by SCOTT C

Montreal's Bully Records arrived quietly on the scene in 2002 with a small run of Sixtoo and Matth's "He Did Glass Music." The label's debut seven-inch was quickly scooped up in a pre-order frenzy that luckily continues to bless every release to date.

You might recognize the man behind all of this, because he's watched you buy records about a billion times. Marco Boileau is the big guy with the beard who has worked at Montreal vinyl mainstay Disquivel for as long as I can remember, holding up the counter and talking music with old farts and backpackers on the daily. This alone qualifies him to execute a record label just like Bully.

"It's actually helped a lot, working at the store," says Boileau, "just in terms of distributors, meeting people and generally knowing how things work." The simple, straight-ahead approach of releasing 45s with silkscreened sleeves and some of the illest leftfield beats that your producer-type friends have ever made seems like something we'd all like to do. "The label just sort of happened on its own. I just said to myself ‘I think I can do that,' and I did. It's an artist-centred thing, where I make sure that they get paid first."

Releases have included the inward genius of Controller 7, the head to head double seven-inch mayhem of Sixtoo vs. Simahlak, the daycare-friendly fruits of Moodswing 9 and most recently P-Love's bedroom productions. Sixtoo also acts as A&R guy, consultant, silkscreener and engineer for this ambitious little imprint. Upcoming projects you can look forward to fall to people like DJ Signify, Scott Matelic, DJ RPM and DJ Moves. And imagine, all of this was done without promo, publicity or any sort of marketing campaign. Keep your ears open.

>> Music Listings