Sports Records photo
Audio By Carbonatix
Take your mark! On Friday, June 19, at Downtown’s Floyd, the homegrown record label, Sports Records, celebrates double digits on the odometer with ten years of parties and vinyl-only releases.
“Sports was always built more like a team than a company,” co-founder Kyle Parker elucidates to New Times. “Ten years ago, we were just the kids throwing parties and pressing records that we believed in, and ten years later, it’s the same group of people; we’re in different chapters, but we kept it in our lives and are trying to make this year as a kickoff instead of an anniversary.”
Sports is the product of several music lovers and crate diggers. Parker, Jacob Friedland, and Daniel Edenburg (AKA Brother Dan) befriended each other at Gulliver Prep in 7th grade. The three met the label’s other forefathers, Michael Bird, Clyde Corley, and Will Cormier, through mutual friends. The label has released ten pieces of work and is the winner of New Times’ “Best Label” superlative in its “Best of Miami” 2023 edition.
Sports follow neither a particular sound nor an algorithm, and they avoid jump-off-a-cliff drops or predictable builds up. If one could spotlight a piece of uniformity, however, it would likely be the label’s love for a sleek house sound. The sounds, instead, follow a steady and forceful rhythm that finds meaning in every snare, clap, pulsation, and vocal. “Every release we have put out has been different: there isn’t one structure or sound we go for — it varies on our tastes at that moment,” expounds Friedland.
Sports Records photo
The label bringing Miami’s vinyl pride to an international stage
Locals love to play records off Sports, and so, too, do international heavyweights, like Gene on Earth, Apollonia, Ricardo Villalobos, and Chris Stussy.
The founders created a diptych of responsibilities for themselves, dividing duties between parties and releases. The inaugural release was a house and ambient four-track EP by Corley and Parker in 2016. The first show also took place that year, with a makeshift rave featuring Japan’s DJ Masda. That rave led to monthly parties at Wynwood’s Electric Pickle.
“First timers to a show should expect first and foremost a good time,” maintains Friedland. “Whether you like the music or not, you’ll probably like something because we have a full spectrum of sound.”
As the label grew, the team partnered with Berlin’s Off the Grid Records for distribution and Mother Tongue in Italy for vinyl pressing. The collective has taken the last couple of years to focus more on the production end, but is amping up shows again with the goal of quarterly parties.
A label’s longevity may seem at odds with a slow trickle of releases — ten, here. But Parker explains that the purpose of Sports was never to “pump music out” quickly. For one, pressing vinyl is costly and time-consuming. Second, Parker notes that the label is “curative — something that still feels special years out.” Nonetheless, listeners should expect a couple of releases later this year, along with new merchandise.
The team now returns to Floyd — they celebrated the label’s sixth anniversary at the intimate venue — for all-night vinyl spinning and irresistible grooves. “The support from the Floyd team is unmatched,” says Parker.
The lineup features “Sportswax” (Friedland and Parker), Berlin’s Onirik, who runs Off the Grid, and the Spain-based artist, Liquid Earth, a common headliner on Sport’s lineups. “This has always been for fun,” explains Friedland. “We love the music, and when we get the chance to DJ our music in a nice club with good speakers, we’re going to take that chance.”
Friedland points out that this party edition will be in a sonic Goldilocks zone: neither playing too dark and heavy nor resorting to sanitized house tracks of the day. “Every time we have a party, everyone seems to have a smile on their face, and they participate by wearing a jersey for the party or buying merch that night,” says Friedland. Indeed, the team tries to tie the shows to ongoing sporting events. This edition will have a soccer theme given the World Cup, and attendees are encouraged to don their jerseys.
The anniversary shows are always a hot seller, especially when combined with Cormier’s birthday celebration that night. “This year is a rebirth between new and upcoming releases,” adds Cormier, who helps organize the sound quality for each event and works production for Club Space and Factory Town. “I’m most excited about just having a good party. I wasn’t thinking ten years ahead with this label, but it’s cool to see the label still going strong.”
There are many apt quotes that can fit playing sports and running a label: you’re only as good as your last game; “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” (Wayne Gretzky); “you tried your best, and you failed miserably. The lesson is never try” (Homer Simpson).
Whichever mantra suits the Sports team, they will continue practicing until they create an immaculate catalog. “Whether you’ve been with us for ten years or the first time, you are part of the experience,” remarks Parker. “It’s an emotional thing for us, honestly.”
Liquid Earth and Onirik. With Sports Wax. 11 p.m. Friday, June 19, at Floyd, 40 NE 11th St., Miami; 305-608-2824; floydmiami.com. Tickets cost $10.00 via dice.fm.
