Andy Blake chats about his new label In Plain Sight

Andy Blake’s new record label In Plain Sight launches this month with the release of Dr Chocolate by new producer youngTEE. Both Dr Chocolate and the B-side, Perfect Model, fuse cowbells and 808s with a wierdo sensibility, suggestively purred spoken word vocals and forthright dancefloor whomp, evoking everything from Janet Jackson to Jamie Principle to Detroit Grand Pubahs but coming out of it sounding sleazy, fun and fresh.

In Plain Sight is the third label Blake currently runs, after the analogue-techno oriented Cave Paintings, and the World Unknown record label he runs with Joe Hart. Blake’s iconoclastic Dissident Records folded in 2009.

Andy Blakes chats the new label, the current state of house, and youngTEE.

What’s In Plain Sight about then?

Just house really. 909’s, MPC’s, SP12’s, cheap compressors, desks being driven well into the red, taking tracks to the cutting room where they go thru a bunch of really expensive eq’s and get slammed hard into a brick wall compressor to make them sound fat as fuck, going to the club with a bag of dubplates, test pressings, secret weapons and classics and playing them just a little bit too loud so people go bananas and their souls touch the sky. Just house, plain and simple.

What’s your take on the (wince) “house revival”?

The house revival? A bunch of witless hipsters cluttering up the dancefloor discussing the relative merits of Trax and Gherkin b-sides and paying too much for Kerri Chandler records on the internet? Contrary to what a bunch of johnny come lately indie kids think house never went anywhere, it’s been the beating heart of this thing for 25odd years now. Just cos they only recently got into it doesn’t make it a revival, the party’s been on for decades now.

And who’s YoungTEE?

Toby’s one of the chaps in the extended family of up all night wronguns that i knock about with. He makes an absolute brilliant record and I’m going to put a load of them out this year. He’s also getting a live set together which is going to be cracking cos all those mad vocals on his records that everyone assumes are samples are actually him.

It seems you’re not into streaming stuff online.

I’m not into giving websites entire tracks for people to listen to because anyone with half a brain can rip a streaming file. Back in the dim and distant we sometimes used to have to buy records based purely on recommendation or review and without hearing them at all so from my perspective having a couple of minutes clip at an online retailer is plenty enough. Why does everyone think that they are entitled to have everything for free these days without it completely screwing the whole thing up? It’s only going to end in tears.