I first heard of
Richard Devine when I purchased the
WARP 10+3: Remixes compilation in 1999. He contributed a remix of
Aphex Twin's Come To Daddy that barely resembled the original but contained all the ferocity of the source track. It wasn't the easiest track to absorb, but it grabbed my attention and I had to hear more. This led to
LOTS of primitive searches online for anything
Richard Devine related, which led me to find out all about
Schematic Records. It all culminated in a long drive to Lakewood to visit a shop whose name will remain unspoken, at which I purchased the
Ischemic Folks and
Lily Of The Valley compilations and began a long love affair with
Schematic Records. Through these comps I found out about
Phoenecia,
Push Button Objects and
Delarosa & Asora, among others, which led me to hunt down as much material as possible from everyone on the label. I began chomping at the bit for
Phoenecia's Brownout, playing
Delarosa's Agony Part 1 constantly, exploring the untitled
Richard Devine EP and eventually his
Lipswitch album, bumping
Push Button Objects' Dirty Dozen comp and wondering what came next. I wondered if this is what it felt like to discover
WARP Records in the early nineties, as
Schematic definitely felt like the American
WARP.
Schematic kept putting out new releases, many on vinyl which was difficult to get so I often downloaded their releases via emusic with whom they had an early digital distribution contract. Their roster continued to grow and soon releases from
Otto Von Schirach,
O9, the
Secret Frequency Crew,
Din-St,
Hearts Of Darknesses and others were in my collection, but around 2006 everything came to a halt. The label's site was updated infrequently and several long-awaited releases seemed to be on hiatus. A few of them showed up digitally via
Bleep and other services, but nothing else was heard for a long time. Understandably, I feared the label may have bit the dust. I couldn't get e-mail to work and I tried to find contact information for
Joshua Kay and
Romulo Del Castillo, the label's founders and together working as
Phoenecia, but I had no such luck.
Earlier this year, the
Schematic site was updated with video from a
Phoenecia scored film,
Smother, and a link to
Devine Sound, Richard Devine and Josh Kay's new company where they do sound design for everything from film and television to video games. I sent an e-mail and was thrilled to get responses from
Josh,
Rom and
Richard, all of whom were extremely friendly and led to some great conversations with
Rom all about the history of the label and what's happening now!
First off, it's important to understand why
Schematic Records was started.
Josh and
Rom initially became known as
Soul Oddity and had a contract with
Astralwerks.
Soul Oddity was rightfully considered the future of the American electronic scene, fusing techno with Miami bass and easily rocking a party. This was around the time of the big
"electronica" push from the major labels, and being on the same label as the
Chemical Brothers led to
Josh and
Rom being pressured to make more commercial records. That isn't what they did so they parted ways with
Astralwerks, changed their name to
Phoenecia and started
Schematic in Miami. Initially they had a small distribution agreement with
Star 67 but eventually moved to
Forced Exposure through which they had great success. Most of the best known
Schematic releases were available through this period which led to the
Schema crew touring the world and their releases getting distribution with labels like
WARP. Eventually there was a move to
Asphodel for distribution, but they eventually shut down and
Schematic was left in the lurch.
After touring forever and having so many issues with distribution,
Josh and
Rom decided to take a break. They worked on the long awaited second
Phoenecia album,
Lewd Archives, scored independent films and worked on a number of other projects. Other artists like
Richard Devine and
Otto Von Schirach continued to release material through other labels (
Sublight and
Ipecac) and continue to work to this day. As for
Schematic, they’re back with new releases, several of which will be coming out later this year.
What's important to understand is that
Schematic is still here and will continue to release new music. I had several great conversations with
Rom where he wanted to make it completely clear that they hadn't quit, they were just playing it quiet.
Rom also answered several questions about the label and it's roster that have been permeating for years.
Phoenecia are indeed still together and working on new music. For those wondering about the leak of their forthcoming
Echelon Mall album, it won't stall it's physical release and there will be some cool additions to the final release including a detailed website. For the record, the versions of the tracks on
Echelon Mall are significantly different from the versions in the films. Check
Smother for an example. The versions with beats will remain exclusive to the films, while the beatless versions are exclusive to the album. Also,
Echelon Mall IS NOT Lewd Archives.
Lewd Archives is a completely separate album of new material. It's name may be changed before release, but it will see release in the near future, as well as a compilation of non-album tracks that will have a title most likely parodying
Aphex Twin's 26 Mixes For Cash.
Richard Devine is hard at work with his company
Devine Sound. There may be more music from him eventually, and there is tons unreleased, but for now his focus is the business.
Otto Von Schirach is crazy busy and working on a myriad of top-secret projects. Seriously, it would blow your mind if some of them were mentioned, but then they wouldn't be top-secret! Keep an eye on him because he's far from finished! Check his site
here for more information.
Dino Felipe is, in
Rom's words, moving from releasing music to working on art projects and installations. That doesn't mean there won't be more music, but he's in a different place right now. Check
his site for details.
Aura is a pimp! Check out his mixes and see him live if you get the chance!
Hearts Of Darknesses, aka
Frank Musarra, one half of
Trey Told 'Em and pals with
Girl Talk, is still kicking ass.
Hearts are now a full band and have a 12" out on
Deleted Art. Get it now and expect your mind to be blown!
Scott Herren, aka
Delarosa & Asora, but best known as
Prefuse 73, is cool as hell! There was an
Agony Part 2 being planned and it would have featured remixes of tracks from Part 1 and potentially some new tracks, but
Scott is very busy and the album never got finished. He’s still cool with the
Schematic folks and is still working as
Prefuse 73 regularly. Check on him
here.
Edgar from
Push Button Objects is, as far as
Rom knows, no longer in the music making biz. He has
TONS of unreleased stuff but it may never see the light of day. Apparently
Boards Of Canada are huge fans of
PBO and wrote him a very extensive thank you letter for his remix of
An Eagle In Your Mind.
Rom,
Josh and
Edgar sent them a number of still unreleased
PBO test pressings at their request.
O9 is the coolest guy you’ve never heard of.
Rom explained that
O9's newest stuff is almost devoid of specific musical influences and is very beautiful minimal stuff.
Rom described
O9 as the type of guy who could be blown away by
Aphex Twin and
Aerosmith all in the same sitting. He loves all kinds of music but his influences are very difficult to pinpoint.
Rom wants to release an album of
O9's minimal stuff badly, and hopes it may happen in the near future.
There are several new releases coming soon on
Schematic.
Touane, whom I'm sure you will find on iTunes or
BeatPort, has two EPs coming soon with tentative release dates in November. I've had the pleasure of hearing them and they are excellent! Also, new signing
Jacque Polynice is dropping his first release in junction with
Schematic and
Circuitree. His style is similiar to that of
Flying Lotus or early
Prefuse, and I honestly think people will go crazy for it. You can check
here for more details about it and
go here to purchase it. Beautiful stuff! On top of that,
Echelon Mall will finally see physical release hopefully in October so make sure you go pick it up!
Rom sent me so much content for this post that I wasn't sure where to start, so I'm going to be giving you a link to my flickr page so you can check out some of the awesome artwork produced for
Schematic and Miami related releases and events to give you a feel for the scene. On top of that, he was kind enough to give me a copy of
Aura's 2003 tour mix which was only available there and
VERY BRIEFLY on
Bleep. This is exclusive to this site so grab it now!
As of right now
Rom is working with
Andrew Strasser, another really cool guy, on the
Bad Brilliance exhibition in Miami. Very cool stuff which you can check out
here.
Strasser has done design work for
Schematic,
Negativland,
Girl Talk and many others, much of which can be seen at his
official site.
Speaking of official sites, please check the official
Schematic and
Devine Sound sites. I’m sure you’ll find them very detailed and interesting. Also, below are the links to the flickr gallery and
Aura’s fantastic mix. The flickr gallery is a must see! There will probably be two more updates to it in the next few weeks, so keep checking back. And grab
Aura’s mix fast! It’s over an hour of
Schematic goodness that should give you a good idea of their sound. Enjoy!
Aura - El Tour De Los Guapos: USA VIA RV 2003 Schematic Tour MixA Gallery of Schematic and Miami related flyers for releases and events
