Omid 16B relaunches Alola

Omid 16B relaunches Alola

4 March, 2011 | 10.45AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: alola, interview, omid 16b, sexonwax

Deep-water trawlers, rejoice: Alola is back!

Founded in 1994 by Omid 16B, Alola helped bring about a revolution in depth in UK dance music, blurring the lines between house and techno with a roster that included the likes of Vince Watson, Trevor Loveys, Pete Moss, YMC, and SOS (SexOnSubstance, a trio of Omid 16B, Desyn Masiello and Demi).

From 1994 until 2003, Alola turned out a catalog brimming with high-quality dance music that cut across styles, finding favor with some of the world’s best DJs. Their comments say it all.

Lee Burridge: “The list of DJs carrying Alola vinyl around the world encompassed everyone and anyone who ever professed to having a decent taste in music. Long live Alola!”

Hernan Cattaneo: “Alola was one of the finest house music labels coming from the United Kingdom in the past decade. High quality underground music on every release; Vince Watson’s ‘Mystical Rhythm’ is one of my favourites from many, many great records.”

Scott Richmond, Satellite Records NYC: “16B Productions’ ‘Secrets’: one of the best deep house tracks of the ‘90s. When Omid created this, ‘Trail of Dreams,’ and ‘Voices’ in ‘95 & ‘96 he put the house-music world on notice.”

The house-music world is on notice again, as Omid relaunches the label amidst a general deep-house revival that takes more than a few cues from Alola’s innovations. First up is a pair of mixes showcasing the label’s classics, one mixed by Demi and one by Omid himself. This is the first time that any of the Alola catalogue has been made available digitally, and the remastered re-issues are only just beginning.

We reached out to Omid for an extended interview discussing the label’s history; read on.

What made you decide that the time was right to digitally re-release the Alola catalogue?

We are not only re-releasing, but continuing what started a while back, so there will also be plenty of new material due soon. All the back catalogue was previously only available on vinyl so its better now to let everyone have a chance to get the music digitally and merge the past with the future.

Why now? Was there any specific incident that spurred you into action?

Finally I met a good digital distributor rather than an aggregator. INgrooves have a family approach yet are very professional, which tends to be rare these days within the music industry. Alola wasn’t something I wanted to let go of that easily, so a structure for releasing such a vast amount of music had to be in place. We couldn’t spoil it all now, could we ?

What can you tell us about the new material that you’ll be releasing in 2011, and who are the artists?

I’ve been writing a project for Alola for a little over two years and the first of three EPs – “At Night” - is being released March 2011 followed by a possible album. Effectively, it’s like a new label, so the new artists will form in time, but there is already an existing amount of artists which are still working with the label—like Pete Moss and Vince Watson, just to name a few. There are too many artists to mention so best have a look on discogs if you’d really like to know!

In regards to the “Sounds like Alola,” I have been speaking to a few key artists that I admire and who have had some contact with Alola as an artist, a DJ or both—Pete Moss, Mr. C, Vince Watson, Hernan Cantaneo, Oliver Moldan, Jamie Anderson, Colin Dale, Lee Burridge…

Let’s go back to the origins of the label. What inspired you to start it? What was the scene around you like at the time, and at what point did you feel like Alola was making an impact?

I love making music, but don’t really see the point in releasing it unless you have some control over the art form itself, rather than compromise just for the sake of making more money. So I favoured independence to release my music without conforming to any standards required in the music industry as a whole.

Given the state of the music marketplace these days, there are obviously some new challenges that didn’t exist during Alola’s first run—it seems even harder to maintain one’s control and independence. Are there things you’ll have to do differently this time?

Well, it’s not easy, for sure, as the marketplace is in pure disorder—you have to laugh about it as things change at such a rate you cannot contain them. Music is moving so fast you can hardly catch all of it, you’d be lucky to hear more than 10 percent of the music made in your time, so it’s a strange place, to say the least, and no one really knows what’s going to happen. So at Alola or SexOnWax Recordings we try to keep an open mind and just as much planning means just as many changes according to present times.

Mr. C mentions that Alola “Broke down the divisions between house & techno.” Is that how it felt to you at the time—that is, were the house and techno scenes really divided? Do you think that division has lessened over time?

There was a time that if you made deep house and you suddenly made something remotely progressive, in the public eye it was ok, but the press would take you to the cleaners. Currently it’s a cool thing showing your skills mixing things up across genres as an artist, as a label, etc., but that’s not the intention with Alola. Alola is about quality from your heart and simplicity in its structure to please with ease yet subtle and forever evolving. So tech house, house, techno, deep house, minimal, etc. - call it whatever you like – it’s all music at the end of the day!

So many of the comments about Alola use the word “deep” and “depth"… What makes a track truly deep, to you? And with deepness back in fashion, do you feel vindicated, in a way, by Alola’s approach over the years?

Deep isn’t a trendy thing, it’s the point of realisation when all the obvious means less and the subtle comes through. It’s a search for the ultimate questions being answered. It’s very hard to put this into words as you mention, but you can imagine just what feelings arise when you think of the word DEEP? So, naturally, anything that requires a more fulfilled search in a common place with depth that carries more than just a meaning or two; it’s a sensation of certainty and magic that holds nothing but a simple face of the truth.

The label seems to have taken a break after about 2003 or so… why is that?

Like most living things, it’s impossible to avoid sleeping at some point, yet it’s not good to stay asleep and often waking up again is an appropriate and exciting adventure. Realistically, when I started SexOnWax in 2001, Alola was still going until 2003. But the idea wasn’t to stop it, it was to take a little break from the constant organisation and release schedules.

What’s going on with SexOnWax these days? The last release seems to have been last June’s “Paralexia” EP, but I see that Beatport has just gotten a Spring ‘11 sampler. Are you ramping up this label as well?

“Ramping”? ....Love that word! So yes, we are ramping up SexOnWax! The reason for only one release last year was moving studios to Parsons Green and then finally to Soho (here in London), but also going through some changes in my life with SOS. I had to take some time out and refill my heart and rethink about where it’s all going. I’ve decided that SOS should concentrate on festivals and big shows, which allows me to slip out of the group from time to time and be myself again.

With SexOnWax I could have just released tracks by other artists and kept a flow in place, but I saw no point in that. If my head was elsewhere and constantly in some disorder what’s the point? I do take pride to some degree with anything I do, and I feel I can do more now for SexOnWax and Alola, so it makes sense to be back on track.

What was entailed in the remastering? In going through the back catalogue, were there any surprises—for instance, did you hear certain tracks differently than you might have at the time they were released?

Forever, ongoing, and never-ending is the process of mastering! There were tracks I’d forgotten about, to say the least, and it was all made with different equipment to current standards, so yes, things do sound surprisingly good and warm in comparison to the over-abuse of the top frequencies that is trendy nowadays.

That’s an interesting point about the sound quality of the releases. Beyond the audio fidelity, were there any tracks that made you sit up and think, “Wow, I never heard this track that way before"—say, for instance, a B2 cut that now sounded stronger than the A1? Or perhaps a track that sounded unusual at the time, and in retrospect was paving the way for a style that would come later…

There are tracks that I hadn’t released back then because the time wasn’t right, but am doing so now at present even though they are almost 13 years old, but nobody has heard them! It’s unbelievable how some music can never age. If I get that feeling from anything, it’s an honor and I thank the universe for giving me that treat of realization. There’s nothing like a surprise that you feel you’ll always receive yet you never know the time.

How did the Demi mix come about? You mention in the notes that he did the mix “unintentionally” when you gave him a stack of old Alola vinyl. Is that the mix that’s being released, or did he re-record it once you decided upon this particular project? And how did you approach your own mix?

We decided on the live approach - doing it how we would if we were playing in a club - is best. You’re telling a story at that moment and need to be captured in that instant. I did mine with more new material, whereas Demi did his with older material he’d never heard before, so it was very refreshing to hear a mix from somebody hearing the tracks for the first time and still able to capture the essence of what makes Alola.

Could you pick a few key tunes from the label and tell us a bit about each one? How they came about, any stories about signing them or their impact at the time, etc…

Omid, “Home” - I did this when I just bought my own apartment and this was the final track I’d make at my mum and dad’s place, in my bedroom studio.

Vince Watson, “Mystical Rhythm” - Vince had signed to Alola little over a year and he sent this to me for consideration. I still remember how it made me feel as soon as I heard it. I called him to confirm the love I had for it and we both knew it was going to be a big record for Vince and Alola.

16B, “Secrets” - Another turning point in Alola’s history, as not even I knew the significance of this record until I released it. My own recognition in the scene was more apparent and it made a big difference for Alola and its presence.

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