This eNews is part of a new feature we’re doing here at Toolshed, focusing on the work of labels as a whole—call it a Label Awareness Campaign. We’ll be sending these out from time to time for a handy way to explore a variety of projects with one mediapage link (below) that will zip you over to find lots of mp3 and video assets all in one place. Feel free to hotlink to any of the media you find on each page—we’re happy to host the files.

First up, one of my favorite labels, and one I feel is fairly under-represented here in the States—Berlin’s Morr Music. White noise, folk songs, abstract Hip Hop, electronic listening. All picked up by Thomas Morr who founded the label in 1999 and he keeps bringing them again and again to listeners in all corners of the world.

Morr Music that gradually has become the label of reference for “Electronica” as it has been with the Powerbook becoming the new guitar and the guitar becoming the new Powerbook. When the sound reclaimed the song and electronic music made its way from the hard disc into the band context.

What came of this process are marvellous halfdigital songwriter albums such as Lali Puna’s “Scary World Theory” from 2001 or Masha Qrella’s “Unsolved Remained”, as well as the Tied & Tickled Trio’s boundless jazz landscapes around the two Notwist brothers Markus und Micha Acher. There are great new talents to discover, like the mighty Benni Hemm Hemm, Seabear and Borko from Island, the fragile songs by Butcher the bar from the U.K. or berlin residents Bobby & Blumm.

If you check out some of the Morr Music videos in particular, you might note many of these songs incorporate a sense of fun and super-intelligent (sometimes twisted) wit. This particular facet isn’t as obvious from listening to the music alone, so be sure to check out Invisible Machine by Electric President, it's pretty brilliant.

Beyond what we have included with this page (about a dozen mp3s and videos), you can explore the Morr video catalogue even further by searching out the sheer wealth of stuff they have up on YouTube…HOURS of fun!