Bulkrate: Wake
Originally released via the Praxis Bandcamp on July 1st. 2018
20 Years of Praxis (tape & download)
Praxis 20
20 Years of Praxis
Fantastic mega-mix of over 50 tracks from the first 20 years of the label’s history by Darkmatter Soundsystem DJ’s Diskore, Fiend and Baseck available both as a cassette tape and a free download (with donation option) from our bandcamp site.
An intense rapid fire tour-de-force through the Praxis catalogue in three chunks with a total of over 50 tracks.
Finally the second run of the tape is available now!
Posted in Discography, Praxis Download Store, Praxis History
Tagged 2012, Praxis 20th Anniversary
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Praxis 5 – Bourbonese Qualk: Autonomia on vinyl OUT JANUARY 2018
Bourbonese Qualk’s classic album Autonomia – originally released in 1993 on CD – appears for the first time on vinyl on January 15, 2018. Double vinyl in fluorescent orange camo sleeve.
Bourbonese Qualk was formed by Simon Crab in 1979/80. The first performance was an odd non-musical appearance (‘mainly vandalism’). After several cassette releases and the addition of band members, the first vinyl album Laughing Afternoon appeared in 1983 and marked the beginning of a fascinating journey between different musical genres and styles. Always managing to elude mainstream attention and acceptance, while occasionally puncturing the screen of ignorance of the independent press and ‘scene’, Bourbonese Qualk have created a substantial body of work and maintained a compromise-free slate. After half a dozen albums, they had developed a small cult following, though remained hidden behind a curtain of obscurity for most.
Most of their albums were released on their own labels: Recloose Organisation and New International Recordings respectively, and their tours were also organised in the spirit of fierce, autonomous self-organisation.
It seems only logical that Praxis would join forces with Qualk and start experimenting, synthesising musical non-conformism with radical post-situationist ideas. Thus Autonomia became their intervention into what was then a burgeoning counter-position to the musical media establishment… TECHNO!?
An unsuspected alliance in the struggle against spectacular givens of the culture industry.
Autonomia, first released only on CD in 1993, was mostly a solo project of Simon Crab with the aid of Christoph Fringeli of Praxis, recorded after a 2-month tour in the USA and Europe. Typically Bourbonese Qualk, this album delivers the opposite of the listeners’ expectations, breaking the mold set by the two previous albums, My Government is My Soul and Unpop. Autonomia sets out in a completely different direction of harsh electronic ‘no compromise techno’. This album divided Qualk’s fan base, created violent debate and polarised press reviews.
The Bourbonese Qualk project was terminated after the death of band member Miles Miles, but founder and front man Simon Crab continues to experiment and develop his sound, with a tour scheduled to taking place in the winter of 2017/2018 with old comrades Nocturnal Emissions.
In recent years there has been renewed interest in BoQu, as exemplified by the compilation album released by Mannequin records in 2015. This is an official compilation of the group’s work from 1983-1986, covering the albums Laughing Afternoon, Hope, Preparing for Power, The Spike and Bourbonese Qualk.
In 2016, a 4-LP box set appeared on Vinyl On Demand with countless tracks either previously unpublished or only available on the most obscure cassette releases.
Praxis is happy to present the first vinyl edition of Autonomia in the winter of 2017/2018 to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the label.
Posted in Praxis History, Praxis News, Praxis Shop, Releases, Uncategorized
Tagged 1993, 2018, Bourbonese Qualk, Christoph Fringeli, Simon Crab
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Psychic Defence + Lazy Bastards + PKO #praxis25 Bratislava 2017
Posted in Events
Tagged 2017, Base Force One, Bratislava, Lynx, praxis25, Psychic Defence
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Today: 25 Years since Official Release of the first Praxis 12″
25 years ago today, on November 30, 1992 – it was a Monday – the first 12″ on Praxis was officially released. Of course there had been activities leading up to this date. I had moved to London at the end of 1991 and decided in the following months to discontinue my previous label Vision and start a new one, which was going to be called Praxis. The close collaboration with Bourbonese Qualk also meant that the Praxis HQ was soon installed in Malt Street – a short street where all the buildings were squatted and where the band had their rehearsal space (and Simon and family lived next door). This was just off the Old Kent Road in North Peckham, South London.
I was recommended a pressing plant called IPS, also located in Peckham and proceeded to have the first two releases manufactured through them. It was run by a guy who was an old punk rocker and his rockabilly secretary. I handed her a grand or so with what seemed like slightly insufficient assurance that I would receive my records in return. It looked a bit of a dodgy place, but things went ok, although not entirely smoothly. Everything was fine with the Scaremonger EP (Praxis 1) but the Bourbonese Qualk (Praxis 2) record had to be recut, because on one of the tracks the needle was jumping on some turntables.
More critically I didn’t receive the amount of Praxis label sleeves I had ordered. They had supplied the right amount for the white label pre-releases, but it turned out that there were no sleeves for the actual releases. One day I decided to go down there and demand the rest of the sleeves. The place was actually a print shop and the record pressing was outsourced to a different factory. But since the printing could be done there and the plates were on location I refused to leave without the rest of the sleeves that were long overdue.
He was a nice enough guy and told me his life story during the printing process and I eventually left with all the sleeves. A very short time after this (perhaps just a week or two) I was in that corner of Peckham again and decided to swing by, but there was no more print shop. The warehouse stood empty.
In the meantime SRD had recommended a different manufacturer, Key Productions, who I used for quite a few pressings in the following years. Praxis 1, much to my surprise, was number one in the techno charts of Echoes magazine and received a rave review by Kris Needs. I was well chuffed, things seemed to get to a good start!
Posted in Praxis History
Tagged 1992, Bourbonese Qualk, Praxis History, Scaremonger, SRD
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Praxis 25th Anniversary Party in London confirmed!
There will be a Praxis 25th Anniversary Event on November 3rd in London.
Place & Time: ExFed 199 Eade Road,, N4 1DN London – 8pm-1am
More details and line-up will be posted in the next days!
Praxis/Yaya23 Store in Berlin Closing and Moving!
Praxis and Yaya23 are forced to close our shop after nearly 6 and 15 (!) years respectively. The juggernaut of gentrification is pummeling the last remaining autonomous holdouts in Berlin-Friedrichshain‘s Ostkreuz area.
Rising rents and new commercial and residential developments have already caused major shifts in the local population.
In our case these changes affect and severely curtail the possibilities of operating the paradoxical project that our shop is. Over the years we‘ve strived to create a meeting point and outlet for different types of experimental electronic and dance music, subversive ideas, networks, and self-published cultural creations.
Of course both projects will continue and with them the numerous connected projects like record labels, print creations, event organisation and sound system.
While we are now looking for new headquarters, we are still open at Lenbachstraße 9 until the end of September. The next event in our Countdown to Gentrification series will take place at the shop August 31, from 7-10 pm.
UPDATE: The last instore event in our Countdown to Gentrification series is taking place September 29th!