Jahtari is a Netlabel

Netlabel

A netlabel is a record label that distributes its music through digital audio formats over the Internet...

, founded in 2004 by Jan Gleichmar aka "disrupt". Unlike most netlabels, it focuses on the dub

Dub music

Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...

 and reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

 music genres, with an electronic music

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 approach which it calls "digital laptop reggae". According to The List, "the name is an amalgam of ‘Jah

Jah

Jah is the shortened form of the divine name YHWH , an anglicized version of the Tetragrammaton . The name is most commonly associated with the Rastafari movement or within the word hallelujah, although Christian groups may use the name to varying degrees. For example, Jehovah's Witnesses use a...

’ and ‘Atari

Atari

Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...

’, and a similar lo-fi 8-bit aesthetic informs their branding and design."

From their site:

"We are a small record label based in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

/Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and we produce a kind of music here which we call - for the lack of a better term - DIGITAL LAPTOP REGGAE (DLR).This means nothing else but that we produce first and above all REGGAE music (or DUB) in its classical sense, which in itself is nothing new, but since we're having a background of mostly electronic music

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 we're doing this with the only tool that is obvious to use for that purpose - a COMPUTER, and a computer only."

Jan Gleichmar has been working as a camera assistant. By 2006, Jahtari had started to offer a release on CD in addition to the free downloads, and later produced vinyl releases too. As of 2008, it had signed more than 20 artists, among them London-based Mikey Murka (a veteran of 1980s digital reggae).

External links

• Jahtari.org, with Jahtari Magazine (a collection of articles about the history of Reggae music, also run by the Netlabel)
• solipsistic NATION No. 24: Jahtari Podcast. Interview with Jahtari founder Jan Gleichmar, plus music from the label. February 9, 2007
• The Jah of 8-Bit-Chip-Dub-Digital-Laptop-Reggae-Music Portrait of Jahtari on Phlow-Magazine.com