OSCILLATIONS <3 TOMLAB
1997 will always be the year Biggie Smalls (talking about contradictions #1) pulled a Tupac Shakur. It was also the year Elton John granted us with thé musical highlight of the 20th century during some funeral. What fewer people on our beloved continent know, is that at the end of the year, one Tom Steinle – yes sir, German! – founded a small label called Tomlab, based in Cologne, with bands that compromise rather underground electronic music with the finest pop (yeah, EVEN with R’n’B kiddo!).
The first group releasing an album (a tribute to Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock), was Tom Steinle’s very own band Visor, generating a small worldwide (talking about contradictions #2) buzz. Of course, planet world wasn’t (& still isn’t) ready for massive success, but Tomlab got out of the darkest streamlets of the undercurrent with awesome releases by bands such as Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, Xiu Xiu, Patrick Wolf & The Books, who manage to combine conversation samples with classical music & Americana.
Les Georges Leningrad - Soopa doopa
For a long time, the label focuses merely on albums, but 2004 sees the kick-off of one of the coolest initiatives in musical history (closely following the already legendary Oscillations parties), the Tomlab Alphabet series: a series of 7” that follows the alphabet, by artists like Islands, Deerhoof, Les Georges Leningrad and P:ano (our very own guests on the 17th of may as No Kids). Without any doubt, one of the best releases in the series was the J-disc by Hank, featuring a very slick lo-fi cover of Womack & Womack’s Teardrops, one of our fave tracks of all time… Some of the bands featured in the series went down on Tom Steinle (either this or they’re very talented) and got to release a full-album, bestowing the world with some very fine albums such as Young Adults Against Suicide by crazy white-ass niggas (talking about contradiction #3) Ninja High School or Paper Television by The Blow (their Parentheses has been remixed by our man Rory Phillips, so yes, it is indeed a very small world, little boys and girls).
Hank - Teardrops
No Kids 2008 “Come into my house” and Thee Oh Sees’ album are the most recent highlights for the Germans until now, but the future looks very very bright with signings of Simon Bookish (he also did an Alphabet 7” and Portland based band Parenthetical Girls. All you dedicated followers of Music should try to get a hold of Puppy Love, a compilation that came out on Tomlab for the label’s tenth birthday as it’s a very nice synopses of a decade of magical music madness !!!
The first group releasing an album (a tribute to Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock), was Tom Steinle’s very own band Visor, generating a small worldwide (talking about contradictions #2) buzz. Of course, planet world wasn’t (& still isn’t) ready for massive success, but Tomlab got out of the darkest streamlets of the undercurrent with awesome releases by bands such as Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, Xiu Xiu, Patrick Wolf & The Books, who manage to combine conversation samples with classical music & Americana.
Les Georges Leningrad - Soopa doopa
For a long time, the label focuses merely on albums, but 2004 sees the kick-off of one of the coolest initiatives in musical history (closely following the already legendary Oscillations parties), the Tomlab Alphabet series: a series of 7” that follows the alphabet, by artists like Islands, Deerhoof, Les Georges Leningrad and P:ano (our very own guests on the 17th of may as No Kids). Without any doubt, one of the best releases in the series was the J-disc by Hank, featuring a very slick lo-fi cover of Womack & Womack’s Teardrops, one of our fave tracks of all time… Some of the bands featured in the series went down on Tom Steinle (either this or they’re very talented) and got to release a full-album, bestowing the world with some very fine albums such as Young Adults Against Suicide by crazy white-ass niggas (talking about contradiction #3) Ninja High School or Paper Television by The Blow (their Parentheses has been remixed by our man Rory Phillips, so yes, it is indeed a very small world, little boys and girls).
Hank - Teardrops
No Kids 2008 “Come into my house” and Thee Oh Sees’ album are the most recent highlights for the Germans until now, but the future looks very very bright with signings of Simon Bookish (he also did an Alphabet 7” and Portland based band Parenthetical Girls. All you dedicated followers of Music should try to get a hold of Puppy Love, a compilation that came out on Tomlab for the label’s tenth birthday as it’s a very nice synopses of a decade of magical music madness !!!
Coole write up! Tomlab bracht trouwens ook met The Books een paar superplaten uit! En ook één van de beste belgische platen die nooit de aandacht kreeg die ze verdiende: Hidden Rabbit van Jürgen De Blonde. Geweldige pop met een vleugje humor. (evenals the books). En dan is er nog die supercompilatie Worried Noodles van David Shrigley. Ah.. Too Much!