The ever-enthusiastic Dom Martin explains all on the eclectic and eccentric operations of the pioneering Polytechnic Youth label
No stranger to relentlessly releasing records on a micro-industrial scale since the 1990s, notably with the all-encompassing Earworm and The Great Pop Supplement as well as the with the still-nominally-ongoing kosmische-meets-psych-dispensing Deep Distance, Dominic ‘Dom’ Martin is an independent label legend in and beyond his corner of Crouch End. Latterly Martin has, with his ever-reliable Polytechnic Youth imprint, somewhat inadvertently been at the curatorial vanguard for a new wave of electronic sound-makers.
Exploring the boundaries of non-digital music formats (with ultra-limited 5”, 7” and 8” lathe-cuts as well as the occasional cassette and even VHS tape release alongside regular pressed-vinyl products) wrapped in imaginatively-assembled packaging, Polytechnic Youth bares its founder’s fingerprints at every stage. Most importantly though, Martin’s A&R skills remain incredibly consistent, to the point that many PY followers trust his ears enough to turn new releases into rapid-fire-sell-outs with only a brief skim-read of his effusive out-of-the-blue mailouts.
Through all this scholarly sonic-sifting we’ve therefore been treated to choice wares from synth-pop provocateurs (Detox Twins, Groupuscule), electro-minimalists (Volume Groop, Dialectric), dark-wave riders (Mitra Mitra), buoyant retro-futurists (Listening Center, Cité Lumière, Gabe Knox), ambient-techno shapeshifters (The Home Current, Polypores), industrial-noir noise-sculptors (Perrache), hauntological conjurers (Faten Kanaan, The Heartwood Institute), sci-fi soundscapers (Dream Division, Adderall Canyonly), motorik groove-cutters (Australian Testing Labs Inc, Melodien), blissful space-pop explorers (Tomorrow Syndicate) and plenty more besides.
Conversing via email, towards the twilight of another prolific year and before the start of another even more ambitious annum ahead, Dom Martin was happy to give some insight behind the scenes of his always open Polytechnic Youth club.
What were your primary motivations in starting-up and running Polytechnic Youth in the first place?
I began Polytechnic Youth in 2014, and to be totally honest I had no idea how it would pan out; whether it would fold after a handful of releases or have some kind of longevity to it. Whilst running labels for close on 25 years now, I’d always wanted to do something where I could release the minimal synth stuff I loved in my teens rather than just the odd isolated 45 on an ‘anything goes’ label.
Polytechnic Youth began as a sibling offshoot of your Deep Distance and The Great Pop Supplement imprints, did you ever foresee it becoming your primary focus, with the former being pared-back and the latter closing down?
Ha! Not really, I don’t want to say too much here but it’s safe to assume that when one of my labels ever ‘closed down’ it almost always wasn’t by choice. Let’s just say there is an organisation out there who don’t like labels like mine who ‘pay’ their artists in a percentage of finished vinyl. That bypasses those mercenaries who want their pound of flesh! It did seem to naturally evolve into being the primary focus quite quickly. The fact that I could do lathe-cut 45s (with our adage of ‘masters off on a Monday, pressed and sold out by a Friday’) just boosted output crazily quick and almost before we could blink we were up to PY20 or something. Then just the clamour for more kinda edged PY to the forefront of everything here!
The lathe-cut releases have been the collector’s choice part of PY operations and I’ve often been impressed by the ingenuity and high quality of their manufacture at a time when properly-pressed vinyl singles can be so variable in their reliability. Have you been surprised how well they’ve turned out too?
Yes, indeed. You might have heard me say elsewhere that PY only started when a mate jacked in a current job, put all his savings into buying – and going out to Germany personally to collect – a cutting lathe direct from its designer. It’s a lot more common nowadays but 5 years ago it was quite a thing and an idea we had to jump on. PY1 was a 20-copy lathe-cut 45 that another mate recorded, then with a logo designed by Trouble in Mind’s Bill Roe, we were up and running.
It’s not so much that ‘properly’ pressed 45s’ quality was unreliable, it’s just that manufacturing costs were crazy. People talk now of why no one is pressing 45s anymore, it’s cos they cost the same as bloody LPs and take as long to press, and yet unless you’re without morals (majors on RSD?), you can only charge pretty much what they cost to cut. So, while lathe cuts are also expensive, at least there’s the individuality of each one cut separately often dressed in nice hand done packaging – and people often tell me they’re more like ‘art objects’ which is cool!
You said in Electronic Sound recently that “my heart most definitely lies with the single” although you’ve put out a lot of albums as well as singles. Had the manufacturing economics been easier would you have preferred to have kept PY as a more 7”-centric affair? What makes the format so special to you?
Yes, definitely. Of course, I’d still release the LPs that I’ve done, but you’d have seen far more singles for sure. It’s an easier format within which to apply more imagination for sleeve and packaging ideas. Even at home, both mine and my girlfriend’s collections are top-heavy with singles over albums and 12s. Who knows why, but for me it’s why I could happily spend four figures on a Velvets’ 45 or a Japanese Stooges single but think it was absurd on an LP – i.e. unexplainable collector nonsense!
You’ve come up with many imaginative sleeve designs and inserts for some PY releases over the years yourself. How do you put them together and where have you drawn your cues from? There’s a very distinct late-70s-early-80s education-technological meets post-punk vibe to a lot of them…
As I said previously really, I just think 45s by their nature allow packaging ideas that LPs don’t. I’m specifically thinking of die-cutting, tracing paper and acetate sheet overlay ‘sleeves’ not to mention things like the clamshell-like fold in sleeve I did on The GPS for the Spacemen 3 & MGMT single. You’re spot on to describe that feel to some of the sleeve art, it’s one I deliberately seek as I feel it’s an accurate ‘in’ towards the music within and aligned to the sounds on the label in the most part – and harks back to that era of experimental electronic music that I am a sucker for, the imagery of brutalist architecture allied to home recorded very lo-fi DIY synth stuff in hand made sleeves and so on….
What has inspired the more eccentric PY catalogue format entries; like Tomorrow Syndicate’s VHS tape compilation, the 5” as well as 8” lathe singles, the inside-out vinyl grooves experiments and – of course – the pale ale?
Often, it’s the bands themselves that have the ideas for some of the wackier things – Gerard Tomorrow Syndicate for example, shares my love for the wackier non-vinyl stuff like VHS tapes and the ales! The odder vinyl shapes and playing methods are down to me – if cutting genius Phil [Macy at 3.45rpm] has devised something that “might be possible” we’ve always wanted to be the ones to try it out! Hence 5″ picture discs, and inside out playback etc…
Off-piste formats aside, there has been a sense of mischief and mystery to some lower-key PY releases, with several artists trading under pseudonyms and exploring eccentric concepts. How important has that been to the label’s character?
It must seem like there’s an occasional air of mischief, but it’s not always intentional! Almost all stems from the artists themselves who happily devise different alter-egos and ‘old Cologne 1975 street market finds of C60 tapes of discarded electronic music’ ideas which I’m told to run with!
You’ve even made your own split 7” vinyl debut, as one-off half of synth-duo Mass Defect a few years back. Was that a life wish fulfilled and might you do something like that again one day?
Exactly that, yes. Alan [Outram] in Morecambe (Volume Groop/Diana Cools/Xyzips) kindly opened his chamber of Moogs and synths for me one day – it was his sprinkling of magic that acted as the glue to that one…
As a big record hunter-gathered yourself, what do you feel are the most crucial things about the way you run PY, in terms of the relationship between the label, the artists and the fans?
Certainly, more than any label previously, there’s a really nice feel of unity amongst all connected with PY. Artists talk of it “being nice to join the PY family” so often now, that maybe there is something to it?! Added to a core of several hundred buying everything and people daily asking about mailing list places, and while people speak so glowingly about all the releases, it’s a very lucky situation to be in!
Are you sometimes staggered about which releases have become such collector’s items in the Discogs realm? Do you know which are the most valuable?
I’d be lying if I didn’t look once in a while, yeah. Some of the lathe-cuts are pretty hot now, but as we often say with collector mates – don’t be fooled by what people are asking, it’s whether they’re actually reaching those prices and selling. I’m think of the ambitious French fella asking £700 for the Mitra Mitra lathe-cut on Discogs currently! Got to stress I sincerely only have one of each at home, sadly. No spares here…
Do you feel less out on a limb compared to when PY began, given the rise of more likeminded labels, live events featuring some of your bigger artists and the now more receptive media ecosystem that includes Electronic Sound magazine as well as websites like Concrete Islands?
When I started PY, I did wonder if anyone else had any interest in a new unknown label who had a love for Fad Gadget, early-Cabs, John Bender and Transparent Illusion etc etc… Happily, we’ve proved that lots of people do and that is seemingly shared by your good selves, a few other (much bigger) labels and most definitely Electronic Sound magazine, which has really been a breath of fresh air.
Where do you think the renewed interest and exploration for the types of electronic music that PY has championed has come from?
Well, thankfully, I think there are still those who follow (as most people I know did when first buying records) some kind of lineage, i.e. a current band now might namedrop The Normal’s 45 or mention early-Human League or early Gary Numan as an influence and then enjoy discovering those old gems for a first time, but also I would imagine a large chunk of the PY audience are people like myself in their 40s and 50s whose love for that stuff never died in the first place.
At this stage how much active A&R scouting around do you undertake? Is it now much more of a case of sifting through reliable tip-offs and negotiating with previously-established contributors to the PY catalogue?
Actually, surprisingly little – although I’m forever sent links to Bandcamp pages and online demos, it’s so word of mouth just now that I fill a year’s release schedule without trying too hard, in next to no time. Friends of friends as you say…
Is it a challenge keeping pace with the works of certain PY artists who can be so prolific?
It can be yes – Martin Home Current to name one, could release an album a month I reckon, no sweat! Bernard Grancher and I spoke about it, he has to almost reach out to other labels just to keep his stuff ticking over nicely – and the age old thing of an LP’s production time often taking so long that an artist can have something even fresher good to go as you’re releasing the first one…
You’ve been reissuing some of DIY godfather Colin Potter’s works amongst new things. Would you like to do more archival projects for him and others further down the line?
Colin’s become a pal over recent years. I’ve actually released I think, four of his LPs now – all of which were from 81-to-83 give or take (and recorded in a tiny Yorkshire village a mile up the road to where my dad lived) and released on cassette only. A real nice fella and it’s great that people now know all those great records not just his current work with Nurse With Wound. Just by chance, as I write this, I am negotiating the reissue of the two great Futurisk 45s from 1980 and 1982 as seven-inches for 2020. It’s definitely an area of interest yes, so let’s see…!
There have been little or no digital tie-ins with your physical output, aside from what artists do themselves on Bandcamp and elsewhere. Is this something that you would ever aspire to do more of, to give rapid-selling-out PY releases more accessibility and afterlife or can you not face the extra admin and so forth that goes with it?
No, I get slated a bit by some for not doing more on the digital side. Although there is the stubbornness for the ‘vinyl only’ thing, mainly it’s a) that PY is only me and in conjunction with an unconnected job elsewhere, design/planning/releasing the record then the accompanying 674 post office trips takes up all my time and b) I do believe any incoming earnings digitally that might come in, should go to the artists so I let them take care of that side. So more often than not, digital is in place, just not organised by me.
You’ve been putting out records since the mid-90s starting with your time at Enraptured and then running Earworm before The Great Pop Supplement, Deep Distance and Polytechnic Youth. What do you think has kept you going at it so long? Have you ever had difficult phases where you’ve questioned whether you can keep it going?
Yes, because someone asked recently, I worked it out to be around 500 records in 25 years – and when you see a list of those bands, it’s been incredible really. Some real big guns in there, several musical heroes and people who’ve gone on to become good mates, all included. I kind of feel that almost, ‘it’s what I do now’. I’ve just got used to it really and the challenge of keeping things fresh and interesting and that feeling when you hit on something absolutely killer that I’ve been allowed to release, is still a real buzz. Of course, there have been difficult phases, but one huge plus point is something I’d never take for granted: my several hundred strong, very loyal, mailing list [members] who make it not only possible but still incredibly worthwhile!
What has become easier and what has become harder about running a label over the last two decades or so?
I guess the actual pressing part has become easier – you get to know a few of the plants and the faces at the go-between agents, then you know all the shops having done it so long. The hardest thing I have always found from 1995/6 to present is promo – I’ve done that thing whereby you pay out hundreds of quid to a publicity/promo guy only to find he’s mostly reaching the same people I am anyway, so that can be quite demoralising. Also, a current bugbear [are] 6Music DJs who don’t play vinyl on their show! Added to a position I often find myself in whereby you feel you owe it to a band to do as much promo as possible but then 72 hours after offering out their LP, it’s totally sold out and you’ve none left to promote with – which is of course a good thing mostly despite maybe sounding a bit arsey!
If push comes to shove what have been your personal favourite PY releases to date?
Off the top of my head I feel that Gabe Knox and Detox Twins/Vorderhaus have ‘the PY sound’ nailed down more than most and I love all their stuff, but Middex, Australian Testing Labs, Tomorrow Syndicate… all winners! There’s been nothing that wasn’t a joy to do….
What have been things that got away and/or you wished you been able to release over the last few years?
Very much in the wishful thinking vein; a volume of the Kosmischer Laufer thing maybe; maybe the John Bender boxset that Vinyl on Demand did…. Oh, and removed from PY, the upcoming No Other box set 4AD are doing by Gene Clark. Some of the Popol Vuh reissues of course….
What can we expect to see and hear from PY in 2020?
One thing I’m definitely aiming to do is more 7″ – not so much lathe-cuts but ‘properly’ pressed, wider-scale 300/500 pressing 45s. I’m going to see how I get on biting that financial bullet I mentioned for singles earlier. I was in Rough Trade Portobello recently and was alarmed to see just 2 boxes of 7s out now. That shop was pure gold as I was growing up, buying handfuls regularly, taking punts on unknown but Rough Trade-recommended stuff. It’s heart-breaking in a way – and perhaps not particularly business-minded as I should perhaps take that as a lesson to the ‘failing’ 7 but let’s see. Call it a trial ruin maybe – but 7s upcoming from Gabe Knox, Tomorrow Syndicate and Dream Division. Alongside LPs by Alexandre Bazin, Wladyslaw Trejo, Polypores, The Home Current, Oxykitten, amongst others….
An abridged Polytechnic Youth beginner’s guide:
Below is a personalised pick of highlights from the Polytechnic Youth catalogue in an approximate chronological order to seek out.
Albums/mini-albums:
Various Artists – They Make No Say (early-singles compilation)
Faten Kanaan – The Botanist & The Archaeologist
Vic Mars – The Consumer Programme
Listening Center – Example One
Australian Testing Labs Inc – Music for Aircooled Motoring
Polypores – Timeholes 2
The Home Current – Another Way of Falling Apart
Dialectric – ‘Phase’
The Heartwood Institute – Secret Rites
Cité Lumière – Le Songe De Kepler
Various Artists – Popcorn Lung (compilation)
Gabe Knox – ABC
Melodien – Enantiodromia
Adderall Canyonly – Museum of Fire
Tomorrow Syndicate – Citizen Input
Perrache – ‘Barriere in Movimento’
Dream Division – Transcend
5”, 7” & 12″ Singles:
Detox Twins – “Passport To Leipzig” b/w “Einhorn Suicide”
Groupuscule – “Je Suis Marxiste” b/w “Imagine: C’est La Guerre”
The Home Current – “Wix” b/w “When Silence Fell Quiet”
Mitra Mitra – “Indecisive Split Decision” b/w “Heat”
The Assistant – Ways of Seeing EP
Listening Center – Then It Was Now
The Assistant – “Gristleizer” b/w “Nothing On”
Tomorrow Syndicate – “Into the Void” b/w “X For the Unknown”
Billy Coté – “Excerpt: Place (Girlghost1)” b/w “Cloudsx Trans 5 (Girlghost2)”
The Assistant / British Experimental Rocket Group (BERG) – Death Line vs Quatermass 2
Detox Twins – “My Situation” b/w “Dreaming of Florida”
The Home Current – “Red Ice” b/w “River Keeper”
- Not Turning Off: Volume 53 - March 26, 2024
- Not Turning Off: Volume 52 - February 22, 2024
- Not Turning Off: Volume 51 - February 5, 2024