Niches can be cool. Especially when you’re the star of one. Even better when you dug it out from nothing all by yourself. Jan Gleichmar, aka Disrupt, label head of Jahtari.org, is the star of his own genre. He refines a bulky sub-bass sound with an oldschool 8-bit charm. He calls it simply: Digital Laptop Reggae.

Crawl with us into the echo chambers of Jahtari!

Text written in 2006 for Sceen Magazine by: Moritz "mo." Sauer and Alexander Scholz
Translation from German into English: Stepha Zanella
Photography by Matthias H. Risse shot in 2006

Being a nerd can also be cool. Especially if you manage to produce something as catchy as what Disrupt came up with. His first netlabel release came out in May 2004 on the electronica label Phonocake.org from Dresden, Germany. It was melodious, hard to get out of your head and surprisingly successful. A separate netlabel platform was needed — a project Jan quickly baptized Jahtari.

Know your roots

The success and ease of these recordings lies in the clever but simple recipe that’s at the heart of most of Disrupt’s music.

1. Take the bass riff from something rockin’ tune or,...
2. Compose your own riddim.
3. Melt together with a melody from the 8-bit generation. (Monkey Island coconut flavor or something from the pantry in the Maniac Mansion)

Wanna taste? Check out "International Karate" ("IT+ Version").

At the age of 31 Jan has already experienced a big chunk of music culture. Travelling through gabba and drum-and-bass; over experimental to minimal techno he arrived at the happy island we call dub. On this journey he was influenced by more than classics loved in Jamaica. Inspiration came to him via the Berlin Basic Channel posse, Moritz von Oswaldt and Mark Ernestus, all of whom were a part of the Rhythm & Sound project.

As Disrupt it was never Jan’s intention to just fall into old catagories. He wanted to find a way to let his beloved dub reggae develop. That’s how the Digital Laptop Reggae concept was born. Because after all, at the bottom of it there’s a singing notebook CPU and the music software Ableton Live. For the charming 8-bit feel of his trademark sound he threw in an extra bunch of rusty freeware plug-ins.

To all this, Jan combined the idea of the riddim. A riddim is like the musical open source code of dub. A hook line, if you will. It’s basically a short bass instrumental. Riddims have an original source but are used again and again by diverse artists to make new songs. Often enough riddims have been used and changed and mutated so much that the source or even the original composer can no longer be identified. It’s generally the rule that a riddim is not simply copied and used. As in hip hop and drum-and-bass, where a classic drum loop is rearranged into a new beat, Disrupt takes a riddim and after slicing and dicing, adds it to his own recipe. If he can’t find a riddim that fits, he simply cooks up his own.

Sound signature

There’s a certain nostalgia listening to the sound of Disrupt — be it at Phonocake.org, iDEOLOGY.de or right there at Jahtari.org. The idea of recompiling retro-esque C64 game soundtracks is as simple as it is clever. For Jan it is more than a fondness for computer nostalgia though. It’s a deep musical appreciation of the composers of the 8-bit era, as their timeless songs have their very own sound and composition aesthetic. Jan rolls them up in massive bass and serves it up hot.

Sometime, of course, it’s got to be sampled. When Jan samples, he’s using game sounds as heard on his EP Drum Sounds. On one particular track he recorded a round of Space Invaders and built it into his beat. The melodies from games however, are not sampled. They’re ‘original’ copies made with the help of plug-ins. The boys from Jahtari aren’t just recycling old wrecks, but respectfully honouring the oldschool elders. Tune into their recent Monkey Island bootleg mix — a dub tribute that came wrapped up appropriately in a little online adventure game.

Disrupt vs Bo Marley

Jan has created something new with his Disrupt project. But that doesn’t mean that everyone releasing at Jahtari has to follow his lead. The primary directives are having fun, being your freaky self, and loving reggae and dub. One such freak also on Jahtari is Bo Marley.

Bo Marley is the Danes Max, Benjamin, Kristian und Theis. It’s also Jan’s hottest dish on the dub menu. In their fun tracks Bo Marley fuses dada-esque mutated German text with live instruments that the band has hunted down on their Space Echo trips. The result is original, catchy music, that you can’t get out of your head nor shake off your tapping feet.

As opposed to many other netaudio artists, Bo Marley is anything but a studio band. Together with Disrupt they have rocked such festivals as Fusion in Germany or Jazzjuice in Aarhus, Denmark. But Bo Marley are actually best known for their spontaneous live acts in public. They cruise over hill and dale in their jerry-built Space Echo analog electronic caravan and put on shows of Danish dub in dead-end streets and market squares. The accidental audience is stunned but also thrilled enough to stop and dance.

Disrupt and Bo Marley are a perfect match. Together they’ve also released a conventional CD, the first ever produced by Jahtari. Bo Marley vs. Disrupt is a concept album of small trilogies strung together from different Bo Marley tracks. Each trilogy begins with an old-fashioned ‘Tracker’ intro produced on an Amiga, followed by the actual Bo Marley track. Disrupt then rounds it all out by remixing it in his dub style. Very Jahtari.

The CD is available for a very friendly price and is sent by Jan himself. Included is your Bo Marley button of choice and good vibrations. The first physical release from Jahtari stays true to the netlabel concept though: you can listen to the whole album online.

Flea market fortune

Jahtari — where Jan does most of the label work besides releasing his own tracks — is an uplifting example of free music culture and how to release and market your own stuff. This simply wasn’t possible 15 years ago. That Jan is now invited to festivals and getting DJ gigs and that thousands are hearing and loving what he does, is only thanks to the internet and the netlabel idea of making and sharing music. “I could ever charge people for a faceless MP3 that would just end up on somebody’s hard drive. MP3 encoding costs pretty much nothing,” says Jan. But what about the creative value of his music? “Music will always be made, no matter what. The only question is, what will it cost to bring it to people.”

Ultimately, both MP3s and CDs seem a little inappropriate for the sound of Jahtari. “Reggae and dub are actually vinyl music,” says Jan. Unlike techno and other electronica that works fine in the MP3 format, dub in digital formats never really caught on. Vinyl and reggae culture simply grew up 100% together. No wonder Jan is constantly being asked when the Jahtari stuff is finally coming out on vinyl. Soon, he says. In the future real record releases are going to take priority over netlabel downloads. Not just because of demand but because of Jan’s utter love of it. “I want 7”s you can throw on the turntable. I want 10”s, 12”s on 45, LPs and covers for the shelf. I want people to stumble over Jahtari stuff in record shops and in 10 years to find it again at the flea market where, of course, it’ll carry a collector’s item price tag,” he says. “That’s how reggae works. And hopefully this will never change.” Full analog 8-bit rewind going fast forward!

In the meantime impatient DJs keep cutting their own Jahtari dubplates and a pipeline full of net releases by old and new Jahtari artists will rock your DSL. At least that’s the promise we extract from Jan before he waves goodbye and heads back into his 8-bit-chip-dub-digital-laptop-reggae wonderland. You know, where Pac-Man’s high on dope not pills and the Giana Sisters have dreads.

Links to Jahtari

Website: Jahtari.org

After two years the second Netaudio Gathering in Berlin will open its gates from 8th to the 11th of October. Who is taking part in the Netaudio Berlin Festival and who are the main creators of the event?

Who is taking part? It would be a long list if we were to mention all the artists, speakers and participants! Solely the night program from Thursday to Saturday contains close to a hundred artists, groups or music projects. The free daytime program on Friday and Saturday is also packed with workshops, lectures, discussions, showcases and various art installations resp. performances. It would be better for you to flip through the lineup on our website.

Your second question is a lot easier to answer. The main driving forces behind the Netaudio Festival Berlin are – ladies first – Antina Michels, a European Ethnographer and author of the book about "Netlabels – social networks on- and offline", Don Ludwig – free Graphic Designer and long time Netaudio activist (Pentagonik, Netlag etc.) and Raimund Reintjes, an Event Manager and Netaudio Supporter, who emblazed the initial flame to the Berlin Festival activities in 2007. But without the network of activists: Henry, Sarah, Jon, Timor, Kevin, Kirsten, Hannes, Volker, Saskia and some more friends surrounding us, a festival of this velocity would still only be a dream.

What is the main driving force behind your engagement for the free music movement, also known as creative commons music or netaudio? Why do you have such a love for this culture so that you spend so much of your time creating such a festival?

Raimund: It’s the strong belief that there should be a fair and a strong relationship between the artist (formerly known as the producer), the music (formerly known as the product) and the listener (formerly known as the consumer). Creative Commons on the legal – and netlabels on the physical side of life provide the best starting point. I have realized in the past 15-20 years to re-organize the perverted relations within the music business we have to start from the very beginning, to bring the whole thing back on its feet again – but so many artists, music lovers and professionals are working on this subject.

It’s exciting to see the growing impact and effects this movement has had on the rules of the game already. Music is basically something to touch your heart and soul – not for the profit of a few big companies. Netaudio is bringing dignity back into the music business by eliminating the financial aspect as the roots of engagement. This is not the end of the story – but it’s meant to wipe out the conditions of greed and replace them with an economy of trust and attention.

Antina: The festival is the practical realisation of more theoretical thoughts in my book. The festival also stands for the "face to face" interactions, stepping away from the internet as Andi Studer from the Netaudio Festival London 2008 has previously remarked: "The offline festival for online music."

Netaudio needs the real life physical exchange – and thrives from it. The participants and guests will have personable experiences together; strengthening the relationships already formed online and making new friendships face to face. These contacts can be valuable for musical and artistic collaborations which become possible by the connections made at the festival, as an example the Trioon project which is a collaboration between J-Lab (former Netaudio London, now Berlin), Dr. Nojoke (Netaudio Berlin) and Servando (Spain, now Berlin). The Festival also allows the artists to promote themselves, to be heard and to raise their profile.

One aspect of my personal motivation is the practical/my experience of a ‘community of practice’ – (a form of collaboration in a team, which is based on- and offline communications, a learning concept developed by Lave and Wenger) working and learning together under the recent circumstances like project orientated, temporally limited collaboration. It facilitates the in-sight in collective, co-working and (co-) learning processes. I have to admit that my research instinct comes up sometimes ;)

Another aspect of my motivation is the opportunity to bring people from different cultural backgrounds together, to give them the possibility of exchange, for example in discussions. In equal measure more informal meetings are important and motivating: having fun together on the dance floor, listening to music, chatting, catching up and networking at the netaudio fair. In this way ‘offline contexts’ and a feeling of belonging are created. This gives the possibility of remembering ‘former’ online friends more enduringly than if it were just left at a single online contact.

What has changed during the last two years? What can we expect from Netaudio Berlin and why should we come?

Raimund: mo. – you should be coming because we invited you to moderate a round table discussion about online distribution and the role of netlabels as a hinge between the “market” and the creative output of the artists! All the others should come to watch you of course…

Ahem… ok, we’ve invited a few more experts for an informative daytime program. There will be some 40 netlabels presenting themselves – so if you are an artist and in search of top level contacts within the netaudio scene – we have a plethora of them. And if you love exploring the progressive developments in music & styles you should not miss our widespread night program with all sorts of electronic music like Techno, Minimal and House – but also Dubstep and Drum’n’Bass, Triphop and Nujazz, Pop, Dub, 8-Bit, HipHop, Techdub and especially the Experimantal Stage at the opening night on Thursday… The variety of styles is one of the main attractions, also the extension of the festival which now starts on Thursday. We have also extended the daytime program - which now has two long afternoons and three parallel branches of activities. We have also upgraded to a better venue – which has provided us with some better working conditions. We do not have to squat in order to have enough space…

In spring you called for entries. Now the program is finished. How many entries did you get and under which criteria did you choose the artists? What was your main goal?

We got roundabout 150 entries. But through a multi-leveled procedure and also through the required amount of information we tried to support requests from those artists who really wanted to get involved in this specifically – and not just in any other festival. We tried to give some extra support to artists from Eastern countries. So we have now announced artists from Ukraine, Belarus, Hungary, Czech Rep., Slovakia, Turkey, Russia, Poland, Morocco and Serbia – and we hope that they all get visas and permission from the authorities to play in Berlin. Other criteria were mainly subjective. We’ve chosen what we liked the most. Around half of the program is filled with artists from the “Call for Entries”, the other half has been asked by our bookers if they would like to take part. We thought this would be a fair arrangement between our own ideas and the offers from the communities.

When organising and inviting musicians and artist to such a happening like Netaudio Berlin, I’m sure everybody has their own favorites. Which musicians or artist are your favorites and what do you yourself not want to miss?

Netaudio Ping Pong: partly music performance, partly a game for all to play.

Raimund: As I have been in charge of the booking for the Experimental Floor and the Dub & Techdub Floor you’ll find nearly all my favorites here. For sure I am also very happy about a whole bunch of artists on other floors – and I helped on decisions with one or two of the others. But to be honest I am really proud that we can present something like the Experimental Floor on Thursday.

There has never been such a line-up at a musical event before. It is a unique combination of artists and due to the nature of their music you would never normally see them billed at this time, on this day, in this setting, so we are very pleased to be able to offer them and the visitors this treat. Here we have about eight representatives with extremely creative and free minds, experimenting with sounds and musical atmospheres all combined on one floor! And the Dub & Techdub Floor on Saturday contains a close to perfect selection of my personal favorites. I can’t live without one or the other release of their music on my mp3 player – always ready to sweeten my days…

Antina: The most interesting thing about a festival is a variety of styles, not only music genres, but also varied forms of presentation like musical showcases, audio-visual performances, films, discussions, workshops, lectures and ping pong sessions. Personally, I’m especially glad to welcome reggae, dub and 8-bit artists in the night program and also to have more experimental, downtempo and ambient artists in the day program. The netlabel showcases will open up the possibility to chat, network and enjoy the music at the same time.

Besides music in the evening Netaudio Berlin also focuses on other creative commons art forms and has some knowledge to offer. What exactly?

We are showing, for example, a selection of CC-movies from Stefan Kluge of VEB Leipzig – who informs us about the ideas behind CC movies and also why they even allow these movies to be used for commercial purpose… Then we have the netaudio ping pong game, an interactive game which uses netaudio sounds. We also have some field recording projects with concerts, sound- and net-installations as well as an exhibition on netlabels. Also there are a lot of discussions about various aspects of CC on the daytime program.

In many contracts with the musicians you "signed" the music of the artists. Do you plan to offer free live recordings afterwards?

We will record the whole festival for our own documentation and maybe for live streaming – but also we might release some of the recorded material afterwards. There are only a few artists who do not want that. In matters of post-festival releases we are maybe a little more interested in the intellectual outcome of the day program. We’d love to think about spoken word releases like lectures and discussions. There are enough netlabels to release high quality netaudio music. But there is no such thing like a publisher for CC-audio books resp. intellectual creative commons.

Only here and there you’ll find single releases of this kind. We would like to develop this aspect. But we might also release some live sets of the music program. If everything goes well we might broadcast a live radio and live net-radio from the festival – but the venue is very difficult for that. During the next few days we are investing a lot of time, energy and also some money in trying to set up an infrastructure for broadband streaming. It would be so nice - and also appropriate…

Thank you very much for the interview and see you at Netaudio Berlin 2009 in october!

Digital Phlow Podcast | Two weeks ago I met Patryk Galuszka for an interview about netaudio and netlabelism. Patryk Galuszka is a researcher who works for the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and the Academy of Humanities and Economics in Lodz. To find out more about Patryk visit his blog and click the flag for a short English version. Or listen to our podcast and get to know some interesting facts about his research! Last not least: If you are a netlabel owner and would like to make an interview with Patryk, than contact him and read on!

Foto by Psycoded: Patryk (left) meeting the netlabel scene in Cologne
(to the right Flo and Stoffel)

About my research project: survey and interviews with representatives of netaudio scene. Aim: to learn more about netlabels, write scientific articles, promote the scene.

I am also looking for people from netlabels to conduct interviews with them (using Skype). If you have some time in December or January-February next year, let me know: patrykgaluszka [at] gmail.com (of course remove all the spaces and substitute [at] with @). The interview would last about 35-40 minutes. I guarantee anonymity (if you want). Thanks in advance!

And here some favorite tracks from Patryk

1. From Jahtari.org 8 bit music: Dubmood - Atari-Ska L'Atakk (especially track 05 VodSka-Dance)
2. From Afterbeat.org dub: Dino - Mystical Warrior EP (any track, for example 1 Zion Dub)
3. From AudioTong Chinese experimental music: BAI+IAN - anti-sound (any track, let's say 4. The City As I Found It)
4. From ProbablyWorse Polish post-rock: Folder - Inside (check out track 1 The Bad Parts)
5. From WM Recordings German (Cologne) acoustic/alternative folk: Meanwhileproject.ltd - Today is Sunday (let's say track 02. All in one)

Visiting Hidden Corners of the Global Netlabel Phenomena | While internet data highways connect more and more countries and cultures all over the world, the distribution of music speeds up and we get access to places we've never been. Places like Indonesia where cassettes are still a commonly used medium to listen to music next to CDs and MP3s. Indonesia where netlabelism is still a tiny growing plant but where the idea of Creative Commons fall with its seeds on a rich ground. Welcome to the world wide web and the first netlabel from Indonesia: Yes No Wave Music.

The head behind the Indonesian netlabe called Yes No Wave Music is Wok The Rock. As a visual artist he lives and works in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The 33 years old loves music since his 8th birthday and released his first album when he was 16. In the old days he used an old tape recorder for his first release.

Wok The Rock was involved in the punk scene 1996, writing and publishing a zine, formed a label which focused on punk music, built a web-based punk community and organized some underground music gigs. In 2002 he began forming and organizing Ruang MES 56, an artists initiative space focused on contemporary photography. In 2007 he started Yes No Wave Music by himself with the help of Bagus Jalang who writes the liner notes for each release. For a living he does web and graphic design.

Running the first netlabel in Indonesia: Wok The Rock

For Germans, Indonesia is far away. I have no clue how easy or difficult it is to release music in Indonesia. So tell us! Are there "normal" labels, are there "netlabels" and how do people in Indonesia get their music?

Indonesia which has the biggest music industry in South-East Asia, exports its music production to nearby countries like Singapore, Malaysia and even Japan. Unlike mainstream music industry, Indonesian underground music has more various and progressive genres from indiepop to drum n' bass, dub, post rock, math rock and experimental jazz which has a good fan base in many countries. One of Indonesias most popular electro pop bands, Goodnight Electric, was invited by Goethe-Institut to perform on c/o pop Festival in Cologne, Germany.

It's not hard to release a record in Indonesia. In some big cities in Indonesia, there are lots of unexpensive record studios. For your information, cassette is still popular to be used. The cost for cassette duplication is very affordable for bands with not-so-much money. The cost for cover sleeves are also cheap.

But when the internet became popular, the selling of casssettes and CDs decreased. Pirated CDs are a horible monster for Indonesias music industry. In every corner of the city, pirated audio CDs, MP3 (CD Data), and DVD Movies are affordable and easy to find. Torrent, Rapidshare and other blogs which provided songs in illegal MP3 format are very common for a lot of teenage music fans.

But, although while they are very common with torrent or other file sharing systems and there is a zine that writes reviews about some netlabel releases around the world, teenage music fans still are unfamiliar with netlabels. Yes No Wave Music is the first netlabel in Indonesia and started in April 2007.

When and why did you choose do release music under creative commons licences in Indonesia?

The DIY (Do It Yourself) ethics and the distribution of pirate material are the main reason for me to run this netlabel. To release free music together with a digital license is the logic consequence to deal with the current conditions. To get more profit, the selling of band merchandise has became more effective than the selling of CDs or cassettes. Through a netlabel, bands can easily distribute their songs more widely. With more people listening, this will impact the selling of the bands merchandise and the chance to get a gig.

Part of our "Netaudio London 2008"

1. Netaudio London 2008 we’re coming!
2. Talkin’bout Beats with Error Broadcast
3. Pictures and Impressions from Netaudio London 2008
4. Netaudio London 2008: First Night revisited!

Sven Swift, mo. and Filippo Aldovini cruisin' through London (Foto: Sim Sullen)

Interview at Netaudio London 2008 | Really good Hip Hop Music is still hard to find in the creative commons world of music. If you search for netlabels promoting deep Hip Hop Music you have to stick to a baby-handful of netlabels. But there's a glowing light at the end of the tunnel. This torch is held by Filippo Aldovini from Zymogen Netlabel and well-known Sven Swift.

Podcast Show: "Talkin’bout Beats with Error Broadcast" (MP3)

Both music nerds teamed up to stem a heavy-weight bassloaded netlabel called Error-Broadcast for Instrumental Hip Hop. At Netaudio London 2008 they gave the party crowd a first listen, distributed some exclusive Promo-CDs and were caught by mo. to speak out loud into the microphone. Enjoy a Podcast-Radio-Show with an exclusive track from the upcoming Error Broadcast Compilation which gives you a glimpse how deep Error Broadcast digs into the ground.

The track in the podcast was produced by ComFormat called "Rock da Dam!!!" and will be followed by other extraordinary musicians like Apes on Tapes, The Great Mundane, Comfort Fit or B-Ju,

Interview with Broque Netlabel | The German label Broque follows a mixed strategy. Under the clever management of Christian Kausch and Heiko Schwanz Broque distributes music in several formats and ways. While DJs can buy vinyl-records worldwide at their record dealer of choice, the netizens get free mp3 music released under a creative commons licence on their website. To complete the cycle of music distribution musiclovers can purchase MP3s of the vinyl releases on Beatport. We talked to Christian Kausch to figure out, what's important for a professional netlabel today, how you push your music into webshops and if you can make some profit out of it.

While Broque recently pushed out a fantastic release called Pseudónimo "terra firme e.p." we thought, we might talk to the grown up (not only) techno netlabel from Germany. And, yes, we squeezed out some interesting questions for you. Keep on reading!

Whose scepter is swinging behind the Broque-curtain?

Music connects! Friends for lifetime, partners on Broque Netlabel: Christian and Heiko

Most netlabels publish their music only as digital downloads. You follow a mixed up strategy and distribute your music as mp3 and vinyl. Why do you do so?

When you publish a new vinyl, how do you choose the tracks? Are there any guidelines you follow?

Free Music Digger | With his Podcast called "Machtdose" Podcaster Roland presents a treasure box full of the most terrific netlabel-music around. While fascinated hopping from country to country he presents music from all kind of genres. His Machtdose Show gives a damn about music-boundaries and leads you each time into new corners of the netlabel world. An interview with a Netaudio-Podcaster.

When did you make your first contact with the free music scene, especially netlabels? Do you remember the first release you downloaded?

What drives you to dig especially into the world of netlabels?

A lot of people claim that the netlabels are a bunch of amateurs. "They give their music away for free", they say, "because otherwise noone would buy their records." What would be your answer to such a statement?

The Love For Music | Camomille is one of the oldest and most exceptional netlabels to date. With Vince Fugère as its head Camomille set some high fidelity milesstones in the netaudio world. The sound could be best described as a mixture of Ambient, Indietronica and IDM. With extraordinary strong illustrations and artworks Camomille confronts its audience with beautiful art. In our interview Vince unveils the origin, secrets and history of Camomille.

The Roots and Origin Of Camomille Netlabel

Phlow: Can you describe the early Bulletin Board days? For instance: Was it a big scene? How did people find out about it? How did you get involved? Were the participants mostly musicians - or did non-musicians use it to find music as well? How did it actually work?

Design & Artwork taken from comic book by Selfmademusic

Interview with the italian Dharmasound Netlabel | Over the past couple of years, the Rome-based net-label dharmasound has put out nearly forty first-rate releases covering a wide range of music. Last Fall, Gianluigi Cocco - dharmasounds’ general manager and artistic director - was kind enough to take some time to talk a bit about the label, their philosophy of music, and their place in the net-label scene. Dave Kneifer talked for Phlow with the labelhead.

Phlow: Dharmasound has a really sharp website. It's well organized, has a clean design, and a cool look. What kind of web design or technical advice would you give to somebody who was thinking of starting a netlabel?

Phlow: You provide a means for a lot of interactivity as well. On the message boards, for instance, people can upload demos and news about releases and live dates. I think this kind of thing is one of the real advantages netlabels have over traditional label, which is that they can serve as a hub for a virtual - or even a physical community. Which raises my next questions: Did dharmasound grow out of an already existing community? Or do you feel that you've helped to create a new community?

Phlow: I see that this past August you guys hosted a live event at a club in Rome that featured five dharmasound artists. How did that go? And do you plan on more in the future?

Phlow: Dharmasound has always focussed mostly Creative Commons tracks - free downloads in other words. But for a while you also had some tracks for sale--although you seem to have discontinued that. I was wondering why you no longer have the for-sale tracks? And also what your ideas are about net-labels as potential money-making operations?

Phlow: Finally, what's been your favorite experience while running dharmasound?

Phlow: Thank you for the interview!

Links and so...

Netlabel: www.dharmasound.com