VSCRL

✠ Manifesto III ✠ Music is a visceral experience, there’s a raw essence to it - it’s euphoric, it’s captivating, it’s nostalgic. It elicits feelings that words could never capture & portrays such a compelling narrative. It inspires connectivity, curiosity, creative liberation & self-expression. There’s so many nuances to music that cannot be expressed in any other way, it truly is an experience of the physical - an energy exchange from an artist seeking to express to its listeners a passage of deep emotion & imagination. Though the impact of music has become overshadowed by performance metrics. Over-reliance on trends & immediate commercial appeal has hindered innovation & turned music into an injected landscape of homogenized artists. Carbon copies. Reduced down to nothing more than a commodity for the affluent to capitalize off of & the very minorities that founded this scene to be alienated. The reward is given to those who buy into adhering to a formula. Click bait. Hooks. Rinse & repeat. But what suffers? Instead of celebrating differences & the unique aspects of artistry we risk becoming an exclusive playground for the privileged. And for what? Views? Followers? Virality? Subcultures are either ridiculed or ignored until they're deemed marketable. Gentrified, regurgitated & sold off as a gimmick, repackaged to the masses as “innovative”. There were artists doing what you see today 20 years ago, only then it wasn’t a joke - it was about inclusivity & challenging social norms, it was about breaking free from oppression & providing a safe space for marginalized groups. Music was a movement, not a gimmick. There needs to be more space for the diversity & inclusivity that dance music once portrayed itself as. Audiences play a vital role in reshaping the industry standard & fostering an environment that aligns with these set of values. This collective is a way for us to illuminate the importance of creative outlets free of social stigmas, free of the unethical practices many artists experience & free from the very real threat social media poses to dismantling subcultures & minorities.

✠ Manifesto II ✠ There is something so sublime about music. The agency through which unspoken language is understood & sound is absorbed. At a cursory glance sound is reductive & unrecognizable. It's imprecise & ambiguous. It’s unprecedented – in its intensity, texture & emotion. But isn’t that freeing? To rid ourselves from the obstruction of association. There is no object to grasp or hold onto. How vulnerable to listen into the unknown. How visceral. How intimate. To break free from the conscious mind & make sense of our inner world. What a gift to create, this notion towards the personal. Radical self expression rather than the grandiose. Do you create to be intimate or to be praised? I wonder… But how is the very nature of self expression become so ridiculed & the central experience of listening become so difficult? The slow evolution of musical language has suffered, to be replaced by lists, clearly outlining what can or cannot be. To now have boundaries & limitations. Rules that apply - can only be happy, can only have lyrics, cannot be too fast, cannot be too slow. If music cannot be these things, what then? Instead we are subject to the attention span of an audience. Instead - Repeat. Repeat. A kind of self-imposed redundancy without any purpose. Performative rather than immersive. Is music not storytelling? A relationship between the intensity of physical life & the vocalisation of the extremes of our emotion. Sound can be both pleasurable & profound, as well as angry, sad, fast, slow. Listening is a sense that we take for granted – yet a sense that comes to the forefront of our attention when a loud siren goes off, when lightning strikes & you hear the first roar of thunder, followed by a loud surge of electricity - it immediately paints a deep & vivid picture for us to process. So what is the difference? This is a question worth asking - in a society deeply embedded in immediate satisfaction, deeply embedded in virality, who values only the opinions of those with (x) amount of followers or views. Without all sound & without all music the world is indecipherable & meaningless. 🎥: @visual_dreamz

✠ Manifesto I ✠ How many opportunities do we get to engage with people in a real or honest way? What shows genuinely surprised or shocked you or expanded your idea of what music could be? Social Media has changed the way we connect & how we listen to music - its replaced social contact with content & consumerism. The visual is king, the performance, the algorithm. The aesthetic & the artistic can be enriching & moving, though what are the socialized implications? What are the "invisible" rules of music & art in general? Is it acceptable to mess up, to post the imperfect track or mix? Are you a revered artist if you don’t have (x) amount of followers or thousands of views per video? Are you an artist at all if you don’t post content? If you’re not marketable? How is it that the kind of honest & vulnerable experimentation is criticized but the trend-driven, performative & the repetitive is not? What then is a valid piece of art if it isn’t centered around the art itself? If being viral & viewership habits consequently determine shelf-life & artistry. Isn’t the point of music to be spontaneous & expressive? Let’s decenter the performer & get back to how we listen to music. Let’s preserve to spirit of the scene & be more present with our community & connect. We simply don't have enough opportunities to talk to strangers, to communicate, to get curious & give meaning to the things we aren’t told to think about. Instead we are encouraged to be passive listeners/lookers: disengaged in the process of creation & yet well informed about who is viral & up-to-date on trends. This is a calling to reconsider the power of consumerism & how it affects the trajectory of music. To be present, to learn & to get curious about different creative outlets, cultural associations & differences. To listen to artists as they are, actively creating & immersed in their passion outside of the social conditioning that enforces repetition & ubiquity. There’s a power in genuine. Music can be liberating - it can be VSCRL. 🎥: @visual_dreamz

SUBSTRATE x VSCRL x NotUS- 4.16 Thursday is the last installment of a 3 part listening series centered around immersion & deep listening. -Live sets provided by @drenchrome & @johnrojjas -Hybrid set provided by @_marienyx & @bb.shaine -Sound provided by @mobius_acoustics -Art Show by @direct_assembly “Blue Tiefling - Part II” Substrate exists in resonance. Giving space to subtlety, tension & nuance. This is an invitation to listen deeper, to feel more, to allow the sound to breathe, unfold, & resonate on a physical level. Join us in curiosity, openness, & deep attention. Link in bio 🔗

SUBSTRATE x VSCRL - 2.19 Thursday is the 2nd installment of a 3 part listening series centered around immersion & deep listening. This is an invitation to listen deep, to feel more, to allow the sound to breathe, unfold & resonate on a physical level. Extended sets provided by @negative__affect & @solem_cdliv with sound provided by @mobius_acoustics Join us in curiosity, openness, & deep attention. RSVP link in Bio 🔗

SUBSTRATE x VSCRL -2.19 Thursday is the 2nd installment of a 3 part series centered around immersion & deep listening. Substrate exists in resonance. Giving space to subtlety, tension & nuance. This is an invitation to listen deeper, to feel more, to allow the sound to breathe, unfold, & resonate on a physical level. Extended sets provided by @solem_cdliv and @negative__affect in a still introspective space with sound provided by @mobius_acoustics . Join us in curiosity, openness, & deep attention 🫀

We first met @alex_casillas at Blind Tiger’s Reactor in 2023. It’s been beautiful to watch how both his art & music projects have evolved through the years. Each phase of creative output feels like a natural continuation of the last—refined, curious, and engaging. Whether expressed through sound or visual form, his work carries a quiet confidence that invites self reflection. Now as a Co-Founder of @splitchecks_ , this ethos extends into the spaces & communities he helps build. Through SplitChecks, he has contributed to & curated numerous audio-visual projects & events - where sound, image, & atmosphere intersect. Join us at VSCRL x SUBSTRATE for a deep listening experience with sound provided by @mobius_acoustics Come early for an artist panel with @alex_casillas & @lorely_mur at 7:30PM - questions will consist go their experience as DJs/Artists, promoters, experiences with labels & running a label + how a young artist could get started and involved in the scene 🥀

I’m very pleased to be supported by VSCRL for this curation of Substrate. A deep listening series that aims to bring up questions like: is this ambient? is this techno? is this IDM? What am I? Substrate is about hypnotic grooves and breaks that sit on subdued emotions, subterranean vibes and earthy tones. Thanks to @vscrl for selecting these artists to be showcased in a special listening environment with sound provided by @mobius_acoustics . Doors will open at 7:00 pm, we’ll start with a brief discussion/Q&A to hear their insights on production, label running, and the techno world. Extended 3 hour sets start promptly at 8:00. Link to tickets in Bio and on RA.co Alex Casillas DJ/producer and visual artist carving out a hypnotic lane where groove-driven rhythms meet immersive, textural worlds, blending raw, forward-thinking techno with a sharp visual language. As Co-Founder of @splitchecks_ in Riverside CA, he’s worked on many renowned audio/visual projects and been featured on lineups with the likes of Boris, Sama Abduhadi, Ketch, Akua, Stephen Disario, and more. Lorely Mur Denver based DJ and producer known for her dark, immersive and dynamic performances. Born and raised in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, Mur quickly became a key figure on the underground dance scene, earning recognition as a resident at the long-standing Hardpop Club — one of Mexico’s most respected electronic music venues. Her productions are characterized by deep grooves, experimental synth textures, and driving rhythms — including standout releases such as her Interstellar Mission EP (Eclipse Recordings), Frission EP (VISIIONS), and the widely acclaimed track Juno (SLC-6). She’s since released Distorsión Mental with Splitchecks Recordings and Exoskeletal (Lorely Mur Remix) with Diffuse Reality. Artwork by @srk3 and @ana.osj

SUBSTRATE x VSCRL - a 3 part series centered around immersion & deep listening. Substrate exists in resonance. Giving space to subtlety, tension & nuance. This is an invitation to listen deeper, to feel more, to allow the sound to breathe, unfold, & resonate on a physical level. Each installment is curated with the listener in mind. Extended sets in a still introspective space. Join us in curiosity, openness, & deep attention. RSVP link in Bio 🔗 2/5 Artists: ⊹ Alex Casillas @alex_casillas ⊹ Lorely Mur @lorely_mur 2/19 Artists ⊹ SOLëM @solem_cdliv ⊹ Negative Affect @negative__affect

Anastasia Giovani (@ana.osj ) - Female Rage on VSCRL Records [VSCRL001] 🥀 // This serves as a conceptual critique of constructed femininity, interrogating the roles and pressures imposed on the feminine body and voice. It channels female rage as resistance, rejecting compliance in favor of raw expression.  Female rage is often coded, restrained, or dismissed. It simmers beneath politeness, behind expectations and under careful performance. In sound, in literature, in media, in style, in behavior.  Female bodies, voices and stories are frequently commodified - extracting and packaging femininity for consumption.  Female rage is not hysteria, it’s carved out agency. It represents visibility, survival and defiance - because palatability has always been a cage.  //  Artwork - @visual_dreamz Audio - @thisisctsd

VSCRL & CTHRTC are partnering with @psstudio_dtla to host a food/supplies drive this Wednesday for those affected by the LA fires. Come hang out, drop off donations & put together care packages. There will be open decks, food & coffee being passed around to volunteers. Those that need it come by & pick up supplies / food. *We’re doing a livestream to raise money for those who lost their homes & are in need of immediate support during this time - ALL donations will go directly to shelters, verified fundraisers & non-profits * If you can't make it to the drive, tune into the livestream on Twitch this Wednesday @vsc_rl . We'll be accepting donation via the stream & sharing live updates. Location: @psstudio_dtla 2346 porter street 90021 Wed @7pm -midnight Things to donate: -Water -Hygiene products -Zip ties -N95 Masks -Blankets -Batteries -Flashlights -Gauze -Tampons / Pads -Dry pet food -Non Perishable Food -Snacks - chips, bars, ect. -First Aid -Baby wipes -Diapers -Coloring books / cards If you'd prefer to donate directly, we've provided a list of verified fundraisers & resources in bio 🔗 To those affected, we send our love & support. If anyone needs anything please do not hesitate to reach out, our dms are open 🖤

VSCRL x @splitchecks_ | @boysnoizerecords showcase💥 V2 Ft @unklevon | @pilo_zkulptor | @baseck | @lakehills_ | @vonwolfenheiser.ox | @lilsco3x_ | @whoizzzthatgirl Big love to @onyxmusix for putting together this edit, insane work!