Dissident is Dead - from Andy Blake

hi everyone,

i hope you are all well.

as some of you may have heard on the bush telegraph, i've decided to
shut dissident down.

when i started the label back in 2007 the whole point was that it
wasn't in any sense a 'proper' record label, it was just a way to get
music out quickly on the highest sound quality format for clubs and
dj's and play a tiny part in trying to help the independent record
shops and distributors by staying faithful to the vinyl format when it
seemed that virtually everyone was throwing the towel in and going
digital. thats why it was 'dissident.distribution' on the labels, not
'dissident.records'.

just under two and a half years and something north of 60 releases
later, the time has come to move on.

i'm not entirely sure why but it just seems obvious that it's time for
me to stop the label and do something new. i could cite factors like
having the label take over the rest of my life for the last two years
and the original simple set of rules of play that felt so liberating
to begin with having become something of a dogmatic straitjacket - a
little bit like when the originally free-spirited revolutionaries find
they have turned into an oppressive communist regime. a little bit,
but not much :-)

there are also things like the fact that lots of people constantly
assumed that the records sold out in a matter of days without taking
the time to check with the label, shops or distributors to confirm
this before they downloaded crappy low-res mp3s of the 'sold-out'
tunes, thus somewhat defeating the object of having a vinyl only label
in the first place.

i guess the main reason behind me moving on is that i'm busy running
the world unknown night in brixton every month with joe and duncan and
being asked to dj all over the place and if i continued trying to run
dissident as well i'd quite possibly end up making a bit of a balls of
everything.

so that's that really. i'd like to take this opportunity to thank all
the artists who have released on the label, tom at vacant design for
the graphics, all the guys at curved pressings and rubadub and juno
and everyone else who has supported or been involved in any way with
the label. it's been an extremely fun, fulfilling and illuminating
experience all round and given the chance to do it again i wouldn't
change a thing.

my original intention was to have at least a few months completely
away from any record label business but there are already all sorts of
ideas and rumours flying around about what it might be fun to do next
so i guess i'll just have to see what happens.

so, back to the present. there's a 2.5 hour recording of me playing
records at the say yes halloween ball here;

http://sayyesparty.com/2009/11/14/halloween-mixes/

it was a properly good night out as you can see from the short video
that thomas and nadia put together and it was great to finally make a
new live recording again after nearly a year since the last live one
from road to rimini in newcastle.

anyone in london who's up for it can join me for more of the same at
the horse and groom this saturday the 28th. i'm playing for the cut
and shut disco chaps downstairs from 1am-4am and ben gatto fritto is
playing upstairs for future sound of clapton so its going to be a good
one. hit me up if you need guest list and i'll see what i can do.

see you soon,

cheers,

andy