Zip Dog records were established around 1992 with the classic
Hip-Hop/Dub collision which was 'Rhythm Redeemer'. Since then there has been a constant stream of L.P, C.D and 12" releases. To the front of these have been a whole series of compilations. Notable amongst them is the 'Club Meets Dub Series (1 to 4 so far), The global Exployer Series and Amnesia Music Bar.
At the last count they have co-ordinated and released material for upwards of fifty different artists.
'Free Radical Sound’s' Smart Monkey chatted with Lewis of Zip Dog at a recent 'Conspirators In Dub' session (one of their club nites).
[SM] How long have you been going as a label?
[Lewis] Around six years.
[SM] What made you decide, as people who were involved in making music to start compiling and releasing music on your own label?
[Lewis] Initially Zip Dog was set as a release vehicle for the band 'Emperor Sly' and I think that was very high on our agenda, but increasingly we discovered that there was more and more music out there that was reflecting the scene we're in. Which isTechno-Dub crossover. We were trying to place ourselves in a scene and to promote that we came up with the idea of putting out a compilation album, which was 'Club Meets Dub Vol 1'
[SM] Did you think that there was an absence of records that reflected that Dub/Techno fusion?
[Lewis] Yeah and I think other people felt that too. 'Club Meets Dub 1'
was by our standards a very successful release. It sold something like six thousand copies world wide and did very well here in the UK. It was often quoted as being one of those classic records that everyone’s has in their record box.
[SM] How do you find out about where this music comes from?
[Lewis] It's a mixture of routes. Zip Dog have certainly looked for 'big' artists and always looked to place established acts on our releases, so we made links with the record industry, with labels, management and publishers and this enabled us to get to the right people such as 'Roni Size', 'Dreadzone', 'Aphrodite' and a whole range of chart topping acts which we always felt were important.
Then what we also do is build up a relationship with a number of 'midsize' labels like ourselves so we've licensed a whole load of material from artists such as 'Astralasia' and 'Liberator' and people of that kind. But we've always been really eager to place new talent alongside established artists. So we've hunted for demos and had demos sent to us.
[SM] So what about the 'Conspirators In Dub' Project?
[Lewis] At the moment Zip Dog, Subculture and Dubmission are involved in the 'Conspirators In Dub' Project. The idea is that we have brought together the kind of people who are really into Dub, Dub-fusion, and Dub mutancy. So it features people such as 'The Brigadier' from 'Full Moon Scientist and Lee from 'Digi-Dub', Nations Vibration and the Yard DJ’s...I think it's a nice little collection or grouping of people who all on the edge of that Dub/crossover tip.
[SM] And isn't it free to get in as well?
[Lewis] Yeah that’s right and I think that’s really important as well. To do a night which people can come to regularly and know that 'Dub' and 'Dub Crossover' will always be played within a nice environment and that its free to get in. I think that's a good policy to have.
Material appears to us on the edges of the musical scene rather than its mainstream. That's what were about. The label is about exploring the boundaries of music. A lot of stuff comes to us from the whole route, partly because we've got international distribution and we've got agreements with labels in Germany, Italy, and France. So a lot of material just kind of comes through to us and I think we hear a lot of stuff that if we were just another UK based label we wouldn't hear and that's definitely very much our outlook or music policy. We want to bring new interesting music that hasn't yet been heard in the UK and wider scene.
Smart Monkey
