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Our
sound since 98.
The short version: "For those who know it, it needs no introduction. Probably the best Digital Hardcore label nowadays. All releases available online (something to admire in current times), and many of them are top quality stuff. Breakcore/Speedcore/Digital Hardcore/Noise/Dark Ambient/IDM. This label shows everything packed under a form of irreverence and mostly, anti-commercial feeling. Worth listening and supporting!" Discogs.com User Comment But beyond that, what is the story, so to speak of DTRASH? We had never really documented our progress until after 3 years after 'DTRASH' was first shouted into a microphone. The only word on our label was courtesy of the label manifesto written sometime two years or more ago and published inside our 5th release. A lot of people ask us 'what's happened so far' - now we've put it down in print. DTRASH started out in the Fall of 1998 when CPUWAR and DJ RABIES (originally known as 2 man project AK-47) learned of each others music and felt that times were changing and a new collective/label might kick start something in the minds of electronic youths across N. America. Brodie and Mike (then of CPUWAR) coined the phrase DTRASH and released an EP that pretty much did nothing. A release followed a month later by Zak of AK-47 which had limited success in the band's hometown of Boulder, Colorado. The idea of the label at that point was to use DTRASH as a uniting element that would expose AK-47 to CPUWAR's fans and vice versa. Both bands needed exposure in a bad way and this was an effective strategy. Things eventually began to snowball and through a lot of hard work, people around the world were buying limited amounts of our first releases. Brodie, Mike and Zak (both still in high school) were busy listening to music from all kinds of kids and inviting them to take part in the label. Kids in Europe and the USA were learning of the label through the internet and a few acts like RENEGADE ANDROID, ENSC were recording for DTRASH. Things were getting hectic for those in charge, music was being recorded at an astonishing pace and record label matters were cutting into recording time. In the first months of 1999 the work involved with the label was more than Brodie, Mike or Zak could personally deal with. Jason (the mind behind SCHIZOID) came aboard and had an immediate impact generating prospects for the label. 1999 brought an increased amount of exposure. BASTARDS UNITED played large festivals throughout their country, SCHIZOID appeared on a Brutal Truth tribute compilation, CPUWAR released a 12" in Germany on kool.POP recordings and people around the world were really getting excited about our label. That same year, DTRASH began distribution across N.America and people were finally able to buy our CDs in a store like all those other old fashioned labels out there. It was actually pretty weird for us at first because we didn't have the slightest idea how to run the label financially. Things were admittedly very unprofessional. DTRASH was growing but could we keep up with it? Many businesses didn't want to deal with us; we were too much of a risk. Hell, we were a liability - can't lie about that one. Everything was random, chaotic and our releases made the perfect soundtrack of our lives during that time. By the time the new millenium came, we were becoming involved in things we couldn't even deal with. We wanted huge distribution and we actually got it. The problem was that we weren't even close to being ready to deal with it. In the end, there were huge contracts, lawyer fees and legal issues we weren't able to face yet. It was reality check time. The label wasn't able to sustain itself based upon CDR releases alone and all of us wanted DTRASH to keep moving. Around this time Zak decided to part company with DTRASH and focus on his new Cassandra Datakill project with other record labels. We kept believing in DTRASH and it was time to make a higher investment to keep growing. In 2000 we formed two avenues of major release through the record label. DTRASH Technologies was specifically created for pressed, official DTRASH releases. DTRASH Records will continue to support young electronic artists and bands (we will always have a whole new army of DTRASH youths ready to put out a whack of new releases). A lot of record labels want to pretend that they're actually doing something for the kids out there but we're the ones actually doing it. We'll always be here to put out dangerous, exciting music that you can't hear anywhere else. DTECH (the Technologies sub-label) kicked off in the Summer of 2000 with SCHIZOID's 2nd album 'All Things Are Connected'. This was a milestone in our struggle. CDrs and MP3s were great, and are still used today as part of the artillery, but ultimately to move to the next level, we needed a professional release to market. This release surpassed all our expectations, and was hailed with positive and encouraging press. The single “Grim Prospects” from this release, spawned a remix album which saw contributions from over 70 different artists to date. With DTECH01, we learned a lot about the more “official” side of things in the music industry, and how things really work (in the best and worst ways). The original plan for DTECH01 was a 12" compilation that was botched when difficulties broke out between artists on the label (caused just as much by the chaos of 1999). That compilation, DTECH03, was to happen later on down the road. 2001 kicked off and was unrelentless – With the last original founding member Brodie b57 off to pursue various interests, DTRASH was now officially in the hands of Jason/Schizoid. February brought us dtrashrecords.com’s official launch, and from there, the 2nd wave was underway, with a new roster of artists who wanted to take part, including memorable releases from EXIST, CONTRA, VENOM8888, KNAR. Our bands were now out there, touring, playing shows, being offered remixes of our tracks, having CD release parties, appearing on other label’s pressed CD compilations, getting the opening spots for some of our favorite bands, and even receiving press in some of our all-time favorite magazines. The international scene was accounted for, we now figured we needed to do some work in our own backyard, more specifically Ontario, Canada, where local DTRASH operations were happening place more and more. Planning and organizing hard-electronic events, actively seeking local distribution and adopting a guerilla-style DIY promotional approach helped us establish a name locally, after many years of writing off our own region as a potential for this virus to spread. When Daniel Ross of UNITUS from Toronto hooked up with us and we heard his material, we were stunned. This was where we wanted to go. His material was more reminiscent of early-1980’s classic industrial, rather than the late 1990’s distorted/broken-beat sound that we were affiliated with. Ross was serious about making a contribution to the label, and wasn’t interested in posing or wasting our time, and joined the DTRASH administrative team. We
burst our way into 2002 with a high profile, and many many things planned. The
3rd wave of DTRASH was now underway, with releases from UNITUS, F_NOISE, BUREAU
DE CHANGE, STUNTROCK gracing our catalogue. DTECH02, UNITUS’ “Cross
Contamination” album was released in February and has already received great
reviews in the underground and mainstream press. Persistence has paid off, with
DTRASH achieving literal worldwide distribution, something we always aimed for
in our early incarnations, but never deserved until now. We have CDs in stores
in North America, and for sale online, thanks to a deal made with the
infamous Digital Hardcore Recordings label. On top of that, many
DTRASH artists and alumni appeared on their “Don’t Fuck With Us!”
3XCD compilation of North America’s finest underground artists. This was something very special to
us, proving that our hard work and efforts have paid off, to be acknowledged
like this, by some of our direct influences. In a way, this release marked DTRASH’s
coming of age, we’d come full circle. Years ago, we never would have imagined
that this was possible, we knew we were on the right track.
2007 started off with a blast
with high profile releases from HEARTWORM, 64REVOLT, PANIC DHH and BABYLON
DISCO, with the MP3 D-TRASH release #'s approaching our 100th release (more
on that soon!). The big event of the year was unveiling the ATARI
TEENAGE RIOT tribute album on May 1st 2007 - years ago it would have been so
wrong for a label like D-TRASH to do this type of thing, but at this point,
there is so much going on in the range of sound of our artists, that as
musicians we did this more for amusement, than pure emulation. |
