Label Love #83: Yappin’

I met the two ebullient German producers and DJs in a café located in the heart of Dalston on a bitterly cold and gloomy November day. Better known under their musical monikers, DJ Slyngshot and DJ Neewt, these two guys are behind the creation of one of Offenbach’s most interesting music projects: Yappin’ Records.

The duo first became acquainted with one another after attending various listening sessions at Robert Johnson, arguably one of Germany’s most impressive electronic music venues. After exchanging tracks and talking further, their mutual fascination with music precipitated the establishment of Yappin’ Records. The project was conceived in 2014, during the time when Slyngshot was studying at an arts school in Offenbach and Neewt was studying psychology.

Whilst at university, Slyngshot, Neewt and four friends set up a party called ISO in reaction to the dearth of local nightlife events beyond Robert Johnson and the occasional off-location rave. It was a small, autonomous project that would become a wellspring of ideas and sharing music, housed somewhat illicitly within an old art studio on the university campus. As the six of them were all DJs and producers, they wanted to focus on the quality of the sound, whilst creating a warm and intimate vibe with no frills.

“We wanted to offer people diverse programming and interesting music. A place where people could get in easily without dealing with grumpy bouncers and drinks were only a few bucks. An open, independent and diverse place where we could play any music we were into and book anyone we found interesting. Kind of like Yappin’, in a way.”

Over the course of nearly two years, they had engineered a miniature club; building a DJ booth encased in acrylic glass which protected an expensive Rane MP2016 mixer, removing windows so they could fit air conditioning and even installing a midi-controlled light system replete with vintage bulbs that could be lit in synchrony to the beat of the music.

The events had a certain air of art-school flair, with writers tagging the walls and a bar space populated by young artists mingling under a nebulous cloud of smoke. The six of them played as residents in these parties, but they also booked artists such as DJ Fett Burger, Aufgang B, Gerd Janson and Jon Rust, to name a few.

“Even though the project turned out surprisingly high quality, it was still one hundred percent DIY. We had to mop the floors and clean the messy toilets right after all the guests left. Sometimes the party would run until eight in the morning and the first class meeting was scheduled for 10am.”

These early parties, curated in their self-funded and self-made miniature club, gave shape to their label, Yappin’ Records, and spurred Slyngshot and Neewt into pursuing their musical careers further. Through mouthfuls of coffee, Slyngshot explains to me:

"I thought of Yappin’ mainly as a platform to release whatever we were into. Both of us are from a rock music background. We both used to play in bands. So, we were really familiar with the whole home recording, DIY culture.”

At the inchoate stages of their musical careers, the experience of doing band rehearsals with shoddy equipment, home recording their music and playing gigs for meagre fees first established their familiarity with DIY culture. Subsequently, after a period of university research on the rise of 80s cassette culture, the home recording movement and their corresponding sonic aesthetics, Slyngshot was inspired to start a label. In the beginning, before becoming slightly less DIY and having vinyl records pressed, the project fathered six cassette EPs. Slyngshot even printed and cut the inlays at university, alongside dubbing most of the cassettes at home with a double tape deck.