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By Georgina O. Smith
Less than two months after the release of The Herd’s second album, An Elefant Never Forgets, phenomenal sales have forced it into a second pressing. The album has even been touted as one of the best Aussie releases, hiphop or otherwise, of 2003. And it’s only May.
It may only be May, but this has been a mammoth year for independent record label, Elefant Traks and its corollary crew, The Herd. The Herdest workin’ band in Aussie hiphop have already toured Melbourne twice, played sell-out shows in Sydney, Brissie and Newie, with Adelaide next in line, they continue hosting a community radio show, hit high rotation on Triple J, cracked the number one spot on Triple J’s Net 50, made two music videos, have thrown and played nary a benefit gig, protest and party, and still found time to run the Elefant Traks label. How the hell do they do it?
Organised chaos is perhaps the best description of the Elefant Traks experience. The Herd, whose members run the label, are an exceptional group of music makers. They are also an impossibly shabby and chronically chaotic bunch of beings. The Herd live the freestyling philosophy to its fullest: they freestyle rhymes, freestyle beats online courtesy of Elefant Traks’ founder Kenny Sabir’s DASE Real Time Internet Jamming software (Go to www.soundbyte.org for a proper gander at the DASE story), and adopt a freestyle management policy. The cunning combination of music, friends, food and freebies is the strength of Elefant Traks.
The label began back in 1998 with a mixtape (well technically a mix CD, but for the sake of hiphop let’s call it a mixtape) for a friend leaving the country and Elefant Traks hasn’t stopped creating music for friends. The plan always was, and still is, about creating and releasing the music they love. They are about being a tight unit, not about shifting units.
There are, at any given time, at least five producers, four MCs, a bass player, guest vocalists, b-boys and turntablists in The Herd. This can get very confusing. Add to this already potent musical melange other Elefant incarnations such as Bass Elefant (basically The Herd sans laptops), Dase Team 5000 (the Herd precursor) and solo pursuits of the various members and things get very messy. A live show is no different. No wonder The Herd has won some of the choicest international supports including Blackalicious, Sage Francis and Grandmaster Flash. According to Kenny, when you book The Herd, you can expect ‘10 members, give or take 0.5 people’ on stage at any one time. With that many able and cabled-up bodies on the one stage, you know you are about to witness something interesting. Cramped, but interesting. These dynamic live shows are The Herd’s trademark; their rotating member line-up guarantees confounding and astounding performances.
So many members are bound to cause confusion, so one of the producers in Elefant Traks, Snapsuit, explains how they all came together. ‘I introduced Kenny to the rest of the cats, so I’m the kingpin. I went to school with Byron. Then I met Kenny, no, Kenny met me. We were both studying at UTS. Then I introduced him to Byron. Byron goes to UNSW and met Shannon, Dale and Kaho. Then through Kenny I meet Simon and Monkfly. Simon met Mark at Canberra Uni. Then through gigs and flatmates and things, Kenny met Tim and Sulo, and then he met Alex, and Matt Flax. Shit, have I forgotten anyone?’
Back in 1998, all these friends were dabbling with musical production across many genres, some were taking their tentative steps towards hiphop, others were dabbling in dub, jazz and drum n bass. They were also trying their hands at home music software like Fruity Loops, Fastracker, Acid, Cubase and the legendary Hammerhead program. Upon the instigation of Kenny, tracks were put together for inclusion on the compilation CD that was to be Cursive Writing. With music compiled and mastered, friends with CD burners were enlisted. Friends with access to cheap printing were recruited. Friends with friends with access to venues were exploited. Friends with friends with friends with media contacts were co-opted. And Cursive Writing, Elefant Traks' first release, was born.
Elefant Traks’ origins can also be attributed to the music DIY-production revolution. Many members attest that Elefant Traks came about because of the ease with which CDs could be reproduced. In the mid-90s, CD burners and production prices came down markedly, and this inspired Elefant Traks’ first compilation album. (Technological advances have certainly influenced the Elefant Traks sound and capacity. Whereas beats were once played off a DAT or heavy PCs in the case of Elefant Traks first Sound Summit gig, Herd producers now play through networked laptops using DASE software.)
With the modicum of money made from the unexpected success of Cursive Writing, a second Elefant Traks’ compilation, Food to Eat Music By was compiled and released, to further local acclaim. This was followed up by releases from Ubin, the Pilfernators, Explanetary and eventually by the Elefant’s pet project, The Herd. As Snapsuit explains, ‘After the release of Food, we thought, let's not do compilations because there is a glut of them around. Then, after some solo releases, we thought let’s just keep it in-house and come up with a band: The Herd. We already had Dase Team, but the idea was really for an album that was more collaborative. We weren’t just cashing in, you know!’
In the infancy of the label, establishing a sound reputation, and a reputation for a wicked sound, was swiftly achieved through a defiantly grassroots approach, not just to music production and distribution, but also to promotion and the media. For the launch of Food to Eat Music By, there were many clandestine stickering, postering and stenciling missions, a promotional tactic that was resumed in the lead up to the launch of An Elefant Never Forgets. It is this unorthodox promotional approach that distinguishes the label and led directly to a solid media presence, including a regular show, ‘The Peanut Spell’ on Sydney’s 2SER.
Elefant Traks members are also quick to attribute the achievements of the label to the direction and entrepreneurial flair of their co-founder, Kenny Sabir. Kenny has been variously described by his pachydermal peers: ‘Kenny is an organised mind in a disorganised person’; ‘Kenny makes me feel like one of Charlie’s Angels’; and ‘Kenny has a knack of charming his way into fast-food eateries.’
Ever unassuming, Kenny himself attributes the successes of the label to the clever division of labour amongst members of the core. Kenny’s absence (he’s currently in South America) has also forced members to ‘get smarter about how to work together. Everyone has their domain. Kaho's web, I'm accounts. Alex has taken on clip stuff, Shannon and Simon do gigs, Dale does the design,’ explains Snapsuit.
Elefant Traks’ strength is also in that they make music that is intelligent and relevant and they do it all with arse-shaking irreverence. As Snapsuit says, “We prove that you really can have party music with a bit of substance. You just have to pick your audience.’ The latest release from the Elefant Traks stable is proof that party and politics can be successfully combined. An Elefant Never Forgets traverses racism, fair trade, globalisation, xenophobia, neo-liberalism and environmentalism.
An Elefant Never Forgets or ‘Herd 2’ as it has been affectionately and imaginatively nicknamed by the crew, is the musical culmination of months and months of mastering and remastering, mixing down and mixing up across Sydney in makeshift home studios. An elephant may have the longest gestation period of all land mammals but even this can’t explain the delays and long waits, hiccups and herdles that plagued The Herd’s sophomore release.
With their Elefant chief overseas, Herd members were prompted to step in to finish half-completed track and as a result, the album is a lot more collaborative than its predecessor. Kenny puts it aptly, ‘It’s no fun to make the same sound as Herd One over again. CD burners do that trick.’
As Snapsuit explains, ‘We all worked on “Parliament”. There are fewer tracks that only one person worked on. It was really about wanting to work with other people. Basically, I'm bored of doing stuff by myself.’ The result? An Elefant Never Forgets is a much more cohesive release, yet thankfully, none of the spontaneity or electronic eclecticism of their debut album is missing. Flamenco guitar, dubbed-up electro and dancehall booty sit track by track and track within track. From the pyro-manic dub beats of ‘Burn Down The Parliament’ to the freaked out glitch-hop of ‘The Afterparty Brigade’, this is an album that’s confident in every respect. Full of furious tunes, irregular tempos, kickin’ basslines and their signature straight-talkin’-outspoken-lyrical-vandalism, Herd 2 is slick production meets DIY fanaticism. And it’s a combination that is winning The Herd new respect, confirming old respect, allaying detractors and attracting new admirers. This is no mean feat for the jaded old Sydney scene.
Elefant Traks and The Herd are certainly renowned about Sydney town for their musical and culinary integrity. What profile of Elefant Traks wouldn’t be complete without reference to that chart bound single, ‘Scallops’, the JJJ single picked up from The Herd’s self-titled album. The controversial single had The Herd branded ‘Falafel Rappers’ (i.e. sensitive vegetarians) and accused of being a flavour of the month by hitching a ride on hiphop’s jeep. Whilst agreeing that ‘a scallop burger is a wack food to rap about,’ Alejandro points out that ‘while we seem to currently orbit around hiphop beats, our influences are many and this new album, like all Elefant Traks releases, is also chocked full of folk, drum n bass, jazz and dub.’
Whilst Elefant Traks’ culinary integrity may be in doubt from within, their political integrity is not. Like Celine Dion, Elefant Traks' best side is their left side. As Alejandro has affirmed, ‘The music of The Herd is informed very much by politics. The Herd does not make it their aim to a shock or upset, but they do discuss issues that they feel strongly about.’ The Herd has courted controversy with their most recent two singles, ‘Burn Down the Parliament’ and ‘77% (Tampa Tantrum)’, but it’s not controversy for controversy’s sake. The Herd aren’t about talking out of their trunks, they practice what their MCs – Ozi Batla, Urthboy, Bezerketron and Toefu – preach. They also challenge, teach, and mobilise with their beats. Truly, an elefant never sits on the fence. The label is very active and outspoken on many issues.
There have been Greens benefits, Trade Union benefits, anti-globalisation rallies, Reclaim the Streets and the legendary S-11 protests at Crown Casino in Melbourne in 2001. A gig that many members single-out as the most rewarding yet was a performance organised by Alejandro last August at the Villawood detention centre. Describing the gig, Switchit says, ‘Everyone was sitting down, then as we went on they got less shy. Some kids just started playing my drum kit. (Ozi) Batla threw in some raps about Howard and got everyone chanting: “Howard showers with Colin Powell. And when Bush comes in Howard flicks his towels.” There were also some great freestyles about Philip Ruddock and whenever we mentioned his name everyone laughed. It was a pretty amazing experience.’
What is consistently amazing about Elefant Traks is their ability to continuously rouse, inflame and create. Elefant Traks is already working towards their next release, the debut album from Hermitude, a duo born from the ashes of Explanetary. Elefant Traks are already flogging its virgin wax release, Hermitude’s Imaginary Friends EP and will be releasing their debut long player in coming months. It is also suggested that individual Herd members are working on solo material in anticipation of Kenny’s return. But before then east coast punters can expect gigs a plenty.
As gigs go, there’s no such thing as an elefant non-event, the Elefant Traks organised Club Keeno Nights of 2001 and 2002 are evidence of that. Each time a release is launched you can be sure something interesting will occur. February’s launch of An Elefant Never Forgets at the Gaelic Club in Sydney is bound to go down in local history as one of the most exciting and mystifying evenings in local hiphop memory, with the hiphop pagan-pageantry of Curse Ov Dialect, the hiphop-hacktivism of The New Pollutants and the skip hop spantics of an 18 member all-female jump rope team. The launch of Food To Eat Music By was a similar success with a record turnout of 600 patrons at Newtown’s Globe, which remains a long-standing Frigid record, although it’s a record that may soon be challenged. On the imminent Elefant horizon are monthly Frigid-Elefant nights at the Hopetoun, aptly titled Mammoth. Of the monthly nights, Snapsuit says, ‘We’re just giving Seb (Seb Chan of Frigid infamy) a Sunday off, just to pay him back for those great old two dollar movie nights at the Dendy. Plus…we just like doing nights. It’s a social thing really and a plus is that we can take over the PA, play our tracks through it and check mixes. It’s just about having access to a bomb PA. And subs. Can you mention subs, as much as you can? It's always good to put subs in.’
There you have it, a trunkated history of Elefant Traks. Elefant Traks is a label; it’s also an enclosure of friends, a democratic, collaborative corporation. Make that a co-orporation. Perhaps Alejandro, one of Elefant Traks’ many producers, puts it best, ‘We're just a big bunch of mates with some good ideas and great peeps around us.’ Elefant Traks has remained true to this genesis. In the spirit of keeping everything in-house and cheap, Elefant Traks continues to handle its own production, media, A&R, design, and until 2001 even dealt with their own store-direct distribution. Inertia now looks after distribution Australia-wide for the label because, as an unnamed Herd producer explained, lnertia has a great dental plan. With as many members as Elefant Traks boasts, tusks must be cared for, after all. This ‘serious hobby’ of a record label has always been about collaboration and that isn’t going to change any time soon. That this independent label has been around for five years, that all members are still on speaking terms, and that their music continues to light a fire under the Sydney hiphop scene, is testament to style and integrity with which the Elefant Traks label has been run. To paraphrase Herd member, Switchfillet, Elefant Traks have what Wu Tang want. Herd to your mutha.
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