Uncharted Vol.2 released by Dacru Records
If Santa himself would appear at your door in the middle of the night covered with snow riding on Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer what do you think he will bring as a gift?
The “Uncharted” series is a melt point between the fresh Dacru generation represented by Champa & Spiral Factor to the more veterans as Space Tribe, Digicult & Middle Mode. The series offers the less familiar artists to showcase their talent & style, allowing them to reveal it to wider audiences.
Check out the storming compilation Uncharted Vol. 2 compiled by Spirit Architect and Get in the Mood:
Its a busy period for Dacru’s Boss Koen, but he found the time to chat with us about the new compilation, the label, the (somewhat hidden) psytrance scene in Belgium, and the label`s plan for 2016:
Q: What can you tell us about the “Uncharted”?
A: It’s the second volume in the Uncharted series, this time compiled by Macedonian project Spirit Architect. Each new chapter will be compiled by a different artist or DJ from the label and of course they will put each their own accents and let their personal style and flavor filter through in the end result. Work has already started on volume 3 as well, it will be taken care of by Tropical Bleyage.
Q: what the idea behind the compilation?
A: The idea is to put new talents next to established artists, offering them the perfect stage to show their music to a bigger audience. The track list is mostly made up by projects close to the compiling artist and the label. But a few gems are always added that we have the luck to discover in the many demos that we receive.
Q: Belgian psytrance scene has a long history although is it not wildly known. Can you tell us more about it?
A: Belgium has a small, underground yet attractive scene. Things started around the mid nineties as in many other places. Back then the legendary Dance-a-delic festival was a big catalyser attracting thousands of freaks, unfortunately the festival stopped existing over 10 years ago.
The scene is quite specific in the fact that we have strong old school movement, while other sub styles like progressive and dark could do with fresh impulses. Mostly there are smaller events of around 200 or 300 people. On average we have around 2 or 3 parties per weekend mostly taking place in Flanders and Brussels. And every now and then we do have bigger events going that can reach around 1000 to 1500 visitors.
Q: As label manager, can you share with us the dacru Vision?
A: As a label we try to focus mainly on quality over quantity. Promoting fresh talents has always been a big part of our mission. Over the years we have helped many good projects making the step from new talent to established artist. Some examples are acts like DigiCult, Tropical Bleyage, Spirit Architect, E-Mov, … We were also lucky to have a few legends and already established guys joining us like Talamasca, Electric Universe and U-Recken. They have helped a lot lifting us to the next level and bringing extra attention to the label which in the end also the young talents can benefit from.
We also always put a strong emphasis on the family feeling within the label. We believe the artists will be able to achieve much better things in a happy environment.
Q: what about Dacru label nights ?
A: Our events are one of the main aspects of the label. In fact the label grew forth out of the event organizing. Also for the parties we prefer quality over quantity and usually make only around 4 or 5 events in the year in Belgium. Organic Dreams (for full on and progressive) and Tribal Roots (for old school) are our main indoor events where we bring a big line-up and offer a night full of high quality music. Nova’s Incident is our long running open air and Belgium’s foremost open air since many years. We have a beautiful spot and many people come each year to enjoy the original Goa gathering atmosphere. Now recently we have also taken it upon us to promote Sunday afternoon/evening events during the summer.
Dacru`s Nova’s Incident XIV Open Air Party, Belgium, last summer. Full gallery HERE.
Apart from that we do also try to set up some things in neighboring countries like Germany and The Netherlands where we often find a co-organizer or work alone as well. And we also have regular label nights all around the world.
Q: We heard that Cedric of Talamasca is working on a new album. Any other plans for Dacru on 2016?
A: Talamasca is indeed working on a special new album, it might even turn into two albums. He’s making a tribute to some of the pioneering artists and tracks of our scene. More news about that soon. Other releases that will be coming during the first half of 2016 are special remix EPs by Tropical Bleyage and Aquila, a DigiCult remix of Liquid Soul, EPs by Electric Universe, Spirit Architect and E-Mov. U-Recken will also have a co-operations album ready soon. And of course a new Uncharted compilation by Tropical Bleyage as mentioned before.
Also in the fall of 2016 we celebrate 15 years of Dacru, so you can expect some things coming up to celebrate that as well!