New Label Profile: Aerial Vibes

13 Aug 2010

Aerial Vibes is a brand new drum & bass label from Minsk, Belarus owned by Paul Belaus aka B cloud. With their first release imminent we decided to ask Paul a few questions about his new imprint and future plans.

Tell us about your label, what music does Aerial Vibes focus on?

I've created Aerial Vibes to release light sub-genres of dnb. I like nu school deep dnb, but the tracks in this sub-genre can be very different. I'm going to release my own and other producers music. For me it is difficult to produce tunes in one straight direction for a long time, each track is quite different from another. Sometimes I want to write a dark, melancholic drum & bass and sometimes I'm in mood for something cheerful, funny, slightly more mainstream.

So on Aerial Vibes will release different drum & bass, but it will always be a relatively light and aerial sound. One of the most important tasks of the label is to bring to the listener some interesting music with fresh ideas because contemporary music is different, but it also can be very similar and boring. So I'm now experimenting with integrating minimal techno, trance and house elements into drum & bass like how Russian producers Subwave and Enei are doing.

Why the name Aerial Vibes?

Aerial Vibes comes out from my alias B cloud. It can be interpreted as "be cloud" (to be a cloud), and becloud as well. Therefore it was logical to think of something airy, something aerial. Anyway, music is a vibration of air.

You're a newcomer to the global dnb scene, why are you launching your own imprint? Usually labels are started by well-known musicians with years of experience of working with record labels...

Of course it's much easier if you are a musician who is already known on the world scene. I only have two vinyl releases: one on Alphacut and another coming soon on Kos.Mos.Music, Electrosoul System's label.

I've looked at the situation realistically and what I can expect in future. Even if I sign a lot of tracks on vinyl to other labels now, they will be out by the end of 2011 or even in 2012. But everything is moving forward, by that time my musical views and tastes may change, and I will not be so happy with releasing old material.

And when speaking about digital releases, producers can always release relevant material. Anyway, considering the tempo of modern information flow, digital releases are quite acceptable way to publish your music. Certainly, I respect the vinyl format and I believe that it will live a long life, but for the most part music is distributed in digital format.

Services like Soundcloud make the process much easier. Thanks to these websites people can always listen to the latest dubs and, unfortunately, by the time of vinyl release these tracks can become pretty boring. So this way I release my music, and what is important - I have no limits of creativity.

Record labels seem to be a rare phenomenon for post-USSR countries. Why?

It's not quite true, there are many mp3 and even some vinyl labels in Russia and Ukraine. As far as I know, there are also several labels in Belarus: the techno label Rich Universe and other techno netlabels like Sgustok and Foundamental, as well as new vinyl dnb label SoulRed. I think there are only a small number of labels because of the population of the country and because of the slow progress of dance music culture here.

Do many Belarusian people listen to the music you promote?

WI think that in our country people mainly prefer the harder drum & bass sound. We do not have a big activity on forums dedicated to drum & bass, and I have an impression that the main audience is not even familiar with labels and does not keep and eye on the scene. But maybe I'm wrong. Deep dnb in Europe is on top now, and it seems to be much bigger than it happened to techno dnb a few years ago. From my point of view, dnb is expanding its borders and deep dnb, including microfunk, plays a great role in this process. I'm glad to know that some guys from neighbouring countries like Russia and Ukraine are contributing to the development of such a massive wave. It seems to me nu school deep dnb producers experiment more than anyone else in dnb.

What's going to be your first release?

The first release will feature with my track Deeper alongside remixes from Enei, Eastcolors & Noel, Clarity and a dubstep version. The next release will feature several tunes by well-known Russian producer Flame who has had vinyl releases on Cyclone, Black Seeds, Def:Ltd and Leet. Flame is producing deep, minimal dnb and I like the way he's progressing. I really like what many Russian producers are doing and in future I'd like to work with some of them, as well as with some Belarusian producers. Nevertheless the gates of the label are open to producers from around the world.

B cloud - Deeper (Enei Remix) by Aerial Vibes

How are things going with the releases of your tracks on other labels?

My EP was recently released on Italian label Modulate and it includes three tracks: Metro, Cold War and In My Eyes. I also have a track called Ressurection on a Kos.Mos.Music vinyl EP coming soon and I have another track called Aside A Bustle signed to Kos.Mos.Music, but I don't know when it will come out.

FORTHCOMING by B cloud

RELEASED TRACKS by B cloud

Download an Aerial Vibes minimix

Tracklisting