Founded: 2012
Members: Alister Johnson, Andrew Allsgood
Location: Toronto, Canada
Number of Releases: 3What's the deal?
Free Association is the vinyl-only outlet for Toronto crate diggers, Alister Johnson (aka DJ Catalist) and Andrew Allsgood. The label's focus is mainly on limited edition DJ-friendly re-edits of obscure vintage oddities. Their releases so far have spanned dubbed out African disco excursions to strangely funky psych rock jams, and feature appropriately tripped-out record sleeves designed by Myth Paradise.The first two releases are pretty much impossible to find now, although you can still stream them on their SoundCloud page, but Free Association 003 should be hitting stores in May.To give you a better picture of what the label is about, they've given THUMP an exclusive unreleased disco edit for download, "Love Buzz."THUMP: Where does the name Free Association come from?
Andrew: The name of the label comes from the fact that we got to a point in the studio where we were finishing each others sentences, or both saying the same thing at the same time, in terms of what direction to take on a track. We just called that working relationship Free Association.How would you describe your sound?
Andrew: I'd have to say left field is a good blanket term. Our style is hard to peg down as we listen to so many varied styles of music.We take inspiration from almost any genre of music recorded from the '60s onwards: psych rock, folk, disco, boogie, funk, classic rock, soul, reggae, experimental electronics, soundtracks, world music, and blues.What are some challenges you face week-to-week?
Andrew: The main challenge is really just finding enough time to dedicate to the label. Manufacturing always offers some challenges but nothing insurmountable. We also want our artwork to reflect our music, and Myth Paradise has done a great job reflecting our psychedelic hodgepodge of sounds with his sleeves.How did you start a label together?
Alister: Andrew originally came into my studio because he had some ideas for some music he wanted to create.Andrew: I'm not totally studio proficient so I'd been working with other people on some music, but they were leaving the country and recommended I try working with Alister. We got to know each other and started listening to music together and hanging out. Eventually we started DJing together, and I began having some ideas for some edits. I had some previous experience in the music industry, and Alister was game.Is the label going to be exclusively focused on edits?
Alister: They've all been re-edits thus far. Songs for the most part haven't really been available unless you really want to seek them out. Some of these had never really been pressed properly for DJs before. That's the foundation, but we're still working out ideas, and we don't want to define it as strictly a re-edit label.Andrew: In the late '90s when I was DJing a lot more and buying a lot more records, I always loved finding an edit of a really cool tune that wasn't the house version, but was the original disco tune that the house song had sampled. I wanted stuff to play that had been edited a bit to make it more DJ friendly, which in essence is what we're doing now. We both come across some cool records that are pretty rare that we'd like to bring to a wider audience and put our little spin on.What is the line between a re-edit and a remix for you guys?
Alister: Technically anything that is a sampled track is a re-edit. For me though, if you're building in your own musical ideas underneath what's there, writing a new bass line, or putting in a new arpeggiator line, that's taking it beyond an edit. If you're just stretching out some parts, adding a kick drum and some percussion, that's an edit. If you're going to take it to a new musical place, specifically with melody, that's where it stops being an edit.Will people ever be able to buy these tracks digitally?
Andrew: We're not distributing it digitally at all, so the only people who will have them are the people who buy the records.Alister: We're not doing this to make money. We're doing it because we love it, and if we put them up for sale digitally, I think it cheapens it.Follow Benjamin Boles on Twitter: @benjaminboles
Members: Alister Johnson, Andrew Allsgood
Location: Toronto, Canada
Number of Releases: 3What's the deal?
Free Association is the vinyl-only outlet for Toronto crate diggers, Alister Johnson (aka DJ Catalist) and Andrew Allsgood. The label's focus is mainly on limited edition DJ-friendly re-edits of obscure vintage oddities. Their releases so far have spanned dubbed out African disco excursions to strangely funky psych rock jams, and feature appropriately tripped-out record sleeves designed by Myth Paradise.
Advertisement
Andrew: The name of the label comes from the fact that we got to a point in the studio where we were finishing each others sentences, or both saying the same thing at the same time, in terms of what direction to take on a track. We just called that working relationship Free Association.How would you describe your sound?
Andrew: I'd have to say left field is a good blanket term. Our style is hard to peg down as we listen to so many varied styles of music.We take inspiration from almost any genre of music recorded from the '60s onwards: psych rock, folk, disco, boogie, funk, classic rock, soul, reggae, experimental electronics, soundtracks, world music, and blues.What are some challenges you face week-to-week?
Andrew: The main challenge is really just finding enough time to dedicate to the label. Manufacturing always offers some challenges but nothing insurmountable. We also want our artwork to reflect our music, and Myth Paradise has done a great job reflecting our psychedelic hodgepodge of sounds with his sleeves.
Advertisement
Alister: Andrew originally came into my studio because he had some ideas for some music he wanted to create.Andrew: I'm not totally studio proficient so I'd been working with other people on some music, but they were leaving the country and recommended I try working with Alister. We got to know each other and started listening to music together and hanging out. Eventually we started DJing together, and I began having some ideas for some edits. I had some previous experience in the music industry, and Alister was game.Is the label going to be exclusively focused on edits?
Alister: They've all been re-edits thus far. Songs for the most part haven't really been available unless you really want to seek them out. Some of these had never really been pressed properly for DJs before. That's the foundation, but we're still working out ideas, and we don't want to define it as strictly a re-edit label.Andrew: In the late '90s when I was DJing a lot more and buying a lot more records, I always loved finding an edit of a really cool tune that wasn't the house version, but was the original disco tune that the house song had sampled. I wanted stuff to play that had been edited a bit to make it more DJ friendly, which in essence is what we're doing now. We both come across some cool records that are pretty rare that we'd like to bring to a wider audience and put our little spin on.What is the line between a re-edit and a remix for you guys?
Alister: Technically anything that is a sampled track is a re-edit. For me though, if you're building in your own musical ideas underneath what's there, writing a new bass line, or putting in a new arpeggiator line, that's taking it beyond an edit. If you're just stretching out some parts, adding a kick drum and some percussion, that's an edit. If you're going to take it to a new musical place, specifically with melody, that's where it stops being an edit.Will people ever be able to buy these tracks digitally?
Andrew: We're not distributing it digitally at all, so the only people who will have them are the people who buy the records.Alister: We're not doing this to make money. We're doing it because we love it, and if we put them up for sale digitally, I think it cheapens it.Follow Benjamin Boles on Twitter: @benjaminboles