Basement Records (electronic)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Basement Records was a British record label that was started up late 1988 and was run from the Record Basement shop in Reading, Berkshire. The label was run and owned by Phil Wells (aka Basement Phil).
The British Basement Records has no relation to the Basement Records based in Los Angeles, California, an independent underground Hip Hop label that came on the scene in early 2005.
Contents |
[edit] Background
The main artists on the label included Ron Wells aka Jack Smooth who also was the in house producer for the label , Basement Phil, Loftgroover, Alex Hazard, Kev Bird, DJ Mayhem, Wax Doctor, Roger Johnson, Spencer T, Donovan Badboy Smith, Alex Reece and Top Buzz.
One of the things that set Basement apart from the rest was the distinctive sound of nearly every release, courtesy of Jack Smooth's engineering and co-production. The creation of the phrase Jungle Techno can probably be credited to Basement with their Detroit influenced sounds.
[edit] Popularity
The label became a big favourite of DJs during 1992 and 1993. DJs such as Grooverider, Mickey Finn, Ratty, Tango, DJ SS, Seduction, Slipmatt, Swane, Spencer T, Stu Allan and Top Buzz were often heard playing several releases from this label in their sets.
[edit] Spin-off labels
Spin-off labels from Basement included:
- Homegrown
- Sound Entity
- Smooth Recordings - created around late 1993 by Jack Smooth; closed in 1997.
- Precious Material
- Street Beats
- Mystic Moods
- Fast Floor.
[edit] 1994-1997
After the peak of 1992/93 the Basement label shifted to releasing the more experimetal side of Jungle throughout the mid 90's and releasing tracks by artists such as Photek, Peshay, Justice, J Majik, Architex and Dune in their formative years, before closing down in 1997. Recent times however have seen the relaunch of Basement Records with tracks so far from Rage, Ratty & Tango, Cartridge and Vital Elements, and the Basement Classics series.
Ron Wells went on to form Fast Floor Multimedia with Paul Clarke in 1997 (the name was taken forward from their Fast Floor record label). Fast Floor has now become a successful Business, Marketing and Communications company serving many blue chip corporations. Ron and Paul still write music for film and TV. Despite having the same name Ron Wells and Phil Wells are not related. However they still keep in contact and in July of 2006 Basement released a remix of the 1994 Fast Floor track 'Plight of the Innovators'.
Phil Wells now runs Nu Urban Music a successful music distribution company based in Thatcham, Berkshire. He has taken the Basement label forward since the collapse of Vinyl Distribution.
