A fascinating collection of rare, unreleased and hard-to-find tracks, edits, bootlegs and remixes was released last Friday by LA-based arts collective CONDU||T in a bid to raise much needed money for the California Fire Fund and Black LA Relief & Recovery Fund who have been saving lives and helping to put out the hellish-looking wildfires that have been happening in the LA region of California since January 7.
The second volume in the label’s Chaos series, ||cↄc||oo2|| flexes across the house, breaks, beats and jungle spectrum featuring music from the likes of canary yellow, Choopsie, Crosstalk, DAVDCASE, Clearcast, Joluca, Keenan Matthias, Left/Right, miido, Mirin Doja x OLAN x QRTR, Next To Blue, Olan, Protean Sound, Provider, Scaefa, SYCLES and You Us We Them.
20 tracks full, and underpinned by a beautiful synth-driven aesthetic across the whole collection, there are some pretty special versions and edits here. Have a peep for yourself, but be quick… It will vanish from Bandcamp on Saturday February 1 and never go on sale again.
“The Chaos series is meant to be more of a mystery drop of unreleased rare cuts, boots, and anonymous tracks with one rule – it’s gone forever in 1 week,” explains one of the collective’s artists Left/Right. “Since we decided to make this one more about charity we really pushed to include some of our favorite artists on this one…”
As a result, fresh takes on Radiohead, Clams Casino & Imogen Heap, Jacques Greene & Nosaj Thing, Blanco and Jigitz are all included among the cosmic, soulful and straight-up vibey contrinbutions. There are also some special hidden tracks included on purchase. So far the compilation has raised over $500 and there’s still half a week until it goes off-sale.
“CONDU||T as a collective (and label) is higly focused on our mantra ‘how we shape the world is what the world becomes’ and we feel like that applies not just to making art but also learning how to help others in need and affecting cultural change,” explains Left/Right.
“We’ve made a big point to make donations (and service) thoughout the year to help groups both locally where we host events and also internationally – in the past we’ve donated to local shelters in San Francisco, Dallas, LA Food Banks (where we’ve had shows) as well as Doctors Without Borders and International Rescue Committee. For the fires we wanted to try and split donations between California Fire Foundation and Black LA Relief & Recovery Fund which is focused more on the Altadena / Pasadena areas hit by the Eaton fires.”
With major clean-ups now happening across the region, now with added challenges of toxic ash, flooding and mudslides, the scary footage and images of the fires may have left our feeds and screens (and been replaced with other hellish imagary from America, this time of a far right nature) it’s clear it will take many months, years and millions of US dollars to rebuild and recover. According the California Fire Service, over 55,000 acres have been burnt, over 16,000 buildings and structures have been destroyed and there have been 28 fatalities as a result of the fires. Many many more people have been displaced and left homeless.
Left/Right was close to having to evacuate the area himself. “I’m feeling pretty lucky to have not been affected – my wife and I were in between all 3 major fires but still some distance away so not in any serious danger,” he explains.
“Although we were under evacuation warning so had all my synths / hard drives packed up! We definitely knew a grip of people who lost their houses, stores, yards, neighborhoods… And some of our favorite places to walk / go to the beach were absolutely decimated.”
This is the reality of these awful fires. And while a lot of negative social media attention and chatter fixated on the fact that LA is home to some of the richest people in the western world who were reported to be spending amounts most of us could never dream of on private emergency services, a huge amount of the region – especially in the Altadena area – is home to regular, hardworking, heavily squeezed working class communities who have now had their lives completely turned inside out.
We send love out to all of them, and everybody who has been affected by the wildfires full stop. We hope that the rebuild and restoration of some level of stability and safety is as quick as possible.
If you’re able to spare anything, please consider buying this album and helping them, too.
Buy ||cↄc||oo2|| on Bandcamp
Support CONDU||T: Instagram / Soundcloud / Website