Feelee ( Feelee Records , Feelee Promotion , Feelee Management & Record Company , FILI Record Firm ) is one of the first Russian independent music companies founded by music entrepreneur Igor Tonkikh in 1988.
| Feelee | |
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| basic information | |
| Based | 1988 |
| Founders | Igor Tonkikh |
| Distributor | Mirumir |
| Genre | Alternative rock , indie rock |
| A country |  Russia |
| Location | Moscow |
| Feelee.ru | |
From the very beginning, Igor Tonkikh’s company was engaged in promoting an alternative scene in Russia [1] . Feelee has released debut albums of such groups as Tequilajazzz , Zdob și Zdub , Pelageya , Zero , Hummingbirds , Cockroaches! ", IFK and many others. The Feelee Records label is considered the main distributor of Western independent music in Russia, releasing licensed music releases from foreign labels 4AD , Mute , Beggars Banquet , XL , Ninja Tune , Warp [2] [3] . Feelee is also known as the organizer of the Rock Against Terror festival (1991) and a series of Learn to Swim festivals (1995-2000).
In addition to the record label, the parent company Feelee also included a division of Feelee Promotion - the organizer of concerts and tours, and the company Territory, which acted as an information agency and distributor of Feelee Records products [1] .
History
... I graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute , and was distributed to the plant. Khrunicheva , the “mailbox” at Fili , which was in charge of the Gorbunov Palace of Culture . When I came to register with the local Komsomol committee, they asked me: What will you do? "Nothing". What do you love? "I love music." Will you make music? "Well, I will music ...". He made the first concert - “ Black Coffee ” and “ Legion ”, then “ Sounds of Mu ” with someone else, then dragged a rock laboratory there, brought speculators-music lovers from Mayakovka, found Boris Simonov, who is now “ Transylvania ”, under the auspices of the factory was made by the club of philophonists - and everything spun. In the 85th he came to the factory, in the 86th he made the first concert, in the 88th he began working under the guise of “Fili”.
- Igor Tonkikh , founder of Feelee [3]
When Igor Tonkikh started his activities in 1986, his private enterprise was one of the first in the USSR after the state monopoly of the only record company Melody recorded at that time was liquidated in the country [1] . According to Igor, since then his name has been strongly associated with the historical Moscow region of Fili , where he led the eponymous record and promotion company called Feelee Management & Record Company. “Of course, we called each of our meetings at Feelee nothing more than a“ council at Fili ”- this expression passed through many matters as a red thread. With all the self-irony, we understood that we were also making history ” [4] . Since 1988, Feelee began organizing concerts of foreign artists. The first of them were the British rock band World Domination Enterprises , which performed on March 8–9, 1988, and the American noise band Sonic Youth , which gave a concert on April 12, 1989. The following were foreign groups The Shamen , Fred Frith , musicians , , the band and others [1] .
The company switched to the recording industry in 1991: the cause of the Feelee Record Company label was the eminent charity festival “ Rock Against Terror ”. The idea of the festival came from the musician Garik Sukachev , who suffered from illegal actions by employees of the 108th police station on Arbat , and Feelee together with the VID television company supported him. All the leading rock performers of the country of that time expressed a desire to perform at this festival: Garik Sukachev himself, the groups Alisa , DDT , Nautilus Pompilius , Chayf , CrossroadZ , Nuance , Mtsyri , Bix "," AuktsYon "," Kalinov Bridge ". The entire concert was recorded and filmed on video. When the time came to release this record on a phonograph record , this served Feelee as an occasion to create its own record label. The first disc from Feelee Record Company was released in 1992, but it was dedicated not to the last rock festival, but to the Sunday group. Igor Tonkikh explains this by the fact that the musicians of “Sunday” reunited in the “golden line-up” then, and the release of their album made it possible to assemble a group at a concert in DK Gorbunov . The second record of Feelee Records contained a recording of the Rock Against Terror festival. In the same 1992, Feelee Records began to release music releases on CDs [3] [5] .
In 1994, Feelee Records signed a contract with the St. Petersburg group Tequilajazzz , which after several years became one of the leaders of the alternative scene in Russia and became the unofficial “calling card” of the label [1] . In the same year, Feelee became the main Russian distributor of Western independent music. The first release in this area was Dead Can Dance's Into the Labyrinth album, released under license from 4AD Records . This was followed by the album of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Let Love In ( Mute Records ). “In the words of Lenya Zakharov from Komsomolskaya Pravda : how to be known as a record company with good taste? You just need to enter into a licensing agreement with a record company with good taste! After that, we became a distributor of Beggars Banquet , XL Recordings , Ninja Tune , Warp ... there were a lot of good labels. From the very beginning we have chosen an independent niche . There was an economic reason - the sector of all independents is approximately equal to the major ; nice repertoire, no need to get dirty, you can make money without prostitution. No compromise ”(Igor Tonkikh) [3] . In the same 1994, the news agency InterMedia recognized Feelee as the best show business company [1] .
In 1995, the company holds the first extreme music festival " Learn to Swim ", materially realizing the transfer of the same name by Alexander F. Sklyar to Radio Maximum . In 1996, the festival received international status and the festival status of two capitals ( Moscow and St. Petersburg ) [1] . In total, five festivals were held in honor of which five music collections were published by the Feelee Records label [6] .
In 1998, the Feelee Records label received the Record Award from the Russian music industry in the Foreign Album nomination for the release of Depeche Mode 's Ultra album [7] .
In 2006, Feelee Records label activity declined due to the crisis in the recording industry [8] .
Of the big releases, I’ll mention “ Krovostok ”, but again, I signed a comprehensive contract - it included exclusive performances in “ Caviar ”. Record business goes online, offline sales are falling, online sales are growing, but not so much as to offset losses. We will be a record company, and I am sure: in a situation where everything settles down - while technology is ahead of the law - record companies will again take their place.
- Igor Tonkikh , Feelee company founder [8]
After a long break from 2006 to 2012, Feelee Records returned to business, celebrating its 20th anniversary. In honor of the anniversary, several of the label's classic albums were released on a gramophone record licensed by the Mirumir company. In 2013, Feelee Records released the new album MaximumHappy I from the cockroach band “ Cockroaches! Returned to the label” . " [9] .
Feelee Records Artists
Russian performers
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Foreign performers
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Foreign releases
Some music releases have been republished abroad under license from Feelee Records:
- Hummingbird - Manner of Behavior (1992, Community 3 Records);
- Va-Bank - In the Kitchen (1992, Community 3 Records);
- NAIVE - Post Alcoholic Anxieties (1999, Koolarrow Records ).
See also
- Rock Against Terror
- Learn to swim
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 History . Official site Feelee. Date of treatment July 22, 2015. Archived July 22, 2015.
- ↑ Kashapov, Radif. Igor Tonkikh: “An ideal is a full house” . “ Sounds.ru ” (February 27, 2009). Date of treatment July 23, 2015. Archived July 23, 2015.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Lipatov, Artyom. Igor Tonkikh: “Business is still wild” (page 1) . OpenSpace.ru (June 6, 2008). Date of treatment July 22, 2015. Archived July 22, 2015.
- ↑ Terrible, Paul. Moscow from the inside: Igor Tonkikh about Fili . The city . " Poster " (July 28, 2011). Date of treatment July 23, 2015. Archived July 23, 2015.
- ↑ Calm, Eugene. Igor Tonkikh . The Village (December 3, 2008). Date of treatment July 23, 2015. Archived July 23, 2015.
- ↑ Collections . Official site Feelee. Date of treatment July 23, 2015. Archived July 23, 2015.
- ↑ Winners of the "Record-98" Prize . Kommersant Gazeta (June 17, 1998). Date of treatment July 22, 2015. Archived July 22, 2015.
- ↑ 1 2 Lipatov, Artyom. Igor Tonkikh: “Business is still wild” (page 3) . OpenSpace.ru (June 6, 2008). Date of treatment July 22, 2015. Archived July 22, 2015.
- ↑ MaximumHappy I . Official site of the Cockroaches! ". Date of treatment July 23, 2015. Archived July 23, 2015.
Links
- Official Feelee Website
- Feelee Records (rus.) Release Catalog on Discogs
- Feelee Records video channel (Russian) on YouTube
- Interview with Igor Thin // Ribbon. Ru , February 19, 2019