Elefant Traks

Infobox record label
name = Elefant Traks


founded = 1998
founder = Shannon Kennedy (Ozi Batla)
Tim Levison (Urthboy)
Simon Fellows (Berzerkatron)
Kaho Cheung (Unkle Ho)
Kenny Sabir (Traksewt)
Sulo
Byron Williams (Toe-fu)
Dale Harrison (Rok Poshtya)
Jane Tyrrell
genre = Hip hop
country = Australia
location = Sydney
url = http://www.elefanttraks.com/

Elefant Traks is an Australian hip hop record label based in Sydney, Australia. Elefant Traks are distributed nationally through Inertia Distribution.

History

Elefant Traks was started in 1998 to create a mix-tape as a going-away present for a friend of the artists. They then released an official compilation album, "Cursive Writing", followed by another, "Food to Eat Music By".

The Herd, an Australian hip hop group, is composed of the original founders of the label. The label has signed six artists/groups and released over 25 albums. [ [http://www.discogs.com/label/Elefant+Traks Discog listing Elefant Traks releases] ]

A number of Elefant artists have been nominated for awards, including The Herd's album "The Sun Never Sets" at the 2006 AIR Chart Awards [ [http://www.air.org.au/pdf/ChartsAwards/MR_ChartsCountdownBegins.pdf 2006 AIR Chart Award nominees] ] , Urthboy's album "The Signal" which was nominated for the 2007 AIR Charts Awards [ [http://air.org.au/index.php?cID=2108&menuID=504&apply=&PHPSESSID=&menubox=&siblingID= 2007 AIR Chart Award nominees] ] and was also nominated for the 2007 J Award [ [http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/jaward/the_signal.htm 2007 J Award nominee] ] , and Unkle Ho's album, "Circus Maximus", at the 2007 Limelight Awards ('Best World Music Achievement'). [ [http://www.thequeenslandorchestra.com.au/data/mediacache/60429001195086472465/2007%20Limelight%20Awards.pdf 2007 Limelight Award nominees] ]

The label was nominated for 'Best Independent Label' at the 2006 Australian Dance Music Awards. [ [http://www.inthemix.com.au/news/aust/28425/2006_AllenHeath_Dance_Music_Awards_nominees_annnounced 2006 DMA nominees] ]

Philosophy

The 'Elefant Crew' believes in creating "challenging yet adventurous" music which blends hip-hop and reggae in an attempt to appeal to and alter a rock dominated musical landscape in Australia. [ [http://www.elefanttraks.com/chooser.cfm?view=about About - Elefant Traks ] ] As such the music of the artists on this label relies very much on instrumentals which has led, in conjunction with other factors, to the stylistic criticism that artists on the label are not "remarkable in their distinctiveness as an index of locality (i.e., their australianness)". [ [http://wayneandwax.blogspot.com/2005/12/downunder-underground.html wayne&wax: downunder underground ] ]

Artists

*Astronomy Class
*Combat Wombat (Victoria)
*The Herd (New South Wales)
*Hermitude (New South Wales)
*Mista Savona
*Pasobionic (of TZU)
*The Tongue
*Unkle Ho (of The Herd)
*Urthboy (of The Herd)
*Horrorshow

Compilation releases

*"Cursive Writing" (1998)
*"Food to Eat Music By" (1999)
*"Elefant Collection Vol. 1" (2004)
*"Trampled - The Elefant Traks Remix Album" (2006)

ee also

* List of record labels

References

External links

* [http://www.elefanttraks.com Official website]
* [http://www.discogs.com/label/Elefant+Traks Elefant Traks] at Discogs