Tse Tse Fly Middle East, a Dubai-based platform that supports experimental musicians and sound artists in the region, will be releasing its debut album with a UK-based record label, Must Die Records, later this year.
The signing occurred after Tse Tse Fly members curated and performed at the Other Worlds Festival opening night in April, which they had been planning for with festival organizers Rick Thompson and Carlito Juanito. The founders of Must Die Records then offered to release the album.“We were all pretty stoked after Tse Tse Fly opened up Other Worlds this year and didn’t want it to end,” said Thompson. “We love what they are doing and we want more folk to experience what Tse Tse Fly has to offer.”
The album, titled “Easy Listening Vol. 1” will comprise of contributions from several members of the Tse Tse Fly collective, which includes; Abu Dhabi-based US multimedia artists Johnny Farrow and Isaac Sullivan, Lebanese artist Nour Sokhon, Red Bull Academy alumni and Bahrain-born Hasan Hujairi, Dubai-based noise producer Black Line, and Tse Tse Fly founder Simon Coates.
“We’d already chatted among ourselves about making an album, so when Rick offered to release something on the Must Die label, the timing couldn’t have been better,” said Coates. “Plus the label’s motivation is very much like ours: we all do what we do because we want to. Not for any other reason.”
Must Die Records was founded in 2010 and is an experimental record label that provides an eclectic assortment of audio experiments, ambience, and sounds. They are recognized for their wide-ranging roster that includes South Korean/Japanese duo Tengger, space-pop futurists Tirikilatops, and noisemaker Left Hand Cuts Off the Right.
“There’s a strong DIY ethic at Must Die that also resonates with our own view on things,” said Coates. “We built Tse Tse Fly ourselves from the ground up, and Rick and Carlito have done the same with their label. It all makes perfect sense.”
The album, which will be available from Must Die Records by late September, will have both a CD and digital download version, and there will also be a limited edition collector’s vinyl that will be produced via a crowd funding campaign and includes artwork from members of the Tse Tse Fly collective.
