They are NotioN and they run Clear Conceptions. They’ve just quietly prepared a new compilation celebrating five years of their unique sound – tough, unpredictable, sometimes unexpectedly volatile and what better way to sum it than… dropping an 78-track-strong comp!
Seventy. Eight. And the title? You’ll have to guess.
Hey 5 Years of Clear Conceptions is a weighty release…
Thank you, appreciated.
Why did you want to release it like this… with so many tracks?
The whole concept of the compilation was purely to celebrate the labels five year milestone, and to bring attention to any of the tracks that some people may have originally missed out on.
On to the tunes: so into ‘Be Freed’ (in embed below)! That’s just mental…
Thanks. Quite a quick track to write, and was put together within a day. Managed to catch Break on AIM shortly after the track was written and he made us realise the track was actually better than we initially thought.
Maybe we should write something similar in the near future, as quite a few artists and labels have chased us for that track a while since it’s release, which has been great.
Hidden Element slays here. Let us know about the linkup.
Yeah, we really liked the four track ep from those guys. We made contact when they sent us a bunch of tracks through an email. We could have taken more, but those were the top four tracks that we chose.
Liked the way their tracks had a minimalistic approach, with punchy/snappy drums, with overall clear and warm mixdowns.
In general some great names on here and I note the mighty Sam KDC here too…
We initially got in touch with Sam through AIM, contacting via Myspace and swapping screen names. We remember hearing his track ‘Selfless’ which we really liked. We chatted on AIM for a while swapping tracks back and forth, and eventually thought it’d be a good idea to collab.
Around that time we had just introduced Clear Conceptions. CRCS01 had just been released, so we thought it was a good idea to line up the finished collabs for CRCS02.
What’s the overall vision of the comp, the thing that runs through it all?
When we started the label in 2010, it was used as a path to release our own tracks due to the volume we wrote, but the concept soon changed when we began receiving great tracks from other unknown artists.
‘A stepping stone for unknown DJs/artists to gain recognition’ became the motto, and the following: Blanca, Brusten, Chet Matuto, Cryptographic, Hidden Life, I Wannabe, Johnny Kon, Konjah, POLICAy, Slimy, Tempus, Torn and Warious Artist all write great tracks, and really do need some more attention and support.
That’s what the compilation is about, giving these guys some more light.
So what have you learned about running the label, and can we ever stamp out piracy? I mean it’s everywhere, anywhere where there’s art/digital there’s piracy…
For us, running a label gives you that freedom to release music whenever wanted. Having the ability to have an idea in mind, take action, and then see the outcome. A creative process. Piracy definitely takes away the reward for that effort, but we try not to think about the negatives, as society does that as a standard the majority of the time anyway.
Concentrating on the Wants, not the Don’t Wants in life is the way forward.
Can we stamp out piracy? I think to a certain point yes. People have always shared music with friends, family members etc… since I can remember, but when someone uploads a track, an album, artwork, a film etc… to a site which reaches millions of people, there’s a problem.
Something just needs to be implemented in place, and the people that will take action are the people it effects the most. Hopefully we’ll see an improvement within the near future.
OK any shouts and final words on this 5 Years comp?
Big thanks to anyone that has supported ourselves and the label right from the very start. You may think your contribution is insignificant, but it’s all helped with the progression of the music. Thanks to the artists that have featured on the label, and to those that have supported the tracks we’ve handed around. And thanks to DNBA for the interview, appreciated.
Dave & Rob aka NotioN.