NRK Music, UK house label, released material and compilations from artists such as Peace Division, Nick Holder, Miguel Migs, Skylark, Chymera, Hipp-e, Trackheadz, Paul Woolford, Joey negro, Magik Johnson, Audio Soul Project, Rolando, X-Press 2, Louie Vega, Kerri Chandler, Quentin Harris, Ron Trent, Karizma, Ame, Ian Pooley, Francois K, Charles Webster & many more
00Deep celebrates another 10 years passing for UK label NRK Music, a label that has always stuck true to the deep, underground house and techno sounds. If the 90s saw house music come to mainstream appeal, then the 00s fought off the inevitable backlash and threw up so many different sounds and styles which won over a new generation of fans.
2000-2009 is the period then that 00Deep delves into, and this compilation really does show the breadth of styles that NRK Music has pushed over the last decade. Kicking off in 2000 with cuts from Sirus and Plastic Avengers (with H-Foundation on the remix), the deep, tribal house sounds pick up pace throughout the following ten years, taking in the tech-house sounds of Jamie Anderson, Peace Division and Rocket, whilst the deeper styles were reflected with the likes of Nick Holder, Joey Negro and the awesome Francois K remix of Audio Soul Project. Middle of the decade saw two bonafide classics come to the NRK stable, in the shape of Kerri Chandler’s “Bar A Thym” and Quentin Harris’ “Let’s Be Young”, nuff said! And the latter years saw NRK’s A&R policy as diverse as ever, with the disco vibes of Blackjoy, the ultra dark minimalism of Radio Slave, the classic garage sounds of Trackheadz and the polished deep techno of Chymera.
00Deep collects the best of NRK’s output over the last ten years, and the label is gearing up for more solid music releases over the next 10 years.
Things started to get a little bit more experimental in 2006, co-incidentaly our 10th year in the business. The wave of European "minimal" techno and house was beginning to take a hold, not that this was a bad thing when we were able to call upon hot producers such as Radio Slave and Paul Woolford to rise above the identikit minimal sound and produce for us some amazing techno influenced singles and remixes....
Paul Woolford (also know for his residency at Leeds nighterie Back To Basics, and releases on 2020 Vision) released a trio of heavyweight singles for NRK under the "Modernist" series...what started out as a remix request to Paul spawned into these three singles where no sounds or styles were off limits. Radio Slave, AKA Matt Edwards, was still carving out his sound back in 2006, and NRK alligned with him nice and early, as he produced stunning remixes of Peace Division's "Blacklight Sleaze" and Jamie Anderson's former Honchos release, "Time Is Now".
As mentioned, 2006 heralded our 10th year as a record label, a milestone that we never thought we would achieve from our humble beginnings. A label retrospective, "NRK:10" was released as a triple CD, and showcased the many influential names and records that NRK have released since 1996.
Still though, there was no time to bask in former glories, as the task of breaking new singles was on hand. Displaying our love for all styles of house, NRK picked up Blackjoy's disco heavy "Moustache" (a track that had been building momentum for a couple of years on Bob Sinclar's Yellow label) and we complemented the re-release with great remixes from Prins Thomas and Franck Roger. 2006 also saw single releases from Peace Division (with the aforementioned Radio Slave mixes of their "Blacklight Sleaze" and John "Mood II Swing" Ciafone remixes of "Club Therapy"), Kerri Chandler's awesome "The Promise" (featuring the man himself on vocals) and Trackheadz legendary "Our Music", which also featured on their debut album "Trackheadz".
With the scene started to pick up and get stronger in the more "experimental" circles, it was decided to release a couple of mix album projects, a format that NRK had opted out of for a year or so. And the mix album to end all mix albums came in the spiritual shape of Joe Claussell's "Translate" project. Claussell is known to many as one third of the Body & Soul crew (along with Francois K and Danny Krivit) and he pulled out all the stops to produce a mix album that would differetiate itself from the rest of the pack. "Translate" featured "social commentary", street vox-pops, ambient passages, and the now legendary "10 tracks of silence", as well as stunning music from the likes of Ame, Jeff Mills, Alton Miller, Virgo and many more. "Translate" is truly a mix CD that has to be heard from start to finish, and is a project that we are very proud of at NRK, if only because it confused the hell out of half the people, and totally struck a chord with the other half.
2006 also saw the opening account on our Coast2Coast DJ mix series, and who better to compile and mix for us that Quentin Harris, an artist that had shined throughout 2005 with his "Let's Be Young" cut, and who started our C2C series with an awesome NYC inspired mix that threw down Mick Jagger, Franck Roger, Bizarre Inc, Blaze, Byron Stingly and more into the melting pot.
00Deep celebrates another 10 years passing for UK label NRK Music, a label that has always stuck true to the deep, underground house and techno sounds. If the 90s saw house music come to mainstream appeal, then the 00s fought off the inevitable backlash and threw up so many different sounds and styles which won over a new generation of fans.
