Hello everybody, I am excited to say that I want you to join me in my first "Label Spotlight"! This will be an interesting new segment to help spread the word of multiple bands, the labels that work to bring them to light and the awesome people behind the scenes who make it all happen! This being first volume of Label Spotlight, it's gotta start with a bang!
From La-Chaux-De-Fonds, Switzerland, nestled in the darkness of the Jura mountains...
Hummus Records!
This volume's spotlight is cast on a label that is a steadily growing beacon of creativity and musical diversity:
It all began in 2013 with the Founder and Producer: Jona Nido, who plays in a number of incredible bands ( Coilguns, Closet Disqo Queen, The Fawn, Sombre Sabre, Ølten) when he left his seven year stint as the guitarist for the german post-metal group, The Ocean Collective, immediately afterwards
launching Hummus Records.
His first achievement was simply to bring attention to bands he genuinely loved and felt had levels of passion for their art that exceeded the attention that had been receiving.
In the last five years, the Hummus Label has grown into a small team that is as efficient as they are diverse in their artists.
Some 15 of the bands (probably much more than this number even, it is hard to keep up) on the label are regularly sharing members and performing alongside one another, while there might be another band mate from a different project altogether working as the recording engineer, and possibly another as the mixing engineer...
All the while yet another person, from another band is making promotional copies of their albums by hand and distributing them.
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| Louis Jucker's - "Eight Orphan Songs"released as a 12'' LP, silk-screen printed hand made Photobook featuring artworks and lyrics. |
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| Ølten's Handmade Self-Titled Release |
It would seem, that for The Hummus Records Team, there is nothing that can stop them from this cyclical creative process, and the end result is a fresh and rich-for-the-palette melting pot; And one that never feels stale, stagnant or repetitious.
Have a listen to one of my favorite artists that they currently have signed to their roster:
The hauntingly beautiful and melancholy singer, Emilie Zoé.
Specifically the song "My Shadow On The Wall" off of her album "Dead-End Tape"...
... Contrast this, with the awesomely dark sludgey-crawl of Ølten's 2015 release, "Mode" (Free Download)...
...or Jona's own band Coilguns, our Chief-Pulpiteer and the first Chris to write for The Pulpit...Chris Morris reviewed their latest release. Which I also very highly recommend you to listen to immediately, is the album "Millennials" recorded on a 1 1/2" inch tape audio workstation in a cabin in the middle of the wilderness some place in the Swiss landscape.
This process produced a tastefully claustrophobic, oddly anxious and at times, punchy mathcore grooves that make their particular take on Breach and Cursed-styled hardcore all that much more impressive.
Also a free download, in case you couldn't already guess
This is a small sample of just how many different styles can be found on Hummus, and even more interesting is the concept of almost every act being a collective of musicians without sounding remotely like one another at all. It's a bit mind bending, and proves that dedicated musicians with the same goals can steadily put out strong material year-round under any circumstances. If you decide to follow these workaholics on their respective social medias, you will quickly see just how many projects/albums/tours/fests they are either directly performing or have a hand in helping other artists by playing the role of organizer.
Just launched and no festival gigs? They start their own festival.
Low Recording budget making it unrealistic to hire an experienced engineer? They work until they become the engineers themselves.
Can't find musicians for a brand new group of a completely different style? A simple arrangement of current artists has them recording and on the road as quickly as the idea enters their minds.
I could go on about their aforementioned efficiency, though at this point I think you are seeing this to be true. Likewise, I could continue about the great and exciting range of musical diversity that seems to escape most labels in favor of a singular, marketable sound. There is a uniqueness here that is genuine and passionate. That embodies the spirit of punk ethos, the power of the metal riff, the melodiousness and pace of the best indie rock bands and the try-anything-once LoFi "Dark Pop" music.
A better writer than myself could would put this next sentence in a way that is probably more poetic and hard hitting somehow and this is it:
The real point here is the fact that this label's efficiency and resourcefulness are what is actually the driving force that makes it into the diverse power house it truly has become and will continue to developing as, fostering passionate creativity, comaraderie and excellently unique releases...
Probably in a way neither you or I would expect...
And the usual suspects of Hummus like it that way.
Check out the Hummus Records Bandcamp Page:
7 comments:
Ima say blood music out of Finland. They put out one of my favorite albums so far this year with the new wolvhammer. But also the new chaos moon and lychgate. And then theres all the synthwave they keep dropping. They're on their game.
Awesome post by the way
@jerm that sounds exactly like the type of label I want to write about. I also have Brutal Panda Records and Sentient Ruin Laborotories on the brain. Thanks for the recommendation of Blood Music and I’m super stoked that you dug the post!
Iron Lung records is another idea. They consistently put out amazing albums.
Oh yeah Iron Lung is definitely on my list of labels I would like to cover in this series.
This is awesome man, very nice job. Looking forward to more of these! Definitely a great and interesting addition here! THanks!
Thanks Adam, feels good to be back! I'm actually impressed with my own writing for once, and that feels good. I'm already drafting up another one, probably gonna do one every couple of weeks.
What do you guys think?
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