CHAPTER IV · FIVE DECADES
Memory does not work in order. A new bassline can touch a forty-year-old record. These five layers lie on top of each other, and every song stands on all of them.
Saturday Night Fever, the falsetto of the Bee Gees, Earth, Wind & Fire, Chic, Chaka Khan. A teenager in Germany hears of the New York nights, from Studio 54 to the Paradise Garage, and something starts to move that never stops.
HEAR IT TODAY
P-Funk, James Brown, The Temptations, Michael Jackson and above all Prince. Basslines that land in the chest. At the same time hip-hop reaches Germany: Kurtis Blow in the ears, the first b-boys on linoleum and cardboard.
HEAR IT TODAY
The decade of the great voices, shaped by producers such as L.A. Reid and Babyface, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. R&B becomes elegant and warm. And hip-hop, which arrived as movement, becomes language.
HEAR IT TODAY
Music moves from shelves to hard drives, the studio moves onto a screen: Native Instruments, Cubase, Logic Pro, Ableton Live. Every new generation of tools expands the craft. None replaces it.
HEAR IT TODAY
Still on the dancefloor, at ADE in Amsterdam and the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg. Defected, Glitterbox, deep house, light on water. And after the silent years of the pandemic, one wish: to bring back what happens on a dancefloor.
HEAR IT TODAY
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THE MUSICAL LIFE STORY
More than a list of influences: the records, club cultures, technologies and sounds that accompanied a musical life, now reflected in the creative worlds of the label.
THE FIRST SPARK
Saturday Night Fever, the Bee Gees, Earth, Wind & Fire, Kool & the Gang, Stevie Wonder, Chic and Chaka Khan with I’m Every Woman and Ain’t Nobody. And the myth of New York nights, from Studio 54 to the Paradise Garage. The first love: the dancefloor.
ON THE ONE
P-Funk, James Brown, The Temptations, Michael Jackson and above all Prince. Basslines you do not hear but feel. When the upper body moves by itself, a bond is formed.
THE BIRTH OF THE B-BOYS
Kurtis Blow in our ears, the first B-Boys on linoleum and cardboard. Right in the middle of it: the roots of B.Awesome.
THE CIRCLE
Dozens of times in the crowd: at The Notorious IBE in Heerlen, at Battle of the Year, at Red Bull BC One. Never as a competitor, always with all his heart.
THE CLUB REVOLUTION
Larry Levan, Frankie Knuckles and the Chicago Warehouse, where house music got its name. Then Ministry of Sound, Defected and Glitterbox: the line that leads to Theo Nostos.
THE GREAT VOICES
The decade of the great voices, shaped by producers such as L.A. Reid and Babyface, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Every decade had its highlights, every one left its mark.
FROM TAPE TO DAW
Tape machines, large consoles, edits made with a blade and tape spliced by hand. Then MPCs, beatmaking machines, Native Instruments, Cubase, Logic Pro and Ableton Live.
BOTH, NOT EITHER
Over sixty and still curious. We work at the current state of the art and use the tools life puts in our hands. Never either or.
BACK TO THE DANCEFLOOR
Between smartphones, second screens and the silent years of the pandemic, people lost what happens on a dancefloor. Bringing it back is one of the deepest wishes behind this label.
NOT A MACHINE
It started without a business plan: just the wish to pour a life into music and to find people who feel the same while listening. That is still the heart of it. Collaborations, licensing and new partners are welcome, as long as the music stays at the centre.
THE STORIES
Every artist carries a piece of his own life. Not everything happened exactly like this. But it is how he sees the world.
THE EVOLUTION OF SOUND
Three intertwined journeys shaped this musical autobiography: how music was released and heard, how DJs brought it to life on the dancefloor, and how producers made it in the studio. The medium and equipment kept changing; curiosity and musical judgment developed with them.
SIDE A / THE LISTENER
01 / THE SINGLE · 1970s
The little seven-inch single was more than a record. For a teenager discovering the Bee Gees, The Trammps and disco, it was a doorway into a lifelong relationship with music.
02 / THE EXTENDED MIX · LATE 1970s–1980s
The twelve-inch maxi single became a defining format for disco DJs and house culture, with extended mixes, longer intros, deeper bass and space for the dancefloor. Some played at 45 RPM, others at 33⅓ RPM.
03 / THE DIGITAL DISC · 1980s–1990s
The compact disc transformed how music was collected, discovered and heard, while studio technology was also entering the digital era.
04 / MUSIC EVERYWHERE · 2000s–TODAY
Music moved from shelves to hard drives, then to platforms and playlists. Access changed dramatically, but the search for a track worth hearing again did not.
SIDE B / THE STUDIO
01 / PHYSICAL SOUND · THE ANALOG ERA
Recording once revolved around large desks, outboard equipment and magnetic tape. Editing could mean physically cutting and splicing tape. This is part of the production history behind the music he grew up with.
02 / NEW PRECISION · THE DIGITAL TRANSITION
Digital recording and non-destructive editing transformed how producers could arrange, revise and experiment. Sound moved increasingly from physical media to digital workflows.
03 / THE STUDIO ON A SCREEN · THE DAW ERA
Computer-based production tools brought arranging, editing, sound design and mixing into increasingly flexible digital workspaces. Musical ideas could travel further with fewer technical barriers.
04 / THE STATE OF THE ART · TODAY
New tools arrive, proven ones remain. It was never either or, always both. Experience, selection and taste decide what becomes music.
SIDE C / THE DJ BOOTH
From manually cueing vinyl and riding the pitch fader to preparing digital tracks for a club-ready USB library: the DJ booth evolved into a powerful creative instrument. The art remained choosing the right record, finding the transition and understanding the room.
01 / THE VINYL BOOTH · 1970s
The DJ booth was physical: seven-inch singles, twelve-inch club records, turntables, headphones and a mixer. Cueing, timing and transitions were performed by ear and by hand.
02 / THE CLUB STANDARD · 1979 → 1990s
Introduced in 1979, the direct-drive MK2 with pitch control helped define the vinyl DJ workflow. In the eighties and nineties, the Technics decks became enduring icons of disco, house and hip-hop culture.
03 / THE CDJ ARRIVES · 1994 → 2000s
Pioneer introduced the CDJ-500 in 1994. Later players such as the CDJ-1000 brought more vinyl-like performance techniques to a CD-based booth while physical records and CDs continued to coexist.
04 / THE DIGITAL LIBRARY · 2000s → 2010s
Digital audio files, CDJs with USB support and the 2009 CDJ-2000 / rekordbox workflow changed the way DJs carried, organized and prepared their music. The record bag increasingly became a digital library.
05 / THE CONNECTED BOOTH · TODAY
Today, club players, laptops, controllers and DJ software offer flexible ways to perform, remix and build a musical journey. The equipment has evolved, but selection, rhythm and the connection with an audience remain essential.
Half a century of records, dancefloors, DJ booths and studios. A lifetime of growing musical understanding. The technology keeps evolving. The ear behind the music evolves with it.