2024-01-31 21:05:34
The well-deserved techno label Cheap Records and its spin-off Morbid Records are celebrating their birthday with a massive line-up.
© Cheap Records / Tex Rubinowitz
Weird, like Cheap Records As it happens, it’s not the 30s that are celebrated, but 30 + 1. Actually, this has more of an organizational background. But let’s put it this way: celebrating your 31st birthday suits Vienna’s legendary techno label better anyway.
There is two particularly good news regarding the celebrations: firstly, that the really big line-up includes more than 30 live acts and DJs from the artist pool of Cheap and Morbid; and on the other hand, that Patrick Pulsinger and Erdem Tunakan have chosen the Manner Villa in Vienna’s 17th district, a popular pop-up location for their party. There’s also bad news: the event is completely sold out. Only the two label operators themselves were surprised by the huge turnout. Small glimmer of hope: Rumor has it there might be another label night later this year. But how did Cheap Records come to have this status today?
The Fall of the Wall
At the beginning of the 1990s, Europe was in complete upheaval. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the so-called “Eastern Bloc” gradually crumbled. After the reunification of Germany, Berlin was virtually completely renovated; entire districts were given a new look. It was a chaotic time, combined with a sense of optimism, hopes and fears – but also the perfect breeding ground for young culture, an East-West culture clash and a hyperactive underground. Techno arrived. Not only, but especially in Berlin – think of flagships like the Love Parade or the Tresor Club and its label. And he had come to stay. Things were different in tranquil Vienna: here, following the fall of the Iron Curtain, everything seemed to remain the same. Almost everything.
Hardly anyone had Vienna on their radar when it came to techno in the early/mid 1990s. Until Cheap Records came along. The two label founders Pulsinger and Tunakan had a clear idea of what and how techno should be, and they implemented their vision consistently and uncompromisingly. Erdem Tunakan: »All artists had to have that certain something to release with us. We had to feel what was behind a track, what made it special. These vibes were a must for a Cheap release. The intensity from back then is missing today, says Tunakan, who now mainly runs the label. In the past, people simply had more courage, “even if it was outside the techno norm.”
Felix Benedikt aka Alpha Tracks and Erdem Tunakan (Photo: Christiano Tekirdali)
The state you are going to
After there have only been a few releases in recent years – most recently the Tunakan EP “Broken Deck” – more is planned for this year, including “Broken Deck 2”. The question that has not yet been fully discussed is: Should the next releases only appear on vinyl or digitally as before? A difficult topic for vinyl enthusiasts like Pulsinger and Tunakan. The attitude of the two can also be seen in the fact that they only released the Cheap Records back catalog digitally very late – in autumn 2021 on Bandcamp and Beatport.
Anything that didn’t fit with Cheap Records or was too weird or too experimental had a good chance on its sublabel Morbid Records to be published. With Felix Benedikt aka Alpha Tracks, a third generation techno head has taken over the lead in order to revitalize the label. For him, digital releases are a given. A Morbid compilation is in the starting blocks for the events: “We are continuing the tradition of experimental music on the new compilation – with old and new acts,” explains Benedikt.
The party on the occasion of “30 + 1 years of Cheap / Morbid Records” will take place on Friday, February 2nd, 2024 at the Manner Villa in Vienna. Unfortunately it’s long gone sold out.
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