POP FOR THE PEOPLE: A PROFILE ON MORR MUSIC
BY MELIS ALEMDAR (WITH STEVE COSSU)
Any mention of the label Morr Music will evoke a certain aesthetic: one of sparse beats, clicks and whirrs laid out in elegant electronic soundscapes. You can get away with throwing around phrases like ‘The Morr sound’ without being accused of generalizing. Thomas Morr, founder and head of the label, however, is likely to object to imposing such strict definitions and limiting the possibility of unexplored sound territories. Writing from his office in Berlin, he points out that, “Usually people criticize you for a clear definition [of the label's sound]; if you try to change it, the same people criticize you for getting arbitrary.” His solution? “I guess you have to be strong enough to listen to your inner voice to do what you consider to be right. My definition for this kind of music is pop, something that tries to be accessible without denying its roots.”
Those roots go back to 1999, when Thomas Morr started the label as a “total fan project in the beginning, a 7″ label in album format.” He says he quickly discovered “if you like something you’d like to continue that” and also “you cannot release everything you like.” On the other hand, he and his collaborators were not entirely without a plan: “When we started we immediately tried to create a label profile which was communicated via artwork and a specific electronic sound. All in all I have to admit that as a label you’re the sum of the sound of your artists and in the best case plus something special on top of that. When I started I was lucky to work with artists that had found their own sound already-just think about B.Fleischmann, Lali Puna & Isan.”
Early on in its history, the label was associated with ‘electronica’ (now a historic catchall phrase for late ’90s music featuring synths, drum machine beats and layered bleeps along with vocals, a genre recently called “the musical equivalent of New Coke” by Chuck Klosterman). During the time the label was coming into its own, electronica was living its heyday, and it seemed as if bands proliferated at the same rate as grunge bands had after Nirvana hit it big. Despite this glut, Thomas Morr believes that the timing helped establish the label: “We were lucky that the genre names electronica & indietronic did not exist at that time. When these names came, quite some people called the label genre-defining and the label name was easy to promote alongside the genre. At least I think we benefited from the timing.” Once a blessing for the young label, the term eventually took on a restrictive and too-narrow quality: “Definitions like that are always helpful in the beginning and a pain when you try to change or expand your sound.”
What then, are the criteria to become a Morr artist among heavyweights Styrofoam, Lali Puna, Isan, or relative newcomers like F.S. Blumm, Masha Qrella, Tarwater? Thomas Morr claims it’s something as simple (and one assumes, not all that simple) as him enjoying what he hears. The Morr Music offices in Berlin reportedly receive about 50 demos a week, about 2800 since September 2004. In order for a demo to stand out amongst many and eventually become a Morr issue, all that is needed is, according to Thomas Morr , that he “like the music, and in all honesty also the person behind the music.”
Speaking of the people behind the music, it seems that many artists on the Morr roster seem to be more than just labelmates. Some are close friends; quite a few collaborate on each other’s projects.1 According to TM, this is an organic outcome of having a common ground in the label by “supporting each other, growing together, sharing interests, touring together. Being fan of your label mates when you start can somehow connect you for yours.” Asked if he or Jan Kruse2 could come up with a family tree, he says, “I have no idea about this family tree, it would look more like a ball of wool.”
The label’s sound is not static but something that is constantly being expanded and redefined, not against or compared to another, but according to what it is, in and of itself: “[The label and the bands] have the same musical interests; this leads into new signings that are almost a consensus between us. One of our mottos is pop means variation. I think about Anticon in the same way, doing what you like, not compromising but also not trying to be against a whatever something.”
The global music market is shifting and ever-changing. As a result the future for Morr Music entails “focusing on long-term relations between artist, label, distributor…up to the listener.” Thomas Morr believes that “a label has to become more and more like a landmark for all sorts of consumers without narrowing the artists’ possibilities.” He notes that it is getting progressively more difficult to introduce new artists.
“The future is not about quick projects and statements everywhere around the globe like we’ve had in the beginning of physical electronic music distribution,” says Morr, “where you could find quite some artists on several different labels in multiplex artist-label relations.” His response to the current state of music is to cover more genres with the label. Tarwater or F.S. Blumm, who already have their respective albums out on MM, are the perfect addition to what his vision could be like. Whatever it may be, the vision has already served the label well and Morr Music leads us into the 21st century, one blissful pop record at a time.
Recent Morr Music releases worth investigating:
Masha Qrella
Unsolved Remained
Crystalline vocal delivery, sophisticated folk-pop from Masha Qrella. Shades of Eliot Smith, or Beatles circa “Til There was You,” backed with interesting arrangements, lovely melodies, electronic undertones and guitar. An enjoyable dream of an album with a lot of promise.
F.S. Blumm
Zweite Meer
http://fsblumm.free.fr
Here is an album that does not fit the ‘traditional’ Morr sound. F.S. Blumm’s second album is a mostly analog affair of glockenspiel, guitar and drums, Casio keyboard, bells, French horn, vibraphone, melodica, harmonium, and accordion. It feels very organic and relaxed, slow and serene, conjuring images as disparate as that of a cowboy riding into the sunset, Astor Piazzola, Miles Davis’ Siesta soundrack, or an indie film set in the middle of America in lush greenery near a creek. It’s completely possible to stay up at night past your bedtime when it’s all quiet, listening to this and reading a book. There is a undiluted sweetness to it-maybe it’s the xylophones-and even a wistful element-maybe it’s the harmonica. Then again, maybe it’s the guy who wrote it. Quite beautiful.
Tarwater
The Needle was Travelling
http://www.tarwater.de
Tarwater is Bernd Jestram and Ronald Lippok. The duo’s fifth album (their first on Morr) is a fine example of what happens when rock blends with electronic music seamlessly, when neither overwhelms but where both actually enhance one another. The repetitive flourishes blend perfectly into the monotone vocals which turn laid-back and almost-Californian at times. The pulsating rhythms in the background undulate and expand in waves, the guitar fuzz backed with simple orchestration of horns and strings swirls into the ether. Dream City Film Club without the deathwish, Love and Rockets whilst chilling out, the Morr sound glammed and glittering, the soul in the machine laid bare. The perfect nighttime driving music for people who might not even have a car for driving.
Various Artists
Putting the Morr Back into Morrissey
http://www.morrmusic.com
This was my first introduction to Morr Music and I loved this CD set. A perfect primer to the Morr sound.
The Go Find / Miami
http://www.thegofind.com
Dieter Sermeus, the one-man pop wonder, creates the perfect combination of glitch and drama. His Miami is the perfect location for a sunny eletronica dreamscape. Start by downloading his stellar song “Summer Guest” and fall hopelessly in love.
Lali Puna
I Thought I Was Over That
http://www.lalipuna.de
Most remix albums sound disjointed and inconsistent. I Thought I Was Over That is incredibly coherent providing you with the warmth and comfort of a winter quilt. Lali Puna makes georgeous music.
Footnotes
1 Styrofoam’s 2004 offering Nothing’s Lost features labelmates Markus Acher from Lali Puna and Notwist, Alias of Anticon, Valerie Trebeljahr from Lali Puna. Styrofoam (a.k.a. Arne van Petege
