Following text is an information/manifesto from a new label named
*Homewrecker Records* founded by Hecate (co-owner of Zhark Records) and
another girl/woman named Siobhan... Something like a girl/woman/female
author label... what let me ask: are they any females on this 800+
members list who produce electronic music? and if not, are they any
females on the list? if yes. what they think about that statement? or is
the idm list 100% male dominated?
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Sex is Vinyl.
Homewrecker Recordings exists on multiple levels (as label,
ideology, politics and practice) in a multitude of locations (North
America, Europe - the world) and amongst a multiplicity of
identities (gender, sexuality, ethnicity, class...). Born of a
want, a need and a desire to include the issue of "gender" and its
problematics into not only the lexicon of a certain mode of music,
within a certain conceptual sphere, but also into various ways of
being. Homewrecker Recordings recognizes the shifting, the unstable
and the contested pronouncement of "gender" "female" "(wo)man" or
"girl" or even the questions raised concerning the notion of
(cultural) identity. Yet, Homewrecker Recordings deliberately seeks
out this contested terrain in order to force the issue onto the
(turn)table. In a patriarchal system the politics of gender do
indeed matter.
The abstractions approximated by music, the potential anonymity
afforded by the technology, the means of dissemination or
distribution, in some respect works to mask the function of gender
and gender issues in electronic music. White or black labels do not
speak of sex. But music is never sexless. Unbounded by historical
circumstance, the relatively new genre of electronic music is,
paradoxically, profoundly tied to patriarchal culture. The question
arises, who made this record, for whom was it made, how does it
circulate and within what context?
The label takes up these issues through a strict set of musical and
gendered parameters within a specific context: all female producers
and all electronic/digital music/noise. We aim to sex music. We
participate in a politics of exclusion merely to dislodge, disrupt
and displace the comfy covert politics of exclusion taking place in
(some) electronic music and labels of an extreme nature.
Ironically, this politics of exclusion has also fostered the
dangerous practice of appropriating the female form and its
connotations; the same male structure in a feminine guise. Women up
front with the men in the back (and in control). The female body
and voice is presented totally without agency. Put on display.
Consumed. Passive. That game is old and boring.
Homewrecker Recordings is provocation.... Homewrecking...Destroy
the patriarchy - Dismantle the familial structure - Demolish
traditional female roles... The labels's aim is it's own
destruction - we will work to become obsolete. We hope Homewrecker
Recordings will be but an additional level in a myriad of
political/musical/cooperative workings. An international grass
roots approach is the means by which its artists shall come into
being. Perhaps she does not yet exist, or she exists unknown in a
Tokyo highrise or in a basement in Idaho - we'll hook up
eventually. The label recognizes the various manifestations of the
female, the existence of feminisms. Being pro-female does not mean
we are anti-male. Homewrecker Recordings functions as a discursive
site. To open up debate, dialogue, and criticality around the
problematics of gender and its intersection with music.
Female trouble. Evening the score. Hysteria. Resistance. Whatever
you want to call it - we've had enough. It all starts and stops
here.
*for contact send mail to: rachael@gonebad.net
*for hecate interview goto:
http://www.digitalworldnet.com/artists/hecate.html