Why didn't Ogazón put out her own music first?
When Ogazón finally turned her stack of dubplates into a proper label, she skipped the obvious move. The imprint carries her own name, self-titled, but catalogue number OGZ001 belongs to someone else entirely: South African producer Deano. For years, the Berlin-based selector has cut acetates of music friends sent her, tracks that lived only in her sets at rooms like Panorama Bar, Bassiani, Dekmantel and Houghton. Starting a label with someone else's record first is a statement in itself: this isn't a vanity press for her own productions, it's a vinyl home for music she already trusted enough to play.
"I've been cutting dubplates of unreleased music for years," Ogazón told Groove, describing the habit that eventually forced the next step.
What's actually on "Reasons"?
Deano's four-track EP, out November 20 on 12-inch vinyl through Clone, moves across the same ground Ogazón's own sets do. It opens with a techno cut built for closing hours, eases into the spacious "Black Pearl," pivots to lead single "Radix," a jackin', piano-led groove, and closes on the chord-driven house of "Matter To Me." Deano has previously released on the Berlin label Hayes; "Reasons" is his first outing on a brand new imprint built specifically to champion names like his.
Who gets to open a new label?
That's the real pitch behind Ogazón: house and techno "made from the dancefloor to the dancefloor," with early slots reserved for producers whose music hasn't found a home yet rather than the DJ's own back catalogue.
