Global Beats

Gay clubs used to be the heart of underground music. Now, they play the same Gaga tunes you hear in a taxi. Luckily, Discaire is here. "There's an alternative culture away from all this pop," says Ryan Smith, one of the label's founders. "We were brought together by interest in forward-thinking queer music."

Releasing music digitally, as well as on vinyl, the label gives customers who buy the physical copy the incentive of an accompanying work from a queer artist.

Its premier release was from Discodromo, a Berlin-based duo. And the German capital is synonymous with? "Weekend parties and lots of drugs and sex!" Smith says. To illustrate this hypothesis, the Discaire boys produced a full-frontal NSFW man-on-man video for the track "Mercurio."

Another release, the C.L.A.W.S. Cave-In contains ruminating tribal-inflected house. The art surprise was a video by legendary drag artist Kevin Clark, and the record came with a special key to decipher hidden messages in the video. "Gays are always more conceptual with music," Jacob Sperber, another Discaire member, says. Apparently.

Watch the NSFW video for "Mercurio" (by Gold~n~Sour) below.