05/21/09
Text: Ramsey Dau
Thomas Von Party, Turbo Recordings' label manager and A&R head honcho, certainly deserves his name: we caught the man on his cell in Montréal airport’s Maple Leaf Lounge, about to head off to Amsterdam. We'd just received the promo of Turbo's 10-year retrospective double album, Omnidance, and thought it appropriate to check in with their czar of PR. "Well, it’s not quite a 'retrospective' or a 'best of,'" Von Party told us, "but it is a good introduction to the label, with a lot of big hits on there that fans will know, and enough new tracks to keep it interesting, even for the people who have kept up with all our releases." And there are some great tracks on there―Chromeo, Proxy, ZZT, Popof, Mike Mind... "You could easily play a whole night as a DJ with just those two CDs," Von Party assured us. "I’ve come close to doing it."
In addition to the 26 tracks on Omnidance, you get a handsome 90-page booklet filled with Turbo paraphernalia, and most importantly, 30 of Tiga's infamous artist one-sheets. (These alone are worth the cost of the album.) The Canadian electronic aficionado and producer is a funny-ass dude, and will probably end-up a famous comedic author at some point in the future—perhaps after he’s lost too much hearing after years of DJ'ing.
If you are unfamiliar with Turbo’s artists, we think David Dewaele from Soulwax sums up their aesthetic perfectly: "[Turbo] releases records that perfectly fill the gap between boring [German] and overexciting [French]. That would make them exciting I guess."
In other Turbo news, their online digital subscription service (where, for a flat yearly rate, you get all the albums and singles that the label puts out for the year) should be up and running within the next few days, just in time for the May 25 release of Omnidance. Also, Jori Hulkkonen's new album is forthcoming, and Proxy's first full-length is on track for release later this year. We’re currently hard at work, trying to coax a couple of those Proxy tracks out of Von Party, you know, just to, erm, check 'em out... we’ll keep 'em private, honest.
For now, though, all we can serve you is Mike Mind's "Acid Machine," one of the two-dozen plus bangers on the comp. Stream it in the media player to the right or download it and rage through Thursday!
Omnidance hits stores worldwide on May 25, 2009 (June 1 for the U.K., June 5 for Germany) and can be purchased online at Turbo's Web shop.
