My fave labels! part one

In no particular order:

Hessle Audio

Founded in the beautiful city of Leeds back in 2007, Hessle were the first to bring back some swing and brightness into dubstep which had become increasingly rigid- halfstep darkness leading the way- as is shown by the garagey inflections of the first release by Cosmin TRG

Focusing on rhythm and percussive elements all within a 140 framework, the label began to expand releasing established artists such as Untold and blooding new artists such as Blawan and Joe aswell as music by two of the founders of the label- Ramdanman/Pearson Sound and Pangaea seen as two of the biggest names in the "scene".

I first heard of Hessle when they filled in for Skream when he didn't turn up for one of his Rinse shows and not being too impressed at the lack of wobbles and halfstep. What I did like however was this song- ---

With its huge emphasis on rhythm and percussion it was enough for me to try listening to the hessle audio show (1st and 3rd thursdays of the month 11-1) and I was hooked. It was these hessle shows which introduced me to other music of a similar vein- as well as introducing me to house and techno as the bass continuum spiralled down the bpms.

Hotflush

Although I'm really not a fan of his new music and he is a bit of a dick, Scuba runs one of the best labels there is and has been in bass music for the last few years. In terms of diversity the label is pretty much unparalleled in the scene, it has been through breakstep, dubstep, house and now seems to release mainly techno.

Starting in the very early days of dubstep, during the phase in which breakstep was just as prominent as the dark garage and half step strains- Hotflush was its main proponent releasing tunes by Toasty like the one above (still upset that he's stopped producing), though still releasing what we would call dubstep now, most notably with the releases by Distance on the label.

As the years progressed the dubstep output varied even further- releasing artists such as Vaccine, Jazzsteppa and Mount Kimbie before no doubt inspired by his move to Berlin Scuba began releasing tunes by people such as Sigha, Sepalcure, George Fitzgerald as well as Scuba's SCB moniker. This move correlated with the drop on tempos but rather than having one foot in dubstep anymore the label nowadays is becoming much more like a straight techno one, as best exemplified by the most recent Adrenaline EP and the release of a Paul Woolford track on hotflush back in October 2011, a techno legend releasing on a traditional dubstep label showing just how much Hotflush and the contemporary dance music scene has changed recently.

Swamp 81

 Swamp 81 was orginally started as a label in which traditional dubstep songs would be released. In  Blackdown's interview with Loefah and Kryptic Minds, after the release of their "One of Us" album, Loefah seemed to be stating the desire to protect the original halfstep rhythm which he had pioneered, yet as 2009 progressed the Swamp releases began to become less and less based upon the deep minimal dubstep sound and more upon Detroit techno and Chicago Juke.

Starting with Addison Groove's Footcrab and Ramadanman's Work Them, Swamp 81 was at the head of the invasion of Juke into UK dance music, with the 808 bass drum, cowbells and repeating vocal phrases the order of the day in many of 2010's biggest anthems. This influence retains a strong hold on most Swamp releases but has probably been overtaken by the Detroit techno influence on many of the producers in the Swamp stable, the acidic synthlines reflecting the work of Drexciya- as seen most famously on Boddika and Joy Orbison's "Swims" 

 

Swamp retains a strong devotion to vinyl refusing to release digitally, which actually forced me into buying my first ever vinyl when Pinch- Get out of Here came out and its good to see Loefah sticking to the principles he believes in, even if it does make it less profitable for him and more expensive for us!