Baroque Records was founded in 2000 by Keith McDonnel (Innate) and Mick Parks (member of Tilt and Parks & Wilson projects). Oriented towards the progressive side of EDM, it hosted the first releases of Leama and Andy Moor, with occasional appearances by Tilt and Quivver. The label continues to exist in digital format.
Barely Breaking Even started in 1993 as an idea of Peter Adarkwah and Ben Jolly, in order to promote parties in the local scene of UK. Three years later, the homonymous label was created, releasing compilation albums from various genres. While it is mostly known for comps by hip-hop DJs, my contact with the label was through the third installment of City 2 City series by DJ Deep (a brief review of a track included in this part may be found here), a tribute to Detroit/New York/Chicago house scene.
The high standards of the label are maintained till this very day, especially by Diggers' Live At series.
Black Hole Recordings was set up by Arny Bink and DJ Tiësto in 1997. In 2009, Tiësto sold his part of the company to Arny, making the latter the head honcho of the label. I was never a fan of Tiësto's DJ output (with some exceptions) and the Dutch "Supersaw" trance sound in general. However, the first releases (Magik/In Trance We Trust series) are very solid. The label continues releasing new material, under the supervision of Arny.
Bonzai Records is a seminal label that shaped the dance scene of Belgium since the early nineties, releasing material in Hardcore, Techno, Progressive Trance and Hard Trance. It was founded in 1992 by Christian Pieters (DJ Fly) as a sublabel of Lightning Records. On March 2003, the mother company faced hard times, as it went bankrupt. However, the Bonzai label was re-launched 2 months later under the Banshee Worx company, along with Marnik Braeckevelt (Marnix B), who served as A&R of Lightning Records, and DJs Yves Deruyter & Laurent Véronnez.
As an incurable proghead, I was mostly into the progressive sound of things, presented by Bonzai Progressive (one of the many Bonzai sublabels). Artists like Yves Deruyter, Laurent Véronnez (Airwave/Lolo/Velvet Girl), Mike Dierickx (Push/Plastic Boy/Solar Factor), Philippe Van Mullem, DJ Phi-Phi and Jurgen Leyers (DJ Fire) rocked the Belgian and European dance floors with their music!
