Video Clip SERGE NYFELER

As the young Beat-Man in School (1979) I was always drawing record covers instead of learning from my teacher... 

In 1980 I started my first recordings on tape and 1982 I started doing a tape only label under the pseudonym ZERFALL TAPES...  I tried to trade with other labels that time but not alot of people were interested in that kind of Rock'n'Roll music (mix between “Einstürzende Neubauten” and Elvis Presley) so I kept going on and doing that stuff only for myself... not even my friends where interested... (poor poor beat-man)...

Then in 1986 I started the band “The Monsters” and we had a record deal with  Record Junkie  that did our first single and  3 albums... from record Junkie's Pfifu I learned how to manage a label, how to print records and how to sell them.

In 1992 I actually founded Voodoo Rhythm Records and did together with Record Junkie a  Swiss Garage Punk Compilation, 'Garage Punk Primitive Rock'n'Roll and Psychotic reactions from Switzerland vol1'. We only did 500 copies, and we sold all of them at the same night at the record release party with all bands playing live that night…

After that I was on the road with my bands (The Monsters, Lightning Beat-Man) for several years and meet lots of people and cool bands that had no label... 

So I had to go on with the label, I had to tell the world that there are people who think different, who did different music besides the Top 100 stuff that's on the radio.

I wanna tell that there's a way to put out weird stuff and that Rock'n'Roll is not only for Nurdy record collectors...it's wild and it's for Lost Loul Teenagers and Old School punks as well, and people who wann something new.. wanna a change…

We had big luck that several distribution companies were interested in this stuff and supporting us and sell and spread our records in the whole universe!

Now I have good friends who are helping me... A unknown guy caled Robert Butler (Panti-Christ, Ex Miracle Workers) for example is doing some of the nicest artworks, Nicole Zorn is working with me in the Office and doing all Contracts and Digitaly things i don't have a clue in... etc. Dan Suter (Echo Chamber) and Adi Flück ( Centraldubs) doing most of the mastering for Voodoo Rhythm stuff athey are the reason the Sound is that good

Until the year 2000, Voodoo Rhythm Records was a side project of my bands... from the jear 2000 on  I'm working way more for Voodoo Rhythm Records, I made a full time job out of my little label.. But it's still very small... 

I'm interested in getting bigger and selling more records, of course. But I'm not willing to put everything out that would give good bucks. I only put out what I like and where I can stand behind with my name Beat-Man...

I have big luck that I have such bands like DM Bob or Silky from the Watzloves or Alain from the Dead Brothers , C.W. Stoneking, Mama Rosin and many more extremly Creative Artists on the label who believe in what I'm doing and supporting me and always give me great music to put out...it's good for me and it's good for all bands on the label!

Voodoo Rhythm now is a label with a steady good name around the World , we sell records to Australia, the USA, Japan, Spain, France, England... where ever people need to have primitive Rock'n'Roll platters from amazing unique bands... then they order from Voodoo Rhythm Records.

E-Mail info@voodoorhythm.com  

BEAT-MAN

-President, Boss and A+R Manager bio

NICOLE ZORN

--Sub-Manager, Business and Legal Affairs

PATRIK CABY (RCV 99FM, RADIO FRANCE)

'm always enchanted by your productions
Nobody in our audience ignore that your label is a nest of very good music It's very simple for me to prove you are one of the best label in the world with all the excellent music you have in your catalogue
It's not a simple flattery, it's reality

NO HIT RECORDS / SOUNDS THAT SWING (LONDON UK)

Im still selling loads of Voodoo Rhythm in the store ( Beat Man & Monsters are very popular with kid's and adults alike ) they always tell me the sleves are just the full dogs danglers , yeah !! Ok thank's and take it easy !!Best - Keith

SLEAZEGRINDER: (USA)

Led by the mysterious and obviously quite insane Beat Man, the Switzerland based Voodoo Rhythm is one of my favorite record labels, ground zero for the most primitive rock n’ roll, R&B, and slopabilly bands in the world. All their releases come packaged in beautiful digipaks with artwork that’s part pulp novel, part haunted carnival poster, and the hype sheets, written in Beat Man’s signature Swisslish, is some of the greatest yellow journalism I’ve ever read- according to him, the Zorros “Are sleazy elevator music played in a incredible lo budges porn movie”, and as far as the Monsters’ album goes, “nothing except the sleeve has a nice and positive touch”, because “this is negative to the edge. If you go for garage punk with power of today’s youth against nature generation, than this wax and plactic’s for you!” I mean, how do you argue with come-ons like that? And then there’s the music. Mutant rockabilly with fiddles. Jug bands playing funeral hymns. Screeching garage punk bands covering Europe and the Bee Gees. Apartment wrestling soundtracks. Swiss country and western music. New Mexican rockers from the 50’s that may not actually exist. It’s all here, all the craziest, most implausible bands on the planet. And the wildest part is, they’re always good. In fact, the jug/funeral band, the Dead Brothers, just might be one of my favorite bands of all time. Anyway, there’s so much great stuff in the VR catalog that they finally got around to putting together a label comp, just so you can get privy to all the madness they have to offer. On “Records to Ruin Every Party” you get everything from the frenzied early 60’s rockabilly of Jerry Nixon, the creepy tuba bleat of the Dead Bros, the froggy voiced, organ pumping freak rock of the Monsters, the drunk-punk gospel of Reverend Beat Man, the fuzzpunk savagery of Get Lost, and the slop-country of the Waltzloves, among many others. And in between tracks, there’s trailers for old hot rod movies. It’s like visiting a very musical mental hospital. To be honest, I’m not even sure how you get a copy of this, since I think it’s a promo-only kinda deal, but hell, yr crafty, ain’t ya? If you don’t already own any of the VR releases, you really have to pick this up, and find out what you’ve been missing. And no, you can’t have mine. I need it. I’ve got a party to ruin.

RECENSIONE (it)

Voodoo Rhythm Records: Home of primitive rock’n’roll
Fa davvero bene al mio morale a pezzi pensare che nel cuore della vecchia Europa,
nella svizzera Berna, risieda ormai dal 1992 il quartiere generale di un’etichetta che si è posta con la determinatezza di una crociata ed un benedetto humour dissacratorio lo scopo di salvaguardare lo spirito più primitivo ed incontaminato del rock’n’roll.
Sto parlando della Voodoo Rhythm, una creazione in toto di mr.Beat-Man, clownesco personaggio che non si limita assolutamente al ruolo di business-man della label e che non ha certo nell’ortodossia la sua maggior virtù.
Vive di estemporanee reincarnazioni: in questi ultimi anni ha vestito i panni grotteschi di Lightning Beat-Man immerso in un movimentato immaginario wrestling ma anche quelli blasfemi di Reverend Beat-Man lanciandosi in Get On Your Knees (2001) in performances vocali viscerali e sporche: si tratta di un lavoro realizzato con gli Un-Believers, sigla sotto cui si celano tra gli altri Robert Butler (Slide/guitar/harp) e Gerry Mohr (Church organ/piano) dei Get Lost: Beat-Man rivisita a modo suo (‘primitive’ è l’aggettivo che predilige) gospel, spiritual, blues e rock&roll con una sporca dose letale di trash, sorta di novello Screaming Lord Sutch, l’antesignano britannico dell’horror&shock rock&roll dal quale eredita palesemente la tendenza alla parodia dissacrante ed allo scandalo verbale oltre alle caustiche e rauche corde vocali.

Precedente europeo illustre dell’estetica integralista della Voodoo Rhythm è l’etichetta francese New Rose che tra i ’70 ed i ’90 ha rappresentato un ricettacolo amorevole per tantissimi artisti e bands americane ( ma anche europee) punk e rock&roll che in patria non riuscivano neanche a mangiare.

Dalla New Rose la Voodoo Rhythm eredita ed in maniera più profonda l’attitudine a preservare vecchie e nuove forme popolari ed etniche anche europee affiliate al rock&roll come ventose e per certi versi in modo insospettabile: il country, il folk, il blues, l’hillbilly, la polka, il canjoun, il fuzz-garage, il punk, la psichedelia, in un affascinante calderone senza precedenti : ‘home of primitive rock’n’roll’ , ‘primitive rock’n’roll-blues trash - thrilling stompin’ rockabilly – fuzzed out garage : records to ruin any party’, queste le autodefinizioni poste sui gadgets e sui manifestini pubblicitari della label, credo non ci sia bisogno di commenti!

La versatilità estrema di Beat-Man gli ha fatto mettere sotto contratto terribili garagisti come The Monsters, rockabilly-jivers come The Hormonauts, i ‘roots’ Watzloves, i decadenti Dead Brothers, i bizzarri Die Zorros e via discorrendo, ma il botto vero l’ha fatto ( non so se anche in termini di vendite!) nel 2002 producendo Never Come Back dei Get Lost, ovvero gli eroici redivivi punk-garagers Gerry Mohr e Robert Butler ex Miracle Workers e Cavemanish Boys; un disco vitalissimo e pieno di idee che ha innalzato al massimo a livello internazionale le quotazioni dell’etichetta presso i fans del garage.
Ma passiamo in rassegna alcune delle sue produzioni più o meno recenti.

PLAYING HOOKY (FR)

"Records To Ruin Any Party", la devise du label, donne le ton, le label suisse ne se prend pas au sérieux. Les prods sont très variées, au programme : "primitive rock'n'roll, garage punk, cajun, funeral music, dirty blues trash, criminal country and voodoo soul". Vous voilà prévenus. Après une intro qui vous explique ce qu'est le rock'n'roll, vous êtes rapidement entraînés dans le monde merveilleux de Voodoo Rhythm Records, ça démarre fort avec les Come N'Go (garage-rock'n'roll speed et furieux), The Monsters (psychobilly suisse), Zero Tornados (rock'n'roll-country), Jerry J. Nixon (rockabilly live), Stompin Harvey (blues trash), The Hormonauts (surf-music), John Schooley (blues-trash qui rock), Die Zorros (musique au synthé semblant débarqué d'un film de SF allemand des années 30), King Khan And His Shrines (le désormais célèbre soul-man), The Dead Brothers (30's-revival - entre musique mexicaine et swing), Reverend Beat-Man (blues), The Del Gators (blues-trash avec chant féminin), The Super Supers (revival Motown-70's), Die Zorros (qui reprennent le "Final Countdown" de Europe) avant de terminer avec les Rocket Science (garage-punk-psyché) idéal pour achever en beauté la "party" ... Voodoo Rhythm est différent des autres labels, il crée son propre univers, au delà de la musique, les prods VR bénéficient toutes d'un artwork ultra-léché (mais pas forcèment de très bon goût), soit fait de collages, de détournements, une sorte de patchwork de revivals faisant penser aux productions des années 20/30/40. On ne sait jamais s'il s'agit de groupes qui officient dans le présent ou d'obscurs rééditions d'artistes oubliés, tant tout est fait pour que l'auditeur s'y perde ... En tout cas moi j'en redemande ... (Wize)

PDSFM (AUS)

man you have done it again with two sensational releases.

This is going to be wild when the cd's are played. Everything you have sent us, which we very much appreciate, has been so well received. As always l say on behalf of everybody here "Thank-you big time".Voodoo Rhythm doesn't ruin a party it makes a party rockkkkkkk!. Take care guys Melbourne loves ya, you know where we are if you need us.

kind rergards Peter.

PAULISTA.FRANSISCO.MICHAEL. INDONESIA.

Paulista FM from Jakarta/Indonesia is writing here. First of all i wanna introduce myself that in here i`ve ruined or own a small and DIY Hard Core radio station name Heart Crew Radio Station and it`s A Non profit radio Station. My Radio Station is just only a small diy station not commercial station i ruined with 2 of my friends in order to spread all good music to all of poor people in here!Cause almost of our people in here are poor!We try to spread and introduce foreign cool bands for all of people in here so they can know lots more about it! Let the musics growth our mind and heal all of our poor people bad and sad problems in this Nation of Hate!! About your songs,i`m really sorry i only have your: Birds Eat Martians album.I really love your songs at first time i hear it!Very cool for me! Everyday i often to play all of your cool band songs in my station for all of my radio listener.Cause it is to show my dedication and respect to your good band and it`is so very impossible for almost of poor people like us in here to buy or order any of that very very exspensive import cd or any stuffs!It`s all because of the worst and horrible Monetary Crisis and the greedy of our bad leaders and it`s been 7 years like this! Seems there`is no more better life or future! And maybe if you don`t mind i really need your original cd or 7 EP or LP for my radio station in order i can play it in here to all of my radio listener!Pleasehelp me and also my small poor radio station! And i`m really wish and hope for your great kindness to me that i really hope and wish that you would like to give or send me one or any of your band t-shirt for me!It`is been so long i dream and i wish to have and wear one or any of your band t-shirt!For poor people like me it`s only a dream that will NEVER come true to wear one or any of your great band t-shirt!! If you have and would like to give me your t-shirt i hope and i wish PLEASE send/give me SMALL SIZE shirt! It`s all because SMALL SIZE is my size!!I wish and hope that you would like to send me one or any of your band Small Size t-shirt for me! I wish and hope that maybe you can make my dream and my wish come true to have and wear one and any of your t-shirt! Thanks a lot for your great kindness to me and i hope to hear again from you very soon!Best regards!AND HERE`S MY ADRESS: SALUTE!