ACV Records (Alternative Current)

Italy’s finest Techno label, ACV - Profile from 1995.

The music they produce is unlike any other, being as diverse as possible and giving a whole new meaning to the word ‘experimental’. In recent years it has been increasingly necessary for a label to try to be different, in order to carry Techno music, into the year two thousand and beyond. Therefore ACV. are creating the foundations for the future, a future that looks very bright indeed.

The label was set up by a guy called Tony Verde, who eventually based his offices in Rome. Not exactly a city you would immediately link to the sound of Techno, but one where the people have a relatively open mind when it comes to music. Tony had studied music in America for a few years, as well as living in London where he produced three albums for the Italian branch of EMI. When he returned to Italy he knew he wanted to get deeply involved in the music business and so started off doing distribution for another company. He set up his own company, ACV. distribution, but after Tony had heard the music that a DJ called Leo Anibaldi was producing, he decided to set up ACV. as a record label.

This was how the now legendary Leo Anibaldi was discovered, but at the time neither Tony nor Leo realised that there would be such a huge market for this new type of music. It is now accepted throughout the world and classed as experimental Techno, but back in these early days it was just a completely crazy new style of Techno that had no market and no following. The first two releases on ACV. by Leo Anibaldi, did not sell thousands of copies, but Tony kept on releasing music that he believed in, hoping that one day the public would warm to his revolutionary new sound.

If ACV. were to become a major musical force it was obvious that Tony would need to sign more artists to the label that thought the same way as Leo. So he hooked up with Paolo Zerletti, and artist that Tony had been friends with since he worked with him in a record shop when he was younger.

Paolo’s first release, ‘Re-activated’, was just the type of experimental music that Tony wanted to promote. Therefore Paolo became a party of the ACV. family and since then has produced many astonishing works for the label, including the massive ‘Escape From Italy’ which sampled ‘Escape From New York’. His most recent release is out in the shops now, called ‘Mind Bleep’ and ready to rip your head apart.

However one of the most popular artists on ACV. at the moment is Robert Armani. At first it surprised me to find out that Robert is actually from Chicago, the home of House music, but when you listen carefully to his music there are so many Chicago influences. He is good friends with the House originators such as Mike Dearborn and Mike Dunn, and they all influence the music that he makes. Before he joined ACV. Robert was signed to Dance Mania producing tracks such as the classic ‘Circus Bells’ which has recently been remixed on D-Jax. One night he was DJ-ing in Rome and Leo heard what he was playing. Leo asked him to send a demo tape in to the label, which he did, and Tony really liked it, inviting Robert to the ACV. studios. Now he is signed exclusively to ACV. and has produced three albums including his recent ‘Right to Silence’ LP. Four tracks from this album are due to be remixed by a number of ACV. artists as well as Adam X from New York.

So, as you can see Tony Verde has built up plenty of artists on the ACV. label. Others include Marascia, Hermann, Fantasy and Groove Sector to name a few. But ACV. is not solely where Tony’s interests lie. He may own one of Techno’s best experimental labels, but it doesn’t stop there. He owns many other labels: Undercontrol for House, Blue Village for Garage, Deep Blaze for commercial tracks, Out Of Orbit for intelligent stuff, Hot Trax for hard Techno and a huge amount of small labels that may only see one or two releases. I asked ACV. why they have decided to split the
Music up so much.

"All these different styles don’t really mix. If we put an ACV. record out then people know the minute they see it that it’s Techno. If we put out something on Blue Village, then they know that it’s Garage. You could never put everything on the same label, because people would get so confused".

This arrangement works well for Tony because one label will subsidise another, allowing for further musical exploration and giving artists a chance to make any type of music they want to. If they can make music that can not be categorised then ACV. can set up a completely new label.

The ACV. label is the one that sells the best at the moment, and is frequently distributed throughout the world. Blue Village, the Garage label, is aimed at an American market especially New York. The commercial labels such as Deep Blaze do very well in Japan and France. Hot Trax, the hard label, seems to flourish in Germany and America. So, ACV. is well and truly a worldwide company, also licensing records to other companies in different countries.

"We’ve licensed stuff to Music Man in Belgium, Fantazia and Rumour in the UK amongst others. We seem to get phone calls all the time about licensing, but we are very careful who we license to - it depends what a company can offer us. There was also D-Jax that remixed one of our records, but they didn’t even ask and went and put it out without us knowing! All of a sudden we saw ‘Circus Bells’ remixes out in the shops, so we phoned them up and in the end managed to get some royalties for Robert Armani".

This sort of thing happens all the time in the music business, so ACV. are not alone. However, looking back they see the remixes on D-Jax as being good promotion for both Robert and the label. Besides, D-Jax is a well respected label in the Techno scene and the remixes were good.

But what about the future for ACV.? Well, it looks very bright indeed. They will be going in a very commercial direction with their label Deep Blaze and some releases on Blue Village will be aimed at a more commercial market. This will, as mentioned before, be able to subsidise even more underground projects. Chase, Shame or Fame and Taborah Adams will be three of the bands destined for commercial success.

Chase is a studio project and their next track will be the fourth release that they have had on the label. The first one, ‘Music Is My Life’ was very successful, selling 7,000 in the UK alone. The following two didn’t do too well which was down to bad promotion but even so, Fantazia will be using one of them on their new compilation album. The next release, '‘Take My Soul’, is due out at the end of the summer and Tony has been talking to a big promotional company who do all the distribution for P.W.L., Kylie Minogue and other commercial artists. They seem to be very interested in the track, so it looks like Chase will mean big bucks for ACV.

Shame or Fame are two Italian guys, both good looking, trendy and extremely gay, signed to Deep Blaze. The same promotion company as mentioned above really like their stuff and will be working on promoting their next release. It will be aimed at the commercial night clubs and the under eighteens. They should be coming over the UK to do lots of promotion and PA’s.

The final commercial project is by Taborah Adams. She is from Brazil in South America and produces very New York style deep house. On her next release ‘A Better Day’, there will be six tracks, two of which will be remixes by two of ACV.’s artists. Robert Armani and Marascia both do the job nicely and remix it in their usual knockout Techno style.

For all these bands there will also be videos, another thing Tony is looking into. As well as owning three music studios, he has actually just constructed a video making studio in Rome, which his bands will be using more in the future.

Leo Anibaldi and Robert Armani have become interested in this aspect of music and Leo’s next album to be released in October will be available on both vinyl and video.

Branching out into the commercial market will open up a new door for ACV. because they have always been very underground. Originally I was very un-impressed because I didn’t particularly want to be promoting something very commercial, but when you bear in mind that this is kept well away from the underground stuff that they do, on different labels, and also that these sort of projects will fund even more diverse underground projects, then I must say that ACV. seem to have their heads screwed on properly.

ACV. look as though they are going to do very well in the future, whether they produce commercial or underground products. Tony Verde is keeping all his options open, so that his company will grow and he will be able to invest in his artists in the way that they deserve. I managed to speak to one of ACV’s signings, Scott Edward, about how the label treat him and what he likes so much about them.

"I’m in the same stage as Leo was over a year ago, but I feel confident with ACV. I’ve seen how Leo has built up from nothing and hopefully the same thing will happen to me. One of the best things with the label is that they invest heavily in their artists, getting behind them and letting them grow in whatever direction they want to. If they like a new artists music and they think they have got talent, then they will do anything to try and get that artist on vinyl. Then they leave it up to that artist to explore themselves so that their music will get better. Many labels do not allow artists to grow because they will dictate to them what they do. They are after the maximum return on an artist in the shortest amount of time. Tony Verde wants to nurture his own artists over a long period of time, and by doing this he is creating a cult following for the artist and the label. I most certainly want to be a part of this way of thinking".

And I’m sure he will be for a very long time. Scott Edward, produces mostly chill-out type Techno music, perfect for after that long hard night at a Techno club. He’s just released an album called ‘Distant Horizons’ on the Out Of Orbit label and after playing it constantly in the car and at home, I can tell you that this is unlike anything you’ve ever heard.

A complete knockout is probably the best way to describe it, and I must give it one serious recommendation.

If you like ‘Distant Horizons’, look out for his new twelve inch on the same label. There is also another album in the pipeline, but it looks like we won’t get to hear it for quite some time yet. As if Scott isn’t bust enough he’s just started a new project that he hopes will be released on the ACV. label itself. He will call it Lexx and it will be a six track introductory EP, influenced by his early Chicago House days.

"I have been told that I should try and do some different styles under different names and Lexx will be my first one. The music on this project is based around very simple beats, and has a certain old Chicago feel. It isn’t anything like the new stuff that is coming out of Chicago because I don’t really know enough about that style any more. Really it is the original Chicago House brought up to the nineties and I hope that Tony will release it".

How convenient! Scott is able to produce any style he wants and because of the diversity of the company, he will always be able to put it out. The beauty of ACV. is that he has now been able to expand into other types of music, rather than only being able to make music that suits the Out Of Orbit style. I have a feeling though that Scott will always enjoy making music for Out Of Orbit.

Another of my favourite artists, Marco Micheli, has recorded numerous projects for Out Of Orbit. Marco is again a DJ in Rome, playing weird and experimental Techno. He first joined the label when he collaborated on its first release. Everyone at ACV. really likes Marco and surprisingly he is one of the few Italian members of the company that speaks English. So, when the English members go over to Rome, Marco usually does the translating.

So there you have it. Whether it be Techno, Garage, House, Pop or Experimental, ACV. cover the lot. Because they have no limits or boundaries on what music they produce it seems likely that they could really help expand our scene.

Thank you ACV. for such an open-minded record label. There’s just one thing though - What about Jungle? Oh well, maybe that’s the next surprise that Tony Verde is going to hit us with, but as ever you just don’t know!