Borat Loves Turbo

BORAT LOVES TURBO

"I asked him once what his favorite sexual act was, and he said "In toilet at club"



Turbo Recordings is perhaps Montreal's best known label. Wait, erase the "perhaps". If you could name only one label worthy of international respect, or ask any producer where he'd release his stuff if he had any choice, chances are that any pair of lips will form the word "Turbo". It's anybody's favorite feature on a car, and it's any self-respecting DJ's not-so-secret weapon in a set when the heat starts to boil on the floor.

Turbo has mutated over the years, and who wouldn't ? It's gone from releasing mixes and deep house stuff from Alexi Delano to more cutting edge beats by Mateo Murphy, FPU, Martini Bros... Its biggest-selling single of all times was Tiga's "Burning Down", and just before disappearing from the public eye in 2005, it released a Plastique de Rêve EP and a BOMB de Zdar, "Don't U Want" - a song that was played all over that makes us suspect that, if you never heard it, you might be deaf.

After a year in limbo, Turbo suddenly resurfaced, and it's never stopped releasing amazing high-quality singles since then. The label has nothing to prove anymore; I'm pretty sure that it must be quite painful to select what will be released with a limited vinyl schedule, versus the tons of bomb tracks the label gets.

Good news is that some of the latest - and loudest - Turbo artists will be in town this Friday for a huge label party at Musée Juste Pour Rire, and to clarify a few things we spoke with Thomas Von Party, organiser extraordinaire, Turbo rep, puppetmaster and party DJ par excellence.



-What caused Turbo's resurrection ? And while we're at it, what caused its year of silence in the first place ?

The silence came from Tiga taking time off to do his own thing and take Sexor to the world. Mark Dillon, who was working with Tiga on managing the label, got more into doing events and got involved with Neon... I guess it also coincided with the downfall of CD sales. The resurrection was really sparked by Tiga hearing that Sweetlight remix of Etienne Daho and wanting to release it. Since then it's just rolled on with myself and Oliver Interactive (also Tiga's manager) handling the daily operations.


-The label has graphically and sonically taken a whole new direction. It's done a very "Turbo" thing and went in a direction nobody expected.

Really ? Is it so unexpected ? Our next release coming out this week is by Dahlback & Dahlback... basically the same guy who was doing records for Turbo almost 10 years ago. As far as graphics, we've kept a very tight relationship with just a couple of designers over the years, and our man Pawel Karwowski has done some great work for Tiga and Turbo for I think about 7 years (Good as Gold cover, Turbo Studio Sessions, 031-036 art, etc). As for the new sound, I think we've just gravitated to harder-edged stuff lately with Boys Noize, DIM and Proxy, but that's really just one side of the label. It's important to us to not think too much in terms of genre, or stick to any easy formulas, but just release records that we love. I think the next few releases will blow things wide open... Duke Dumont, Compuphonic & Kolombo, more dope Chromeo remixes and an insane new Proxy... it might be hard to play them all in one set, but they're all dope records.



-Besides having all these friends who produce, which could make it easy to sit on your laurels and release sure fire hits by well established producers, you also sign obscure artists - as per example The Proxy, a guy the legend pretends you found on MySpace.

It's not just legend... he sent me a message back when he had only 8 friends on MySpace. Destroy had 6 plays. To me that's the single most rewarding thing about working for Turbo : finding new talent, and changing the course of their lives - I hope - and of history ! Proxy is a kid who had never left Russia, and now he's going to be playing all around the world... He could have gotten there with another label, but it feels really great to make those connections and work together to build something. There are some other newcomers too, but they're still top secret...

But for every Proxy you find, you have to listen to about 400 wack demos...

Tiga obviously is connected to EVERYBODY, and Turbo has a great reputation, so it's a very fortunate position to be in, from an A&R perspective. We never have to really sell the label, people want to put records out with us, so that makes the job a lot easier !


-Being Tiga's little brother seems like a full time job in itself, but what exactly do you do at Turbo ?

Funny timing for this question, because for the last 20 minutes I've been on the phone adding 900 friends to Tiga's MySpace, ahahahhaha ! I don't read the messages or anything, but I handle the adding for him... it's so stupid that you can't just ADD ALL !

At Turbo, I listen to demos, keep in touch with artists, handle the promos, deal with the pressing plant, etc. Oliver Interactive, aka NEXT, handles contracts and more BIZ stuff... I'm starting to handle some of the licensing stuff, but for me it's an ideal situation of not having to think much about the 'bottom line' or handle all the administrative stuff... NEXT man seals deals...



-What's the label's level of implication with the I Love Neon boys, what's the "connection" ? Let's just say I was surprised to hear that they weren't involved in the May 11th party.

Ya, I wanted them to do the party but it was a busy week, and they had the LCD show booked. There's no official affiliation between Turbo and Neon, but obviously we're old friends and have all worked together on tons of different things over the years. This party has been an act of will on the part of myself and Mike Mind, who helped us get the Puma sponsorship.


-It's a very "actual" question that you might get asked a lot, but do you still have faith in vinyl ? Do you, like many people, think that the medium will slowly die and be replaced by digital releases ?

I'm a digital bitch... a myshit bootlegging mp3 dweeb... guilty as charged... laptop nerd...

Vinyl is the bomb, and it DOES sound better in a perfect setup, but yes I do think it will die, but so will everything. It's still worth fighting for, though !



-Can you share a scoop ? What will the next Turbo releases be ?

I already answered that, but ya:

Dahlback & Dahlback - minimal techie megabomb.
Duke Dumont ... dope party record played by Erol Alkan...
Proxy - Decoy - rave caviar !
Compuphonic & Kolombo - beautiful trippy lite-trance.
Turbo Mind Vacuum - mini psychedelic EP

...and lots lots more !


-Are you going to release DJ mixes in the future, or is that a thing of the past ?

Yes, but I can't talk about that... for now you can check out our free podcasts !


-At Friday's party, D.I.M. and The Proxy will perform. It will be their first time in Montreal. What can we expect from them ?

Proxy is like a real live Borat. I asked him once what his favorite sexual act was, and he said : "In toilet at club". Ahahahahah ! And DIM is like Boys Noize, with much bigger balls ! They'll be dope.



-A mythical figure will also make a smash comeback. Hint : he's from the Czech Republic and he dances like a motherfucker. Why the wait ?

It was something so special to me that I couldn't keep doing it over and over. I wanted to wait until it would feel fresh again... The amazing thing is that I feel like almost no one in this city has even SEEN the puppet ! They have no idea ! I'm also debuting a visual show I've been working on for a long time... I'm very very excited about it.


-I have a feeling this party will be quite dope.

Come early... don't miss anything.

*****

It goes down on Friday at Musée Juste Pour Rire, starting at 10. The 4th floor mezzanine will greet a P-Thugg DJ set and feature heavy drinkers. At midnight, things go down a notch, to the 3rd floor, where Von Party will warm up the crowd with visuals by Mind Vacuum. Then it's a rave noise orgy with D.I.M. and The Proxy playing back to back while the puppet dances & amazes y'all.

Tickets are on sale for 10$ at Moog Audio & Reborn, and it'll be 15$ at the door. But don't miss, and don't get there too late, as I have a feeling it'll sell out pretty fast. It's not every day that you can shake hands with the devil, get drunk and watch Borat play a nu rave set.