So why on earth set up your own record label, anyway?
It costs an arm and a leg, and quite possibly an elbow as well, if you excuse the inane pun; you're constantly trying to prove why your own material and artists are the exception rather than the norm to an established media that can't see quality material if it's shoved up its own arse, and then some.
And then you run up against the biggest foe: indifferent people who just can't be bothered tuning-in, let alone spend some of their party money on local kids' heart-and-soul art.
Sound like fun?
Then here's what you do - think up a funky name, hack together a dodgy logo, approach someone who makes music who you really believe in (and who hopefully is consistent and can be trusted to support you back), work like hell in a day-job or three, save money, rustle up a graphic artist who'll do cover artwork for free, find someone to master up the beast... and, va va voom... you're on the way to your first CD or vinyl.
That's basically the origin of IF? RECORDS in a nutshell.
The expanded, yawn-inspiring version? ...read on...
IF? (the label) was dreamed up at one of the now-legendary Every Picture Tells A Story warehouse rave parties in Footscray, Melbourne, on NYE 1994/95, by Andrez Bergen (a.k.a. LITTLE NOBODY) and and his erstwhile beer-drinking mate Brian Huber (MILKCRATE MAN), with a helluva lot of manic assistance from our crazy friend Mateusz Sikora.
The name of the label came from Andrez's floundering attempt at film-making (he had no money, no equipment, and a poor range of friends-turned-reluctant-actors as his repertoire).
The pseudo production-house was called Industrial Films, or "IF" for short, just to be silly; for the record label they just added a question mark because they were being very completely self-indulgent.
At the time Andrez had his own radio program called CYBERDADA on Melbourne station 3PBS-FM and was getting in a helluvalot of talented local electronic musicians like VOITECK Anderson, Dave Beattie (Q-KONTROL), Peter Harren (Tedium/TDM), and Derek Shiel and Dan Woodman from TR-STORM. He'd also just interviewed Steve Law, a.k.a. ZEN PARADOX, who turned out to be one of the nicest, most humble producers he's ever met.
Their common problem? Lack of an ability to get their music released through quality avenues in Australia, let alone the rest of the world.
We're talking 1994, when the only decent Melbourne labels were Dorobo and Psy-Harmonics.
Brian and Andrez had also started bouncing around the traps catching live electronic artists, and their frustration at the lack of appreciation peaked at a gig at the Tote in Collingwood where Zen Paradox played a scintillating set to what was basically an empty, under-appreciative room.
Rather than complain profusely, the two got tanked-up that N.Y.E. and decided to do something about it.
A few months later we released IF001 - "Zeitgeist" - a compilation of the people they thought were at the cutting edge of the Melbourne electronic muzak scene.
Boy, did that set back their threadbare wallets.
And so it went on...
IF? has since worked with other Aussie artists like LITTLE NOBODY, DIGITAL PRIMATE, 8-BIT, SON OF ZEV, BITCH SHIFT, FRONTSIDE, HONEYSMACK, TD5, ISNOD, FUNK GADGET, DJ HI-SHOCK, GUYVER 3, ENCLAVE, KODA, SCHLOCK TACTILE, the LN ELEKTRONISCHE ENSEMBLE, BLIMP, MARCELLA BRASSETT, ARTIFICIAL, 5000 FINGERS OF DR T, SUB BASS SNARL, TEE-ART, CINNAMAN, ZOG, BEAM UP, POCKET, US, Nick Littlemore (PNAU), and Adam Raisbeck (SOULENOID/SENSE).
They've also done iffy biszness with Japanese producers DJ WARP, FUNKARMOR, YAMAOKA, MAGNET TOY, CAPTAIN FUNK, ALONE TOGETHER, SHIN NISHIMURA, ELECTRON TEE and NAOTOXIN.
And then there have been the internationals: SI BEGG, TOBIAS SCHMIDT, DAVE TARRIDA, STEVE STOLL, BIOCHIP C, JAMMIN' UNIT, KHAN ORAL, TAL, VOCO DERMAN, BRIXTON, JASON LEACH (SUBHEAD), STEVE COBBY (FILA BRAZILLIA), THOMAS P. HECKMANN, etc, etc.
The label has since moved shop to TOKYO, JAPAN (in 2001) and has run a plethora of live-electronica gigs here, as well as unleashing several limited edition vinyl and CD releases from its ongoing Australian and Japanese roster, and more recently started working in the digital download terrain.
In 2008, IF? Records started working extensively with DJ Hi-Shock's nelabels Elektrax and Hypnotic Room, as well as releasing via online carrier Addictech (http://ifrecords.addictech.com/); this year, much of our material will be available through Input-Output Inc as well.
In 2009, look out electronica from Japan, Australia and the rest of the known world, along with (believe it or not!) new band stuff from Romania and France, plus some debut artist and remix selections...
listen to our latest release BWO025 Moonboots - Klangfrequenz & Baldino with support from LUCIANO, STEPHAN BODZIN, DJ HELL, PAUL LORRAINE, DEAN FACER, RANDALL JONES, FRANCO BIANCO, MARK ALLAIN and many more!! Left Foot embraces its deep, generic character and displays a nice mix of funky sounds and grooving chords whereas Right Foot shows interesting drum arrangements and a finely selected use of synths and chord fx's. Watch out for these tunes its another banger of the Black&White Orange back catalogue!
For download on Beatport just click on the flyer below:
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