VARIOUS ARTISTS

You cannot hold DIY – it is an adjective

CD, Ouzel

Where does a label end being DIY and start being an independent label? Hard to say, because as everyone knows, DIY has its boundaries from the beginning. That is to say, no matter how hard you try, you’ll never do it all yourself – starting from telephone lines, the production of the hard- and software, and so on and so on. You know what I mean. So one might draw the line at control, meaning that a DIY-label has complete control over everything it does. Hm, that might be true for Universal (Time Warner) as well. Anyway, releasing the first “proper” CD, as opposed to tapes and CD-ROMs, is an important step, at least in as much as it requires higher financial stakes. You can burn CD-ROMs at home easily whenever you need them, but with CDs you have to order them in higher numbers. And then you have to sell these numbers to get your money back – that is just the way it works, and that is also true for DIY-labels of very small size.

Ouzel is a DIY-label on a smaller size, but it is one of my favourite labels nonetheless. For one, because it has released various records by ONQ, is closely connected to Minmae and Morose (well, that is no surprise really) in my mind and these are three very good acts. For second, because everything that is done by Ouzel is done with style and love. Just take a look at the original and beautiful packaging of this CD and you’ll see what I mean. For third, because I love their style of music, which is actually a wide range from lo-fi-pop via postrock via melancholic guitar-pop up to electronic music. But all of these styles and songs are held together by a certain feeling of ease, an all encompassing relaxed atmosphere, which I really need from time to time. Especially when I have had a hard day at work, which at the moment is basically from Monday to Friday. I can imagine myself lying at the beach in the sun, enjoying the warmth and the knowledge of having nothing to do (which is basically the most treasured feeling a person in my situation can have). Moreover, there are so many great bands and music to discover on this compilation, which makes me wonder: are there so many talented musicians out there and one just never gets to hear them or does Ouzel have a certain, specially lucky hand at picking and contacting these bands?