Fault Radio Label Spotlight: Warm Fiction
Boutique label Warm Fiction, launched in 2017 in San Francisco by recent emigrant Joey Larko, aims to highlight music that works equally at home and on the dance-floor while showcasing artists that are “unsung heroes” in the world of techno.
Beginning with their first release from Ireland’s Lerosa (Ferox, Uzuri, Idle Hands, Saft), whose energetic melange of electro and deep techno leans heavily on Detroit, Warm Fiction delivers its mission statement. The Motor City can be heard throughout the label’s output, its influence surrounding the music like a bubble metropolis, as much an ethos as a stylistic choice.
The aforementioned unsung heroes could specifically be talking about the label’s second release, “Love’s Secret Domain” by Reade Truth, an early techno pioneer from NYC whose reputation and legacy are well-known amongst OG ravers but for whom the larger successes of the likes of Frankie Bones & Richie Hawtin have been elusive. Truth brings a sophisticated palette to the label that feels well-honed, rooted in funk while traveling deep into outer space.
From storied veterans to complete unknowns, the label then moves to its third release from Floor 99, an enigmatic newcomer whose lo-fi oddness stands apart from previous releases while his addictive, almost jacking grooves put it squarely inside the label’s wheelhouse. Subsequent releases from France’s Erell Ranson (Kalahari Oyster Cult, MySelf) and N-Gynn (Pleasure Club) continue Warm Fiction’s progression through idiosyncratic takes on the Midwestern source code.
Larko’s departure from SF during the Covid19 lockdown has the label’s future in question but here’s hoping the well-curated label returns soon to further expose us to its unrecognized underground sounds.
Favorite Releases:
