Label Spotlight: Public Release
Industrial design polymath and label boss Eugene Whang at Beats in Space
When talking about Bay Area-based record labels it’s impossible not to mention Public Release. It’s perhaps the most well-known recent SF brand with ties to the underground, not only as an imprint that releases music but as a creative house, a clothier, a visual arts firm and more, with industrial design polymath Eugene Whang at the helm.
Whang’s status as an elite designer at Apple has been well-documented in the pages of places like i-D and French Vogue, and his pedigree as tastemaker puts him in the same league as other design Renaissance men like Virgil Abloh, whom Whang has hosted via his FACE events in San Francisco. Why, then, is one of the most cutting-edge designers in the country - if not the world - pressing vinyl?
In 2009, Public Release began life as Private Release, a series of 12” singles featuring disco edits made by Whang’s friends Tim Sweeney (of Beats In Space fame) & Jacques Renault (Let’s Play House NYC), local heroes 40 Thieves & Conor and French producer Blackjoy, pressed on wonderfully-designed picture discs that set a yardstick for the future aesthetic of the label.
Eugene Whang DJs under the moniker Eug
After re-launching as Public Release in 2013 to feature original music by its artists, Whang then expands his crew to include releases from SoCal hippie disco mystic Woolfy, Renault and Whang’s friend Jeffrey Brodsky, whose “I’ll Be Strong” comes infused with reworks from a few suspects that would be come usual contributors to the label, like hypno-house don Mark E, electro soul boy Richard Sen and NYC fellow paisan Mike Simonetti, a group that begins to define the label’s sound as rooted in the fundamentals of house and disco but going into deeper and occasionally off-kilter directions.
This alignment with a certain faction of the dance music glitterati is buoyed by Whang as nightlife impresario, throwing fresh parties for younger and older generations who prefer an eclectic approach to music. Whether through his more prolific FACE parties regularly hosting the likes of DJ Harvey or the Soulwax brothers or poorly-advertised back-alley undergrounds in Chinatown only promoted via almost janky-looking telephone pole signs, Whang has cemented himself as the one to watch for events featuring the world’s best nu-disco fanatics.
Public Release/Face flyer
As the label enters the mid-2010s it begins to expand its production to include objects (including clothing) and broaden the art direction, bringing on visual artists to collab on killer projects like the 415-PR10 12” release featuring Barry McGee and four Bay Area-based producers including Dark Entries techno artist Bézier and obscure-disco maestro The Beat Broker. Most recently Whang collaborated with Japanese fragrance-lifestyle brand retaW to produce a candle that comes with McGee’s work from the 415 series printed on it. Why, vinyl, then? Turns out the decision is an easy one. As Whang said in an interview with Montreal fashion retail website Ssense.com, “My label presses vinyl because there are a lot of DJs that still use vinyl—I do too if the set up at the club is right. It can be so much better than scrolling through the shitty little screen on the CDJ.” Which sounds about right to us!
By the late 2010’s, the imprint kicks into high production gear, with releases from Moscow’s Phil Gerus, Earth Boys from Brooklyn, up-and-coming SF producer Anderson Chase and Canadian beatsmith Khotin among others. Never quite sticking to one area, the musical output is sometimes house, sometimes disco, sometimes techno, and often all three at once! As a recent PR-affiliated Balearic edits project (and t-shirt run to match) proclaims, “It’s not a genre, it’s a feeling!”
Keep an eye open for upcoming 2021 releases from Metropolitan Soul Museum and the “Transmute EP” which features remixes from Jex Opolis, Vin Sol & Matrixxman & Eric Duncan and check out Public Release on Soundcloud.
Back cover of forthcoming Transmute Remix EP
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