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"'It all comes back to black... ' Founded on the belief that black musical influence in all of its forms has had an undeniable impact on the current structure of popular music, the label aims to pay tribute to this blackness while at the same time endeavoring to forge new sonic paths through the medium of the dancefloor." That was the word from Silent headquarters in late April as Black Music, the company's first label dedicated solely to House music, was announced. It's only been in the last few years of Silent's decade long existence that the label's focus has broadened to embrace various musical styles of the here and now. "The label has changed direction in the last two and a half years from being an ambient and sort of experimental noise label into expanding into different types of dance music to try to get a bit more current... We're finding that we're now getting a much wider audience and things are a bit more interesting than just sticking to one genre." That's label manager Matt Valenz speaking and he's more than happy to claim parentage of this new entry into the Silent family. "We had expanded into all of these areas, but I thought that one thing that was lacking was a proper house label. This is the sort of thing that's close to my heart and it's sort of a personal project...I wanted to start a house label that sort of gives back to the blackness in music...a label that was a bit more funky, so I decided to start Black Music. That's doesn't necessarily mean that it has to have blatant elements of funk, but get back to the blackness in some way...(We'll ask) people for this label to give their interpretation of funk... it's got to have some kind of swing to it." Releases are planned from Terry Francis, A Man Called Adam, Maurice Fulton, Rick Preston, and Gene Farris. "They're all hopefully going to give very different interpretations of black music," Valenz says. "Return Of The Mad Funk" is the first single for this new baby. It's the work of California's DJ Rasoul, criminally underrated in the house community despite excellent projects on Large, 83 West, Strictly Rhythm, Leaf, Guidance, and others. Tastemakers like Benji Candelario, David Morales, Glenn Underground, Paul Johnson, Carl Craig, and Stacey Pullen are busy caning the three-tracker and Valenz has the background and knowledge to blow this label big and get the deserved props. "I'm a DJ at heart," he explains. "I've been DJing since I was 17 and I'm 28 now." He's been in the music industry since 1991 and has done a bit of everything--plenty of DJ work throughout the Southwestern States, England and Europe, plus clubs, booking agency work, and management. After less than a year at Silent he's moved from press and publicity to the label manager position. So what are the chances of the Black Music label surviving its infancy and growing to be a house force with which to be reckoned? Doesn't seem like this will be a problem. Valenz is a pro at getting successful enterprises off the ground and rolling smoothly. "I started the American office (of Dynamix) out here in ‘92, did that for a couple of years...then I got asked to work over there (in the United Kingdom)". Having these credentials on your resume ain't too shabby. And Valenz continues to DJ at various parties all over, including his residency at the mobile groover, Loveworks Dancing. After his two years in the UK managing headlining DJs such as Kevin Saunderson, Blake Baxter, and Cajmere, and booking jocks like Francis and Baby Ford, changing diapers and starting up a quality house label in California just might seem like child's play. Let's get us down to the local waxshop and buy us some Black Music and make it even easier than that for him.
Full of much enthusiasm and cheer, Feeney explains over the long distance line from where them fightin' words came. "Me and Paul from K-Klass went out together between 1989 to about 1993. I started working at Truelove in 1994, just about the time we broke up, but we've always been best friends. And he was always coming up with these tapes of people from Rexham, saying, ‘We need to put this out.' So we did." Rexham? Despite the fact that the imprint is based in London, the roster's mainstays, Soundscapers and CJD Project, are actually from Rexham, Wales. "The Soundscapers are two guys who've got their own little studio based in Rexham but they sound like they're from deepest New York for some bizarre reason. I think it must be something in the water in Rexham, because that's where Matthew Roberts comes from as well, and of course, K-Klass and Paul, and Phat Phil (Cooper). There's so many people in Rexham doing really good house music. Maybe Rexham's facing New York and that's what it is." What about the name Kingpin and the mobster design? "That came from me. We kind of like the fact that a kingpin is an opportunist." And does that explain the oftquoted phrase whose attitude spits on eloquence? "We got asked what the music was going to be on the label during an interview with Update and Paul said straight out, ‘If it's not House music, it's fucking shit.' Paul was getting quite a bit of profile through K-Klass and it just kind of stuck." Feeney is happy to let the merits of the music do the attention grabbing and that philosophy can be put quite simply. "We usually let the music speak for itself. We just put the records out and hope people like them." Daft Punk is a big Feeney fave for their straddling of the musical lines. "Over here, there's some people that swear that Daft Punk is techno, and other people will fight to the death that it's house." Also rating high is one Curtis Jones, better known as Green Velvet and Cajmere. "It would be lovely to get Green Velvet to do a mix (on a forthcoming release) because he's completely off his nut." Besides this fantasy remix, she'd love Roule to license something, and Sneak, for his label, as well. The future? When not busy DJing at clubs and events like the recent Creamfields, Roberts and the rest of K-Klass are busy working on their full length (due out sometime later in the year on Parlophone) and producing the new album for Candy Statton. Kingpin is in the midst of a minor redesign. "We're just about to get our new logo done," Feeney explains. The work comes courtesy of current beau, Stewart Hudson. "He designs for Adidas so it should be something quite smart, quite cool." And then? Like any good outlaw, the quest for muscling in on the action on your local dancefloor will continue. While praise for the music continues, ironically enough, the initial controversy is turning out to be quite a marketing coup. "It's got us into a lot of trouble," Feeney says. "It was, for (Paul), kind of a narrowminded thing to say, but I think people should sort of take it in the gist of the moment that it was made. I just think it's kind of saying that house music is our thing, and nothing else really which is kind of true of Paul anyway because he's always played house, been into house and nothing else...It just became a motto at Kingpin and people seemed to like it and they thought it was funny. People have actually asked us to do T shirts with ‘If it's not House music, it's fucking shit' on them, so we're only happy to oblige. It doesn't seem to be hurting anyone. I think a lot of people realize it was meant as a joke and we all had a big laugh about it. But you'd be surprised, there's a lot of people who come out of the closet and say, ‘yes, I think that too, but I'd never actually say it.'" Kingpin discography
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