How your favourite label came into existence

Hot Creations

"Hot Creations started out of a mutual love of house, techno, disco, soul and funk and a desire to start our own thing,” according to label co-founder Lee Foss. “Jamie [Jones] and I both had a lot of strong unreleased music and he had a few artists who had saved music for him for when he finally started a label. I think we felt like even if we never signed any music we could just put out our own tracks and it would be worth doing the label. We had a great flat in London that was a real hub of activity. Jamie called it a "hostel for travelling DJs" and it ended up being such a great creative working environment for collaborating, remixing and communicating about the label as it started. I think that energy really showed in how strong Hot Creations was from the beginning".

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Hotflush Recordings

Scuba was running a club night called Hotflush until he finished studying in 2001, so the idea of the label was spawned from that, eventually launching with Spectr's spanky 'Red Hot'/'Motion' 12" in 2003. It's still full of life 14 years later, but there's one thing the label boss isn't mad keen on: the name. In this documentary by Bonafide Magazine, Scuba says: "We had the name Hotflush from the nights we'd been doing in Bristol and it made sense to keep it, even though I kind of hated it. I've kind of grown to accept it. I wouldn't say I've ever really liked the name." Don't worry, Paul, we're only bothered about sizzlers like Joy Orbison's 'Hyph Mngo' and Mount Kimbie's dizzying 'Carbonated', not what the label's called.

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Hyperdub

Kode9’s label Hyperdub initially started life as a web magazine covering the influence of Jamaican soundsystem culture on electronic music coming out of London. Specifically, that included the sounds of darker garage that would eventually become dubstep and grime. In 2004 the label began to release its own music thanks to another dubstep pioneer. “I interviewed The Bug for a magazine around 2002 or 2003, and at the end left him a CD of some of my music, including what became the first release on Hyperdub," Kode9 said. "That was the cover of Prince’s ‘Sign of the Times’, recorded with The Spaceape, called ’Sine of the Dub'. The Bug seemed to like it, suggested we put it out ourselves and linked us with a distributor.”

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King Street Sounds

According to label head Hisa Ishioka: "I wasn’t crazy about what was going on in the dance music scene around 1991 and 1992. Tracks using samples were making big buzz and not enough records using real vocals at that time. I wanted to release beautiful vocal-oriented records which inspired me back in the '80s or during the days of the Paradise Garage.” The label’s name also takes it’s cue from the legendary club which sat at 84 King Street in New York.

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Metalheadz

The venture of Goldie, the late Kemistry and DJ Storm, the idea of Metalheadz came about after Goldie was taken to game-changing London party Rage where Fabio and Grooverider were residents in the early '90s. "That first time he [Goldie] came to Rage, he didn't like it at all," Storm says in Goldie's autobiography Nine Lives. Things were different the next time, though. "The energy at Rage was unreal," Goldie wrote. "The second time I went, this light bulb appeared above my head. I just thought: Fuck! Now I wanna make this music!" The label got its name from the Metal Heads group Goldie was a part of with Rob Playford and Mark Rutherford, who released the demonic 'Terminator' on Synthetic Records. That iconic logo was initially created by Darren Bartlett, but adapted by Goldie who added headphones "so that the skull symbolised the head while the 'phones were music, because music will be here long after we're all dead and gone."

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Ministry Of Sound

One of the world’s most famous dance brands was the vision of Justin Berkmann, a Londoner who found inspiration in the late '80s New York City clubbing scene and felt raves didn’t have to be in outdoor spaces or dilapidated warehouses. The label started in 1993, kickstarting their tradition of popular compilations with a mix from Tony Humphries.

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Mute Records

Mute was never actually meant to turn into a label. Founder Daniel Miller released the 'T.V.O.D'/'Warm Leatherette' 7" in 1978, and the packaging included an address of where he was based. Those who liked the sound of the eerie new wave material started sending demos, one of them being from Fad Gadget, an artist who Depeche Mode were supporting on tour back then. Regarding the name, Miller says: "At the time Mute started I was working as a film editor, working with real film and not video. Film without sound was called mute film. The word 'mute' was somehow ingrained into my mind and where the word popped up from."

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Nervous Records

According to co-founder Michael Weiss, New York’s Nervous Records began in 1991 in a time of change. Pop artists were looking for big-name remixers and rap was going through a crossover period. “Nervous was created to highlight the underground producer culture that was thriving in New York, but that was not getting the proper shine,” he said. “Our philosophy was to allow producers a platform to create what they liked without any interference based on what was accessible or what was going to sell. We were fortunate as the underground house that we liked was developing a massive fan base around the world. We created a very distinctive logo that gave us a bit more prominence than some of the labels, with the result being that for many around the world the Nervous logo is one of the essential emblems of American house music, and that awareness has helped us to stay visible and relevant for 26 years.”

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Ninja Tune

One of the UK’s most famous independent music labels had spiritual beginnings according to founders Matt Black and Jonathan More of Coldcut. Started “to put out fresh alternative diverse music without hinderance by Babylon”, Ninja Tune’s existence came about “through the power of funkjazztickletricknology, the sound of the hummingbirds' wings, the beat of the drum in the temple of smoke,” they tell us.

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Ovum Recordings

A simple wish to have more control over what he was releasing inspired Josh Wink to initiate Ovum. The choice of name is the interesting part. An 'ovum' is a female reproductive cell, or an egg, and Wink wanted the label to be about life music. It just so happened his close friend King Britt was due to have a baby, and the launch of the label ended up representing the new life of the little nipper.

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Planet Mu

Planet Mu label boss Mike Paradinas has a pretty simple reason why he started his label. “I thought I could do a better job than some of the other labels out there at the time.” Having come into existence in 1995 as an imprint for the label head’s µ-Ziq material on Virgin Records, Paradinas then had the idea to widen the imprint into a full platform with other artists. In '97 Mu released 'Mealtime', their first various artists compilation featuring Jega, AFX, Plug and µ-Ziq among others. In '98 they went fully independent and started releasing material from Jega, Capitol K, Hellfish, Leafcutter John and more.

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Plus 8

Detroit-originating records were a staple in John Acquaviva's sets towards the end of the '80s, so he made sure he paid a visit to the Motor City as part of him checking out clubs throughout the United States and Canada. The second trip saw him come across Richie Hawtin, the two hitting it off and deciding to get in the studio - one kitted out with pairs of the Roland 303, 808 and 909 - with each other. "It quickly became apparent to us that it was about Rich and I coming together and growing our vision with our very own label and try to be part of that second wave of techno and house from Detroit," John says.

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R&S Records

A feeling of frustration about Belgian labels creating dismal covers of imported music inspired R&S co-founder Renaat Vandepapeliere to get involved in the label game. "I didn't like that. I said 'Respect the artist. License it in, and let's have the original track'," Renaat told Clash in 2012. "That's where the idea to start the label started, and it was New Beat that gave me the chance." It was originally called Milos Music Belgium, releasing just one record, but soon turned into R&S - the initials of Renaat and his partner Sabine Maas.

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Rush Hour

In 1997, Antal Heitlager and Christiaan MacDonald opened Amsterdam record store Rush Hour creating a haven for music lovers. In '99 they took their first steps as a record label, releasing Deepart’s ‘College #1’ EP. They’ve also earned a reputation for their excellent track record of reissuing forgotten nuggets. That side of the business came about pretty innocuously according to Antal who told Skiddle: “At that time we just wanted to do so. Some possibilities presented themselves to us and it was like, ok, let's do it, why not.”

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Strictly Rhythm

Gladys Pizarro and Mark Finkelstein founded the imprint in 1989 in an attempt to quench New York City’s growing thirst for house music. Finkelstein’s first job in the music business was as a controller of established r’n’b label Spring Records. When the label closed, Pizarro introduced him to house music and told him her plans of starting a label. “She wanted to start a label and she could pick the music if I looked after the business side. On May 1 1989, Strictly Rhythm was born,” Finkelstein said.

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Trax

Trax, named after house music’s sparse nature, will forever be synonymous with dance music. Born in 1983 out of necessity for the new house music movement major labels had no interest in, the imprint was founded by Larry Sherman, Rachael Cain, Jesse Saunders and Vince Lawrence when the latter two were on the lookout for a singer for their track 'Fantasy'. “None of us really had a clue, but the music sounded cool," Cain says. "Larry had the vinyl factory because he made records for jukeboxes and collectors. He saw something in our sound and us and somehow 'Fantasy' became a hit. Then Larry gave us records on credit and when we came back with stacks of cash, he knew we were on to something. Next, every kid in town wanted to be like us and a youth explosion was born from vinyl, which makes all the sense in the world because it was all about making records and DJs playing them.”

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Warp

Warp Records, the label home to the likes of Aphex Twin, Autechre, Boards Of Canada and Drexciya, started in the backroom of a Sheffield record store in 1989. Shop workers Steve Beckett, Rob Mitchell and Robert Gordon named the label Warp after it became clear Warped Records was difficult to distinguish over the phone. “At the time we didn’t think we were setting up a label necessarily,” Beckett said in the book How Soon Is Now? The Madmen and Mavericks Who Made Independent Music 1975-2005.“ It was more about, ‘Let’s do this 12" and see if it can have an effect’, like we were seeing in guys like 808 State and Unique 3. It was all orientated to the dancefloor rather than the label side of things.”

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Watergate

There's no real fascinating story behind the launch of Watergate Records, TBH. The owners of the Berlin club it's named after - unsurprisingly located beside the water, specifically the River Spree - just wanted a platform to release mix CDs reflecting the parties they were throwing back in '08. It was a CD-only affair for around a year, but a Martyn and dOP 12" introduced the vinyl series and albums from Ruede Hagelstein and Tiefschwarz have come since.

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XL Recordings

The UK's youth were well and truly gripped by rave music at the end of the '80s, so a few fellas - Nick Halkes and Tim Palmer - from record company Beggars Group decided a label to release tunes geared towards raving was needed. Richard Russell, who joined soon after as an A&R and is now an owner, recently said: "The ambition was to make records we could play as DJs." Well, they really did do that, didn't they? SL2's rowdy 'On A Ragga Tip' was an early release and a group of geezers from Essex were welcomed onboard to release as The Prodigy. With a North Londoner called Adele now on its books, we reckon they'll exist for a little while longer.

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Dave Turner is Mixmag's Digital News Editor. Follow him on Twitter

Louis Anderson-Rich is Mixmag's Digital Intern. Follow him on Twitter