When I meet Diogo Oliveira at Praça dos Restauradores in Lisbon, the founder of Portugal’s leading experimental label Rotten \ Fresh has just endured a grueling three-hour wait at the local post office, diligently preparing to send his label’s tapes across the globe. This dedication underscores the DIY ethos that has driven Oliveira since launching the label in 2017.
Before morphing into Lisbon’s most exciting underground label, Rotten \ Fresh was an online music zine offering insightful reviews and concert coverage of the artists that captivated Oliveira and his fellow contributors. Originally named Fresh Fruit For Rotten Vegetables, a nod to the iconic album by foundational San Francisco hardcore punk band Dead Kennedys, the platform laid the groundwork for the future label’s innovative music curation and promotional approach.
As of today, Rotten \ Fresh has issued more than 40 releases ranging from formless ambient music to experimental punk and club reconstructions. The project has also expanded to include rotten / trash, a subsidiary imprint dedicated to offbeat releases that critique Portuguese pop culture with irreverent humor while also providing a space for everything from blown-out breakcore to progressive new age fantasias.
“The underground is not meant to be divisive,” Oliveira says about the project’s community-driven philosophy. “No one is here to get rich, they’re here to grow together. And you won’t get anywhere on your own,” he adds, echoing the communal spirit of the punk and hardcore shows he attended in his youth. “We’ve never closed ourselves off exclusively to a fixed core of people. We also work with individuals who operate outside our core focus, which is something I’ve long felt exists in Lisbon and among cultural agents throughout the country.” This is one of the main reasons the label branched out during the pandemic, extending its roster to include a wide array of smaller artists that overcomes geographical constraints. “What makes me appreciate the music is the ethic behind it, it’s not so much about the technique or the conceptual ideas,” Oliveira says.
Concurrently, Rotten \ Fresh has curated hundreds of live music events in Lisbon’s coolest underground venues and basements, establishing a dignified platform for emerging and underrepresented artists to showcase their latest work. “It is not a business, but it retains a semblance of legitimacy,” Oliveira says, adding that “one must have a curatorial perspective to ensure a minimum standard of quality.” He cites Editions Mego, Peter Rehberg’s prominent experimental imprint, as a standout example of long-lasting quality assurance, emphasizing the importance of establishing a seal of trust over the years. “When you have an underground label where financial gain isn’t the primary focus, quality must take precedence, otherwise the effort lacks purpose”.
Rotten \ Fresh operates on minimal resources. In a 2017 interview with the Portuguese newspaper Público, Oliveira showcased his DIY credentials by revealing that the assembly of the label’s CD releases was done by hand on his college terrace using a metal ruler, an X-acto knife, and inexpensive UHU glue. While the method remains largely unchanged, there is one small update: Instead of a college terrace, his workspace is now a McDonald’s tray in his kitchen.
“An underground music label can provide the means to get by and sustain oneself, but it doesn’t necessarily offer a fulfilling or thriving life,” Oliveira says, noting that in 28 years, he has never managed to live in the heart of Lisbon’s city center. “Those who make cities more dynamic–the ones who make the city artistically viable–often find themselves unable to live in the very city they work at,” he adds. The solution, he argues, may lie in fostering a deeper spirit of collaboration among small, interconnected communities. “Mixing is essential for transformation,” he concludes. “Without it, progress becomes stagnant.”
The following list serves as a primer for the label’s ever-changing catalog: seven standouts from the past seven years, released on both Rotten \ Fresh and the rotten \ trash imprint.
Simão Simões
strel
Compact Disc (CD)
Before joining Portuguese mathcore trailblazers Hetta, bassist and producer Simão Simões was crafting aqueous IDM lullabies in his bedroom. His debut, strel, skillfully mastered by Benjamim Castanheira (also known as buhnnun, a key figure from Rotten \ Fresh’s early days) features nine tracks that exemplify Simões’ talent for weaving kinetic tapestries of watery, abstract sounds, with interspersed voices and intricate time signatures into a wondrous body of work echoing Ryoji Ikeda’s sonic precision. The Montijo-based musician went on to explore further endeavors with saxophone virtuoso Pedro Alves Sousa and lo-fi singer-songwriter Maria Reis, who enlisted Simões for a string of live performances. Yet, it is strel that most vividly captures Simões’ artistic vision with its enduring impact seven years on.
Odete
Amarração
Cassette
The debut full-length album by Lisbon-based multidisciplinary artist Odete is a raw and personal exploration of a trans girl’s struggles with rejection and pain. Co-released by Rotten \ Fresh and Troublemaker Records, the album is a reflection of Lisbon’s vibrant queer community. Featuring nine tracks and remixes on B-side with contributions from Bleid, Dakoi, and Kerox, Amarração merges hard-hitting electronics with Odete’s vulnerable wail, employing inventive sampling techniques—sounds of cosmic swords, roaring chainsaws, ASMR-like dialogues—into a scathing mix of polyrhythmic beats and opulent sound design. The result is an honest manifesto from an artist tackling sexism, transphobia, and patriarchy through dance and music.
DRVGジラ
CHAINS
Compact Disc (CD)
This one’s a real treat. The debut of DRVGジラ, one-half of the experimental-club-turned-shoegaze duo 7777 の天使, is a testament to the genre-defying prowess of the Lisbon singer, rapper, and producer. DRVGジラ never settles into a single genre throughout CHAINS’ ten tracks. Instead, you can find head-spinning footwork, punishing gabber beats, trap drum patterns, and nonchalant rap bars delivered with a nasal timbre and tongue-in-cheek attitude. Soundcloud rapper Xan Cloud adds laidback, stream-of-consciousness lyricism to the album, while DRVGジラ weaves in pop-cultural references with a mix of bravado and braggadocio, rounding out the project with a sharp, witty edge.
NAU 1
É ISTO QUE EU CHAMO ROUBO !
Compact Disc (CD)
NAU 1’s É ISTO QUE EU CHAMO ROUBO !, released on June 10th in celebration of Portugal’s national day, highlights rotten \ trash’s knack for upending expectations. This compilation of anonymous acts, part of a series of releases called Música Portuguesa a Melhorar-se Dela Própria (loosely translating to “Portuguese music improving itself”), doubles as an anti-colonial manifesto addressing Portugal’s unresolved colonial past, and as a satire of the nation’s pop rock scene. The title cleverly riffs on the well-known pop hits series Now That’s What I Call Music! (here rebranded to That’s What I Call Theft!) while alluding to the Portuguese nau, a historical ship from the Age of Discovery. Standout tracks include a sped-up version of Portuguese gothic metal heavyweights Moonspell and a witty homage to John Cage manifested as 4:33 seconds of uproarious cheering and applause sampled from a performance by Silence 4, a popular Portuguese rock band from the 1990s. Portuguese music improving itself, indeed.
YNO
睡気
Compact Disc (CD)
YNO’s 睡気 captures the broader ambitions of the rotten \ trash imprint. The first release on the label from the Japanese producer, whose underground credentials include releases on esteemed cult imprints like Istotne and Orange Milk Records, plays like a colorful set of wonky, progressive electronics evoking the virtual utopias often associated with the Hausu Mountain roster. Shaped by cheap VSTs, with digital percussion lending a Jon Hassell-esque Fourth World dimension, the album is further enriched by bouncing basslines, Vocaloid choirs, and kaleidoscopic arpeggios, culminating in a 22 minutes fantasia of playful experimentation and uncompromising simplicity.
·ﾟ✧(=✪ ᆺ ✪=) – ·ﾟ✧
braindance for the braindead
Compact Disc (CD)
braindance for the braindead stands as a testament to rotten \ trash’s unwavering dedication to unearthing the latest innovators in breakcore, a genre that has undergone a resurgence post-pandemic. The cryptic emoticon-alias’s sole venture on the label deftly juxtaposes soaring ambient passages with pulverizing flashcore rhythms, layering moonlit pools of ambience atop thunderous, distorted breaks. The outcome is a complex tapestry of sonic mayhem and emotional depth, offering an exhilarating experience that is equal parts tumultuous and strikingly prismatic in its complexity.
Catarina Arbusto
Fui Ao Aquário
Compact Disc (CD)
Described as “an honest search for a dwelling of beings and words made of wandering sound,” Fui Ao Aquário (“went to the aquarium” in Portuguese) is imbued with poetic candor, and has a pastoral aura that drifts through its oddball, folk-inflected laments. Its fretless, glitchy keyboard motifs intertwine seamlessly with the sounds of birds chirping and other nature recordings, cascading into a sinuous landscape that moves like water in a tranquil yet unpredictable stream. The music slaloms between circular, repetitious lyrics of love and innocent longing, adorned with off-grid textures and whimsical noodling that capture a playful and innocent environment.
