On his last night in NY, me and Christian (that’s sbthemoor's real name, FYI) sat in a pizza joint in Brooklyn and talked about the future.
I told him I was confident and positive but also afraid, as this new vinyl was Juicy’s biggest investment ever, and if things went really bad it could compromise everything for us. Christian was understanding but had an uncompromised look on his face. That look, that genuine rock solid self-belief, gave me the final push I needed to make this record happen.
After all, working with art, especially music, is about long shots, extra miles, and believing in the quality of what you are putting out.
Almost six months later, the record is out, and I have cuts on my lips from biting sellotape to seal pre-order packages. Opus 3 – Man Atop the Tower was our most pre-ordered release ever, the snippet we put on Soundcloud reached 1000+ plays, and things are looking good.
Huge THANK YOU to the people from US, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Sweden, Brazil and Portugal that put their trust (and money) in us, and all the other cool people who in the meantime have put down an order too. We love you and we hope you'll love the record as much as we do.
BUT there’s still a long way to go, and we really wanna sell the shit out of this 1st press, so this email is also a call for help. Tell about Benedick’s music to your friends, share the links on your social media, write about it on your blog, make a giant banner and hire a plane to go around your city…
We’re a strictly and ethically independent DIY label, we don’t have press and PR teams, we don’t have distribution deals. We rely on people like us - music fans - who truly care and support the artists they love.
If you have friends who run music websites/magazines, tell them to get in touch and we’ll hook them up with a digital/physical promo for review.
And here's the full stream of the album, we figured it was about time:
What do you do when your new record is not done in time for the artist's tour? You innovate.
So we came up with these pre-order cards, which you can buy on the gigs, directly from the man himself, with a customized code that he'll write down for you on the spot. That code, once entered on the checkout of our webstore, reduces your payment to zero (cause you already paid, duh!) and your record ships along the rest of the pre-orders.
Simple ideas, that's what we're about. Signor Benedick The Moor is currently touring the West Coast, more details on dates here.
A timeless story that has never been told, an exploration of intricate emotional depths in characters that will stay with you long after listening.
Signor Benedick The Moor delivers his most immersive and compelling work to date, in this new 12” LP that ventures into a new universe beyond his critically acclaimed debut album El Negro but still as charismatic and genre-breaking as ever.
With the artist delivering production, rhymes and artwork into a single conceptual piece - with a little help from Jonathan Snipes (of clipping. fame) and Thomas Dimuzio on mixing and mastering respectively – this is Benedick’s great opera in form of a record, a mature third opus in a very recent but already impressive body of work that yet stands out on its own and shows an evolution in songwriting and production style.
Call if fringe rap, punk rap, left field, experimental madness…Signor Benedick The Moor is a force to be reckoned with, sonically groundbreaking, acting without aesthetical constrainers.
Celebrating Juicy Records’ return to vinyl releases, we proudly present our most detailed record to date: a 140g vinyl record in “frosted” clear colour, complete with original artwork on both outside jacket cover and inner sleeve. Detailed lyrics insert sheet and digital download card included inside.
Here's a video interview shot in a nice but windy rooftop in New York back in June, where Benny finally took time to answer questions sent by fans and talk about the new record. Thanks to Robert for being such a cool guy with the such a beautiful dog.
Benedick is Benny is also becoming a non-stop live machine with a November West Coast Tour lined up, here's all his upcoming live dates:
5th October at The Smell in LA with:
clipping., Divtech, Evolve, Decide Today, I.E., Gang Wizard
11th October at Tribal Café in LA with:
Meta Mantra (from Portland), Safari Al
18th October at Superchief Gallery in LA:
as part of True Neutral Crew
West Coast Tour
Nov 5th in Tucson TBA
Nov 6th in Phoenix TBA
Nov 8th at The Lunchroom in Anaheim
Nov 9th at Onefam in Oakland
Nov 10th in San Francisco TBA
Nov 12th at Bat Cave (House Show) In Arcata
Nov 14th in Seattle TBA
Nov 16th at The Know in Portland
Nov 17th at The Basement (House Show) in Chico
Nov 19th in Sacramento TBA
Get in touch if you can help with the TBA dates.
Penafiel welcomed us with open arms and we could not have wished for a better event to celebrate the re-edition of Nuno's book.
Thanks to everyone who came to hangout and showed us love. This book was made for all the people who were left without a copy the first time, and it felt good to see that even 3 years later those people didn't give up on us.
You can still order the book here , and bundle pack of book + limited edition t-shirt here .
Fanzines are somewhat personal projects, that’s what I always loved about them.
As a result, my life got deeply involved in this second issue of the The JUICE.
Last year I took a break from the trials and tribulations of London and decided to go on a six months trip that took me from Iceland to India. I didn’t plan and research every step of the way, so many times decisions made on the spot would completely reshape my future. It was all depending on me and the people I met along the way.
Some of these people found their way into this new fanzine. I saw in them the passion for music, for creative writing, for film…for the same things that first motivated me to create this project. The JUICE, at the end of the day, is about collaboration. It’s about bonding different people around an idea and making it happen.
It’s still a fanzine about music, arts, travels and everything in between. Emphasising on Do It Yourself, underground culture and open minded thinking, with this Issue #02 we take you on a journey around a variety of projects, people and events heart-warmingly curated to highlight different and sometimes lesser known parts of the world.
THE JUICE Fanzine #02 contains:
Iceland Scene Report, through the eyes of Muck, one of the very few hardcore bands in the country.
Around the World in 35 Movies
Interview with David Cabrita from Ementa Skateboarding
Article: My First Hardcore Show
Artist Profile: Michael Ribeiro
Alex D'Alva Teixeira talking about his first vinyl
Interview with João Retorta focusing on his photographic work and his time in Brazil working with Vhils.
Interview with For The Glory
Article: Úlfur Alexander Einarsson – A Wolf in Hardcore’s Clothing
Trip Reports:
- Tracking Classics Between Italy and France
- Fluff Fest and Other European (Mis)Adventures
Photo Report: Lisbon Motelx
Vegan Cooking - Cruelty Free Flavours
+ Reviews and Playlist
It's a 8.5"x11" (21.6cm x 27.9cm) magazine, 78 pages, with coloured cover and black & white interior.
This issue is completely in English.
As for the video above, many thanks to our very talented friend Furia ACK for accepting the challenge of interpreting the Fanzine's cover over a wall in London and delivering such an amazing piece. Check out his work here.
ORDER the Fanzine here.
In 2010, Nuno took a chance. He moved to India for some months and decided to make the best of it. Along the way, deprived from many things he once took for granted, he reflected on his own life, on his memories, on what really had a meaning.
In 2011, a book came to life. It collected those reflections and memories in an enclosing final chapter to Nuno’s Indian adventure, in which became Juicy’s first venture into the world of publishing.
“Um Delicado Sentido de Equilíbrio” sold out in less than a month, becoming our best selling release in four years of existence as a label. Truth be told, we didn’t see it coming, and surely the first press of 100 copies was miscalculated…a lot of people were left without a book, some of them have been asking for a repress ever since.
In 2014, a piece of history is reborn. Three years after the original book, we’re finally excited to announce the 2nd Edition of “Um Delicado Sentido de Equilíbrio”.
But this is not a repress. With a brand new cover, completely redesigned interior – amongst other things, the book is now over 50 pages longer and printed on cream paper - and a new preface by the author, this is a fresh creation that provides a completely different reading experience.
ORDER here.
Instead of making a traditional "lookbook video", we opted for something that is closer to a short (tiny) film. The long-term objective is to create a series of videos with a continuous storyline that will serve to showcase the new items from the clothing line and add more depth to the actions & characters introduced on this first video.
More info on the items here.
Cast:
Girl - Diana Antunes
Boy - Nuno Santos
Directed by the amazing JOÃO RETORTA, produced by Emanuel Matos & Juicy Records, with the help of Liliana Dias & Joana Castilho on the Production Assistant credits. Liliana Dias was also the Make-up Artist in charge, check out her work.
Music: Azizi Gibson & Jeremiah Jae - Fish Scale (Instrumental), from Ignorant Prayers Mixtape (2012). Available to download for free here.
Some photos:
From day one, Juicy has been about pushing boundaries.
Although we're a record label at heart, and we come from a punk hardcore background that we still keep very alive in everything we do, we can't seem to be happy fitting a mould.
As an individual who never had any special talents for arts, I also created this project to push myself out of my comfort zone and to express my creativity through a medium that was more about ideas and making them a reality with the help of friends, and less about abstract concepts and artistic values.
That's how The Juice was born, and it was really an amazing feeling to see all the hard work recognized by the people that showed up for the Release Party.
It was a very special afternoon in the company of old friends, new friends, and people that just wanted to check us out and see what we had to offer.
The smiles, the nice words, the people we met and the fact that we managed to gather people from different backgrounds, all hanging out, having fun and sharing ideas, are enough to consider this event a success.
Thank you for your interest, your support, your love. Thank you to the friends who helped out in anything that was needed, to the ones that cam from out of town, to the ones that were there in spirit. This is just the start.
Ema
All photos are from the brilliant Rui Gaiola. Check more photos here.
THE JUICE Fanzine - Issue #01 RELEASE PARTY from JUICY TV on Vimeo.
YES. After months of preparation, gathering collaborators, interviews and a lot of visualization and design, the first issue of our Fanzine is ready.
It's called The Juice, and it's about music, arts, travel and everything in between. Emphasising on Do It Yourself and underground culture, our aim is to get to know projects and people that do creative and challenging things outside the mass-media spectrum. The Juice IS NOT about Juicy as a label or brand, so don't expect to read about us in more than one article and a couple of ad's.
It's a 8.5"x11" (21.59cm x 27.94cm) magazine, 62 pages, with coloured cover and black & white interior. It’s written in Portuguese and English, in a 40/60 ratio respectively. You can pre-order it here.
And with every copy of the fanzine, comes a gift...
THUNDER TIGER - Spares & Bitters EP
This will be our first DIGITAL release (don't worry, we'll keep pressing vinyl and physical stuff), which will be premiered on the party.
It's a 3 songs EP from our beloved Thunder Tiger, aka Bráulio Amado, 2 new songs and a mysterious cover of one of the tracks from the last LP performed by a third party. It will come as a FREE DOWNLOAD with the Zine, and you'll also be able to get it from our webstore on a Name Your Price policy (coming soon). Yes, we are that generous.
JUICY x RUINS Winter Mixtape by Juicy Records on Mixcloud
Time has been our worst enemy since the beginning, and once again we didn't manage to be as productive as we wished. Before we could release a second mixtape to the Autumn Series, Winter was already upon us.
So it only made sense not only to start a Winter Series, but to get a collaborator that fitted the profile. It's fair to say we got them.
One of the most recent and most prolific record labels coming out of Portugal is Ruins Records. They have 2 vinyl releases already out, and two weeks ago curated their first label showcase, joining music and arts in the same gig and giving support to other labels as well.
Without further ado, here's the words from the Ruins boys about their choices:
To us, this mixtape represents some of the bands that inspired the inception of our record label.
We give the nod to some classics, some modern stuff, and of course our two releases so far. We've tried to arrange these songs in an order that really flows, to provide the listener with something that's worth experiencing more than once.
Honestly? Just shred and destroy!
Don't you just love fanzines?
Today we posted our 100th video on the JUICY TV Video Channel. It's from BIRDS IN ROW and was recorded just last Sunday, here in London:
It's been a wild ride this one. When I bought myself a cheap camera and started shooting gigs I did it mainly as a side project to the label, just supporting the music and bands/artists that I love. I would never dream that we would reach video number 100, or that we would have almost 50,000 plays from pretty much every continent on the planet.
My infinite gratitude goes to Fábio who still today is the star of this project and a very talented videographer, to Nuno who helped me in the beginning and is still an active supporter, to Sunny and hate5six for the inspiration and to everyone who ever played or shared one of our videos.
On a side note, we will continue to use Vimeo as our platform for video. Not only Youtube has lousy HD quality on their videos, but they have turned into a mass-media platform that serves consumerism and tries to sell you bullshit at any click, and we do not want to be part of that. Vimeo is the best thing that ever happened to online video sharing. That being said, we have no problems with people downloading our videos and reposting them on youtube or using them for other projects, as long as you give credit where it's due.
We'll keep them coming, slowly but surely.
