Sugarlicks Records Aotearoa
Sugarlicks is a boutique agency, label and production house operating in the music, culture and arts industries in Auckland Aotearoa New Zealand. The label was established in 2001 as a result of the live nights at famous Auckland venue Khuja Lounge, where a melting pot of artists came to mash together Pacific and global soul and hiphop, percussion and electronic music with spoken word, activism and performance.
The label came to specialise in electronic soul music with a Pacific yet global flavour.
Between 2001-2017 the label released 12 albums, 5 twelve inch vinyl singles, and one seven inch single in Europe, North America and Japan. More releases planned for 2023.
Sugarlicks Records Aotearoa is an independent electronic soul, dub and bass music imprint founded by Gareth Farry. The label explores deep analogue production, roots reggae lineage, and contemporary psychedelic soul culture emerging from Aotearoa New Zealand. Sugarlicks is also a production collective operating in the music, culture and arts industries.
The label was established in 2001 as a result of the live nights at famous Auckland venue Khuja Lounge, where a melting pot of artists came to mash together Pacific and global soul and hiphop, percussion and electronic music with spoken word, activism and performance.
The label came to specialise in electronic soul music with a Pacific yet global flavour.
Between 2001-2017 the label released 12 albums, 5 twelve inch vinyl singles, and one seven inch single in Europe, North America and Japan. Check out the label releases on Bandcamp, and download some albums tracks on Soundcloud.
Original Sugarlicks flyer feat. Tony “Transatlantic” Johnson - Khuja lounge 1999.
The Sugarlicks Philosophy is simple: the authenticity and expression possible through music and the arts has the power to transcend cultural boundaries, and transform societies – to educate, inspire and unify. The label embraced the revolutionary avant-garde in art – as a new conception of social presence and the unfolding of expression in time, as a championing of youth, experimentation & originality, and as a counter to hierarchical art. Sugarlicks believed in art and music as revolutionary practice to expand the notion of the sensible, and to reclaim authenticity through music from the dead mainstream.
The releases have including the debut for One Million Dollars – Energy State; Manuel Bundy’s Solephonic 12″ featuring Finsta, Isaac Aesili, Deva Mahal, Ota and Ladi 6; and the Styles Upon Styles and Ultrasound series of compilations and vinyl. The label also toured globally in 2005-7 to back up the releases - with the 2006 Pacific Ultrasound tour of Manuel Bundy, Isaac Aesili, Gmuva and Brother J taking in Barcelona, Hamburg, Berlin, London, Auckland and LA.
The label defined a Pacific and diverse “cool” in Auckland City in the 90’s and 2000’s, with artists and supporters gravitating to it’s live night, Khuja Lounge nightclub and showing support for it’s focus on social justice content and spiritual grounding.
Because life is short, but art is long.
Sugarlicks Label releases:
https://sugarlicks.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/sugarlicks
