Legacy
The idea behind and the short story of Miraloop Spades, the exploration ship of Miraloop Records
The first Italian-based label of electronic music in the digital era
With the birth of Miraloop Records and its four independent labels in 2007, the experimental project Spades became the first Italian label dedicated to electronic music. Spades was inspired by the English and American labels born at the end of the 20s and those German and Dutch ones rising in those years. Pioneering with its vocation, within few years Spades created the world of sound exploration without borders.
From exploring genres to exploring the world: the short story of Spades
Miraloop Spades. Out of the ordinary.
Miraloop Spades launches in the 2008-2009 season with "My Winter Pets" by Click and two digital 12''s by Matteo Scaioli. In its early years Spades gives space to producers and artists in search of a pure creative outlet, releasing electronic music genres as far apart as possible from one another: space music, chiptune, glitch, minimal. The first producers come from eastern Italy, north to south — Trieste, Bologna, Rovigo, from Romagna all the way down to Puglia — bringing rhythms and sounds out of the ordinary. The first non-Italian productions arrive from Berlin and London, between 2009 and 2010.
It was the era when Border Community was exploding across Europe, still selling vinyl while Beatport was taking hold. It was the era when total creative freedom was about to face the world for the first time, with no need for intermediaries. Nothing like it had happened since 1968, when synthesisers became portable, putting into musicians' hands instruments that had previously been out of reach.
In the 2011-2012 season the digital market enters a revolution so deep it allows anyone to put out a beat without going through a label. New electronic music labels emerge in Italy, Europe, the United States. The majors begin to take notice. It was at that point that Spades evolves radically: rather than simply offering genres that would otherwise have had no outlet, the work begins to open entirely new roads.
The first step is evolving the concept of dub — from an identity tied to the instrumental versions of reggae to a creative model capable of exploring and reshaping, in an experimental and hypnotic key, any musical influence from any geographic territory. In 2013 the first placement in the iTunes Italy top 100 arrives with "Wake Up" by Pablo Ort, the first Deggae track (dark + reggae), combining new wave influences with modern dub music. The following year comes the first international chart entry: top 100 on Beatport with "Black Magic", a lethal voodoo at 100 bpm speaking of Africa, spirits and mechanical colours. In 2015 "Look Beyond, the Evolution of Dub" sits at number one on the Beatport reggae-dub chart for a full month — a feat repeated the following year by Ethiopia Ringaracka's debut album "Afrofuturism". In 2016 it becomes the record that foreshadows Ethnotronica: Spades' ambitious project to take electronic and dub music around the world. "Ethnotronica, around the world in a world without borders" is already a radio programme by 2017.
After more than thirty placements in national and international charts, in 2017 the first "western" dub in history brings the Ethnotronica world into the dusty, wild west, pushing the creative boundaries of the genre ever further. In the same period the label begins selecting artists and projects to expand the creative possibilities of musical experimentation towards hip hop and beat influences, laying the foundations for a scene that is self-defined, free and uncompromising.
After 2022 Spades slows down, allowing itself the freedom to release nothing until it is truly worth it: in 2025 two voices return that perfectly embody this spirit. Marco Micucci with "Shattered Pieces of Consciousness and Soul", an inner journey where fragmentation becomes form, and Junio with "Digital Sky Valley", a sonic architecture suspended between the digital sky and something far more ancient.
A temporary experimentation: between the past and the future, the Retro-Futurism of Miraloop Spades
Our experiment is based on time. In the world of air, time is a relative concept. It’s where you’ll find vintage and futurism - voyages constructed on ancient samples like a broken piano, or synthetic sounds of the last generation spreading through the frequencies. Listening to electro is a time travel experience. And time travel brightens the present.
A spatial experimentation: from East to West, from North to South – around and across the electronic world
By launching the Ethnotronica genre, our music started to spread towards every culture and territory. Dub version - afro, Indian, oriental, up to the western – gave us the possibility of creating an unprecedented music category. Ethnotronica became a series of compilations distributed internationally with the participation of the best electronic music producers.
Symbology: Spades – air
The English word “spades” comes from the Italian “spade” which is connected to the air element, which in the symbology has always meant exploration, knowledge, and conscience.
Where to listen to Spades on Radio Miraloop
You can navigate through the website and choose the category of your preference. Also, Radio Miraloop
broadcasts programs where you can enjoy Spades’ catalogue continuously. There are many to choose from:
The Glitch (Glitchand extreme beat experimental) from 12pm to 1pm
Ethnotronica(around the world without borders) from 6pm to 8pm
Mira Soundscapes (electro sound panorama)
Coffee Time Edition from 8am to 10am / Teatime Edition from 5pm to 6pm
The Progressive Suite (progressive and minimal) Music from Spades and Clubs. From 10pm to 12am.
Top Buyers
1. GERMANY
2. ITALY
3. USA
4. UNITED KINGDOM
5. FRANCE
Respect
Warp Records
