Label Realm: Dope recorDs

Enter the "D" section of label realm:

Dance Pool was a successful mainstream dance label company in Frankfurt Germany. Several famous acts released music in the label, such as Culture Beat, Jam & Spoon, The KLF. In the 90's, it served as the label to release classic eurodance tracks (Culture Beat - Mr. Vain, Ice MC - Think About The Way, Maxx - Get-A-Way) that ruled the dance charts. The last release can be found in 2003...

Data Records was not a classic label per se, however it was a great introduction for trance newbies at the turn of the millennium (1999-2002). Some indicative examples are ATB - Till I Come, Storm - Time To Burn, Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400 and releases by Kamaya Painters and Oliver Lieb (the original version of Subraumstimulation is a tech-trance masterpiece). It was a sublabel of Ministry of Sound, originally focused on trance music. After the unification of all genres in one label, Data Records lost its touch.

A classic one! Deconstruction Records was established in 1986 by Pete Hadfield and Keith Blackhurst, but it reached its glory days when Hacienda's resident DJ Mike Pickering joined as A&R. All the masterpieces from the early days of UK house music can be found here: T-Coy - Carino, Guru Josh - Infinity, N-Joi - Anthem, M People ‎– How Can I Love You More and K-Klass ‎– Rhythm Is A Mystery are a handful of them. The label was also the first production home for Sasha and Way Out West. The legendary status of the label was maintained until 2000.

Dedicated was a British independent record label that released music between 1990 and 1998 by Spiritualized, Spacemen 3, Global Communication, Beth Orton (in the U.S.), Chapterhouse, Cranes and others. It was based in London and founded by Doug D'Arcy. The label deserves a reference just for the release of Global Communication - 76:14, one of the best ambient music albums (thank you Mr. Pritchard & Mr. Middleton for the blissful experience of 12:18).


Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Label Realm: Classy seleCtions

I am sure there are more label in "C" section. However, my collection does not contain more results, worth mentioning...

Circulation Recordings was the production home of Circulation, an alias used by Brits Matt Jackson & Paul Davis. In my opinion, they were the finest producers of tech-house. Unfortunately, their output ended abruptly in 2005. It is strange though, that a Twitter account has been set-up since May 2018 for the record company.

Compost Records was a recent finding, after buying two EPs (Jay Shepheard/Lukas Bohlender). The label was founded by DJ Michael Reinboth in 1994, focused initially on jazzified dance music. Over the years, many big names of the scene were presented in the releases either as producers and/or remixers (Carl Craig, Moodymann, Laurent Garnier, Masters At Work, Dixon, Kruder & Dorfmeister). The label continues to release high quality music and on May 2019 a 10-vinyl box set was released, in order to celebrate the 25 years of existence.

Cutting Records is an influential electro US label, founded in 1983 by brothers Aldo Marin & Amado Marin. The seminal electro track Hashim - Al Naafiysh (The Soul) was released by the label, which was a milestone for the history of electronic dance music. Although I do not own a copy of this historic track, the legendary label deserves a spot here!

Label Realm: music haBits

Off to letter B:

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.

Bedrock is the alias of the progressive house/trance duo Nick Muir and John Digweed. They have produced several anthems under the alias, such as For What You Dream Of... (1993) and Heaven Scent (1999). In 1999, they established Bedrock Records, releasing high quality tracks by prominent artists. The golden age of Greek progressive house can be detected in the releases between 2000-2006, by Stelios Vassiloudis (Stel), John Douskos (Dousk) and George Pallikaris (G-Pal).
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!