RCRD LBL

Discobelle's RCRD LBL

Posted 5/30/2008 10:02 AM by rcrd lbl

Tags: hip-hop, techno, electronic, dance, guest RCRD LBL

Welcome to the jump off edition of our new guest-blogging feature "[Insert Name Of Site We Love Here]'s RCRD LBL". Basically, we wanted to tip our hats to the folks posting up great tracks day in and day out and chat with them about their sites and what makes them tick, or blog, as the case maybe be. Also included in every feature will be a hand picked list of their favorite artists and songs from both RCRD LBL and their own site. In the future, you can expect words of wisdom from Gorilla Vs Bear and a bunch of other rad sites we love.

In short, we are very psyched on this and we hope you are too.

Kicking things off is the mighty Swedish dance/hip-hop/electronic site Discobelle. When it comes to handpicking remixers, DJs and white labels, these guys are both early and tasteful, qualities their readers (us included) always appreciate.

Anyways, enough chatting, now's the time to read up on Discobelle and dig into their RCRD LBL.

Special thanks to Niklas and the Discobelle team for taking part!

Please tell us a bit more about your site. When you started it, what your editorial mission is, what you think makes it unique, etc, etc.

The blog started as an off shoot from a Swedish blog that we had with a few others two years ago. We were doing a radio show at the time and had a blog promoting local club events and stuff like that. We also started our mix series "Mixin' it up" which got quite a lot of traction. So after a few discussions about what genres we were going to cover, we decided to start a blog in English and brought the mix series along with us.

It took a while to find the right tone of voice but the last 12 months things have really taken shape. We're pretty laid back in what we write and try to let the music (and sometimes the ridiculous pictures) do the talking. I think our main strength is our selection - we get hundreds of tracks sent to us daily and our readers trust us to pick out the best stuff. Our stats show that we're doing a good job of it so far. Another mission has been to push Swedish music abroad. There's so much good stuff here that it's a shame to not let the rest of the world get to know it. So Swedish tracks always gets favoured by us because of that.

How have you seen the music blog world change/shift over the past few years?

I'd say it's completely changed actually. When we started out we jacked most of our tracks from forums, blogs and all those sorts of places. Today, we get it sent to us. The attitude from the labels and the PR-companies has done a 180 which we think is great. I don't think any of the major mp3 blogs were out to hustle anyone for money, but if we wanted to post music there was no other way than finding the tracks in shady places. Now there are good, legal alternatives and I feel that there is an increasing understanding that mp3 blogs can be an extremely valuable marketing channel - if it is used in the right way. This is probably only the beginning of how music promotion will be changing in the next couple of years.

What is your process for discovering music like? Or to put it another way, where do you find all the great stuff you post (without giving away too many secrets!)?

It's not a process in itself - it's hard work and a variety of channels. We're on mailing lists (we host one of the larger ones, Grindin, ourselves), forums, other blogs, MySpace and of course - we stay in touch with a lot of artists, DJs and producers. Those sources in combination with the vast amount of tracks that get sent to us on email gives us a good base to pick and choose from.

What are your future plans for the site?

We don't have a set agenda for what we'll be doing. We're going to play it by ear and see what comes along. The amount of interesting people that get in touch with different types of offers is definitely increasing so we'll have to see what will come out of that. We're going to keep doing regular DJ-gigs of course. We've been all over Europe so far, and maybe we can get back on track with planning that USA tour that we couldn't quite get together last time. That would be excellent - get in touch everyone!

Discobelle's RCRD LBL

77klash

We loved the monster hit "Notorious" that he produced back in 2005 with Turbulence on vocals. Now he is back with the release "Code for the Streets". We got it on repeat.
 
MSTRKRFT
 
Electro kings. The "Vuvuvu" track is major and will be one of our most played tracks this year.
 
Cut Copy
 
Part of the on going Aussie music phenomena, excellent electropop that pretty much blows everyone else out of the water and makes us wanna move down under.
 
Jokers Of The Scene

Canadian duo that we at Discobelle have followed for a long time, from b-more to big room 2008 looks set be the year of the Joker.
 
Lykke Li
 
We had to pick a Swedish artist. Lykke Li is one of the best that has come out of Sweden ever, for ever ever.

 
Discobelle's Favorite Tracks
 
Boeos Kalstigen
 
Proves that Swedish techno is up there with the best, epic and beautiful.
 
Stockholm Syndrome
 
Their remix of Estelle - American Boy is one of the most downloaded tracks on Discobelle this year. If you haven't had enough remixes of that track already this is the one to download.
 
Top Billin
 
Our finnish party brothers, shows us you don't have to be from the US to make b-more. These guys do it better than most and their remixes are always on point.
 
Annie
 
The Norwegian "Chewing Gum" queen is back with a new single that feels a little so so, but the remix is spot on.
 
ZDS
 
Two words: Zulu House
 

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