Small DIY labels are at the heart of emerging music. To support these labels and their artists, Floorshime Zipper Boots will be having a label day on Friday from time to time. Today it's Mouca Records Day on FZB.
Mouca is based in both Porto, Portugal and Berlin, Germany and was founded by Augusto Lima and Charlotte Thiessen. In November 2011, Lima and Thiessen, with the help of Jorge Coelho, programmed a concert by some Berlin based artists (Mary Ocher, Alexander, De La Montaña and The Spookfish) with Porto artists (Srosh Ensemble and Torto) and some international names like Lee Ranaldo, Laetitia Sadier, Mt Eerie and Dean Wareham. The main idea for the label was hatched that night where the first connections were made between the main cities where the pricipals live.
The Mouca label happened one year later with the release of their good friend Daniel Golberg's project, The Spookfish. The label chose to put out mainly audio cassetes because they can produce them in small numbers, which make it affordable to do several releases a year. The artists also found them a cool way of selling their music. They can be cheap, beautiful and very portable. All of Mouca's tapes come with a unique code for the digital download.
Mouca has a diverse group of artists that include:
The Spookfish - "Moth/Butterfly" (K7/2012)
Daniel Goldberg is the New York based musician behind The Spookfish. His visceral lo-fi approach to the keyboards and guitar leaves one immersed in a fuzzy river of sounds somewhere between Phil Elvrum and John Fahey. The "Moth/Butterfly" is a dreamy album made of intimate, genius and lovely short songs.
Travis Travisan 'Existential Crisis Call Center' (K7/2013)
is the debut solo album from Travis Trevisan of Tape Deck Mountain. It was recorded during a year stay in Austin, TX before eventually relocating to Brooklyn, NY. Existential explores lonely lo-fi folk terrains via creepy triple octave vocals, driven by slow churning classical guitars. Don't be scared away by the fidelity, the songs are quite simple and accessible to all. Musical frames of reference might include the Microphones or Beck's 'Mellow Gold'.
Chris Brokaw - "Avalanche" (K7/2013)
Chris Brokaw is mostly well known for beeing part of the cult bands Codeine and Come, back in the 90's but he has also been very active with his other bands The New Year, Rivulets or Pullman. Avalanche was recorded in two days on Jan. 31st and Feb. 1st in Rainier Beach, WA and was performed entirely on a Thomas Califormian 261 home organ.
Mouca has several compilations of their artists available to stream and download for name your own price on Bandcamp. Check out Mouca and their fine artists at the links below.