We caught up with Chris Galloway from Soft Rocks about a new project he’s currently kicking off along with Stuart Leath:  Emotional Rescue / Emotional Response

Hi Chris, Why start this label? what is it’s ethos? whom are you running it with? how did you meet? and why the collaboration?

Well, both Stuart and I had long admired and bought from those proper reissue labels out there like Light In The Attic or Time-Lag etc, but as collectors/DJs we thought that there was an angle of putting out some of the records we unearth and love, and that are just too good to be kept amongst the small group of collectors/DJs. I guess that really the artists and the music deserved to be heard by a wider audience.

At the same time it’s so frustrating to see all these bootlegs of records that you’ve spent time digging up, passing on, playing and sharing being trumpeted as “reissues” when everyone knows label like Island or Warners are not going to press 500 copies of something from the mid-70s.   It’s a bit of joke really, that shops and buyers now say ‘reproduction’ or ‘repress’ when we all know they’re not.   So leaving the major labels to one side, we decided to put out lost, forgotten or obscure music that we love.

The idea actually came together a few years ago when we both happened to be out in Ibiza for whatever reason, and as we sat around over beers both realised we’d been thinking the same thoughts about a proper reissue label and also, about the type of artists and music that should be heard.  I was doing Soft Rocks and Stuart had done some bits and bobs with other people’s music, so when we got home we hooked up here in Brighton and when I was up in London for gigs. We came up with records and started contacting people and it went from there.   I mean, we’re lucky as we have hooked up with people like Village Green, a London based design company and they have really helped bring ideas on packaging together and then we’ve hooked up with our friends and fellow music lovers to try and do something a little extra for remastering etc.

It’s all aimed at music lovers so hopefully they’ll appreciate that and support us.   I mean the African-South American-World scene and Folk/Rock Americana stuff is so well covered by the likes of Soundway or Stutt or Mississippi etc that we’re just trying to forge our own path at our own pace and see where we end up…hopefully digging up stuff that others would miss or simply never know about.

Whom is this Bob guy? Tell us the story behind the record if you would…

Bob is now a chilled 70 year old retiree over in Huntington Beach, but back in the day he was a working singer, songwriter, musician with a bit of a following around the LA area.   As the story often goes he got in the studio for a crack at the big time and out of that came a number of pysche thumpers, one of which was Wild, It’s Broken and that was then pressed up on a few Test Pressings.   However, at the time nothing came of it, so several years later he re-recorded it and that became the 7″ version now titled simply It’s Broken and which came out on a flip of red vinyl release called The Bomb.

Shortly after he did get an album together which for diggers out there has a number of amazing killer cuts, including a 9 minute discoid version of It’s Broken.   This is due for reissue from the esteemed Trunk label at some point but until then the copies of the album that are floating around are pretty rare and pricey…so if you want one mail me!

What other releases are we to expect soon?

Loads really.    We’ve got a reggae-disco-dub 12″ due next month from 80s ethno-dub band Suns of Arqa which features an unreleased edit of the last known recording of Prince Far I and also has a secret balearic gem tucked on the flip.

Its all remastered/repackaged nice and loud.  Next up is a cosmic-kraut release coming from one Cosmic Hoffmann, this is for the heads, plus a beautiful re-issue of a private press folk-soul-hippy LP from Jaki Whitren and John Cartwright recorded at their commune in France back in the day.

There are quite a few to follow after that, some post-krautrock from ex Can members, some unreleased new wave from Baldelli favourite Kevin Harrison and we’ve just signed contracts hopefully just in time for a Record Store day special if we can get it all sorted in time… that is gonna be special as it’s a super rare slice of British Post Punk Dub oddness as you’ll ever hear.

2012 the year of the… ???

Well there is also a sister label called Emotional Response coming soon too where we are gonna release some interesting and left-field new music from the likes of Andrew Weatherall’s engineer Timothy J Fairplay and others.

Plus there is a load of music coming on the other labels I’m involved with..Kinfolk, Soft Rocks Recordings and our Roots Unit alter ego label Vibrations . We’ve got some amazing stuff from Protect U / Tiago / The Grid / Luv Jam and others all due this year.

Tell us about Soft Rocks, what are the latest movements? Is the remix LP round the corner? Who were you most suprised to be digging the LP?

Soft Rocks is good, looking forward to a forthcoming small Japan tour. The album has done really well so we’re very pleased. The remixes album and 12’s are due real soon with loads of friends and associates on the case so watch this space.  Kate Middleton tweeted she loved the album and gave copies out for Xmas, bless.

Brighton, what’s cooking down there?

We are planning to do a couple of small ’semi regular’ nights here soon…one with us and two good local dj’s Jamie Phillips and Tim Rivers who recently recorded for the World Unknown label, plus a weirdy beard night with Richard Norris from Time & Space Machine.

Bob Chance – Wild It’s Broken (Test Pressing Version) by Juno Plus