GORGE.IN is a music label and bootists agency based in Japan, and perhaps the sole one in the world, that focused on “Gorge”. Since their foundation in 2012, they have played a central and representative role for acquaintance of gorge music in Japan. As of August 2015, they have released 28 titles in both digital and physical formats.
“Gorge” is a music genre which is inspired by rock climbing and mountaineering, originated in the club scene of the mountainous area of Nepal and India. The music features repetitive beats of distorted Tom-Tom drums, which sonically symbolizes hardness of rocks and contraction of muscular while climbing. DJ Nanga, who is an unidentified, prominent climber and said to be one of the Himalayan Giants (originators of gorge), formulated Gorge Public License (GPL in short):
- Use Toms
- Say It Gorge
- Don’t Say It Art
Any music, or even anything is “gorge” if it satisfies all of these three conditions. Although we don’t have much information as to why the Himalayans seems to have been influenced from GNU General Public License, this generic and agnostic concept of gorge has spread across the internet just like Linux did, and born many “bootists” ubiquitously. (“Bootist” is an euphemistic expression for “artist” within gorge scene, following the third condition of GPL)