A mix from Extasis Records

, 15 September 2014
sound

The loosely Mexico-based record label Extasis Records takes issue with my attempts to label it as Mexico-based. “I would like to establish something,” writes label boss Jack’ie Lo over email, “Extasis Records is an internet-located record label.” The founder herself is, according to her Soundcloud page, based in London, and the collective may be largely based in Mexico City IRL, but their URL bond is where the magic is: theirs is the sound of the over-stuffed, hyperactive live feed, with vaporwave and web 1.0-fetishising aesthetics applied to all the most manic and mismatched of trending sounds. They are (of course) hyper-prolific, but for an idea you need only read the list of genre tags on their recent summer compilation, grouping together #reggaeton, #transcendental, #techno, #rave, #pleasure and #anarchism.

As an introduction to the label, producer Morten HD has put together a 55-minute mix that accelerates recklessly through amen breaks to brostep to grime to ambience to trap to Swedish House Mafia (the ‘Illuminati mix’). In part, it’s a mirror held up to Mexico City’s thriving hybrid culture of emerging and long-ingrained dance music trends, from the dancehall, techno and dub nights that have long dominated the city to the new influx of artists from around the world. Simultaneously, it’s also a screenshot of a globally interconnected 2k14 life and its frenzied interactivity and amalgamation, seeing genres smash into one another with no regard for context or continuity.

Read on to find out where Jack’ie Lo places the label, if not in terms of Mexico City (though that is part of it) then in terms of the deep web, meta-discursive commentary on online culture, an “invisible” part of the information flow and a state of simultaneous past and future.

** What’s the mission statement behind Extasis Records?

Jack’ie Lo: Re-Construction of Culture – Re-Construction of Power. Just EXTASIS!

Flux, Flow → Reload,

Share, Spread ⟳ Refresh.

INTERWEB

#Overcrowded-Infosphere   #Hypercomplexity

** Tell me about this mix. What’s in there?

JL: This mix comes via Morten HD, an interesting DJ/producer based in Oslo. The sound is…EXTASIS, RAVE, EUPHORIA, OVER-SATURATION and All-Genre M1X Blende®. It includes a wide ∫PE©†RUM of our catalogue, from [EXTASIS003] ∆N∆LIC∑ – ‘Block Drop’ to [EXTASIS016] Homínido – Spaceseeds. So for people that have never listened to Extasis Records it’s a nice introduction.

** You say you’re made up of UnderWeb micro-communities. How does that work?

JL: Everything we do is referential and meta-discursive. Tautological in the sense of culture and Ouroboric as shape.

Humans 2 Humans

Culture 4 Culture

– 1N†€®N€† 4 1N†€®N€† –

So, at the beginning, one of our main concerns was to reactivate the ideas from the first web [1.0] in the functional patterns of web 2.0 and 3.0.

Firstly, re-thinking the idea of websites as lost islands disseminated in the internet, co-habitated by specific communities, and only accessible via URL – which is different to the current web-navigation where most websites are accessed via the links posted on social network timelines.

Secondly, reviving the secret-cult feeling of some of the web 1.0 sites that were facilitating before the main explosion and advantage of Web 2.0 main social network services, an experience related to the social internet. Such as chan boards, image boards and forums.

To this end, we create and activate a secret society called GL0ßÅL ∫PE©†RUM∫ ——-≠◊∆, that nowadays is focused on the priorities of its private agenda, and that is mainly based on different secret groups and rooms disseminated through the InterWeb.

Extasis Records has become in primary terms the record label and musical division of GL0ßÅL ∫PE©†RUM∫ ——-≠◊∆. That in fact still goes on, but their co-relation is different from what it was at the beginning.

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** But physically, you’re based in Mexico. What’s the underground electronic scene like in Mexico in 2014? How would you characterise the mood?

JL: First I would like to establish something. Extasis Records is an internet-located record label.

Several people related to the project live and work in Mexico, specifically in Mexico City, which has always been a melting pot for culture and always had one of the nicest moods we’ve found all around the globe.

As a massive and well-connected world capital, the underground electronic scene has always been really active since long ago so we have good memories of going to Hard-Techno and BreakCore raves, D&B/Jungle, Dub-Techno/DigitalDub, Dancehall/Reggaeton, 2Step/MXGarage and all kinds of parties.

Nowadays all of the kids that grew up in this scenario have mixed with people from different parts of the country and the world that are coming to the city. It keeps refreshing its vibe. This new generation is on stage now and making amazing things. We would say that the mood is chill, calm, propositive and real, se estan haciendo cosas con actitud [things are being done with attitude].

** In the press release for your summer compilation you talk about “RAVE as an e-store product”. Do your genre-twisting releases fight against the commodification of genres? Is the music deliberately hard to classify?

JL: Definitely. We are pretty concerned about how music is consumed and how the music industry works. We are aware that we will never be able to change the world, anyway it never has been our goal. We couldn’t conceive of a new form or such re-structuring, but certainly some individual imaginaries could be touched by the poetry embedded in our actions.

We could say that in a way we are slightly tired of the establishment of music superstars, commodification of music genres, label marketing and the comfort zone intrinsic in this kind of music consumption. Our interest as a label and as producers is focused on the socio-cultural part of music: dance and listening as well as communication and sharing.

** You definitely position yourselves as part of the information flow; who do you see yourselves as being in sync or conversation with?

JL: We are in sync and in conversation with our era, our time… We see ourselves as an almost invisible part of this information flow that at the same time is in conversation and sync with everything.

** What does the future sound like?

JL: IDK…. 🙂 It would be sad if I could describe this.

We could say that there’s no future for our generation; the future has been negated. The future is now. Time-flow is stuck in tautological knots that annihilate history. We could describe today’s condition as The End of History or The Beginning of History, we are at a point where such statements are no different. Future and past have the same meaning, the future is an imaginary place and not a point in time.

Maybe… 😉 #AbstractGrime #HiTechSoca #Hypa-AktivRiddims #Calypso #PerroSabroso #BachateoSensual #Kizomba #Tarraxinha #TarrachoMalandro #DroneCollages #PumpingHouse #2K14Gabber… #Uncategorized… #OTHER. **

Exstasis Records mix track listing:

Jack’ ie Lo – Work Hard (Speed Descarga Version)
Traxmatik – Flyboy Refix
Sonido Berzerk – Gangstaz (Gangstahton Remix)
Vroma – Flor En Medio Del Rio
Zutzut – Cobras
Dj Hotmale – Holography
Spaceseeds – Wind
E.lebleu – GL0ßÅL ∫PE©†RUM∫
Extasis All-Stars – Save The World (Illuminati Mix)
Óniro Nauta – Siéntelo (Original Mix)
Shiriaki – Telepath
Spaceseeds – Cave
Zutzut – Momentos de XTC ft. LAO
Jack’ ie Lo – Party People
Macque – Hopenau
Saw U – Barrio Once
∆N∆LIC∑ – Block Drop
Xyloid – Electron Curry (K∆RIIIB∆ MEGAMIX wow!)
Jack’ ie Lo – Sum
Gordon – Lesbian Replicants Experiment
Wasted Fates – The Grave Fuck Your iPad
Mathieu Rupert – El Último Amanecer
Jack’ ie Lo – Call_M3 (Dan2600! BedroomRave Remix)
Wasted Fates – Post Misery