The Brvtalist is pleased to premiere a new track from Kontinent, the new collaborative project and live act from Colombian artists Filmmaker and Sadxmafioso. “Planet Last Spin” comes off Filmmaker’s upcoming EP on his new imprint Body Musick. On their debut EP 'Kontinental', the duo provides 5 Industrial Electro tracks with Breakbeat and Big Beat influenced tones. A hard take on Body's growing catalog that will contribute to the sound definition on what they refer as Dungeon Electronics.
The label aims to release tracks that relate to Filmmaker's previous works as well new music for expanding the soundscape on industrial electronics and synth experiments. All this combined with the retrofuturistic aesthetics designed and illustrated by Filmmaker.
Out tomorrow on Bandcamp.
We had a chat with Filmmaker talking about his label, future plans, Colombian scene, influences & more. Scroll down to read.
-Melanie Havens
The Brvtalist: Before you started your project as Filmmaker, how were you involved in the music scene? Did you have any other projects?
Filmmaker: Before i was doing techno and club-oriented music under my name Faunes, as a project It didn’t really got involved into the scene though, just some few live appearances locally at my city, Medellin. But I feel very alienated and unrepresented about involving that scene as it’s dynamics are more about bureaucracy than actual music. That’s why I started Filmmaker, to do a more wide range of styles in electronic music, aiming outside that current state. I’ve also had other side projects like The Darknet, when I experimented with Witch-House and Engrams that was a more band-like project with various collaborators.
The Brvtalist: What are your biggest references regarding aesthetics and sonority? Can you name some records/artists/people that influenced your work?
Filmmaker: For traditional work my main aesthetic references are medieval woodcuts, alchemic art and impressionism and for digital work i’ve got references from pixel art and 16bit videogames, vintage comics and cartoons, eroguro, taboo art, and occult illustrations. Often I interpret this graphic part on the sound like a synesthesia exercise. Regarding sonority I’ve got highly influenced by 80s/90s outsider electronics, there’s a lot of recordings by artists and bands that released very lowkey tapes without any information more than their tracks and project names but I found some of their sounds very unique and expressive through the raw conditions they were published in. I’ll name some few influences for the label as the list is long and complex. In work philosophy I find inspirational Young God Records, Blackest Ever Black, Downwards, Opal Tapes and Tartarus Records (which I've been working with). On sound and aesthetics my inspirations are Mannequin, Bank Records, Unknown Precept, Hands Productions, Contort Yourself, Veyl Records and some usual labels i’ve worked with like Detriti, Phormix, Meta Moto, Soil and Clan Destine Records.
The Brvtalist: Let’s talk about your new project with Sadxmafioso. How did the collab begin and how would you describe the sound?
Filmmaker: It began when we met and talked about each other's workflow with music gear, we both were into tape recording, grooveboxes, one-take songs and live improvisation. After several jams we finally organized some production sessions and then recorded our first EP with the same logic: live hardware continuous recording with track structures made on the fly, all combining our previous music palettes. The name ‘Kontinent’ came later when defining the project because we focused more on communicating with our sound than the theoretical part. Our sound takes elements of Electro rhythmic background with an Industrial texture ensemble that also merges retro bass music and breakbeat glimpses.
The Brvtalist: What are the concepts and themes behind your label?
Filmmaker: I’ve chosen the name ‘BODY’ because it’s a concept that can have many open interpretations and carry many other related terms like the soul concept, which is vinculated with what i’d like to release on the label, music aiming to the physical motion and its metaphysical implications. I know the term “body music” has been part of several tags in genres but with this label I'm looking to expand the concept with my own expressions beyond the etiquettes. I’m designing the aesthetic using anatomy elements combined with the previous retro-futuristic universe of Filmmaker visual art. I must clarify this concept is constantly evolving so it might incorporate further elements with the catalog growing. For the themes I like to use archetypical and dark historic elements of art because it generates a remembrance and stimulates the outburst of the music. I also want to incorporate transgressive art (like the one of Filmmaker’s Vlad Tapes and the Psychic Wound album) I know some public may find it disturbing, grizzly or lowbrow but is part of the impact i want to generate with the whole discography vision in conjunction. Anyway I consider not all releases must be themed so i might release albums with abstract content, untitled tracks, etc with images that are shallowly evoking the music identity.
The Brvtalist: How do you do your curatorship? Any advice for producers that would like to have a release there?
Filmmaker: Initially I’ve invited some friends from labels I’ve worked with, I found some their music resonates with mine so i suggest them some structure for the release and they send me what they got. Later I made the public invitation with the label email and I've received demos, finished and spare tracks through private soundcloud links. I do the curatorship taking the current catalog and Filmmaker’s discography as a base but I’m open to receive new styles that would fit their sound design, I’m mainly looking for danceable and groovy music plus the other previous elements I’ve mentioned, i think it condenses on the term ‘Dungeon Electronics’ because it has some dungeon synth vibes combined with a variety of electronica subgenres. On a general view, the label is mainly looking for Industrial, Rhythmic Noise, Acid & Leftfield House, Minimal Synth, Electro, Electroclash, Coldwave and any fusions of related styles and beyond. An advice would be to send a variety of tracks you think would fit in one release coherently, something that could narrate when listening entirely. However you can send a list of unsorted tracks and I might help choose a direction for the release and provide you feedback. Also here’s the classic advice: be polite and brief with your message and check that your link works before sending it!
The Brvtalist: Could you give us an overview about the Colombian scene? How has the scene developed over the years and how is the current situation now during the pandemic?
Filmmaker: As I've said before, I’ve felt very distant to the so-called ‘Colombian Scene’ because over years I’ve noticed highly corrupt attitudes regarding booking, press and culture. However there’s a counterpart that keeps growing well, the outsiders and scene-independent labels that are moving globally instead of limiting things to colombian public. Now there’s a little cassette and vinyl revival that is showing really good productions here, even with the pandemic situation, several quality projects have emerged. Regarding the pandemic, when the first lockdown started, a lot of promoters made public statements saying how “we got to support local artists more than international artists” but in 2021 that went bullshit with the reopening of nightlife. International DJs keep getting booked here every weekend, most of them just avoiding their home-country’s lockdowns. Seems like preferring overseas artists more than locals is kind of a recurrent phenomena in small scenes. Here some say pretexts like “if we made more parties with local artists only, people wouldn't go” while other oldheads still saying “#BuyLocal” but they still invite the same circle-jerking DJs over talented emerging artists. That type of thing pushes new projects to work on the outside with their own resources. This deplorable situation has been like that before and during the pandemic but however, I respect all the music people who are still moving forward during this current system after all because it sums with the nonsense government measures like putting curfews all the week “to prevent the collapsing hospitals”. But if we look at the numbers, the active cases are way lower than it was back in september/october and there was no curfews at all in that time. Most clubs and events got to close during the ‘holy week’ here but that is just illogical as churches are full packed.
The Brvtalist: What’s coming up next for you and your imprint? Any upcoming projects, collaborations and releases you want to tell us about?
Filmmaker: With Filmmaker I'm actually working on the first full length album for Black Opal series. There’s also a cassette EP with remixes coming soonish on Italian-based Home Mort, and there’s a new work on vinyl to be released near autumn 2021. More collaboration projects coming up too! one that got me stoked is with Jae from Boy Harsher.
Multiple releases on the way for Body too! Some amazing ones to mention are Petros Spatharos, ZAAX, Machino and Black Dahlia. There will also be works under new Filmmaker side projects like GLYF and Psychick Wound.