Network 23 was a record label founded by the

Spiral Tribe Spiral Tribe is an arts collective and free party sound system formed in 1990. It organised free parties, festivals and raves in the UK and later Europe in the 1990s. Spiral Tribe was involved in the Castlemorton Common Festival and members ...

sound system in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

. Its last release was in

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

. In 2005, the label Network Repress was set up to rerelease tracks.

History

Having left England for mainland Europe after the

Castlemorton Common Festival The Castlemorton Common Festival was a week-long free festival and rave held in the Malvern Hills near Malvern, Worcestershire, England between 22 and 29 May 1992. The media interest and controversy surrounding the festival, and concerns as to ...

and the ensuing trial for organising it,

found themselves in Paris and decided to set up a record label. The aim was to start a non-profit communication channel in opposition to the mainstream. Over the next two years, Network 23 released a number of records by members of Spiral Tribe under various aliases such as

SP23 Spiral Tribe is an arts collective and free party sound system formed in 1990. It organised free parties, festivals and raves in the UK and later Europe in the 1990s. Spiral Tribe was involved in the Castlemorton Common Festival and members ha ...

, 69db and Crystal Distortion. Some tracks were recorded in a mobile studio whilst on the road. The Spiral Tribe sound came to be known as

free tekno Free tekno, also known as tekno, freetekno and hardtek, is the music predominantly played at free parties in Europe. The spelling of the word tekno is made to deliberately differentiate the musical style from that of techno. The music is fast ...

, also referred to as spiral hardcore, French hardcore and enimatek. The label also brought out records by invited artists such as Curley, Somatic Responses, Unit Moebius, Headcleaner and Les Boucles Etranges. The first ten records were pressed at MZM in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

since the company offered the cheapest price, but the sound quality is low. Nevertheless, most of these records have become classics, selling at a high price on auction sites. Some tracks are still played at parties 10–20 years after they were made.

Techno Import controversy

In 1997, commercial distributors Techno Import released a CD entitled ''Spiral Tribe The Sound of Teknival''. The CD was advertised on television and manufactured30,000 copies. Techno Import actually registered the word ''

teknival Teknivals (the word is a portmanteau of the words tekno and festival) are large free parties which take place for several days. They take place most often in Europe and are often illegal under various national or regional laws. They vary in size ...

'' as a trade name. Spiral Tribe members were not informed of this decision until the CD was already produced. They released flyers which began ''F**k Techno Import'' and stated ''Spiral Tribe is not for sale''. This, alongside the differing views of people in the collective, eventually led to the winding up of Network 23.

Slogan

* "This is Network 23, the network that means business, now transmitting live to the world." (Opening line of

Max Headroom Max Headroom is a fictional artificial intelligence (AI) character portrayed by actor Matt Frewer. Advertised as "the first computer-generated TV presenter", Max was known for his biting commentary on a variety of topical issues, arrogant wit, ...

)

Network Repress

In an indication of the popularity of the label, in 2005 a new label, Network Repress was set up to rerelease hard to find classic tracks alongside new or unreleased music by the same artists. Between 2005 and 2013, 24 releases were brought out by various artists from

, the new name of Spiral Tribe.

References

External links