Plastic World launches this May with Alba

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    Mon, Apr 15, 2013, 23:00
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  • Rick Wade and Jimmy Edgar will appear on the new Australian label's first release, due out next month.
  • Plastic World launches this May with Alba image
  • Plastic World, a new Sydney-based record label, will launch in May with a single from local electronic act Alba. The imprint is the brainchild of Sydneysiders Vic Edirisinghe and James McInnes. Edirisinghe is one third of Astral People, a local touring, management and events company, whose roster includes artists like Dro Carey, Jonti and Cliques, while McInnes is a presenter for Sydney station FBi Radio and worked for several years with popular Australian indie-dance label Future Classic in marketing and management. We had a chat to the pair to find out what's in store:
    What's the idea behind the label? Will there be any specific music policy? Vic: We wanted to provide local artists with an opportunity to take their music to an international level. While there's some labels over here that have had some success with releases overseas, the consistency at which it happened just wasn't there. Having worked with local and international artists for many years now, James and I thought we could use the networks that we've developed over the years to hopefully provide our locals with a chance to get their stuff heard on an international platform. These days there seems to be such a big emphasis on getting your stuff heard on local radio and this has forced a lot of credible producers to step away from their roots and look to cater for these stations. It's hard to point the blame at anyone in particular for this but hopefully we can take a small step to change this mentality with a distribution focus internationally instead of Australia where it's quite constrained. James: A channel for all the fantastic music and ideas coming out of Australia (with no music policy!) The first release will definitely be on a club tip but as the releases and parties continue, who knows…. We'd really like to become a home for artists who are keen to try out new genres and styles too. Sometimes music just gets boring and hearing techno from an Afrobeat band or house from a hip hop guy would make us pretty happy. Will you be pressing physical media or keeping it digital? J: We'll definitely be doing vinyl. Things will come out on digital down the track but we don't want to rush things, we'd rather let the vinyl do its thing and marinate in your DJ bags for a few months. I always feel a bit short changed if you buy the wax and then it comes out on Beatport 2 minutes later. V: The focus of this label is definitely on vinyl. Digital release will come eventually but for now, vinyl it is. Where will you be looking to source new music? J: We're trying to keep things down under as much as possible but our ears are always open. We're always on Soundcloud / Facebook / Twitter / email so drop us a message and say G'day. V: Same place we always look for new music - The Internet. What's coming up next? V: Our first release is from Sydney duo – Alba (formally known as Albatross). They've been impressing a lot of people here in Australia - having supported the likes of Four Tet, Actress, Mount Kimbie, Holy Other, How To Dress Well, Jimmy Edgar and many others lately and we feel it's the right time for them to start pushing their stuff overseas. We've called on some favours and have put together a remix package that we're very proud of, with some of our past and present favourite producers involved. We want our releases to be well balanced packages and you'll see with this one that while the remixes are all quite unique in their own right it all fits well with the aesthetic we’re going with for the label. In terms of what we got planned for the future, there's a big emphasis on keeping a consistent output coming from our end so plans for future releases are already well underway - they'll be at least 2 - 3 more releases this year from Plastic World. Along with that we'll be looking at developing our brand overseas and doing some cool parties across Australia, which we're quite excited about.
    Plastic World's first vinyl release, "Knokke / Law" by Alba, is due to drop in late May with remixes from Hotflush producer Jimmy Edgar and Detroit veteran Rick Wade. Tracklist A1. Knokke A2. Law B1. Knokke (Jimmy Edgar Remix) B2. Knokke (Rick Wade Remix) Plastic World will release Knokke / Law by Alba in late May 2013.
RA