hype magnet Milk Maid is taking time out from being lavished with praise by the likes of Pinglewood to have Such Fun/Can’t you see committed to vinyl.
All the releases are limited to runs of 300 each for the minute, which means that a few months down the line these are going to be highly sought after, which is only going to lead to you kicking yourself come August if you miss out. They’re not shy in giving away a few mp3s either, which is always a good thing. Listen to a few samples from their releases below:
Former Bullies – Planetarium [download from neu]
Milk Maid – Not Me [download from neu]
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