20 Jahre Alphacut Records – frohfroh – we like electronic music from leipzig

Happy Birthday Alpha Cut! The Leipzig drum & bass label is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a brilliant anniversary line-up.

What a party announcement: Under the motto RECON2TRUCTI0N – 20Y ALPHACUT, the Leipzig label Alphacut is celebrating its 20th anniversary on two floors in a Connewitz location that is not revealed here. And with no fewer than 24 DJs lining up behind the decks. A logistical effort that should not be underestimated, the necessary self-organization of which in turn fits very well with the DIY culture of the label.

Alpha who like what?

Some readers may now be asking themselves this. In a nutshell and full of gaps: Alphacut has been releasing Drum & Bass and Jungle on vinyl since 2003, whereby the sound is mostly more experimental and rhythmically complex than the dancefloors in Leipzig are usually used to. You can get a good insight into the beginnings of the label in our article on the label’s tenth anniversary as well as in the current editions of the radio shows Querbass and Zonic Radio Show.

Especially in the early years, Alphacut unleashed some quite harsh, brute tracks on mankind and soon devoted themselves to faster and often very fun breakcore tracks with the 7″ sublabel Alphacute.

Two decades and about forty records later, the releases on the main label Alphacut are still full of bass, unusual breaks and often dark atmospheres. The wonderful cross-section through the label history of AeonFlux shows this perfectly:

Here and there, however, the sound was also expanded to include a certain dub influence, which has played the leading role on the 23 7″ singles released by the sublabel 45Seven since 2012. In addition, the ten releases in the Alpha Cutauri series explore the possibilities between ambient, minimal and drum&bass. And in addition to numerous releases by label boss LXC outside of the Alphacut universe, he is currently working on his own back catalog on a specially created Bandcamp account.

Live recordings from the early noughties and an album that commemorates the “Structural Break” party and concert series of the time were recently released there. As always with LXC with exciting historical liner notes.

So a lot of music that has been rediscovered or brought out again, but can definitely be enjoyed in full force at the big anniversary party and, last but not least, makes us look forward to the next decade of Bass & Breaks from Alphacut.