Hausu Mountain

Hausa Mountain is a record label from Chicago, Illinois founded by Doug Kaplan and Max Allison in 2012. Kaplan and Allison had originally founded Hausu Mountain as a platform for their own music, in the meantime however publishing prevailing artists who they admire. “Our aim is to bring out the ideas of these people into the world, even though (or just because) these are unconventional or experimental,” the two explain. These are the releases by Hausu Mountain in any case, which come in predominately digital or cassette format and seldom on vinyl. Between twisted pop designs, squeaky jazz releases, abstract footwork derivatives and modular synth gadgetry, it seems initially that there’s no common denominator emerging from the label’s releases other than the common label itself. “For us it’s about transportive and extreme qualities, music, where the ideas of a genre are ignored or torn up,” the slogan reads. “We like music which is not boring, which shows spirit as it challenges itself and others.” An emphasis also lies on the solo live performances which the “mugen” series was devoted to and essentially assembled with analogue hardware produced music.

Unlike so many other small labels, which are dedicated to eccentric underground music, Hausu Mountain is no purely internet operating matter. Until now, two ‘blind’ demos have been published by the two musicians, the rest of the releases are fuelled by personal contacts which the two made on tour with their band Good Willsmith. At the same time Kaplan is actually well connected thanks to his work with Thrill Jockey, an advantage, from which the duo obviously do not want to capitalise on. When its about the garish artworks the published acts are given the authority’s decision so to speak. Many from whom indeed stem from Allison who works at the art history institute of Weinberg College of Art and Science in Evanston, Illinois. [Max designs visuals, which in his opinion match with the music. He designs collages from scanned comic books, mangas or animes and other found sources and puts elements from 8 bit-pixel art and arbitrary web images over one another.” A layer principle that should reflect the music’s complexity. Whether Hausu Mountain’s releases appear digitally, on cassette or even on vinyl is decided from an economic point of view. Here the sheer pragmatism pushes itself before an attitude, which the two conclude: “Our philosophy can become trimmed on the notion ‘zones’. Join hands with us and let us bathe in the eternal love of the great porpoise king!” Hmmm, Ok!