2022: 30 Years of Praxis!
Yes it’s true, Praxis will turn 30 this year!
This will be an opportunity for reflection as well as for looking forward, of looking back at what’s been done, the successes and failures, as well as working out strategies for counter-cultural processes in the future.
Praxis was founded in 1992 in London. The first two 12″ records came out at the end of that year, the Scaremonger EP and ‘Knee-Jerk Reaction’ by Bourbonese Qualk. These records contributed to and commented on the rising techno and rave scene, coming from a background of experimental post punk and industrial music. Soon the label expanded and explored experimental hardcore, electronic weirdness, breakcore and noise. Since then there has been a steady stream of releases and activities, which we continue today and into the future from our base in Berlin. We have many many plans for this year, for releases as well as live events, as well as for publishing activities that go well beyond those of a ‘record label’.
So on the one hand we will – in fact we’re already in the middle of it! – post significant resources online in the form of music and video, both on SoundCloud and YouTube. At the time of writing there are already almost 200 tracks on our SoundCloud account, and over 150 videos on YouTube. Note that many of these “videos” are in fact audio uploads with a thumbnail picture, so there is a certain overlap between the two platforms, but both offer certain advantages, so we’ll continue uploading certain materials on both of them, while other stuff only appears on either of them, the most obvious being visual videos on YouTube.
Parallel to this our Bandcamp page remains the main (and in most cases only) place to download/buy Praxis releases in digital format.
Hand in hand with these uploads we’ll overhaul the discography pages on the Praxis web site, and eventually overhaul the web site itself. This will be accompanied with the upload of historical material as well as new interviews and articles.
Most important is however that the plan for this year and beyond is not just to look back and reflect, but confront harsh experimental music with the challenges of the present and the future.
An important element in the coming months will be a traditional starting point: vinyl releases. We have half a dozen 12″s currently in various stages of production.
But in the wider perspective this can only happen by expanding music to the visual, the written, the social event, the theoretical and the political.
