Raiders Of The Lost ARC
Remember the ill-fated ‘New Cross scene’ of a few years back kids? Yeah, I know - the underground became the overground and whatever there once was fizzled out in weeks – but it was probably the first time music fans were drawn, both physically and mentally, to New Cross.Angular Recording Corporation, a label run by two Goldsmiths students, was at the centre of all that. At a time when the area wasn’t at all recognized for music they threw club nights and released compilations of local bands. As a result they are now renowned as the first label to release the then unknown Klaxons, Bloc Party and Art Brut.
It has since expanded to become a hugely influential full time label and is now home to the outstanding These New Puritans, the Violets, and strangely - as each event in the Angular world is given a catalogue number - numerous ordnance survey trig points, websites, an office and a Townace van.
No Pain In Pop met up with one-half of the ARC, summertime Klaxons bassist, and “official inventor of nu-rave” Joe Daniel to discuss the label, the future and how to make moolah from music…
Read on...
Why did you start Angular? Any idea it would become your full-time job?
Well, we just wanted to release something so we could go in Rough Trade and say “we made that”. We had no idea what we were doing, we just read ‘45′ by Bill Drummond and thought it would be a fun thing to do. We liked music a lot and that’s all the experience you need. We wanted to put out bands we loved as a whim, not a business decision. I suppose it was because we think that artists who aspire to be signed to a major label have just bought into a huge scam, and they end up working in a worse relationship than they would have got working down the pub. As long as running Angular continues to be the opposite of work I think we’ll carry on…
How did you make money - both as a student, and for the label?
The best things were those adverts around college for medical tests- a tenner for 15 minutes work! I worked in a call centre for a while and had a job moving old instruments. Once moved a left handed piano- the inventor said he just woke up one day and had this brilliant idea to make a piano but reverse the keys! The money for the label came from a grant from the local council, which is why we originally put out mostly local bands. We put their logo on our first release in exchange for two grand.
Would you have started Angular without coming to Goldsmiths?
Probably not. I mean the fact you only have four hours work in your last year means you can do things outside your degree, which is probably more important than actually doing your degree. But I don’t think it’s as liberal as it thinks it is- we weren’t allowed to do nights at the Union and they didn’t offer practice spaces for bands- but it does defiantly create the framework for you to do things.
Is there something that unites everything done under the label- an Angular ethos?
Yeah defiantly, but I can’t put my finger on it. I guess it’s not wanting to be involved in things that everyone else thinks is cool. We have and have always had a very disdainful attitude towards everything considered fashionable or popular.
Any advice for students looking to start their record label?
Well it’s an ailing industry now, so you’re unlikely to make any money. But if music is the only thing you want to do don’t let it worry you. So go for it, young guns!
What does the future hold for Angular then?
I don’t really think about the future that much, though I’ve just recently had an amazing idea. I can’t talk about it at all though, it will only be revealed when it happens. That’s gonna take up a lot of the future. Aside from the music there’s gonna be a commemorative map as the 50th catalogue number - a map of the UK linking everything we’ve done. And we’re talking now about releasing a stationary set. It’ll be the second ARC set- once we made a one off geometry set and angularised it with our logo and raffled it off as a prize at a gig. It’s probably worth a bit now..
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