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The story behind City Campers and behind the conception of the MULTI-EP format.

Here you can read the story behind the birth of the City Campers and the MULTI-EP as written by Dimitris Lilis and Yannis Iliopoulos.

Hello, City Campers!

It was earlier this year, that I handed over to T.S.O.E.'s label manager, a leftfield mix of thirteen, weird but wonderful tracks that were produced by some long time friends from the Relevant Box -era.
At the moment, their names were making the circles at all the "right" places of Greece, through their myspace.com profiles and their limited number releases, were to me some of the most important stuff that D.I.Y. perspective had ever created in Greece.
Being more of a music lover and record collector than a professional dj and taste maker, for the past ten years, I compiled all this music with one simple rule: anything goes... as long as it still sounds great on a Sunday evening.
I know, you might find this a strange way to start making a mix, but that's the beauty of it really. I didn't manage to clear and get the "best of" tracks from the bands, even though they were not that famous yet and they were all able to give their best tracks. But I believed in every single note of their music - from the very beginning - and finally, I came up with a selection of tracks that were able to "swing" mine and my mates' weekend moods.
From the progressive pop folk of Londoners' Masters Of Disguise, to the schizo edgy electro-house of Silly Boy or the mellow madness of Monsieur Minimal and the bedtime melodies of  Your Hand In Mine, this is my answer, to the question related to the style of music I like to play, when I'm deejaying at gigs or listening at home. You may call it freestyle / genre-crossing or anything you feel like, but please, let me highlight that I had the privilege to work with some of the greatest and open-minded partners, a new compiler could have. I was lucky enough though, to find out that all musicians involved, were at my age (mid twenties) and they had all spent their youth listening to music in a very eclectic way (from balearic trip hop sounds to detroit techno, and from british indie pop/rock scene to experimental electronica and the new dubstep trend) . A few crazy meetings later and we discovered that our main aim was not to be pigeonholed but to bring to you people, brand new music.
That's the reason why, this compilation kicks off with the melancholic trip pop of our "big time" soundtrack composers, The First Aid and Vello Leaf, while continues in perfect cinematic style with an exclusive recording by The Intensionists collective before switching to Serpentines' perfect bossa pop.
One and a half minute later, it's all about electronics. Mid tempo Norwegian electro style moods from Volos' Eko Tiger, then future pop from Thelma Blankenship, a special re-edit of The Flying Lilis Brothers to an old Relevant Box track, a bit of Monsieur Minimal's anthem pop treatment (you'll get some more of his music quite soon) and finally, Kitephonics' contribution with a piece of the most twisted and f*cked up but still beautiful, abstract electronic music that I've heard from a Greek artist lately. From the day one of its conception, I've never stopped pointing out to each -first time- listener that I put these thirteen tracks together with the same passion and strategic thinking that we used to have, when we were giving a special occasion mixtape, as a present, to our first music friends.
I mean... it starts with a track called "This Opening" and fades out with one called "...I Never Thought This Would Be The End", it is that simple...

Enjoy!

P.S.1. A couple of weeks after the first listening of "City Campers" compilation, T.S.O.E.'s label manager, having already believed in this project, had the pioneering idea of releasing a specially-priced mini box set (3cds for the price of 1), where the first cd would be my compilation and the next two cds would be a collection of eps, where some of the bands, would have the opportunity to release some more of their beautiful music in a series of extended plays. You can find more information and thoughts of mine for some of these bands, in the next pages.
P.S.2 Wouldn't be great if next year, we, City Campers, get all together to a big - green field - camp - festival- weekend, listening to all these aural delights live and maybe something new!
I'll be the one with the white / orange camper van :-).

Thanx for listening,
Love and Peace,
Dim.


Hello, City Campers!

When I got in my hands a demo of an alternative/leftfield compilation by Dimitris Lilis, I was very surprised to see that while I was digging in each and every corner of Greece for undiscovered production talent in several genres of music, I had underestimated the local alternative/indie scene.
On the other hand, Dimitris and his brother Panos, had discovered new bands that were booming in that scene thanks to they publicity they were getting via myspace community, but the wider public new nothing of them. I was immediately thrilled by the idea of releasing such a fresh and groundbreaking compilation, but I was troubled enough as to how I could make these bands as known as possible to a wider - even more mainstream - audience. These bands and artists had to have a chance to show more of their talent than just a single song of theirs. But even if T.S.O.E. could afford to release 10 albums of theirs in one month, the market would not be able to absorb all of them, and their momentum would be dispersed in several directions. Based on the experience I had earned from the commercial success of the triple Hellectronic 01 compilation, which presented the nu-breed of Greek producers from the whole spectrum of electronic music, I realized that there is now more than ever, a big demand for fresh, good, tag-free music that comes in a big box but sold at a low price.
Then a revolutionary idea came to me: Along with Dimitris Lilis' compilation, we would release another 2 cds, which would be a collection of eps from as many bands as we could have from that scene. A new kind of format was born, which I decided to name "multi-ep". I've never seen anything like that before and hence I dare to say it was an original idea, but this is not the point. The point is that nine bands would now have the opportunity to join forces and make their "voices" heard, through a project that would be heavily promoted and sold at a very friendly price.
Apart from the bands that were Dimitris' contribution to this project, I had already signed tracks from three amazing bands: Ekos Quartet, Travel Mind Syndrome and StrangeZero, whose music was ideal for this release.
The compilation along with the multi-ep concept, attracted a lot of attention instantly, not only from several bands and artists but from the competition as well. A lot of "stealing" attempts took place behind the scene, some of them were successful and some were not. The end result however is a revolutionary project of top quality and maximum freshness!
It was extremely difficult for Dimitris and me to come up with a good name for this project as our bands had expressed the wish that the name would not include predictable words such as "alternative", "underground" and more similar words.
After endless brain-storming sessions we came up with "City Campers"! These artists have an underground and hippy attitude which is expressed via the word "Campers", but in essence they're all part of the city culture and they're here to make our lives in the city sound better, hence these are the City Campers!
A new label series was launched to give shelter to that sound: "Fo.No. Underground". It simply means For Now Underground. What you will hear in this project and future releases of that series will be temporarily undergound. Soon to be huge that is!!!! Enjoy…

Yannis Iliopoulos

File Sharing

File sharing is an irresestible temptation for the new generation of consumers, not attached to physical product (vinyl, CD), and record labels have to adjust to a new environment where there are no borders and no restrictions. Just the ancient love of man for music...
Fresh good music at low price. This is the new state of things...

ALTER EGO O.S.T.

You can now find 4 tracks of our label in Alter Ego original soundtrack:

V-Sag feat. Baby Queen: A Look Of You
(also available in Shakespearen Love album)

Vello Leaf feat. Alexandra McKay: One Last Tear
(also available in City Campers compilation)

The First Aid feat. Flora Ioannidi: Hearts
(also available in City Campers compilation)

Mama: Have A Nice Trip
(also available in Hellectronic 01 compilation)

SOMETIMES I WONDER
IF THE TRUTH IS IN OUR HEARTS
SOMETIMES I WONDER
IF THE CRIES I HEAR WILL DRY

ALL THAT'S LEFT IN ME
IS THE STRENGTH TO LOVE FOR REAL
AND ALL I'VE GOT, IS ALL I'VE DONE
TO EASE MY FAITH IN YOU, IN LOVE

STAY HERE WITH ME, COME ON
ALL I ASK IS YOU, TO HOLD ME
PLEASE JUST HOLD ME BABE
EASE MY FAITH IN YOU, IN LOVE

ALL THIS LOVE

(lyrics: De:tech)