May 2004
We originally decided to go to Greece after hearing some
interesting Greek CDs namely Mikro's album and material from Electroware
and we were told that there were many undiscovered labels out there. So
the One World Team jumped on a plane to Athens and met up with our host
Paras Gravouniotis from Costa Urbana to find out as much as we could in
the two days we had there.
 First
stop was in the centre of old Athens at Monastiraki where we met up with
one of the pioneers of the Greek electronic independent music scene, Yannis
Papaioannou. Yannis was the founder of the first electronic label Elfish
Records and set up the band RAW in the early 90's. He told us all about
the scene past and present and then pointed us in the direction of some
useful labels and venues.
Being radio people our next stop was to find the number
1 radio DJ in Athens who turned out to be DJ Romylos who ran the Love Parade
in Athens as well as his own record label iGroove Records. Romylos told
us all about how breakbeat was gaining ground in Athens. Then we hooked
up with a well connected Freelance Journalist, Natalie who gave us the
low down on beach life and clubbers in Athens.
::: Check
out the pictures from Greece
Our next meeting was with DJ Free and Lo Fi who run the
Hellectronica club night in Athens. Lo Fi was impressed to know that we
knew John Peel and asked incessant questions about him. Then Lo Fi took
us to a record shop to buy some Rebeteka music. Rebeteka music is basically
Greek blues music which talks almost purely about hashish!
Stocked up with the best Rebetika LPs we could find we
went to the other side of town, Gazi, for the Greek Labels Audition Night
which was held at a venue called Bios. It was here that we heard our first
set of live Greek electronica including music from Naono, Nixs and Electrodouche
which turned out to be much better than we expected - much like the Greek
women!
 Early
start the next morning as awoke to the sounds of Nixs remix of Nancy Sinatra,
'Bang Bang' - perfect for getting out of bed to! We went off to meet Dimitris
Papaioannou, the Artistic Director of the Sync Festival which we reckon
could be the new Sonar! Next it was time for us to blow loads of money
in the record shops. Our favourite by far was the Vinyl Microstore which
was run by the people who run Pop Art Records and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Records. Here we conducted more interviews with label managers as well
as grabbing renowned electronic artist Coti.
After a brief visit to the British Council we then headed
off to Bios to hook up with yet more labels and another electronica showcase.
In this time your team sampled a fantastic Greek delicacy of Anthotoro
and Rakomela and were photographed and interviewed by the Time Out in Athens!
We really enjoyed our trip to Athens and came back with
a shed load of music which will be featured in tonight's show. We hope
you enjoy the experience of discovering Greek electonica as much as we
did.
Finally thanks to all the labels and to Paras Gravouniotis
of polyglotta/CostaUrbana for being such a teriffic host.
One World Team. (Paul and Hermeet) |
