Run from Wrocław by Paweł “Paide” Dunajko, outlines uses the beloved Chicago genre as a platform for truly experimental dance music.
Do you remember when you first heard footwork? Paweł “Paide” Dunajko does. The outlines label boss came across DJ Nate’s Hatas Our Motivation 12-inch in 2010. “I didn’t know how to attribute it,” he said. He was already fascinated by dubstep, which was reaching its peak of popularity worldwide. Then he discovered the Bangs & Works Vol.1compilation and DJ Roc’s The Crack Capone, both on Planet Mu. Later, he listened to Addison Groove’s memorable set on Mary Anne Hobbs’ BBC Radio 6 Music show in 2010. He was hooked.
“Going deeper into the genre, I discovered it was not just music, but a vast dance culture with a long tradition that nobody in Europe knew much about,” Dunajko said. “I liked this music’s abstract, avant-garde [style] and fast pace.”
Shortly after, in the early 2010s, Dunajko started Bass Me In, a series of footwork mixes on the independent online radio station Alternator. He contacted Chicago DJs and producers through SoundCloud to play their music, and quite a few fans and artists ended up listening from the Windy City. That someone in Wrocław, a city in the south of Poland, was exploring and promoting their scene was bizarre and exciting.