Features

Migu

Please introduce yourself...
My name is Migu, a DJ here in Hungary, Black Hoe label founder and owner. I started DJing and collecting vinyl in 2001. Around that time I used to buy all the Biotic, Tech Itch, Dylan and Panacea releases.

When did your label begin & why was it set up?
The idea to set up a net-based label was born at the end of 2005. I was browsing the old Freak Recordings board (there was a really nice community in those days), listening to some unsigned demos and realized that there was no platform, no publicity for those talented but less-known, unknown guys.

Then I began thinking about managing a net-label focusing on the harder, darker side of drum & bass. Pure digital labels, especially operating with 'darkstep', were not so common in those days. I asked some guys on the Freak board and they were getting excited so I began figuring out how to manage the set-out. The free label was established in the beginning of 2006 and I was surprised how the label was followed by lots of producers, listeners and fans.

The next step was the paid-for side project, Black Hoe Alimony, that started at the beginning of 2008. It gives an extra surface to all those Black Hoe artists who are working hard and whose stuff is getting better and better.

Golden Age was created for the purpose of revisiting the drum & bass / jungle roots - the music by artists like Snaper and Acid Lab forced me to start this project. And, finally, a fourth label called Project:V8 follows soon, that's the place where we, the V8 guys, will be releasing our own stuff and future collaborations.

Who is involved with running it?
I am the label's godfather, if I can say that! Work with all the labels is done by me, nothing happens without my attention. There are lots of other people who help me somehow, without them the running of the labels might be impossible - let's mention them! First of all we've got the artists and producers. It's true that I decide about a release and choose the tracks for all the labels but they and their sounds are always forming the labels' profile.

Then we've got the sound engineers working hard to get a special product at the end: Macc for Black Hoe Alimony and Golden Age and Eneas Mentzel (aka Distreality) for the mother label Black Hoe. Volko and Prohypnol as two-thirds of V8 are working on the label Project:V8.

The visuals are as important as the music so our graphic designers (Violent Graphics, Sleepwalker, Pixel Junglist, Nikk D, Blu 3 and Millerz at Smokebreak team for the old web design that determined our image for a long time) are important in our life as well.

What other labels, new or old, have inspired you?
Well, I can recite all the basic and classic labels (Virus, RAM, Renegade Hardware, Moving Shadow, etc.) that might be mentioned by most of us but I won't want to do that, it is evident. From the past I must pick Tech Itch, Penetration, Outbreak, Universal Project, Cylon, Architecture - most of these were unavailable here in Hungary because there was no-one who had any agreement with the distributor Alphamagic. Today I am always open to listen to things by DJ Hidden and Eye-D (and, of course, Outside Agency), Position Chrome, Offkey or Planet Mu to mention a few.

What do you look for in potential artists?
It is not so easy to be featured on any of our labels. The easiest one is Black Hoe, we are always looking for talented less-known or totally unknown producers. It doesn't matter if tracks are not written for dancefloors and not following the mainstream, this is not our goal so we are always accepting demos for Black Hoe. With Alimony and Golden Age it is different. I know some of the artists personally, I respect them and their work. So it can be said I am a bit picky with the two paid-for labels.

How would you describe your labels' sound?
In the beginning I used to focus on the harder edge of drum & bass like darkstep operating with distorted Reese and Amens, breakcore over 200 bpm and noizecore. In the beginning of 2006 the netlabel business was not so heavy like nowadays, especially for this kind of stuff. Today it has changed, a huge amount of labels' catalogue can be browsed for free or paid-for.

To be honest I am a bit fed up with the heavier side of drum & bass, I know it sounds a bit weird but that sound is getting a bit boring. This is the reason why I've changed the Black Hoe concept, the latest releases are good examples with Au2pilot's BH060XEP (experimental), Sirissh' BH061XEP (glitch techno) and Gabba Voodoo's BH062XEP (hardcore techno). As a conclusion: we are able to release anything on Black Hoe, our very favourites on Black Hoe Alimony, the Golden Age was created for stuff that remind me of the good old times and Project:V8 for our own stuff and collaborations.

What do you have coming out soon?

We've got a busy period coming. Black Hoe is always over-scheduled, we've got releases for the next year I guess. There will be two albums, one by us, the V8 crew, the other by Synthetic Violence. He's producing heavy hardcore techno influenced drum & bass - back to the darkstep!

We've been working on the V8 album a lot, it took about a year to finish it. The eighth release with Antichristus is coming on Alimony. Then Kaiza, Unabomber, Numek follow. The EP series also starts on Alimony, the first one is out now. That's a tasty melodic halfstep collection by Halves (a collaboration of Mystification and Unabomber).

Golden Age is busy too, the third one with Acid Lab came in December, then Radical Motion, CJ Weaver and Indijidous follow. Finally few words about Project:V8. This side-project starts in the beginning of 2010 with the free V8 album release on Black Hoe as the teaser release, then the label itself starts with two V8 tracks (End Of Line and Earl). Some tracks by the mentioned artists can be caught in the mix done exclusively for Knowledge.

Anything else you want to tell us about?
Just a few words about the mix I've done for you and your readers. Some may dislike it due to the discursiveness between styles but I wanted to show as much as I could. I wanted to include everything that Black Hoe and the others are about, that was the reason I split the tracklist into some parts. The titles in the last part are Hungarian. 'SzÈp ?j vil·g' means Nice New World (I associated this title with Huxley's Brave New World, but the Radical Motion guys refused it!, the last one, 'LennÈk' is a poem by one of the greatest Hungarian poets named Ady Endre. Here is the poem in English:

I Should Love To Be Loved

I am neither infant nor happy grandfather
Nor parent, nor lover
Of anyone, of anyone.
I am, as every man is, Majesty,
The North Pole, the Secret, the Stranger,
The will-o'-the-wisp in the distance, the will-o'-the-wisp in the distance.

But alas! I cannot remain this way.
I should like to show myself to the world,
So that someone sees me, so that someone sees me.

This is why I sing and I torment myself.
I should love to be loved.
I wish to be of someone, I wish to be of someone.

Download the exclusive Black Hoe Showcase compiled and mixed by Migu.

Tracklisting

Incoming:
01. Mystification - Show Me How To Cry (Acoustic Version) [Black Hoe dub]
02. Code Blue - Falling Sun [Black Hoe Alimony - BHA003]
03. l3orderlinE - Subconscious [Black Hoe dub]
04. CJ Weaver - Submarine [Golden Age forthcoming - GA005]

Plot #1
05. Halves - Mindslip [Black Hoe Alimony - BHA001EP]
06. Peter Kurten - The Wolf (Antichristus Remix) [Black Hoe Alimony dub]
07. Kaiza - Illusion [Black Hoe Alimony forthcoming - BHA009]
08. Antichristus - God Hates Us All [Black Hoe Alimony - BHA008]

Plot #2
09. Solarcube & Ted Kaczynski - Radical Amputate [Black Hoe Alimony - BHA006]
10. V8 - End Of Line [Project:V8 forthcoming - V8001]
11. .of God - Cadaver [Black Hoe Alimony - BHA007]

Plot #3
12. Radical Motion - Diagnosis [Black Hoe dub]
13. Acid Lab - Venom [Golden Age forthcoming - GA003]
14. Indidjinous - Mating Call [Golden Age forthcoming - GA006]
15. Snaper - What Is The Point? [Golden Age - GA001]
16. Throttler - No Hold Back [Black Hoe Alimony - BHA004]

Plot #4
17. Peter Kurten - Unstoppable [Black Hoe Alimony - BHA008]
18. Halves - Autumn [Black Hoe Alimony - BHA001EP]
19. O.Nine - Depression [Black Hoe forthcoming - BH065]
20. l3orderlinE - Linde [Black Hoe Alimony - BHA006]

Summary:
21. Peter Kurten - Fucking Basstard [Black Hoe dub]

Outgoing:
22. Synthetic Violence - Last Breathe [Black Hoe forthcoming - BH070LP]

Utolsó gondolatok:
23. Radical Motion - Szép új világ [Golden Age forthcoming - GA004]
24. Xenophobe Of NTX - Lennék [unsigned]

MySpace: Black Hoe, Black Hoe Alimony, Golden Age, Project:V8

Soundcloud: Black Hoe, Black Hoe Alimony, Golden Age, Project:V8

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