Off The Record is back for the 49th mix in its series! As we near half way to the golden centennial mix our eyes move over to two of the UK’s deepest diggers and independent musical minds.
Stuart Leath aka Chuggy is commonly known for his work running the very excellent Emotional Response / Emotional Rescue imprints as well as a few other note worthy projects and Piers Harrison – part of the Brighton four piece Soft Rocks with a mountain work out in the world as well as being a very solid selector; together they make up the Mysticisms label.
Mysticisms is an imprint that seems to focus on digging deep into the old as well as discovering the new and fleeting into obscure sounding club sounds. With a bag of certified legends like Persian and Nail along with more recent fresh names like Deep Dean & Coral D the label has perked ears from some of the biggest DJs in the game, not forgetting enticing the eyes with a solid visual aesthetic to match.
For Off The Record #49 Leath & Harrison put together some choice tracks from the label new and old. Mixed by Harrison it is a perfect calling card for the label and really showcases what its all about. We had a brief chat about the label, the mix and what the two had coming up in the later half of 2024.
Hey Stuart & Piers, thanks for joining us! Can you tell us about your mix and what the idea behind it was?
Piers: When Stuart told me we’d been asked to do a Phonica mix, my first thought was to include a load of my new discoveries and edits. Then he suggested to me (incorrectly) that it wasn’t “the Piers Harrison show” but a chance to showcase Mysticisms. So I sulked like a petulant child for a couple of hours, then started listening to some of our releases and got quite excited about the idea.
Stuart: Running a label is quite like curating and seeing the tracks spread from across the label is great. Piers is a great DJ so passing him that task was easy.
Can you tell us a bit about how you usually approach recording a mix or a set?
Piers: Recording this mix was a little different. I’m generally not one for looking back, so it was refreshing to remind myself of the Mysticisms back catalogue. I included a couple of forthcoming things, both the best and worst-selling releases, some of the well-received pieces of music, and some that were a little overlooked. Also, it had to be a blend of reissues and new stuff.
Persian needed to be in there as he’s the real cornerstone of the label, and I wanted to include Vertigo Inc., one of my favourite artists. Obviously, due to time, there are loads of things that I left out. But doing this has made me realise we have a pretty cool record label. It’s actually been worth enduring Stuart’s sociopathic working practices all these years.
Stuart: Piers did the mix as I was DJing at the Field Manoeuvres festival, but it’s really like a reggae style “Showcase” for the label. We decided to do a broad brush of the music the label champions so you can get a flavour of what Mysticisms is about. Piers is right; Persian has been a cornerstone. He did our debut EP, and we’ve done four releases with the allusive Peter, two of the main label and two on Dubplate series. The guy’s a genius. And yes, the label is kind of cool. It looks good, too. If you want to buy a T-Shirt, message me!
What are your preferred methods for finding new music—do you still enjoy digging around in dusty crates, or do you prefer to buy online?
Piers: All of the above. I like record shops and record dealers, and I use Discogs, eBay and Bandcamp. I’m old enough to remember when vinyl and record shops were the only option, so I don’t see myself as a “digger” in any sense. That was just how you got your music.
Stuart: I think Piers gets his hands dirty more than I do. He has a refreshing way of selling a lot of his records once he feels is done with them, so keeps it at a constantly rotating but healthy amount, while I am total hoarder and have way too many. I am still buying, too much really. It’s a mix, stores or online. I get sent a lot of files which is nice (thanks all!) Plan is to start selling them one by one soon.
You’ve worked on a lot of great labels and projects over the years, what was the initial concept behind Mysticisms and has it stuck to this vision or do you find the concept growing?
Piers: Initially, Mysticisms was just a house label but a really broad one. If it makes sense to us, we’ll put it out. So we’ve done quite deep, weird leftfield house and then straight US house to filter disco. It’s a broad church. y’know.
More recently, we’ve expanded with the Dubplate series that takes in more dub-infused, downtempo sounds. Reggae is one of our greatest loves, so exploring that world is brilliant.
Stuart: The original concept of Mysticisms most definitely had some fun behind it. I’m not sure exactly when the conversation started but I think is just Piers and I being friends for quite a long, long time. I’ve had almost 10 labels over the years – some not attributed to me, which is kinda cool. But it’s all music, just facets of taste. Mysticisms came a good 5-6 years after I started the Emotional labels (Emotional Rescue / Emotional Response) and it’s as much “a let’s see how far this can go” but keeping a level of consistency high so there is some kind of standard or legacy that opens new ears and minds to some good music.
Ignore his sociopath comment (I do); I’m just good at the work behind the scenes that makes a label tick along, and it needs one (special) person running that. The direction, the logo, the artwork. I wanted the logo to be silly but it’s turned out to be one of my favourites. What house label in its right mind has semi-pagan and kind of occult imagery? Piers is more happy-go-lucky on that side and lets me “control the vision” (ha), but he is fantastic at coming up with creative ideas for the releases. He’s always suggesting musical avenues, and then we decide what’s next.
At first it was a split between new producers and reissues and it’s bumbled along ever since. The sound had diversified to include balearic, beatdown, street soul or whatever, thanks to a few Double Packs allowing us to explore an artist’s catalogue more.
As Piers says the newish Dubplate series has spread the label into dub, in many forms. At first it was because we both loved digidub and for years it had a bad reputation but that seems to of changed and now it’s kind of hip. A great aspect of doing a label is you get to work with hero’s, for us it’s been Nail, Scientist and the label Digidub itself. The great thing is this series is proving as or more popular than the standard releases.
What has been one of your most memorable sets over your career?
Piers: Precious Hall in Sapporo, Japan, is, without a doubt, the best club I have ever played at. I was lucky enough to DJ a few times at Cocktail D’Amore at Griessmuehle in Berlin, and it felt like one of the greatest parties on the planet at that time.
But sometimes smaller things can be really special; Rotation festival last year was near enough perfect – the music played itself, really. Anywhere you get that connection and flow state can be beautiful, regardless of how small or unassuming the venue is.
Stuart: So favourite gig, I would say the times I played at CockTail D’Amore at Griessmuehle were supreme as well. We were never there together but both loved that club. I did the basement a few times as part of my Emotional Especial label. All vinyl, playing all night until sunrise for a super open minded and “up for it” crowd. Doesn’t get better and shame the club got turned into offices! I should give a shout out to the Sameheads crew in Berlin too. Some great nights there. Special mention to an after party in a basement in a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco about 10 years back. That set just came together so nicely going back to back with a master mixer in label compadre, Jamie Paton.
What do you have up your sleeve for 2024?
Stuart: Well, we have reached 20 releases so we are doing a Sampler just like we did for number 10. And then we have 4 great EPs lined up. A second EP from Elements Of Life. The first went down so well and now we are looking at the rest of their releases from 1994. Proper 90s NYC house vibes with one track being a big DJ Harvey play back in his Ministry of Sound residency days, that will be edited to create a new and better DJ version.
Then we have the wonderful Tranquil Elephantizer coming with a reissue of their debut EP. It’s a disco-house banger from 95. Super London proto nu-disco sound. Following that is some Trance from 1993, with early demo tracks from Doof. Very trendy and on-point I must say. We did a great Dubplate dub-style release of Doof recently, and it did so well that we thought there was more of Nick Barber’s music that needed highlighting. Finally, new music from the wonky Vertigo Inc. out of Canada. On the Dubplate series we have the Digidub EP from the South East London label circa 1992 squat party scene, coming out in a month or so and some more bits we are working on.
And there are plans for an edits off shoot. Watch this space! See, I told you I do the “real” work. Maybe 2025 we’ll do a B2B DJing somewhere…open to offers. It’s been great fun to do the label so thanks for having us here.
Piers: Aside from Mysticisms business, I’ve done a remix of Ghost Assembly with Brian Not Brian for Ruf Kutz, which will be released soon. That’s getting a lot of love. I’m also helping my mate Harri Pierson get more of his edits out.
