Track Listing:
01. GezFire – Novice [04:36]
02. Kodiak Kid – Poisonous [03:24]
03. Face Invada – You Girl [03:46]
04. Black Scott – Push [03:24]
05. KUFACAT – Searchin [02:42]
06. Able8 – Slinky [03:41]
07. Joe Snow, Koots, Craver – Broken Beats [04:05]
08. Sadiva – ATW [01:40]
09. Angus Green – Find Out [05:31]
10. James Arctic – An Evening With… [04:48]
11. Captain Earwax & Melody Myla – Zebra [04:17]
12. Zu Sun – Polymorphs [04:03]
13. Phil Gektor – Phil’s Lament [02:34]

• 

The Lowdown…

It’s been four years since our last compilation album, but we are proud to finally unleash ‘New Beginnings’…

Conceived and incubated within the dark depths of the 2020 extended lockdown in Melbourne, ‘New Beginnings’ features a roster of entirely Victoria-based artists. What started out as a simple idea for a small project to keep us busy and engaged, quickly played out into a much larger than anticipated piece of work.

‘New Beginnings’ features musical creations from a whopping 17 different electronic beat-makers and vocalists across 13 tracks. Various genres are blended and mashed together, sticking true to the label’s ethos of auditory diversity.

The opening theme ‘Novice‘ was produced by our dear friend and fellow Beat-Smith GezFire, setting the scene perfectly with his first ever officially released piece of music. GezFire’s roots in Dub-stylings and syncopated rhythm drive home his four and a half minute voyage of drum breaks, emotive vocal chops and spacey synths.

Across the full-length of the album each song present its own unique story; Taking us on seamless journey through off-kilter raps from the likes of Adam Koots, Craver and Joe Snow, to the chilled lo-fi beats of Sadiva and up-tempo Juke/Footwork of Black Scott.

To complete the package we enlisted the skills of Tobius Millar, a celebrated Melbournian visual artist known for his surreal, organic and often psychedelic artworks. With great intricacy Tobius designed the accompanying art piece from scratch using a mixture of hand drawn and digital methods, bringing the cover to life with his own style. This artwork is also available as an exclusive NFT, plus an extremely limited run of physical prints.

‘New Beginnings’ is by no means meant to represent a definitive list of Melbourne’s vast talent pool (if only we had the time and resources!) We like to think that it represents a solid snapshot in time and is a celebration of the awesome sound that can be captured from within our own backyard.

Also a big thanks to the Labels, Radio Shows and Websites that supported this release in the lead up!

Plus a shout out to Fresh Produce on PBS FM 106.7 for spinning multiple tracks from the release on their latest radio show!