Compost Records: Label Information

"With great pleasure I pronounce Compost the most consistent and forward thinking record label of continental Europe. Quietly releasing the right and proper pieces from a slowly building alternative club culture that has now not only made worldwide news but is also changing the rules Stateside!
Compost is the honest and independent vision of Michael Reinboth who I first met when he invited me to play at his tiny residency in Munich 13 years ago! I was at that "lets see what's up in Deutschland phase" and Michael was the first to show me there was a future in playing cool records for a living!

In the years that have passed his label has somehow not only represented the correct edge but most importantly has given this scene a true base enabling DJs and artists a feeling of being part of something truly meaningful! It hasn't been easy as there's always someone ready to put you down but after enough time you achieve collective strength to knock the cynics off! Today all of clublife is looking at Germany a little like the French touch a few years back and where Daft Punk led the disco revival I feel truly excited at the impact Truby, Jazzanova, Kruder , the Fauna Flash crew and the whole Compost family will have on world clubbing related music ! These guys are bringing the Soul back! Ask Oakenfold, Carl Cox or Tenaglia and you'll see that even the biggest djs in the world are tuned and inspired by those Bavarian beats."

Thanks Gilles, that's the way we like it and that's the way Compost has always kept it: prospective, up to date, versatile and exclusive.

The music:
In the past couple of years the diversity and distinction of Compost's Label philosophy was receiving growing popularity. Especially internationally, Compost and several of its acts and DJs succeeded in climbing up to the premier league and to be amongst one of the "big names". Younger labels partially emulated the philosophy and a growing number of club nights started promoting this sort of sound (e.g. the DJ Rainer Trüby, one of the biggest supporters of this sound, is one of the most frequent booked DJs from Germany playing at many different clubs worldwide). Due to the increase in high quality releases of talented musicians & producers in this field and DJs supporting their music, they all, as well as Compost Records and assorted labels (Talkin' Loud, Laws Of Motion, People, Versatile, Ubiquity) helped developing and grew themselves into an own sub-cultural scene. One symptom of this scene since the very beginning was that the sound is hard to define and describe, as there are no strict boundaries: The main trademark which describes the sound and scene best, is the fact that the supporters and producers all praise the true eclecticism, which means: Diverse musical influences and mixing all sorts of musical styles together, preferably Jazz, Brazil, Hip Hop, Electro, Techno, House, Soul.

The scene ranges from Detroit Techno (Carl Craig, Recloose, Stacey Pullen), Hip Hop & R'n B (Mos Def, Jill Scott, Q-Tip), 2-Step (MJ Cole, Wookie), Drum & Bass (Roni Size, Peshay), House (Phil Asher, Blaze, MAW, King Britt) ... to those artists who probably can more easily be described inside this genre such as Jazzanova, Modaji, I.G. Culture, Peter Kruder, Alex Attias. The German music magazine Groove simply puts all this together under the name of "Phusion". Ok we agree and are proud to be part of this movement and we will do our best to supply the scene with new innovative flavours in the future.

The label:
Compost Records evolved in its 8 years of existence from a small one-man bedroom label to a very productive and creative business located in a Loft-style office in East-Munich. Today Compost Records has about 20 artists under contract covering a wide variety of different musical styles: House, Electro, Brazil, Drum & Bass, Downbeat, Nu Jazz, (2-Step Remixes).

Due to its renown and quality Compost managed to get remixes from great well-known underground producers as Kruder & Dorfmeister, Peshay, DJ Krust, Recloose, Ian Pooley, Patrick Pulsinger, Pole, Cinematic Orchestra, SWAG, Attica Blues for Compost tracks since the very beginning. Michael Reinboth always keeps an eye on upcoming underground stars, as this time Zero db and their killer-remix of Trüby Trio's "Galicia" on this compilation.

Besides Compost's artist releases, the label is also very well-know for its high-quality and forward-thinking compilation series "Future Sounds Of Jazz" and "Glücklich". They are always state-of-the-art musical extracts.
Basically Compost stands for quality leftfield underground club music - so if you are into that sort of vibe, you'd better stay with us, we will not disappoint you.

The label design and corporate identity:
Andrew Arnold is the Head Of Design at JCR, Compost Records since the first release. While his education for architecture he began designing the first record covers for Compost and Compose. Until now he is responsible for the major part of the label's visual appearance, having designed most of the record covers, advertising, flyers, merchandising and this website.
He also directed, filmed & edited a promo video for "Beanfield - The Season" which came out in early 2000 and can be downloaded as a QuickTime movie from this website (see start page). more info: www.aagd.de

Compost is also described by cult-author Greil Marcus in Lipstick Traces:"After Dada, all art sat in a compost pile, its mystifications sucked into the methane. There could be no real communication; all words had come loose from their meanings and floated free of their owners. Still, a compost pile was good for something: fertilizer. Along with the preordained stages of amplification and decomposition there was another possibility: that of"ciselant" (chiseling away). This was active, conscious decomposition, and it was the only means to active creation"

By the way, there used to be an American band in the seventies called "Compost". Their cast was international, and they recorded two LPs which aimed at a combination of Jazz, Rock, Pop, Black music and Avantgarde.

Looking at the word "Compost" itself you can recognize the two syllables "com" and "post".
Both syllables are used in very modern terms, for example:
1) "com" which is originally latin and means "together", "leading to", "with". It is used in words like "computer", "communication", "compositions", "complexity","compatibility" and many more. Even in times of the web the syllable "com" can be very useful.
2) "post" also has its origin in the latin language and means basically "after". There is a large number of words containing the syllable "post" such as "postmodern", "postmortem", "postmeridiem", "postpone", "postulate", etc., etc.

The word "Compost" is international! It has the same meaning and almost the same spelling in several languages such as British and American-English, French and German.

Since the Middle Ages "Compost" is said to be something mysthical. "Compost" has several meanings! Originally it meant "magic thang". Nowadays the most influencial "witches" are still using the word "Compost" for their annual convention in the USA, where 10 to 15 of the world´s most respected and influencial "positive" witches are holding their meeting. Serious!

"Compost" means as well a biodynamic - chemical interaction in itself! You don’t need anything else, to put the compost heap on fire, there is enough energy, chemical and physical interaction and reaction in there, which can explode or set the Compost-heap on fire! It is an catalyst for reactions and also used as fertilizer! It is another word for "recycling"! Old and new can have some different interaction!

"Compost" is a (bio)dynamic, bio-chemistral cell of an international jazz-, Brazil-, eclectro-jazz, down beat, drum & bass-music-movement. We release organic and abstract sounds, unexpected natural elements, as well as future sounds of electronic digital or analogue music.

"Compost" is chemically hyperactive. "Compost" contains enough energy to set your favorite club on fire!

Compost Records was founded in 1994 by Michael Reinboth. Reinboth is a DJ, composer, music-journalist, club-organizer, A & R expert, producer, football fan and a dedicated record collector.

The first release of A Forest Mighty Black"Fresh In My Mind" was already a small underground-hit, which found its way to the playlists of DJs like James Lavelle and Gilles Peterson. Since then Compost Records established itself as one of the most important labels nation wide and gained a lot of respect all over Europe with acts like Kyoto Jazz Massive, Beanfield, Fauna Flash, Trüby Trio, just to name some of them.

A lot of comparisons were made by the international press to labels like Talking Loud, Yellow Productions and MoWax (see press clippings), but Compost has just recently shown that it has an independent position in the middle of the current events around Jazz, Electronica, Dancefloor and Homelistening.

Today Compost Records has more than 110 releases, among them such successful compilation series like"Future Sounds Of Jazz" Vol. 1-8 (with Vol. 9 up and coming) and"Glücklich" Vol. 1-4 (with Vol. 5 in the pipeline).

In 1998 Reinboth founded JCR (Jazzanova-Compost-Records) together with Jazzanova. The foundation was a logical consequence of the close co-operation between the Jazzanova DJ-team and Compost Records. Michael Reinboth had been a mate of Claas Brieler and Jürgen von Knoblauch for years.

In this unique label co-operation Jazzanova (Berlin) takes responsibility for A&R, signings, studio-productions and bookings while Compost (based in Munich) is organizing the production, distribution, marketing, promotion, accounting and artwork for JCR.

Compost-DJs: Michael Reinboth, Rainer Trüby, Kyoto Jazz Massive, Roland Appel (Fauna Flash), Christan Prommer (Fauna Flash), Procreation, Force (Force&Paul), Marc Frank (Les Gammas), Tom Wieland (Les Gammas), Daniel Magg (Worldless People), Michael Mettke (Beanfield), Jan Krause (Beanfield), Florian Hartl (Salvador Group), Julian Fischer (Salvador Group).

Compilations on Compost:
"Future Sound Of Jazz" Vol. 1-8;"Glücklich" Vol. 1-4;"Nitrogen"; "Dig It".

Compost Artists-/Label-Compilation:
"Lytic Coctail";"Compost 50", "Compost Community", "Compost One Hundred".

Compost Videos:
Beanfield – "Planetary Deadlock" - directed by Klaus Tartler
Beanfield – "The Season" - directed by Andrew Arnold
Trüby Trio – "A Go Go" - directed by Madgé Gill Bokasa
Minus 8 - "Snowblind" - directed by DJ Sarma
Minus 8 - "Badman & Throbin´" - directed by Andreas Peter

"Munich’s Compost label has become somewhat of a treasure trove over the last couple of years" (Jockey Slut, UK)

"Munich’s Compost Recprds coninues to set the standard for groundbreaking electronic music with an organ feel." (Alternative Press)

"Compost is virtually untouchable these days, both in quality and output."
(Vice Vol.6)

"One of the most impressive aspects of the musical scene that centers around Munich’s Compost label is the resource sharing and community building" (URB magazine)

"Munich’s Compost label is a total roll at the moment. Hunt this down." (I-D, UK)