In our new podcast series, we’ve chosen to focus on who provide us with the precious “raw material” for our listenings and features: quality new music!
We are talking about those heroes who decided to launch, nurture and cultivate a record label (better if with an ‘independent’ in front of it). As the title suggests, Listen to the Label is our way to pay them a well-deserved tribute, disclosing and recognizing their invaluable work and letting them introduce it with words and tunes.
For the 11th episode of Listen to the Label we looked, for once, at our “backyard”. Indeed, we focussed our attention on one independent label that almost grew up together with Rhythm Passport, Batov Records.
It was 2013 when DJ Kobayashi and Bob Martyn founded Batov in London, “as a place to call home for Gypsy Hill‘s (Kobayashi’s band) catalogue”. Seven years and 36 releases later, they ended up curating takeovers at BoomTown festival and working with dozens of quality musicians and bands coming from their same London borough as well as the Mediterranean region and Middle East.
To have a better insight into Batov’s past, present and future, we reached Kobayashi and talked about the origins of the project, what it means to run a label in these mad COVID-19 times, his Record of the Day videos, the London music scene and why the British capital is still his favourite place where to crate dig for new records.
Tracklist:
- Gypsy Hill – Balkan Beast [from Our Routes; Batov Records – 2013]
- S H I R A N – Ya Banat Al Yemen [from Glsah Sanaanea with Shiran; Batov Records – 2020]
- Baharat – The Egyptian [from The Egyptian Middle Eastern Grooves 7″ Vol.4; Batov Records – 2020]
- El Khat – Ya Raiyat [from Saadia Jefferson; Batov Records – 2019]
- Sandman Project – Circles [from Royal Family; Batov Records – 2018]