KASEY TAYLOR – A TOUCH OF HISTORY
Those who have been in and around the dance music scene for any given amount of time, have definitely stumbled over the name Kasey Taylor. Hailing from Melbourne – Australia, Kasey began his DJ career at the age of 13 somewhere in the outback of his native land. 32 years on he’s become one of Australia’s biggest ever dance music exports, one of the most widely recognised DJ’s around the globe today, and one of most respected people amongst his peers.
To date, his career resume is an impressive read, ticking off gigs at almost every big show in Melbourne and having held residencies at every club worth noting.
In 1996, when John Digweed toured Australia for the first time, Kasey managed to impress him enough during a warm up set so much that he invited Kasey to play at his monthly Bedrock night at Heaven in London, which he did two years running back in 2000 and 2001. A night, and a brand, and an institution recognised by the underground dance music industry as one of the greatest in the world and still is to this present day. It’s the one gig of note that was the launchpad which kick started Kasey’s international career, and one he has fond memories of.
RECORD LABELS & LATEST NEWS (VAPOUR RECORDINGS / Lo-Fi-45 / EVAPOUR8)
For two decades now, Kasey has had the luxury of releasing music on his own label. ‘Vapour Recordings’, which he founded in 1997. The label is well over the 125 release landmark now and In the time since Kasey launched Vapour Recordings, the label has forged itself an enviable reputation, not only as one of Australia’s leading independent dance music labels, but the worlds too. You’ll find Vapour Recordings records very much prominent in DJ sets all around the world.
2004 saw Kasey launch another label titled ‘eVapour8’. A label dedicated mainly towards Tech House and Techno, and eVapour8 gained a fast reputation worldwide for releasing quality tunes, much like it’s sister label, Vapour Recordings.
Fast forward a decade to 2014, Kasey came up with the idea of a different philosophy to normal in terms of running ‘just another record label’ and decided to give back to the community that had given him so much over the years, therefore launching a brand new label, and that’s then when Lo-Fi-45 was born.
What was the reason for another new label you ask?
Well the ethos behind Lo-Fi-45 isn’t just about releasing great music, it also acts as a conduit to nurture and help new talent grow: “There are so many producers with great ideas, but they just can’t get them over the line or don’t have the self belief to finish them off, be it arrangement-wise, sonically, or both.” says Kasey. “We are going too take some of these people on board if their ideas fit the sound of the label, and help them get their ideas over the line. Our idea is to bring them into the studio, help them finish their tracks and then release them on our label. We really want to be known as the label that, not only gives producers their first opportunity, but also tries to help install the self belief they may require for them gain confidence in finishing their owns tracks as well as growing them into established artists.”
Lo-Fi-45 is now fully in the swing of things with releases happening every few weeks and the label has plucked some fantastic artists out of obscurity and brought them on board to help them build up their profiles and start to establish their place in the dance music community that they so each deserve. Artists like Retza, Steph Yeah (Karlisle), Lask just to mention a few, so watch this space as there is fresh new talent coming your way! 😉
In the 3 years while Kasey was working on setting up Lo-Fi-45, he took a break from producing music and running both Vapour and eVapour8. Now ready and refreshed again, Vapour Recordings is currently going through some rebranding and will be put into action for a relaunch in early 2019.
Kasey is also back in the studio and is working on lots of new tunes which will be coming your way from early 2019 onwards, so stay tuned, you won’t be disappointed…
www.facebook.com/kaseytaylorvapourrecords
www.soundcloud.com/kaseytaylor
www.instagram.com/kaseytaylor
www.mixcloud.com/kasey-taylor/