Imprints brings you regular profiles of the most exciting record labels the world over, with input from the movers and shakers who contribute to their local electronic music communities.
Name: Hallucienda
Founded: 2014
Location: New York
Upcoming Releases: VA – PHONO OBSCURA
Artists-to-watch: Reverse Commuter, Öona DahlWe live in an era where commercialized dance music is overrun by big name producers whose claim to fame is made via their ghost writers. So it's always refreshing to come across a name who remains a DJ and a raver before anything else. Growing up in Florida, DJ Three was influenced at a young age by the disco and electro soundtracks spun by the DJs at his local skating rinks. It didn't take long for him to begin throwing some of the very first raves in the southeastern United States during the 1990's, with the likes of Moby and Doc Martin making appearances. Soon enough, DJ Three was performing around the country as a DJ with a keen ability to mix the raw sounds of Detroit and New York with melodic stylings akin to the likes of Sasha. Three shares his story with us and how his new imprint, Hallucienda, has flowered out of two decades of experience in underground dance music.THUMP: Explain the name, Hallucienda.
DJ Three: In 2005, I compiled and mixed a Hallucination Limited label compilation. For us, it was the first CD of its kind, so I thought it was important for the name and theme of the album to connect the dots between Hallucination Limited and Hallucination Recordings. I saw "Hallucienda" as a great wordplay on "acid house" and thematically it's spot on.What's the connection between your new label and Hallucination Recordings?
Fast-forward to now, Hallucienda has a new imprint that's fresh but also carries on the lineage of the previous two labels. We'll also be drawing upon the vinyl-only catalogs of Hallucination Limited and Halluincation Records for the COLORFAST series of compilations, as well. We believe the music is timeless and it's important to preserve that for both the fans and the artists.Why did you decide to launch the label at this time?
It just seems right. Hallucination Records, which I was involved with, lasted for ten years. My own imprint, Hallucination Limited, also had a good ten year run. All sorts of DJs kept playing the releases over time, and in 2011, Cassy put five tracks on her Circo Loco DC 10 Ibiza mix CD. That got me thinking that I should finish what I started. So it's a fresh start, but with a perceivable thread in tying the history together.Musically, what can people expect from the label?
My own tastes are very eclectic, so that will lead to many surprises from Hallucienda. What is most important to me is that the music is timeless and can find places in DJ sets and listener's headphones many years from now. The debut release will be the first in our PHONO OBSCURA compilation series, which serves as a statement of intent. It's comprised of exclusive new tracks from, as we say, "future album artists rubbing shoulders with 12 mercenaries." This will be followed by Reverse Commuter's exceptional debut album Exposure plus album projects down the line from Lock Smith, Öona Dahl, Ulysses, and Terry Francis among others. At the same time we'll be issuing vinyl-only singles from our artists. The first 12" is from Reverse Commuter, featuring a warehouse ready remix from Doc Martin. We endeavor to sign music that has its own unique thumbprint regardless of what it is channeling.Right now EDM culture continues to get more pervasive, but we also have a more underground artist like Aphex Twin releasing his first album in 13 years. Do you see it as a crucial time for the industry and culture of dance music?
It's perhaps the most interesting time. EDM has been a mere appropriation of rave culture purposely built for the mainstream. We've all talked about the potential "trickledown effect," but I'm not sure it's entirely like the way people would eventually migrate from trance to house music simply because a lot of that crowd just opted into the next thing they heard on the radio. They have no history with our culture nor do they have a reason to want to discover it. Unless, of course, they stumble upon it which is what appears to be happening now. Myself, Acid Pauli, Damian Lazarus and DJ Tennis just did a Saturday night at a 2000 person club in LA that normally hosts EDM acts. I was certain the room was going to be empty within an hour of our start, but the crowd ate it right up. I also just played a New York Fashion Week event where the crowd was just as responsive to me playing Murk and DJ Pierre tracks as they were to the mega-mix style pop music DJ who played before me. There is clearly a shift happening in terms of the popularity and acceptance of "our" music.You're a busy DJ, but as a recording artist and producer your releases have been rare. Do you have many unreleased tracks or are your studio sessions equally as infrequent?
Yeah, I wouldn't say I've ever made music for a living or to help sustain a DJ career. I've been really fortunate that the few things I've produced or co-produced from the early '90s up until more recently, have been so warmly regarded. Especially the Three A.M. mix of Rabbit In The Moon's track "Out Of Body Experience" on Hardkiss Music and the Second Hand Satellites EP Multiple Mirrors some ten years later on Hallucination. So yeah, "infrequent" would be a good word, but I'm sitting on a few bits and probably more consistently active in the studio than I've ever been. I've actually just signed a kind of raw, Balearic-sounding thing called "Theme From Madchester" to Visionquest that comes out in early 2015.You've lived in the States your whole life. Why have you not moved to Europe, as many other artists around you have done?
I think coming up at the start of US rave culture and helping develop it in the Southeast I felt strongly about being a part of the continued growth of the American scene. Even after I moved to New York I kept an amazing [event] night in Tampa running for ten years to help keep things alive in Central Florida. And what I saw from the people I came up behind, like Doc Martin or Josh Wink, is that they remained here doing their thing and eventually were asked to come play in other places. That made an impression on me. That said, just entering into a third decade in this game I could envision myself moving across the pond for a spell. For now though it just feels right to do extended stays over the summer.What other passions or hobbies do you have outside of music?
Skateboarding becomes more of a passion and less of a hobby as I get older, but my story is basically: skateboarding and then DJ culture. You could say skateboarding taught me how to survive and rave culture kept me alive.
Founded: 2014
Location: New York
Upcoming Releases: VA – PHONO OBSCURA
Artists-to-watch: Reverse Commuter, Öona DahlWe live in an era where commercialized dance music is overrun by big name producers whose claim to fame is made via their ghost writers. So it's always refreshing to come across a name who remains a DJ and a raver before anything else. Growing up in Florida, DJ Three was influenced at a young age by the disco and electro soundtracks spun by the DJs at his local skating rinks. It didn't take long for him to begin throwing some of the very first raves in the southeastern United States during the 1990's, with the likes of Moby and Doc Martin making appearances. Soon enough, DJ Three was performing around the country as a DJ with a keen ability to mix the raw sounds of Detroit and New York with melodic stylings akin to the likes of Sasha. Three shares his story with us and how his new imprint, Hallucienda, has flowered out of two decades of experience in underground dance music.
Advertisement
DJ Three: In 2005, I compiled and mixed a Hallucination Limited label compilation. For us, it was the first CD of its kind, so I thought it was important for the name and theme of the album to connect the dots between Hallucination Limited and Hallucination Recordings. I saw "Hallucienda" as a great wordplay on "acid house" and thematically it's spot on.What's the connection between your new label and Hallucination Recordings?
Fast-forward to now, Hallucienda has a new imprint that's fresh but also carries on the lineage of the previous two labels. We'll also be drawing upon the vinyl-only catalogs of Hallucination Limited and Halluincation Records for the COLORFAST series of compilations, as well. We believe the music is timeless and it's important to preserve that for both the fans and the artists.Why did you decide to launch the label at this time?
It just seems right. Hallucination Records, which I was involved with, lasted for ten years. My own imprint, Hallucination Limited, also had a good ten year run. All sorts of DJs kept playing the releases over time, and in 2011, Cassy put five tracks on her Circo Loco DC 10 Ibiza mix CD. That got me thinking that I should finish what I started. So it's a fresh start, but with a perceivable thread in tying the history together.Musically, what can people expect from the label?
My own tastes are very eclectic, so that will lead to many surprises from Hallucienda. What is most important to me is that the music is timeless and can find places in DJ sets and listener's headphones many years from now. The debut release will be the first in our PHONO OBSCURA compilation series, which serves as a statement of intent. It's comprised of exclusive new tracks from, as we say, "future album artists rubbing shoulders with 12 mercenaries." This will be followed by Reverse Commuter's exceptional debut album Exposure plus album projects down the line from Lock Smith, Öona Dahl, Ulysses, and Terry Francis among others. At the same time we'll be issuing vinyl-only singles from our artists. The first 12" is from Reverse Commuter, featuring a warehouse ready remix from Doc Martin. We endeavor to sign music that has its own unique thumbprint regardless of what it is channeling.
Advertisement
It's perhaps the most interesting time. EDM has been a mere appropriation of rave culture purposely built for the mainstream. We've all talked about the potential "trickledown effect," but I'm not sure it's entirely like the way people would eventually migrate from trance to house music simply because a lot of that crowd just opted into the next thing they heard on the radio. They have no history with our culture nor do they have a reason to want to discover it. Unless, of course, they stumble upon it which is what appears to be happening now. Myself, Acid Pauli, Damian Lazarus and DJ Tennis just did a Saturday night at a 2000 person club in LA that normally hosts EDM acts. I was certain the room was going to be empty within an hour of our start, but the crowd ate it right up. I also just played a New York Fashion Week event where the crowd was just as responsive to me playing Murk and DJ Pierre tracks as they were to the mega-mix style pop music DJ who played before me. There is clearly a shift happening in terms of the popularity and acceptance of "our" music.You're a busy DJ, but as a recording artist and producer your releases have been rare. Do you have many unreleased tracks or are your studio sessions equally as infrequent?
Yeah, I wouldn't say I've ever made music for a living or to help sustain a DJ career. I've been really fortunate that the few things I've produced or co-produced from the early '90s up until more recently, have been so warmly regarded. Especially the Three A.M. mix of Rabbit In The Moon's track "Out Of Body Experience" on Hardkiss Music and the Second Hand Satellites EP Multiple Mirrors some ten years later on Hallucination. So yeah, "infrequent" would be a good word, but I'm sitting on a few bits and probably more consistently active in the studio than I've ever been. I've actually just signed a kind of raw, Balearic-sounding thing called "Theme From Madchester" to Visionquest that comes out in early 2015.You've lived in the States your whole life. Why have you not moved to Europe, as many other artists around you have done?
I think coming up at the start of US rave culture and helping develop it in the Southeast I felt strongly about being a part of the continued growth of the American scene. Even after I moved to New York I kept an amazing [event] night in Tampa running for ten years to help keep things alive in Central Florida. And what I saw from the people I came up behind, like Doc Martin or Josh Wink, is that they remained here doing their thing and eventually were asked to come play in other places. That made an impression on me. That said, just entering into a third decade in this game I could envision myself moving across the pond for a spell. For now though it just feels right to do extended stays over the summer.What other passions or hobbies do you have outside of music?
Skateboarding becomes more of a passion and less of a hobby as I get older, but my story is basically: skateboarding and then DJ culture. You could say skateboarding taught me how to survive and rave culture kept me alive.