Raw Waxes

Raw Waxes is a record label from Berlin, originally founded in Turin by producer and DJ Haiku in 2013.

The project began when Lorenzo Esposito lived in Turin and occupied himself more intensively with the local Techno scene. There he made contacts with Riccardo Piovesan aka The Noisemaker and Korova from Rome, who contributed to the first Raw Waxes’ catalogue number. »The aim was to provide new talent a platform and attention”, explains Esposito. »It seemed to be a good idea to bring them together with remix-artists from the underground.« That went moderately well despite quite a bit of organisational hurdles with the pressing and selling; in the meantime, Raw Waxes concentrates almost exclusively on original tracks. These tracks quite strongly divert away from the established Techno blueprint, resulting in a hard and so to speak raw sound. »Everything spontaneous and unfiltered«, says Esposito, who already as a teenager swam against the back then Deep House trend and rather paid homage to Plastikman. Until today, he drafts a stylistic diversity in his own DJ sets, which is connected essentially by their abruptness.

Parallel to Rax Waxes, Esposito operates the label Inkblots, which specialises in elaborately designed special editions and was originally inspired by numerous visits of the producer to Berlin. There he even shared a split release with Mike Parker, the Berlin duo I/Y collaborated with Go Hiyama and the hyperactive Russian producer Stanislav Tolkachev released together with the US DJ Developer. An international project, whose radius stretches a little further than that of Raw Waxes. »Until now, I had always asked the people, who I already knew«, says Esposito. Consequently, he describes the relationships to the artists like for example The Noisemaker, who has released on Raw Waxes besides Simone Gatto and Lee Holman, as a friendship. For Esposito especially, it’s about letting yourself be enchanted. Benedikt Rugar did that with his illustrations for Berghain’s LGBT party SNAX. Esposito hired him for a series of records as a designer for an ambitious project. »I didn’t want to make covers, because I thought that a high-quality print of Benedikt’s illustrations had more artistic value«, explains Esposito the concept of the elaborate inlays. »It seems more sensible to me, that the end-user can hang it on the wall as an artwork and the record comes to no harm.« Despite all the artistic claims: the releases by Raw Waxes as well as Inkblots should be heard on the Techno dance floor. Whether in Berlin or Turin, this is where it all began for the two labels.