karl meier, ken meier and jon krohn, aka stave, are launching a label called standards & practices.
the three us artists, who share chicago roots, have a pretty straightforward mission in mind for standards & practices: “to provide a platform for releases by both talker and stave, as well as for material by other like-minded artists and collaborators.” talker is the downwards-affiliated duo of karl meier—a longtime techno dj, now based in berlin, who took part in ra’s playing favourites series last year—and krohn, formerly of the experimental rock group male, who’s also been putting out his own brand of abstract, industrialized electronic music as stave for around four years. ken meier, a new york-based graphic designer, partner at common name and dj—and karl’s brother—takes care of art and design for the label.
standards & practices’ opening move is a talker 12-inch, battle standards, the duo’s third full release and first since their 2014 album for downwards. a three-track ep built with material from their new live set and “aimed squarely at the dance floor,” it includes a new version of “my favorite colour is gold,” from 2015’s the immortal eye compilation cd. it’s due out in late july. next will be black hills, a five-track ep from stave that’s expected in september.
along with the soon-to-launch label, the meier brothers recently rebooted their fear of music podcast with some new mixes, including two from karl.