As amusingly unfiltered as ever, loads of DIY labels have unearthed literally hundreds of captivating, fresh and unconventional records this year. One of our friendly labels, Germany’s Through Love Records, has been a consistent force since its foundation 10 years ago and 2018 has once again proved the quality is still there. Through Love has just unveiled its new label sampler and we’re stoked to give you an affecting combination of the official commentary on the compilation and Through Love’s 2018 wrap-up!
Through Love Records put out 8 records, 1 re-release and handled 2 exclusive distributions in 2018. The list included:
#TLR 042 – Øjne – Prima Che Tutto Bruci 12” LP
#TLR 043 – Terrible Love – Doubt Mines 12” LP
#TLR 044 – Mahlstrom – Debut 12” LP/CD
#TLR 045 – Wayste – The Flesh And Blood 12” LP / CD
#TLR 046 – Young Mountain – Lost Tree 12” LP
#TLR 047 – Agent blå – Medium Rare 12” MLP
#TLR 048 – Wild Cat Strike – Rhubarb Nostalgia 12” LP/ CD
#TLR 049 – Rådjuret – s/t 12” LP
#TLR666 – Fjort – Demontage 12“ LP / CD (re-release)
Svalbard – It’s Hard To Have Hope 12“ LP (exclusive German distribution for Holy Roar Records)
Portrayal Of Guilt – Let Pain Be Your Guide 12“ LP exclusive German distribution for Holy Roar Records)
Asked about the label’s experience in 2018 and plans for the next year, Paul commented:
In 2018 we cooperated and worked with great labels as Day by Day Records, Holy Roar Records, Luxury Records from Sweden, Miss The Stars Records (RIP) and a few other outstanding DIY labels from all over the world.
Besides that, we made a dream come true and released 2 very limited enamel pins.
I was also on tour for 2 weeks with my friends in FJØRT together with Lirr, East and incredible Être.
In the background we’re working on a booking for TLR (related) bands. Further news will revealed very soon.
And we’re putting out a free/pay what you want sampler on bandcamp on December 3rd with bands and songs we released in the past 2 years beside one track of Berlin heavy instrumental outfit neànder which will come out in February 2019.
For 2019 you can expect at least 6 high quality releases. At the moment we are very busy in planning everything for 2019. Have a look at the bands of our sampler – expect 4 releases from bands who are on it. One pre-order is just running – the neckbreaking debut of neànder.
⬇ Scroll down for the full Through Love Records’ 2018 recap ⬇
Through Love‘s top records this year:
The following records can be viewed without a ranking – they are all on high rotation on my turntable – to be fair I let my own releases out:
Svalbard – It’s Hard To Have Hope
The following records can be viewed without a ranking – they are all on high rotation on my turntable – to be fair I let my own releases out:
The first time I listened to the record I was a bit disappointed since I am a fan from the first hour of their music and really love their older tunes. This time I thought it sounds like the older stuff in bad. I listened several times to the record and the riffs and arrangements really got me hard and I still love to listen to this record. Absolutely outstanding and even better as their older stuff!
Soft Kill – Savior
I listened to a teaser of their first single on instagram and just loved it. I pre-ordered the vinyl incl. the former album and yeah it totally kicked me. The atmosphere, the sound, the riffs, the voice, the beats everything is absolutely great. And it turned out to my typical band for moments when I don’t know what to listen to – Soft Kill.
All The Luck In The World – A Blind Arcade
I was a big fan of their debut record. I watched several live video performances on youtube when it came out. I doubted that I’ll like the new record. I got the chance to see them live here in Hamburg through a friend and I listened to the new record via the internet and was very surprised that it was pretty good. And yeah after the concert (brilliant live band) and buying that record it’s still on heavy rotation – finally music that my girlfriend also likes. The band developed from singer song writer stuff to nice folk/pop music.
+ memorable mentions:
Yellowknife – Retain
Beautiful autumn record – great Emo Rock
Tengil – shouldhavebeens
Beautiful autumn record – great Emo Rock
This is such a great record and a even greater live act
GO HERE for the full IDIOTEQ interview and insightful band commentary on ‘shouldhavebeens’.
Tiny Moving Parts – Swell
Triple Crown Records / Big Scary Monsters
This band never disappoints
Ghost – Prequelle
I love this band and my highlight is the last instrumental track from A-Side – pure gold!
Khruangbin – Con Todo El Mundo
Discovered this via crazy vinyl collectors on instagram – a great record to calm down
⬇ Scroll down for the official commentary about Through Love’s new label sampler ⬇
Here’s what the label’s owner Paul had to say about the new release:
2 times 30 minutes on A and B side of the tape including rock songs from Roxette and Bryan Adams combined with Bon Jovi and Guns’n’Roses as well as German Fun Punks Die Ärzte. That’s the way my mixtapes looked like 25 years ago. 10 years later the CD-R and endless winamp playlists came up to end recording my favourite stuff on tape.
Being your own DJ – to excite and bother your family and friends with your musical taste went to my favourite hobby. My main goal was to show good music to people who didn’t know about the bands and their songs (of course before the break through).
I also heard a lot of mixtapes/compilations especially from music magazines. I will never forget the feeling when I heard „Artifacts Of The Black Rain“ of In Flames the first time on my discman through a compilation of a German Metal Magazine. A truly amazing moment and repeating that song again and again.
Discovering musical pearls and showing them to others is a matter that accompanied my whole life.
I wanted to accomplish the same with Through Love Records: Show people good music before they’re getting in contact with it anywhere else. That means putting music on a record to transport it to as many people as possible. An other aim was of course to show the own great taste of music… ;)
After nearly ten years of releasing music it’s the first time where we’re releasing a compilation/ mixtape/sampler – digitally and free/pay what you want.
There are 14 tracks (6x artists from Sweden, 4x UK, 3x Germany and 1x from Italy) which we released during the last 2 years. The first track of that compilation will be released on a debut record next year in February. The song was digitally released 1 week ago and stands with the diversity of heavy and brutal parts combined with dreamy melody waves for a great intro reflecting the genre mix of the label.
For sure we aren’t a good example for running a financially successful label. We’re still learning from release to release and we even make the same mistakes we did probably 10 years ago. So we’re releasing bands and music we are 100% convinced of independently from the musical genre.
A good example for this is the band Agent Blå from Sweden (Track 6 – Hindsight – play the mini player above). This pretty young band released their 2nd EP called „Medium Rare“ this year. In the 90ies the Gothenburg style of Death Metal was very known in the whole world. In the last few years there is another wave coming up from this Swedish city.
With bands like Makthaverskan, Westkust (Track 8 – Summer 3D) or Agent Blå there is a music scene doing vivid shoegazy Indie music which you can’t get out of your head (they are also played frequently on Swedish radio broadcast).
Another band on the sampler is Wild Cat Strike from the UK (Track 7 – Thirsty Ocean). They’re playing a unique mixture of British Indie, Folk and beautiful Post Rock with outstanding vocals from Danny Byrom tending from non-emotional to raging screams. The songs reach from dreamy silent parts to catchy sing alongs.
Earth Moves is a brutal Screamo band from Brighton, UK (Track 13 – There Was An Apple Orchard Here). They transform slow and silent Post Rock parts to brutal fast and heavy Screamo in perfection. They’re going to release the 2nd album in 2019 – that means a very busy year for Gary and Mark who are also involved in We Never Learned To Live who’ll also release a successor in 2019 and touring the mainland with FJØRT in the end of January.
Along with this sampler we’re re-releasing „Demontage“ from FJØRT another time on golden vinyl and CD, we’re offering 2 very limited enamel pins which can be added for free to every order over 60€ and we’re running a sale until the end of the year for some pearls of our roster which got not the attention they deserved.
