DIY videos are the launchpad for your new favourite underground house tracks

Almost four years ago Palms Trax’s debut track ‘Equation’ came out on Lobster Theremin and was put up online with footage from a 90s skateboarding mixtape. YouTube user Hurfyd uploaded the video and in the process embedded himself in the legend of what is now considered a founding lo-fi house track. Was it legal? It’s a grey area. The case for a lot of these videos is that the footage probably isn’t but the song is, and there is now a precedent for dialogue between artists and video creators. 22-year-old student Marek Moskal, who operates under the username Moskalus, has made videos for tracks by J Albert, Huerco S and Bambounou and only uses music sent to him after running into copyright infringement issues with early accounts. But the decision to pursue this avenue of legitimacy hasn’t affected the material he has at his disposal.

“I don’t have the time to ask people for music because I have tonnes of messages asking me to do videos. But I’m lucky that most of the stuff the people are sending me is really nice sounding to me,” he says. “I upload music not based on what I like but trying to give the artist a chance to express themselves and I want to help them with promotion.”

On the outset, these videos are win-win. Various YouTube users have taken the free-market spirit (and the subscribe button) to become the source of new music for a new breed of dance music fans that discover tracks online. For artists, the promotion far outweighs any potential illegalities.

“Most producers in the underground dance music scene aren't strapped with large budgets to produce proper music videos. And with the influx of amazing tracks being uploaded or released everyday, it's of huge value to have guys like OOUKFunkyOO, Moskalus, & Hurfyd around. Their value to helping people discover new incredible music cannot be undervalued,” says Baltra.