Label Feature: Twit One - A.U.D.D.A.
Click here to listen to the Twit One - A.U.D.D.A radio show.
For our first edition of Carhartt WIP Radio in 2020 we warmly welcome back Twit One from Cologne. The producer, dj and Groove Attack record store co-owner is no stranger to our radio program, having already conducted a hip hop show in 2017, consisting of his very own productions under diverse aliases, from Twit One to Tito Wun and Flatpocket as well as collaborations with artists like Flo Mega and Henry Wu.
This time, Twit One introduces Augenringe unter dem dritten Auge Records, abbreviated to A.U.D.D.A., his very own hip hop-and-beyond label. So far his label has featured releases by his long-standing friend Lazy Jones, the Cologne-based Trinidad & Tobago-born poet PB Louison, US hip hop producer Kan Kick, Berlin beatsmith Suff Daddy, mysterious man Muju G. Fear, Gerald Astor, better known as Glenn Astro, and other unusual music, like an esoteric swinging ambient tape with yoga instructions, that no other hip hop label would drop.
For his Carhartt WIP A.U.D.D.A. Radio show, he has brought some of their music together, to create a musical narrative that also features found spoken word and some yet unfinished, but already thrilling sketches of tunes. In-between a hectic pre-xmas dj schedule and shortly before his new Testiculo Y Uno album, produced with his friend Hulk Hodn, comes out, Twit One also found some time to chat on the phone with us, giving insight about his label, its philosophy and its future.
You prepared us a mix with music from your free-wheeling beatmakers label Augenringe unter dem Dritten Auge. Can you tell us a bit about how the label started?
Twit One: That was around 2010, where a lot of other (beatsmith) hip hop labels really talked a lot. So I thought I would launch an enterprise that does not see the whole game that seriously. I always dreamed of having a platform where I can decide how the music is, how the cover looks and where you can get the stuff. The first two releases where still closely connected to the label I am signed too: Melting Pot Music – but only as a sublabel for distribution. We earned some cash with the first releases and I loaned some from Suff Daddy’s bank account in order to press the real first independent A.U.D.D.A. album by my buddy Lazy Jones called Lazy Man Walking.
Your artist roster tells us that your label is a family affair. Right?
Twit One: Sure, we all hang out together. That is often also how the music comes to life. For instance the first 7” tape Leatherback that I produced with the cosmopolitan PB Louison, that just came up as he writes poems and I do beats, so we thought: let‘s bring it together. So we just hung out at the studio for a while and all came out naturally. But I also reach out to people. For instance I wrote to the US producer Kan Kick, who still hangs out in Oxnard, California. I met him once at the infamous, but now-closed Cologne bar Stecken where I was DJing that night and he spontaneously started to host. We stayed in touch after that and when I asked him to do a split 7" together he was down with the idea. For me and many of my peers he is a model, as he still releases great music and strangely did not find fame, even thought back in the days he was part of a gang with Madlib, Oh No and Dudley Perkins and also a member of the Hip Hop crew Lootpack. He was very nice and sent beats immediately. And that is how our spilt 7” came up. So, in essence, all at A.U.D.D.A. is a very impulsive thing that is still driven by quality.
How is the label connected to your other enterprise, the Groove Attack record store in Cologne?
Twit One: Oh, this is a very close relation as all we do goes through the record store. We sell our vinyl via the store and also distribute it from there. It is all one big musical adventure that I share with my Groove Attack store co-owner Uwe, our customers and all the many producers in Cologne and around that always come by to hang and share music. I am also still not sure if A.U.D.D.A is seen by the audience as a proper label. I think as we do a lot of winkingly actions and just release music without taking us to seriously, the world sometimes does not take us seriously. Which is a very wrong attitude towards A.U.D.D.A.!
How did you come up with the very long name?
Twit One: Well, the third eye, which is the sixth chakra in yoga, represents the eye that can see the past and the future and that stands for intuition and flashes of inspiration. And as in life everything repeats endlessly, the third eye established some circumorbital rings over the years. That is all I have to say on the name. It also leaves a lot of space for interpretation to all our fans, like the music we release should do.
How did you choose the tunes for your Carhartt WIP Radio show?
Twit One: In the same way we run our label: spontaneously. It is a drift through stuff by artists like Glenn Astro, Kan Kick, Muju G. Fear, Testiculo Y Uno, 4Trackboy & Echomann, Hubert Daviz, Suff Daddy, Raju, Retrogott and MC Reiner, as well as some unfinished sketches I had on my harddrive and other moment-driven ideas that came up while doing the mix.
One last question: do you want to add something with your label to global hip hop culture?
Twit One: Sure, we intend to bring back some consciousness to hip hop culture, as this has been missing for a long time. Many artists only distribute as self serving entity, they have nothing more to say beyond consumerism. That is why we also recently launched A.U.D.D.A.-TV, where we will distribute more beats and more consciousness in the future. Have a look at our channel on Youtube, there will be new episodes coming soon.
