The Brvtalist is pleased to premiere a new video from Asymmetrical. The Rome-based producer and all around handyman returns to his home imprint for a new 12”, Blind Faith, that also marks 5 years of Raw Culture Records. A long way from the label’s humble beginnings of home made Sony tapes, Raw Culture has continued morph into a home for mutant EBM, electro, wave, techno and more, all with an underlying raw sound. For the fifth anniversary, Asymmetical steps up with a killer EP that crosses all the lines, pushes the boundaries and forgets genre with mega tracks of elctro-body-shock therapy. Today we premiere the mesmerizing video for “Kriminal” and to mark the anniversary we also have a Q&A with the artist and label owner. (see below)

Blind Faith is out April 25th and you can get yours on BANDCAMP.

-JRS

The Brvtalist: Tell us how you're feeling about Raw Culture turning 5 years old?

Asymmetrical: I feel pretty incredible to tell the truth. Raw Culture was born as a DIY Label, and in many aspects wants to stay that way, but if I think that from those first 30 Sony cassettes that we home recorded we slowly got to press 300 records (even with labels and printed covers, rich stuff!) I am quite satisfied.

Beyond the mere talk of numbers I am especially satisfied with the different relationships woven in these five years with many people between artists, other labels, promoters, distributors, record stores and simple supporters, as they the real satisfaction, the true lifeblood of all this.

TB: Do you think running an independent label has become easier or harder over the last 5 years?

A: It's absolutely not easier. At the beginning I thought there was a lot more fertile ground and a lot more enthusiasm (consider the record sales boom of 2017) and even media and press agencies were much more open and interested. Over the years I have seen much more of the scene breaking off into sects. However, channels like Bandcamp allow labels to create a stable community and trigger direct relationships with your fanbase.

An increasing role, especially in this time when physical digging is not possible, are played by Social Networks. I’ve re-evaluated Instagram enough times already. One of the few things that have changed for the better I think is the timing of the pressing plant. It's much faster but that's maybe also due to decrease in demand. Printing and above all selling 300 records in 2021 has become more difficult than 2017, even for labels much bigger and older than ours. The interesting challenge of 2021, also because of the Covid Pandemic, from my point of view, is to understand how to get the music to as many people as possible, without losing your identity.

TB: How has Raw Culture evolved since the first release?

A: First off, we don't record Sony tapes anymore at home haha! We evolved so much because we have given space to a lot of genres and types of releases and artists. Our evolution is also the evolution of many of the artists who work with us, some of them in a quite stable way, who maybe propose their side projects and so on. We're always open to amplify their voices.

On the other hand we didn’t evolve so much because we always focus on raw sonorities. In general we are continuously experimenting and trying to improve ourselves, to improve our distribution and all aspects of the label, to bring to the listeners the music we like, in some way, to make culture.

TB: Tell us about the Asymmetrical release and "Blind Faith" the dark, savagely comic novel that inspired it.

A: Blind Faith is a book I accidentally stumbled upon while reading another book for college and immediately fell in love with it. I like the sci-fi genre especially when it comes to the impact that media and technology in general have on society and on everyday life. Blind Faith gave me some interesting ideas that I tried to translate in sound. In general, it wants to be a critique of post-capitalist society, of the unrestrained exploitation of our planet, of the continuous loss of privacy dictated by the rotten system of exploitation and appearance in which we live.

All tracks were all recorded between January and March 2020, at FAUNA53, in Rome, and edited during the first lockdown in my hometown. From there began a journey with Linkin Bios, to try to communicate visually the concept of the album. They worked super hard on the design of the vinyl record in order to make visible the feelings inspired Blind Faith.

TB: How is your mood at the moment with everything? Feeling more hopeful about the music and nightlife industry or not at all?

A: At first it was quite difficult because for me the club is a constant source of inspiration. I took advantage of this and stopped looking for other sources of inspiration, to dig more around music but also in other forms of art. As a label we have changed our line of releases, we are trying to interpret in our own way the times, the absence of the club, trying to do research, propose something more stimulating and at home listening stuff.

Honestly I’m not very satisfied about how things are moving to the nightlife industry. I’m a bit skeptical about the actual validity of these digital events that are born as mushrooms, children of the Boiler Room culture. I see this effort to reproduce the pre-Covid experience in an identical but digital way as absurd. To think of a return to normality is foolish. To think about the club in its original value and its dynamics is what should be done, but without much philosophy, but in a natural and organic way.

TB: What's coming up next / anything else you want to mention.

A: We have a lot of plans for our “Several Future” as always. As I have already said we have for now more club oriented releases on standby but we have in our basement a lot of interesting stuff ready. Our next release will be an EP by Nostalgie Eternelle scheduled for early June. We have scheduled in September our first reissue: we will bring to light the work of an Italian post-industrial group and its work carried out between 1983 and 1986, some never published before.

From Sassano, that’s all for now.