Background
Just another label that
was started for just another artist's own music who then decided
to put out other people's music.
But wait... this label barely sells any of it's titles... yet,
it continually puts more and more energy into each beautifully
packaged, limited edition release... pushing expenses through
the ceiling... seeking material from artists that only record
for themselves... having it adored on public radio and then disappearing
as strangely as it emerged...
With the 1998 CD
release of Piedmont Sorpid's "The sugars of the eyes",
experimental musician Carl Jacks needed a label to market his
original music under.
"I thought that the self release concept seemed a little
more advantageous if you chose to do it under some strange, made
up record label name".
The chosen title Dainty Deathy was taken from an imaginary,
fire breathing critter loosely scribbled on his bedroom wall
by a young child -And it seemed only appropriate. For the title
would be branding imaginary and personal expressions in audio
form, starting within Carl's own bedroom, and soon the bedrooms
of many other musical minds from all over.
After securing some comfort with two Piedmont Sorpid releases,
it would be in mid 2000 that Carl decided to go with the idea
of promoting other people's material. The result of this was
the various artists compilation "Behind a thatched divider".
Here, he pooled material from long time musical friends and summon
works from recent friendships made during his travels to the
U.K.. "Behind a thatched divider" thus became Dainty
Deathy's official label launching release featuring artists from
Canada, England and the USA.
In the same tradition as Piedmont Sorpid, most of these artists
were creating music with 4-tracks, tapes, samplers, field recordings,
computers and experimental approaches influenced by an ever evolving
musical environment. Much of the material collected was very
personal to the artists, and for the most part, had rarely been
heard outside of the bedrooms in which it was created.
It is within the these confines that Dainty Deathy desires to
latch their sound objective onto; detail conscious individuals
constructing music with panache in an ultra musical sense. Listeners
will notice that a Dainty Deathy artist is appreciative of all
music forms. That the artist never really attaches themselves
to one area of music's many genres while at the same time they
retain their original approach of sound generating and recording.
They may loose or gain admirers over time as they explore the
possibilities of meshing all types of music and sound in all
types of ways. Whether you are a fan of it or not, you can pretty
much gather that a Dainty Deathy release will always be adventurous
and engaging.
Another key element to Dainty Deathy lays dynamically in the
product packaging. Each new release is presented as a limited,
300-500 edition item, hand packaged in an original concept design.
"I am always so absorbed in the packaging of a new album,
almost to the point of exhaustion" Carl mentions while designing
or overlooking each CD's art layout. "The music is something
that just comes to me. It only feels like a small fraction of
the work. The presentation of it is where I loose myself."
Packaging mediums have included hand sewn, wool slip covers,
transparencies, exotic paper assemblies and custom production
ink press work. Each release presents something novel while adding
insight to what hides inside.
But then there is
this issue of not selling many Dainty Deathy releases...
Commercial exposer is a hard thing to work on when budgets are
low, releases are of limited quantity and you are a relatively
new label. Meanwhile, there is this small audience out there
that prefers listening to an artist, band or label that others
may not be familiar with. An audience that feels as though this
music they have discovered is all their own and that they would
never want to have it exposed or shared. This is the type of
audience Dainty Deathy is trying to cater to. Of course, it is
rather hard to find these people just as it is rather hard for
them to find us among all the independent material to sift through
these days.
Once and a while however, we get introduced or located. And from
that very point on...
...we tend
to keep ya.
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