HOMO-CENTRIC RECORDS

HOMO-CENTRIC RECORDS launches in September 2022 to showcase both GIDEÖN’s own musical creations and those of his comrades in House. The imprint, founded primarily to amplify the creative contributions of queer artists working in dance music, features like-minded artists whose approach to Deep House aligns with GIDEÖN’s well-respected underground musical aesthetic. Conceptually, the label focuses on the LGBTQIA+ heritage of House and pays homage to its lost heroes. The label manifesto states its intent: “To re-establish the lines of queer musical tradition at the heart of House, lost to AIDS and the capitalist desecration of dance music itself. HOMO-CENTRIC both acknowledges and reveres the original LGBTQIA+, Black and Latin pioneers of House - their DNA permeates all subsequent journeys in the genre. HOMO-CENTRIC RECORDS maintains that the original founders and champions of House must be recognised, named, and honoured.” Names like Ron Hardy, Frankie Knuckles, David Mancuso, Robert Owens, Mel Cheren, Tony Humphries, Larry Levan, Sylvester, Arthur Russel, Aaron Carl. Robbie Tronco, Nicky Siano, Patrick Cowley, Junior Vazquez, Danny Tenaglia, Steve Fabus, Derrick Carter, Hercules & Love Affair, The Carry Nation, Honey Dijon, and Kevin Aviance. The graphic identity of the label tips its hat to the classic label artwork of the golden age of House and illustrator James Lacey’s deviant poppers bottle inspiration for the label logo is a mischievous personification of the classic Rush Poppers brand of amyl nitrate. -- -- -- BACKGROUND ON GIDEÖN, HOMO-CENTRIC FOUNDER: Aged 13 in 1990, when my mum went on a solo trip to New York, I instructed her to go to the headquarters of Strictly Rhythm, my favourite record label at the time and take a photo. She came back triumphantly with a photograph of herself, arm in arm with a formidable Latino man with a baseball cap on backwards. I was delighted. In the years prior to this remote pilgrimage lived vicariously through my mother, I had been obsessed with pirate radio in my hometown of London: the early years of Chilin FM, Energy FM, Riddim FM, Girls FM & Powerjam. It was through these stations that I eventually found the US House & Garage sound that would go on to define my life. The sound resonated with me on such a deep level that it felt like it was somehow part of my DNA, a subconscious memory from another life. As a little gay boy in South London searching for role models and my place in the world, I was overwhelmed by the stony silence of a cultural landscape decimated by AIDS. I didn’t know it at the time, but the silence was primarily down to the fact that almost all my would-be heroes died in the decade before my coming of age. In the most unlikely of places, London’s almost exclusively heterosexual illicit radio broadcasters, I found that the LGBTQIA+ cultural revolution of Disco was somehow alive, reincarnated in my new musical discovery, House. In this music, I found a cyphered message of Queer identity, validity, and relevance. It gave colour and meaning to my world and moreover the evidence of a hidden Queer history waiting to be discovered. These straight led radio networks of London’s underworld were an unlikely medium for my LGBTQIA+ education but their existence was an electrifying revelation for me. Ultimately this excitement has carried me forward to this point in my life. In House, its form, its language, and its use of reverential samples I sensed the very essence of faggotry in a way I could not articulate. Years later when I read the words of Frankie Knuckles “House is Disco’s revenge” - it all made sense. I was in love. House was my first love, and we all know “the first cut is the deepest”. In subsequent years, I always had a strange melancholy feeling towards the “golden age” of House and US Black music in general. I felt I had missed the boat. To me, modern day New York felt muted, crushed, and overshadowed by the weight of its past, with the ghosts of the city present in every club and on every street. I was haunted by the thought of those Queer thinkers, composers, philosophers, musicians, dancers, club kids, fashionistas, freaks, lovers, and friends lost to the plague. Within House music I heard the echoes of these infinite wonderous gay stories, evidence of another time. Beyond this past and the inherent transgenerational trauma of House music, I see a bright future. In recent years, I have come to understand that it’s these human spirits that make House deep. Deep House is a mausoleum of infinite beauty and one I’ve come to celebrate, not to lament. HOMO-CENTRIC proposes that through the collective space of the dancefloor and through the understanding of our history, the energy of those lost lives can live once again. -- -- -- LABEL MANIFESTO: HOMO-CENTRIC was founded to re-establish the lines of Queer musical tradition at the heart of House Music, lost to AIDS and the recent capitalist desecration of dance music. • HOMO-CENTRIC both acknowledges and reveres the original LGBTQIA+, Black and Latinx pioneers of House, whose DNA permeates all subsequent journeys in the genre. • HOMO-CENTRIC maintains that the LGBTQIA+ founders and champions of House must be named, recognised, and honoured. Names like Ron Hardy, Frankie Knuckles, David Mancuso, Robert Owens, Mel Cheren, Tony Humphries, Larry Levan, Sylvester, Arthur Russel, Aaron Carl. Robbie Tronco, Nicky Siano, Patrick Cowley, Junior Vazquez, Danny Tenaglia, Steve Fabus, Derrick Carter, Hercules & Love Affair, The Carry Nation, Honey Dijon, and Kevin Aviance. • HOMO-CENTRIC is not an exclusively Queer label. It is a platform for like-minded artists who acknowledge and respect the true history of House. • HOMO-CENTRIC acknowledges that House is the eternal wellspring of Queer musical contribution: an open-source, co-owned pool of musical ideas that is ever evolving. Though constantly changing, House always refers back to the labels, artists, dancefloors, traditions, and idiosyncrasies of its muse: the Queer, Black and Latinx US nightclubs of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. • Every dancefloor, nightclub, festival, and ballroom is spiritually linked. The act of playing House connects each dancefloor to both its history and the spirit of its founding communities. We are the descendants of the great Queer dynasty of House. HOMO- CENTRIC is here to contribute to this great ocean of LGBTQIA+ musical expression. • HOMO-CENTRIC maintains that House is the musical language of Queer freedom, self-expressions, love, and diversity. House IS political and cannot ever form part of a right-wing narrative. By this logic HOMO-CENTRIC believes House music and being Queer are inherently left-leaning. • HOMO-CENTRIC is not claiming the IP or history of House as ours alone, nor are we denying the many contributions of straight artists in the genre. We are simply recognising the unique, founding position of queerness at the spiritual heart of House music.