Written for Clash magazine, December 2005 issue

Modern Love is the latest tentacle to sprout from the mutant electronic octopus that is Baked Goods distribution. Not content with running the UK’s premier wholesale supplier of cutting-edge music, the team also operate the Pelicanneck shop and it’s online offshoot, Boomkat, plus the City Centre Offices label, home of some of the most sublime, downbeat electronica around. Modern Love quietly slipped on to the scene in 2002, and has spent the past three years and 17 releases honing its unique brand of sleek electro and warehouse party-inspired techno into a force to be reckoned with.

From their Manchester HQ, label head Shlom explains: “The idea behind Modern Love was to have an antithesis to City Centre Offices. Modern Love was for dark, squashed dancefloor business that didn't require long press campaigns or any substantial planning. Our location is extremely important because some of our artists - Pendle Coven, Claro Intelecto and Andy Stott - all feed off each other. It’s an ongoing competition between them to see who writes the best jacking music - that's a very Manchester thing. But as long as their material is good they are loved and looked after - all the artists are friends, or friends of friends.”

It’s an approach that has won them many high-profile admirers worldwide, as Shlom explains: “Claro has always been a hit with the ladies, and I must admit a tear came to my eye when Mary Anne Hobbs mentioned she wanted to ‘neck’ with Andy Stott on Radio One. But Bitstream have a fan in Martin Gore, with a couple of Depeche Mode remixes in their pockets. In fact only the other day I was thinking how much I'd love to re-release Martin Gore's cover version of ‘Motherless Child on vinyl. Martin, if you're reading this… I'm serious!”

Attention to detail is a key factor in Modern Love’s success – from the clean and intricate music to the eye-catching sleeves, which employ stunning black and white photography with artfully minimal typography. In today’s saturated market, design is more important than ever in making sure a label’s releases stand out from the crowd. Shlom agrees: “While design concepts rarely cover up a lack of musical ideas, having a striking presence visually certainly helps get you noticed. The first five releases on the label were designed by Default, the same people who run and maintain the Boomkat website, but since then the design has been handled by Kabegami - John Twells, who runs the Type label, and his girlfriend Monika Herodotou.”

The label has assembled a solid roster of producers - the most recent addition being Andy Stott, who made his debut on Modern Love in early 2005. Shlom explains: “Andy is a local kid who paints cars for Mercedes for a living. It’s scary - I see him every two weeks and he brings with him a CD full of new tracks every time, and he just gets better and better. He’s the man behind our biggest-selling release, ‘Ceramics’. Then there’s Pendle Coven - Miles and Gaz, two old friends who have a crazy studio space up in Burnley. Miles is quite simply the most intuitive DJ I have ever seen - something which comes across in the slightly schizophrenic nature of their tracks: hardcore jungle one minute and Maurizio spin-offs the next.”

UK electro mavericks Bitstream – brothers Steve and Dave Conner - are behind Modern Love’s only LP to date, ‘Domestic Economy 7’, and have built up a huge following since bursting on to the scene via their own Signal label back in 1999. Shlom says: “Steve was a seasoned b-boy - he's won a few scratch competitions - and they're both into the eerie atmospherics of Ligeti, which gives their electro the layered, dark edge that makes them sound so different.”

The jewel in the label’s crown is Claro Intelecto, who straddles the fine line between techno and electro, and who made his mark via a series of rapturously-received releases on Ai Records before defecting to Modern Love.  “So far there's only been one release from Mark on Modern Love,” says Shlom. “We pressed up a one-time edition of 500 copies and they all sold in an afternoon. He's sitting on a vault's worth of crazy material - a 12" called ‘Patience’ will be out in November and then a series of stripped jack-tracks - the ‘Warehouse Sessions’ series - will start in January.”

The label is bracing itself for a busy 2006, as Shlom explains: “Next up is a deep techno shuffle from Pendle Coven called ‘Marriage of Convenience’, followed by a terrifying, sick, jacking two-tracker from Andy Stott and then, if the kids deliver, some albums. Claro has a busy live schedule with shows lined up in Berlin, France and London in the coming weeks, Bitstream are always busy live, Mariel Ito from Texas has a European tour lined up for winter and Miles (one half of Pendle Coven) DJs regularly.”

He adds: “Playing out is also hugely important - it obviously raises the profile, but more importantly I think it gives artists a better perspective on what tracks work and what other producers are up to. I don't believe in the idea that artists can progress without an awareness of their musical surroundings - it's an arrogant notion. If you look at the scene in Cologne, it's built from the ground up around club nights and producers feeding off each other in dark warehouse spaces - the total antithesis to the ‘bedroom’ ethos that electronic music has been plagued with over the years.”

© Tom Churchill 2005