LABEL SPOTLIGHT: GIFKIKKER

For the first of a new series highlighting record labels around the world, we bring you GIFKIKKER - a Brussels-based collective of friends birthed just after the pandemic. Their sound, imagery & adherence to a high level of quality piqued my interest right away when I stumbled upon their soundcloud a couple of months ago. There’s something very fresh about GIFKIKKER - their sound blurs the lines between high octane, driving techno & the more psychedelic, introspective & hypnotic side of things. And that logo.. it’s so compelling & describes their sound & ethos so well. They’ve made a big effort to foster an open-minded experimentalism while still holding onto a consistent mood & tone throughout their releases & their focus on lesser-known talent made them stand out to me right away, akin to a tide pool full of exciting new discoveries. In addition to being a label, they put on events in Belgium & also have a regular mix series ‘Dissection’ which features 20+ mind-bending sets from members of the collective & friends from the Brussels scene & beyond.

Today we’re premiering a track off of their next release from Berlin-based Ryft who has had a couple of GIFKIKKER appearances over the years. Enjoy ‘Resonator Rythms’ below as well as our interview with the GIFKIKKER collective about how it all came together, their take on the scene in Belgium at the moment & their friendship with Ryft.

Can you tell us a bit about your platform? Where does the name come from & how did it all come about?

GIFKIKKER began in the summer of 2022, just after the end of the Covid period, when many of us were eager to create a space for self-expression that had been bottled up during lockdown. Each member of the collective came from a small neighborhood, where they were often the only ones experimenting with synthesizers and expressing themselves through electronic music. After moving to Brussels, they found each other through their shared passion, bonding over late-night jam sessions.

Through a shared vision of nightlife and its potential to offer an escape, paired with our love for natural and industrial sonic elements, GIFKIKKER was born shortly after.

We are not seeking trendy new hypes or big names. Instead, we focus on blending what appeals to us and aligns with our sonic colors, landscape, and identity. We bring these elements together on our platform to see how they interact as a whole. At GIFKIKKER, we are constantly evolving our sonic identity, shaping it so that different styles fuse together in unison. These styles are marked and paired by their similar atmosphere and cohesion in sound and waves.

As young individuals, we find it important and feel a need to amplify the voices of the unknown—those yet to be discovered, yet to be unleashed. We aim to create a space for experimentation, a playroom for both local and international talent. We cherish our ever-growing international community and all our friends back home. For each of us in our collective, GIFKIKKER represents putting our vision of nightlife into a tangible form, through both our releases and events. It’s a space for everyone to enjoy, express themselves, and interact with other sonic travelers (peers).

We chose the name GIFKIKKER, which is a direct translation of poison frog in Dutch.

The decision to make an amphibious creature, like a frog, the face and main element of our label stems from its connection to various biospheric elements. These elements beautifully align with the grounded, atmospheric feeling that techno represents. Similar to how Susumu Yokota compared techno house music to a shrimp, we draw inspiration from these naturalistic accents and translate them into our platform and our events.

The Belgian scene right now is particularly exciting to me. The level of quality coming out of there is super high & there seems to be a very healthy community. From your point of view, does the scene there feel rich & vibrant? What are you hoping to add to the scene with GIFKIKKER?

I think we felt like something was missing in Brussels, a lot of people felt the same way. Brussels is quite a small city and therefore doesn’t have a lot of clubs. In the aftermath of covid a lot of small capacity venues closed down and this resulted in a shortage of creative outlets.

So, after a while quite a bit of new and interesting collectives popped up. Now, almost 4 years later, I do think we have a pretty nice scene here. But at the same time, it's still a pretty small community. So, a large part knows each other through meeting at events or in clubs. The scene doesn't feel fractured. Being surrounded by talented people with the same interests can be very motivating and inspiring. In this context we want GIFKIKKER to be an accessible platform for new and aspiring artists both on our label and during our events. This way we also want to offer our audience an opportunity to discover local artists.

You've had Ryft on the label a couple of times in the past 3 years - how did you guys meet?

One of our members texted Ryft when he discovered their track 'Material' on YouTube. Until this point, we had not released any music from people that we weren’t already friends with before, but it seemed like a fun idea to try some stuff out and scout for some producers that had yet to be discovered. To our surprise the response was enthusiastic, and that first EP became a reality. After that, we have met up with Ryft a few times in Berlin, where we went to Tresor together and ate some delicious noodles.

What else do you guys have coming up for 2025?

First of all, we are going to keep releasing projects that feature both new and more established artists. We also keep up with our podcast series [DISSECTION] to showcase the artists we personally enjoy and share their mixes.

Another collaboration that will return are our showcases on the Amsterdam-based Radio Hinter. Our goal here is to showcase people from the Belgian scene. That way we hope to build a bridge between the two countries. But also try to connect people within the Belgian scene. Finally, we are going to start hosting parties again. A few have been planned already and we are going to announce the next one soon!