He’s one half of hot-to-trot remix duo Reverso 68, he records as LSB and under his own name, and he spends most weekends spinning his tunes to a sweaty clubs all over the world. As if Pete Herbert didn’t have enough on his plate, he’s now teamed up with Dicky Trisco – the man behind Deep Freeze Recordings and Disco Deviance – to launch Maxi Discs, a new label devoted to “tropical house”…
London, Dundee, Norway… New label Maxi Discs is barely one release old and already it’s spreading its wings across the UK and into Europe. But then you wouldn’t expect anything less from the people behind it. London-based Pete Herbert has been busy making waves as one half of Reverso 68 (recording with Phil Mison), creating some excellent remixes over the past year or so. And his Maxi Discs partner, Dicky Trisco has been running a couple of excellent imprints from his Dundee lair in the shape of Deep Freeze and Disco Deviance. He’s also one half of the excellent Boogie Corporation. Maxi Discs, as you can see, has a decent pedigree.
It’s also got a cracking first release lined up. Titled Disco Drummer, the track comes from Norway’s Marius Vaareid, part of Ytre Rymden Dansskola who have released on Prins Thomas’s Full Pupp label. Marius has been a big part of the Oslo scene for 10 years, and his sound is influenced by disco, house and the European electronic tradition – much like Mssrs Herbert and Trisco. His new track is a belting start to the new label, which according to the press release, is going to be devoted to “tropical house music”. An intrigued EQ corners Pete to find out more…
How did you two hook up?
I’ve been doing quite a few things for Dicky over the last few years for his other labels Deep Freeze and Disco Deviance. I’ve also played in Dundee for him a couple of times, so we’ve inevitably got chatting. He came up with the suggestion that rather than me just doing bits and bobs for his other labels, we should try to do something together. The idea was that we’d mainly put out our own stuff, and we were going to do a couple of collaborations. We’ve not got round to them yet because of that Dundee-London thing – and last time I was up there one thing led to another and we didn’t really get much work done... So we decided it would be good to get some other artists involved, people we’re friends with and whose music we like. And that’s how it all took shape.
It sounds like it’s going to be quite different from what you’re both known for, heading back to a more housey sound.
Yeah, that’s the idea. We were trying to make it quite like Disco Deviance, where it’s a track a side, two dancefloor cuts and that’s what led us down this housier angle. It seems to be working at the moment. Hopefully people will check it from different angles.
How did the first track from Marius come about?
He’s been sending me tracks for a while, and I actually went back to him about one of the other tracks he’d sent me. Sod’s law, he’d just signed it to Full Pupp. So then he sent me the Disco Drummer one – me and Dicky thought that was really cool and we signed it. Obviously, we both pitched in with a remix each, and I think it’s worked great for a first release. I’ve been playing it a lot, so I knew it was working and it made sense to put it out.
What else have you got lined up?
I think the second one will be a track from me – it’s got a working title of Yo Drums. We’ve asked Luca [Roccatagliati] who does the Ajello stuff to remix it, and I think Dicky’s doing a version as well. Then we’ve got something from Luca for the third one. Again that’s quite old-school and housey, which is different for him because he’s on that whole cosmic Italo tip. Then hopefully there’ll be something from me and Dicky...
It sounds like there’s a solid base in place then. A lot of labels disappear after just one release these days.
Dicky’s got all that covered. He’s obviously been running labels for a while, so he knows the way they should work. We also thought that rather than just putting one out and seeing what happens, we’d have everything planned for at least the first six months. We want to get stuff out regularly and keep some momentum going.
Is it daunting, given how things are at the moment?
Yes. It’s just about getting the stuff out there and getting it working. Some people are still doing OK, so we’ve just got to give it a go and see what happens. You’ve got to be in it to win it. We’re going to try to get the label out on the road as well, taking a few of the artists with us, and show them a good night. Hopefully we’ll have something happening in London in February.
There’s a good buzz about what you’re up to at the moment, so that should help things along.
Yeah, it’s been cool. I don’t like to spend ages on a project – I just like to get stuff out there, so that’s helped. Last year I spent doing a lot of remixes on my own or as Reverso 68 – we’ve not done that much new music, so we’re going to concentrate on that. We’ve got a couple of Reverso tracks that are nearly ready. And I’ve done an album with Phil under the name Frontera and that’s less dancefloor orientated. That album’s due out on Music For Dreams. Then it’s just a matter of getting out and DJing every weekend and playing all these tracks...
Marius’ Disco Drummer is out at the end of Januray on Maxi Discs. Pete’s track Yo Drums is due to follow in the early spring. Visit www.myspace.com/peteherbert and www.myspace.com/maxidiscs
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