What defined HOW2MAKE Records
HOW2MAKE Records is the independent label of producer Sasha DZA. Its current home is Ichikawa, Japan, while earlier releases connect the imprint to Moscow and the Russian experimental electronic scene.
The label is relevant to psytrance mainly through Crazy Astronaut, but it would be misleading to describe HOW2MAKE itself as a psytrance imprint. Its much larger releases move through experimental beats, hip-hop, IDM, ambient, glitch and sample-driven electronics.
How HOW2MAKE Records developed
The precise founding date is not clearly documented, but HOW2MAKE was active by the early 2010s. Crazy Astronaut's Funky Shit 2014 appeared through the label in 2013, during the period when the imprint was associated with Moscow.
In later years the label became closely tied to DZA's own prolific output from Japan. Its Bandcamp releases now runs to dozens of releases and includes work by DZA and collaborators alongside occasional projects that cross back into faster psychedelic territory.
People, organisation & management
HOW2MAKE describes itself simply as an independent record label by Sasha DZA, also known as Sasha Kholenko. That artist-led structure explains why the catalogue follows DZA's own musical interests more closely than a conventional genre-label roster.
The move from a Moscow-associated identity to Ichikawa is visible in the label's public presentation, although the exact date and legal structure of that relocation are not documented.
Sound, roster & A&R direction
The label's centre of gravity is experimental electronic music: MPC-based beats, hip-hop, IDM, ambient, glitch and lo-fi production all appear repeatedly. Crazy Astronaut provides the strongest connection to high-BPM psychedelic trance, creating a real crossover without redefining the rest of the catalogue.
Place in psytrance history
HOW2MAKE is useful in the ViralFlowMusic context because it shows how psytrance artists can sit inside much broader experimental networks. Crazy Astronaut's presence links extreme-tempo psychedelic production with Russian and Japanese beat culture , not a conventional trance-label network.
Scene impact & cultural reach
The label reflects a DIY, artist-run approach in which genre boundaries are secondary to production style and collaboration. Its catalogue connects scenes that are often catalogued separately even though the same producers move between them.
Key releases & catalogue moments
Crazy Astronaut's Funky Shit 2014 is an important psytrance-adjacent milestone, while later collaborations such as Lost Space sit alongside a much larger DZA catalogue. The official Bandcamp lists roughly 79 releases and remains the clearest record of the imprint's development.
Artists connected to the label
Crazy Astronaut
Nikolay Golutvin’s melodic, rave-driven high-speed psychedelic-trance identity, distinct from his more experimental Furious project and strongly associated with OSOM Music.