Label profile: Hypercolour

Label profile: Hypercolour

28 December, 2009 | 7.16AM

• Written by: Zack Rico
• Filed under: Music News: hypercolour

“The label started off as a hobby for myself and Alex Jones and it developed into a labour of love,” says Jamie Russell aka Cedric Maison, about his UK house and techno imprint Hypercolour.

Since its inception in late 2006, Hypercolour has grown to become one of the most respected labels in the underground, with a reputation for diversity and forward-thinking grooves. From scatty minimal techno, to classic house, disco-flavoured deep house, and melodic tech house, Hypercolour is as mosaic and lively as its name suggests.

It counts amongst its DJ fans Claude Von Stroke, Quentin Harris, Simon Baker, and Slam, an indication of the wide musical pool it dips its many toes into.

“You don’t make any money nowadays running a label unless you are the Warps of this world. We wouldn’t have it any other way though, we are passionate about we do and just love the music that we put out,” says Russell.

We sat down with the Brighton-based DJ to talk more about Hypercolour and its best releases.

What does Hypercolour stand for?

Hypercolour stands for quality underground house and techno. We like to think that we don’t conform to what is popular. If you are referring to the name of the label itself, then that came from Alex’s love of the 80’s heat sensitive t-shirts.

You’re one of the few labels to still put out good minimal techno, as well tech house, deep house, and funky techno. Why doesn’t the label have a defined sound/genre?

Alex and myself are into lots of different types of music and have different tastes that are reflected in our diverse range of releases. I think you run the risk of repeating yourself and going stale as a label if you stick to one type of sound. Why limit yourself?

No names mentioned here but there are a lot of labels doing this generic vocal house sampled stuff right now, and every kid with Ableton is trying to make this type of music so they get into the Beatport Top 10! It’s boring us to tears.

We’re not shy of releasing a record with a vocal in it, our last three releases have had vocals on them, but I’d like to think ours are quite uniquely done, and have a bit of an edge to them as opposed to the standard one second sample of a screaming diva that you hear on so many tracks.

What criteria do you have for tracks on Hypercolour?

The music has to have soul or a feeling, which sounds like a cliché but it’s very true and we stick to those guidelines. We like to hear an artist’s personality in tracks and they have to have something unique and different about them. They are trend setters, not followers! We love tracks with sex appeal, we like dark and twisted stuff from the likes of Koze and Jichael Mackson - if anybody knows where to track down this dude, let us know.

In your opinion, what other record labels are doing good work in your domain? Is there a domain that you consider yourself part of?

We don’t consider ourselves as part of a domain, we’re kind of just doing our own thing. There are certainly plenty of labels that we respect. I don’t think there are many labels out there like us that release across the board. I think labels are too scared for fear of isolating their listeners.

Will Saul has done a great job with his labels Simple and Aus. I like the way that he will just releases house and dubstep on the same 12” - that’s cool in our books! We dig Wolf + Lamb’s vibe, and we think it’s hilarious that you can go onto their website and try to book a room at the ‘Marcy’. Always seems fully booked though, so they must be making a killing! Haha.

When it comes to artists, DJ Koze is someone who we all admire here at Hypercolour HQ. Nobody sounds like him at all. We always look forward to hearing a new Koze record. Kris Wadsworth is also wicked, and has been extremely consistent since he appeared on the scene. And our good friend Chris (Glimpse) is constantly evolving as an artist and is someone who is doing some inspirational music right now.

We’re really digging what the Soul Clap guys are doing, and also the mysterious Floating Points.

The majority of the artists you just mentioned are new or up and coming. Why?

It’s our job to seek out new artists. That’s part of the fun of running a record label. We have a good A&R team which consists of myself, Alex, and our new addition Ste Roberts, who used to work for Immigrant. We have worked with some quite established artists too though, such as Glimpse, Mark Henning and most recently Plasmik, so they are not all unknowns.

Which of your artists are crucial to the label?

We have a close knit community of artists, and we’ve had releases from quite a few artists since we began. I would say though, that our core family includes Laurie (Shenoda), Chris (Glimpse), and Kris Wadsworth. All have very different styles but are all great at what they do.

What plans do you have for the label in 2010?

We have big plans. We’re starting a new label called Glass Table which will be distributed through Kompakt. The label is a silly reference to Alex’s living room table, which is obviously glass, and 90% of the artists we’ve found for Hypercolour have been whilst sat around this table, usually whilst heavily under the influence, at silly o’clock in the morning!

The music on the label will reflect the weird sounds we’ve be listening to whilst sat around the table! The label consists of myself, Alex Jones, Ste Roberts and Ryan Hope. Ryan runs a film company and with that in mind there will be a wider emphasis on the media side of things, with some hopefully cool music videos, collectable artwork, and more.

The first release is from Jimmy Edgar, and it’s slightly different to his album on Warp. He has put together some cool low-tempo, synth heavy, sexy future disco tracks which sound amazing! And we have roped in Kyle Hall to do a remix so we’re excited to hear how that comes out.

The second release is a collaboration between Soul Clap and Catz n Dogz, which is a special release that we can’t wait to unleash. Soulphiction has done a remix. We’re also in talks with some other real cool artists, but I’ll keep a lid on that until it’s all confirmed.

On the Hypercolour front, the next EP is from Plasmik, who have given us four vintage sounding, 909 styled tracks - proper basement house vibes. Alex Jones has turned in a peach of a remix on that release.

Following that is our boy Shenoda. Laurie has had an excellent couple of releases on Frankfurt-based Sonido Records and Mazi’s Fresh Meat, so he’ll be picking up where he left off. We have called in the talents of Mr. G for a ‘classic’ Mr. G remix.

We have EPs also on route from UK house don Chris Simmonds. We had to get some tracks from him, after the remix he recently did for us of Mark Henning’s ‘Right Time’. He is a house music legend in our view and doesn’t get the credit he deserves.

We also have a Glimpse release that we’ve sat on for nearly two years. Various mitigating circumstances have delayed the release but it will definitely go out in 2010. It has what we think is probably his best work on there - his dad thinks so too!

That release also has a dubby, dark take on the train excursion by Mike Shannon. We have also just signed a pretty special track from an artist called El_Txef_A from Spain, which instantly caught our attention. We think it will do very well. All in all, exciting times lay ahead for both labels.

How do you feel about the current dance music scene, in comparison to the earlier years when you first got into the music?

We a lot of people say ‘it’s not like it used to be’, and truth be told, I go out less than I did 10 years ago so it’s hard to tell. I hear the clubs are not as busy. But when I have been out it doesn’t seem that way. We throw the odd party here and there and they are generally well attended.

Music technology has advanced massively, and we are hearing some amazing music right now, although we all still love the simplicity of tracks past. I feel it is a very interesting time for dance music at the moment.

There is a big commercial presence in dance music right now, and BBC Radio 1 are championing what we call here at Hypercolour HQ ‘Baz’ – short for Barry. You can have Barry Techno, Barry Electro…pretty much Baz anything. It’s noisy, got no soul and the kids seem to love it. Yes you heard it first, maybe Beatport can create a new genre page for this shit?

You sound like one of those ‘it ain’t as good as it used to be’ guys. Any more advice for the kids?

Be original, don’t follow the crowd, don’t forget about vinyl, and don’t steal music!

Essential Hypercolour

Label owner Jamie Russell aka Cedric Maison guides us through the label’s most important tracks.

Philippe Autuori ‘Redemption’ (Shenoda B.A.G Mix)

There is quite some story surrounding this which I’ll try to keep as brief as possible. We handed over the parts to Laurie and whilst the usual glass table session was taking place, Laurie sprung this on us when we least expected it. He has a tendency to do that quite often!

We were blown away, as it’s just superbly produced and the groove is awesome. It’s scary deep house, as he pitched the female vocal from the original track to sounds like someone you wouldn’t want to meet down a dark alley.

Kris Wadsworth ‘Mainline’

Just an amazing, timeless piece of music. When we were sent this we were just blown away. You have to have a bit of patience, as the intro is four minutes long. When the bass drum kicks in, the track gets taken to the next level.

Kris is a real talent and I think this track placed him firmly on the map. I don’t need to say any more, just have a listen!

Mark Henning ‘The Right Time’

Sleazy, slick robotic tech house at its best. Mark is famed for his tight grooves, and this is probably the most ‘deep house’ track he has done.

It’s a cheeky well-known vocal sample from a certain 70’s sex pest, and it is executed with finesse. To quote Claude Von Stroke ‘It’s so retarded, it just shouldn’t work, but it’s amazing, my current favourite track!’

Alex Jones ‘Bed’ (Dan Berkson’s Effortless House remix)

This was the first release of ours that broke into the Top 10 on Beatport, and it stayed in the Top 10 for about a month! The sound design on it is amazing; it has such a classic feel to it. It’s so simple but just sounds awesome on a big rig. I still play this out if I play a warm up set.

Glimpse & Alex Jones ‘Felaz’ (Matt Stars’ Mello Dub)

I got given a heads up on Matt Star by Matt Edwards. He played me ‘Hypno’ and I loved it. Cheers Matt! We’re not big minimal heads but Matt has something about the structuring of music and his grooves. I think he stands out amongst the crowd in what he does.

Kris Wadsworth ‘Deport This’

Kris blew us away with this whole EP, as each track is great. You can hear Sneak, Moodymann, and Daft Punk in all of these tracks. It was a no brainer signing this release and the most ‘housey’ sounding record we have put out to date.

Glimpse ‘Julia’

This is pure sex! I think this song was about some chick Chris used to have a crush on. The vocal is so sexy and sultry, who is Julia? I’d love to meet her! This was released when ‘minimal’ was at its peak, but I think this encompasses deep house in that clicky way.

I still love hearing, ‘my name’s Julia, and I have sex for fun’. We also later released a fantastic remix of this by Channel X.

Matt Star ‘Keep on Groovin’

This is superbly produced, so intricate, and has a beautiful electronic feel to it.  You can get lost in this record!

Frankie Flowerz feat. Keith Denis ‘It’s Funk, It’s House’

A classic sounding house record in this day and age is hard to come by. We cheated slightly as this was produced over eight years ago!

It features vocals from Keith Denis, who did a Perlon release some years back. Keith spoke the vocal in one take, and it’s all ad-lib. The vocal seemed to have caused some unrest amongst certain dance press publications, who got it totally wrong. Mohan is from Malaysia, and a certain German magazine ripped into him saying how can he claim to be ‘back and black’?

He’s not obviously black, but he never wrote or sung the vocal! We found it quite funny all the same. If you just listen to the record you will hear it is a classic sounding house record that will sound great in another 10 years time.

Sebastien Bouchet ‘Changing Lanes’ (Jens Bond Remix)

This still sounds fresh now, and Jens will testify that this is still his best work yet. Deep, progressive, and it was a closing anthem at Watergate according to Jens!

Warbgasm ‘Influenza’ (Plasmik Deepchord Remix)

We have been big admirers of Plasmik’s deep, cosmic sounds for sometime, so we were delighted to get this ‘belter’ of a remix from them! Lee Jones featured this on his RA podcast and tells us that this was the perfect record for that shutter moment at Panorama Bar! I wish I was there!

The bass is intense and sounds great on a good soundsystem. This is the sort of record you’d whack on if you were travelling to the moon.

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