Five years is long enough to prove a point, and this Saturday at Henge Brixton, Paisley Dark Records does exactly that. The Leeds-based label, founded by DJ and producer John Paynter, has spent half a decade quietly building one of the more compelling underground imprints in British electronic music, and the fifth anniversary tour rolls into south London this weekend.
Paynter grew up on The Stranglers, The Clash and The Buzzcocks, and that DNA runs through everything he does. There’s a textured, unapologetic quality to the Paisley Dark sound that feels rooted in place and purpose. The label itself was born out of lockdown, when Paynter turned a Facebook community of like-minded heads into something more permanent. The catalyst was Shelter Me, an online streaming collective raising funds for homelessness charities, where Paynter pulled together 24 remixes around a single Steady State track and realised he needed a proper label to release it.
Thirty-six releases deep, the catalogue spans warriors of the Dystotheque, James Rod, Airsine, UFO Club, Zillas On Acid, Japanese Television and Future Unit among others, with regular BBC 6 Music plays along the way. In the studio as A Space Age Freak Out, Paynter has also built a solid body of remix work, and as a DJ he’s spent years sharing stages with Andrew Weatherall, Justin Robertson, Richard Norris and Richard Sen, an education that clearly informs how he approaches a room.
The sound sits somewhere between electronic psychedelia, acid and what Paynter himself calls techno-not-techno. It doesn’t fit neatly anywhere, which is precisely the point.
Paisley Dark Records at Henge Brixton, Saturday 28th February along with our friends at Red Telephone. Find out more here
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