Geeeman / Clone Records / Dub Secrecy

Dropped on the Clone sub-label Jack For Daze, I’ve surprised myself by how much I’ve been rinsing this plate in the few weeks since it’s release. Some proper old-school Chicago tipped jack house from a new artist named Geeeman, who I can’t find anything about.

Unfortunately the only complete track on the web is Rubberband2, embedded above, but as dope as that is I’m all about the b-side on this one. You can check out the preview clips that I’ve linked to at the Rubadub site below.

A1. Rubberband2
B1. Ghost
B2. Computer Jacking

As you do I jumped on google to find out more about the guy behind the track, expecting to find the general wash of over-hyped press releases that proves you’re digital PR company’s worth the money. All I did succeed in finding was the two record store descriptions that originated at either Boomkat or Clone themselves. No radio shows, flyers from nights, shout-outs…nada.

I punched out a quick email to the guys at the label to see if they had a contact for Geeeman himself or were able to shed some light on the release and the response I got made my day/week/year. I’ve posted it below to share.

Hi Keith

good to hear you like that record 🙂
right now there is not much info about Geeeman that we can share.

Sorry about that!
Thanks for asking tho’!! You might have noticed that we stopped doing promotion since most things written don’t mean much anymore in most cases. Therefore we appreciate it extra when writters do contact us because they enjoy the music, and not because we shove the music down their throat and they just use it because its easy and they just follow the hype 🙂
Is there is something else we can help you with… let me know

have a great NYE!

Kind regards

A label like Clone with the ability saturate the house scene in press and reviews ceasing promotion is a step in the right direction for us all. Anyone on a PR list knows how much shit you get sent daily, and anyone releasing records in the current climate will know the stress of worrying about coverage in the lead-up to release date. The Clone policy has been to take themselves out of it altogether, and much like the days of old let the music speak for itself.

I dug a bit deeper and found out that they’d actually stopped promotions a year ago. Not to use the lack of it as a marketing tool or to build up even more hype but just because it was something they weren’t really in to. To quote a second email from Serge:

“…its just that we just don’t enjoy doing it, and most important it just doesn’t feel right for our music and our label. We are probably fortunate enough to be around long enough etc to be able to do it this way… so i don’t want to judge anyone who is promoting their music.”

Damn straight.

As someone who’s been guilty over hyping on our own releases and fretting about online coverage previously this carries some weight for me. Much like Firecracker / Unthank, Clone are doing it for the right reasons.

Conversely, you look at releases like Sicko Cell to represent London dubstep. A massive record that I can’t wait to get my hands on, but the fact that you’ve got a select few baiting people online that they won’t share who it is is a bit off for me. One thing to shy away from press or have your own dubplate, another to boast about hording knowledge from the record buying public.

Mind you, this is nothing new. My favorite story relates to Coxsone Dodd of Studio One scratching the label information off Willis ‘Gator’ Jackson‘s Later for the Gator, renaming it Coxsone Hop and winning a small battle in the war of supremacy against Treasure Island Soundsystem, fronted by Duke Reid.

If house music is built on openness and fraternity and ‘dub’ is built on secret weapons, perhaps the more things change, the more they stay the same.