- 2015 was a huge, sweaty, warehouse-stomping year for Mord. On the release front, boss man Bas Mooy coaxed out nine EPs from techno veterans like Exium, Sleeparchive and Echologist, while welcoming into the fold new acts like A001 and Endlec. The Rotterdam outpost also released its first album—Life, by Berlin-based Frenchman UVB—and hit the road hard, with label nights all over Europe. For anyone in the techno community that didn't know Mord before, there was no excuse for playing dumb now.
Then, in December, Herdersmat dropped like a bomb. Most labels would balk at the idea of a seven-record release, but Mooy relished the challenge. "Most people told me not to do it," he confided over email. "But usually that triggers me even more to go for it." It highlights the kind of risks Mooy is willing to take with Mord, and how much confidence he invests in the artists and music he champions.
Mord is very much an extension of Mooy's own tastes, with a label strategy based on gut feeling. He curates it much like his Strictly Techno parties, he says, placing emphasis on finding and nurturing new talent. There's no Mord sound, he insists, as it's more about "different artists who all have their own unique sound." And it's true. A UVB track is resoundingly distinctive—"Someone Calling" is no exception here—and staples like Charlton, Lag and W.I.R.E. all have their own thing going on. Nonetheless, you know you've got a Mord record when you hear one, thanks to something that goes much deeper than mere style.
Herdersmat, then, is about as close to a label vision as we're going to get from Mord. The package comprises 28 tracks of peak-time bangers assembled with little else in mind than tearing up the floor. There are no hierarchies here. Newcomers like Miro Lopasso and 3.14 nestle up with regulars Radial, UVB, Endlec, W.I.R.E., Ansome, Charloton, Lag and Mooy himself. Also enlisted were rising talents not associated with the label, like Damcase, Clouds, Sunil Sharpe and Eomac, alongside better-known names such as Oscar Mulero, Rebekah and ROD.
Plucking individual tracks from the glut of Herdersmat's material doesn't really do it justice, but there are a few of standouts. You've got Eomac's ravey, old-school-R&S sound on "Phisk," classic dystopian Ansome in "Tony," proper squiggly business from Damcase, punchy and mean things from Lag, industrious and driving transmissions by Myler, searing, bleepy weirdness from Ritzi Lee and probably the most brutal thing we've ever heard from SHXCXCHCXSH. In truth, it's all good if ardent techno weaponry is your thing—there's plenty here to choose from. But aside from its scale, the most impressive thing about Herdersmat is its brutal simplicity. There are no tricks, no conceits. It is what is: a towering monument to what Mord has achieved so far, and the sort of ambitious standards we can expect from Mooy in the future.
TracklistPart 1:
A1 Shards - MRDMRDMRD
A2 Radial - Cru
B1 Ansome - Tony
B2 Kwartz - Roots
Part 2:
C1 Sleeparchive - Evicted
C2 UVB - Someone calling cut
D1 Bas Mooy - Owl in Daylight
D2 Damcase - Low fx to aux
Part 3:
E1 Ritzi Lee - Sonic Sense
E2 Eomac - Phisk
F1 Endlec - Hard Education
F2 Museum - Slope
Part 4:
G1 Oscar Mulero - Liner
G2 SHXCXCHCXSH - MRD
H1 Lag - Varijacije
H2 Miro Lopasso - Beneath
Part 5:
I1 Clouds - Healthy Rapid
I2 Rebekah - Orbital
J1 DJ Boss - Trolley
J2 Myler - Love for Hire
Part 6:
K1 Sunil Sharpe - Magpie Science
K2 3.14 - Epivitor
L1 Paul Birken - Cracking Handfed
L2 Pinion - Sifting
Part 7:
M1 The Transhumans - Zero-Point Field
M2 ROD - Betrayed by love
N1 Ontal - Deflection
N2 W.I.R.E. - Crucible