NRK celebrate 15 years with Forever Underground

Not many record labels can lay claim to a 15 year stretch, but NRK Music has been a consistent and trusted source of the finest deep house and tech house for the last decade and a half. Set up in 1996 in Bristol, UK, NRK Music quickly delivered a hefty slew of releases from the off from artists like Ian Pooley, François K, Dimitri From Paris and Nick Holder, and have never looked back since. Now with over 170 single releases and 45 albums, plus the mix compilation series Back In The Box, The Lab, nite:life and Deep Sensations, NRK prepare to celebrate 15 years in the business with “Forever Underground”.

A 3CD package, “Forever Underground” collects some of the finest moments from the label’s career to date, and showcases the variety of sounds and trends within the house music scene over the last 15 years. CD1 features such hi-lights as Quentin Harris’ epic “Let’s Be Young”, the sensationally deep Charles Webster mix of Shara Nelson’s “Go That Deep”, Blackjoy’s awesome disco jam “Moustache” and Foremost Poet’s legendary call to the dancefloor “Moonraker”, plus truly memorable deep house cuts from Nick Holder, Sirus and Twisted Pair.

CD2 continues the delve into the NRK catalogue, opening up with perhaps one of the defining deep house records of our time, François K’s “Time & Space”, swiftly plucking another bomb from the vaults in Tom Middleton’s remix of Kerri Chandler’s “Bar A Thym”. The underground vibes continue with the luscious King Britt remix of “Innocent”, Nick Holder’s classic “Summer Daze” and DJ Q’s pounding and hypnotic “Superclique”. Throughout it’s 15 year tenure, NRK have always reflected the evolving sounds of electronic dance, and the trio of tracks that round off CD2 are some classic, analogue techno sounds from Paul Woolford, Ed Davenport and the legend that is Carl Craig, confirming that NRK has been a label that stands by quality underground music, regardless of the many sub genres out there.

CD3 is a bonus mix CD from NRK founder, DJ and producer, Nick Harris. With not an easy task to pick out a CDs worth of 170 releases and upwards to 700 tracks & remixes, Harris deftly programs and mixes some of the standout tracks from over the years along with various Dub Mixes, Bonus Beats and underground goodies from the vaults. And so, along with many of the catalogue favorites, Harris pulls out tracks and remixes from Spencer Parker, Pete Heller, Kings Of Tomorrow, Trackheadz, Joey Negro and Chris Lattner, creating the perfect mix to encapsulate NRK’s forward thinking music policy and ear for an underground dancefloor bomb!

The 3CD of Forever Underground will be released on 7th May, with an extended digital album bundle available as from 21st May

CD01

01. SIRUS – AN EYE FOR AN EYE (ORIGINAL MIX)

02. NUFREQUENCY FT. SHARA NELSON – GO THAT DEEP (CHARLES WEBSTER REMIX)

03. QUENTIN HARRIS – LET’S BE YOUNG (ORIGINAL MIX)

04. NICK HOLDER – PARADISE (SALT CITY MIX)

05. TERRA DEVA – FRESH START (JOSHUA’S HOUSE MIX)

06. BLACKJOY – MOUSTACHE (LA STACHE)

07. FOREMOST POETS – MOONRAKER (ORIGINAL MIX)

08. TWISTED PAIR – HORNY HUSTLE

09. TRACKHEADZ – OUR MUSIC

10. ROCKET – PEOPLE (JENO’S STORMY WEATHER MIX)

CD02

01. FRANÇOIS K – TIME & SPACE

02. KERRI CHANDLER – BAR A THYM (TOM MIDDLETON’S COSMOS MIX)

03. AKABU FT. LINDA CLIFFORD – RIDE THE STORM (JOEY NEGRO DUB STORM)

04. Q-BURNS ABSTRACT MESSAGE – INNOCENT (KING BRITT’S SCUBA MIX)

05. NICK HOLDER – SUMMER DAZE (RADIO EDIT)

06. DJ Q – SUPERCLIQUE

07. ED DAVENPORT – NEW YORKSHIRE (CLUB MIX)

08. PAUL WOOLFORD – 313 (PART ONE)

09. HOT LIZARD – THE THEME (CARL CRAIG REMIX)

CD03 (MIXED BY NICK HARRIS)

01. AUDIO SOUL PROJECT – COMMUNITY

02. TRACKHEADZ – FEEL (INSTRUMENTAL MIX)

03. KINGS OF TOMORROW – THE SWAY

04. QUENTIN HARRIS – LET’S BE YOUNG (JULIEN JABRE REMIX)

05. TWISTED PAIR – HORNY HUSTLE

06. KERRI CHANDLER – BAR A THYM (ORIGINAL MIX)

07. AKABU FT. LINDA CLIFFORD – RIDE THE STORM (JOEY NEGRO DUB STORM)

08. FRANÇOIS K – TIME & SPACE

09. MATTHIAS HEILBRONN – BROOKLYN SUB (SOULFLOWER DUB BEATS)

10. CHYMERA – WISH (PETER DILDO RAWJUICE RESHAPE)

11. FOREMOST POETS – MOONRAKER (SPENCER PARKER’S A GUN FOR HIRE REMIX)

12. NICK HOLDER FT. SACHA – TIME (SIX SERIES DUBSTRUMENTAL)

13. SIRUS – AN EYE FOR AN EYE (PETE HELLER EDIT)

14. HIPP-E – BROVAS DARKNESS

15. LEWIS BOARDMAN – MIST (CHRIS LATTNER REMIX)

16. BLACKJOY – MOUSTACHE (LA STACHE)

17. ROCKET – PEOPLE (JENO’S STORMY WEATHER MIX)

00Deep - The Album - Out Now

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.

Beatport https://www.beatport.com/en-US/html/content/release/detail/208129/00Deep
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iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/album/00deep/id343206778

00Deep - A Review Of The Decade - 2007

After a few of years off the mix CD circuit (after wrapping up our nite:life series in 2004), the musical climate was a lot more vibrant in 2007, and so our Coast2Coast series, that kicked off with a great mix from Quentin Harris late 2006, really picked up pace in 2007, with mixes from Kerri Chandler, Ron Trent, Ame, Karizma and Miguel Migs. With minimal tech-house beginning to bore the pants off many, it was the classic deep house sounds that began to find favour again with DJs, and so C2C concentrated on these classic sounds. Ron Trent mixed up a sublime selection, reminding us how influential he and his Prescription Underground label was, and Germany's Ame mixed up an ode to the deep sounds with a great compilation featuring many underground gems.



Another new mix CD series that was launched in 2007 was the Back In The Box compilations. Taking the world's finest DJ legends, and letting them crate dig to mix up those underground cuts that didn't quite get the recognition on release, but those tunes that have stood the test of time, and shaped the selector's musical careers, Back In The Box enlisted Joey Negro and "Little" Louie Vega to work their magic. And these compilations were/are hot hot hot! Anyone with even a passing interest in house music should check these albums out...Joey Negro mixed up classics from the likes of Faze Action, Eddie Folkes, LFO, Mood II Swing and Derrick May, whilst Vega went on a sprawling 2CD set that included Gerideau, Romanthony, Reese Project, Norma Jean Bell, Black Science Orchestra and Todd Terry.



Single release in 2007 came from Audio Soul Project, with re-rubs from Peace Division and Fish Go Deep of the classic "Community" track, Trackheadz urban house defining "Feel", Nick Holder's two singles "Swimming" and "Time", some lovely deep techno house from Chymera with his epic "Wish" EP, and Fish Go Deep remixes of Kerri Chandler's "The Promise".

00Deep - A Review Of The Decade - 2000

As we approach the end of the decade, the NRK Music blogspot hi-lights each of the years that made up the "noughties", a year that had it's ups and downs for the house music scene, but is certainly come out on top as we approach 2010. So here we go with the first installment...

2000

NRK Music surged into the new millennium with all cylinders’ firing, having already spent the late 1990’s making a big impact on the deep house scene. Already a label noted for bringing forward cutting edge trends in house music, via artists and releases from the likes of Dimitri From Paris, Francois K, Ian Pooley and Nick Holder, the year 2000 saw the label’s long standing relationship with a certain Mr. Miguel Migs, via a release called “Inner Excursions EP”, featuring the classic “Petalpushing” track.




Miguel Migs was already making a name for himself, via super deep and sophisticated releases for Naked Music and Yoshi Toshi. And the “Inner Excursions EP” marked out Miguel’s love of deep, tracky house music, a sound that was to become synonymous with NRK Music over the decade.



2000 also saw another relationship develop, this time with UK house stalwart Dave Lee AKA Joey Negro, who went on to record for NRK many times. He releases the superb “Your Wildest Dreams” 12” in this year, along with a robotically funky 2020 Vision remix (AKA Ralph Lawson and Carl Finlow) on a nice clear 12” vinyl pressing!



The decade also kicked off with one seriously major music trend, that of the reverberating, dub heavy house sounds of the West Coast crews. NRK Music was one of the first UK labels to pick up on these sounds, and in 2000 releases 12”s from Twisted Pair (AKA Dano & Joeski) “Horny Hustle”, Onionz & Master D’s “Celia’s Groove” and Dano’s “Drifting On Continents”. Perhaps the most successful artists emerging from that scene, H-Foundation (AKA Hipp-e & Halo Varga) supplied a killer remix of Plastic Avenger’s “El Bombata” whilst Halo went solo for a devastating remix of Sirus’ “An Eye For An Eye”, a track that was already huge with Danny Tenaglia that year.

It was decided to test the waters in this year with out first ever DJ mix compilation series (a format that the label still excels in to this day), and so “nite:life” was born. The scene’s most celebrated DJs, and the most cutting edge, underground sounds, our first three selectors did not disappoint. Jon Marsh, lead singer and producer of The Beloved, mixed up a great CD to kick start the series, whilst the aforementioned H-Foundation set the standards high with a genre defining double CD mix for “nite:life 02”. Miguel Migs nailed the sound of the Millenium with “nite:life 03”, a mix that has beome such a huge favourite with many fans.



Other notable releases for NRK this year include Nick Holder’s second album for the label “Underground Alternatives” and Sirus’ “On The Edge Of A Dream” featuring the singles “Big Ben” and “An Eye For An Eye”. The year 2000 also saw NRK’s sister label, Honchos Music, make its first steps with a more trackier/tribal sound, and it’s first two releases from Dirty Gringo and George T.