Label Focus: Hessle Audio

Although founded in Leeds nearly 10 years ago – the city where its three founders went to uni and spun records together on internet station Sub FM – the roots of Hessle Audio go back to London’s seminal dubstep party FWD>>. That’s where Ben UFO and Pearson Sound first met and fell in love with the genre, before the trio became complete with the addition of Pangaea in the Yorkshire city. It’s fitting the pair came together at one of the most influential nights the country has ever seen: the output they’ve gone on to curate, along with Pangaea, has undoubtedly reshaped the UK club scene in a similar way.

Hessle arrived towards the tail-end of dubstep’s heyday, and as the genre divided and cracked, no other imprint moved forward into the post-dubstep landscape with the same clarity of vision. Early cuts from Ramadanman and Martyn were supported by the likes of Ricardo Villalobos as the blueprint for breaking musical boundaries was laid. The quality has never dipped in nine years, with contributions from Untold, Joe, Objekt, Peverelist, a pre-singer-songwriter era James Blake and more recently Bruce and Ploy among its discography. With its 10th anniversary approaching next year, Hessle Audio stands tall as a truly game-changing imprint.

What’s the ethos of the label?

We were being sent quite a lot of music to play on radio and that dubstep period was a really fertile time. It was also a time when there was quite a lot of non-straight-down-the-line dubstep being made that wasn’t really getting released, and we saw an opening. It just made sense to contribute and be a part of this thing that was going on.

How has your vision for Hessle Audio evolved over the years?

I don’t think it’s changed much at all, apart from house and techno being a much more obvious presence. House and techno were there even in the early days, it’s just that that has become much more of a thing over the years. But we’re still trying to hit that sweet-spot between sounds that are a bit different, but also compatible with other sounds.

Was there a moment when people really started to take notice of the label?

A big moment was Martyn’s remix of TRG. That was being picked up by some of the producers and DJs we were looking up to, like Kode9, and being played out in clubs and on the radio. I think when that happened it got us a bit of attention.

The label has been quite selective with its releases in recent years. What defines a Hessle Audio artist?

The producers will always have their own sound; there’ll be some sort of unique trait to their music. That’s probably one of the most important things – that when you hear something you can tell that there’s artistry in it and unique elements to their music.

What are your plans and ambitions for the future?

We just want to carry on releasing music we’re happy with. That’s it, really!

"This was undoubtedly our breakthrough release. To this date we’ve still never commissioned a remix for the label, but Martyn and TRG had been friends for years and this track basically just landed in our inbox a year or two after the initial 12” came out. Kode9 picked up on it immediately and supported it heavily which gave us a real boost, but this was also our first record to be supported within the house and techno community, which surprised us at the time."

"In addition to the success of Martyn’s remix, Ricardo Villalobos picked up on HES005 by Ramadanman. Friends of ours sent us videos of him playing ‘Blimey’ in room 1 at fabric pitched down to about -6. We assumed the records were getting to these DJs through the Hard Wax shop in Berlin, and decided to visit the the city to try out D&M for the mastering of HES006. None of us had spent much time in Berlin and it felt exciting that these worlds of music, which we’d previously thought of as being quite different, could be more closely connected. ‘Router’ was hugely popular, to a degree that felt like a step up for our direct circle of friends. People still request it from the dancefloor all the time, eight years later."

"At the time of its release, we thought of ‘I Can’t Stop This Feeling’ as being quite straightforwardly a dubstep record, but in 2016 it makes perfect sense as a skewed London techno track. ‘Anaconda’ on the flip side summed up the ethos around FWD>> at the time, which was that anything could fit, as long as it was 140bpm and underpinned by sub-bass. This is definitely one of the most out-there records we’ve released - but also one of the most widely played, which is really gratifying!"

"Untold was contacted on Myspace by a young guy from Sheffield going under the name Blawan back in 2009 - he passed on the tracks to us as he thought we’d be interested and we signed them straight away. It’s been incredible to see Jamie grow into the artist he is today."

"Joe’s another friend of ours who we’d known for a while before releasing any of his music. His records have all been popular but this one struck a chord with people across so many different scenes – we’ve heard DJs play this track across almost every tempo range between 120 and 150bpm, and it always seems to make sense whatever the context, whether in the middle of a Luciano set or played by the Butterz crew with a load of MCs over the top of it."

"We’d known Elgato and been friends for years primarily through going to FWD>> and DMZ, and through our show on the station Sub FM, before he decided to show us any of the music he’d been writing. He’s got a knack for writing incredibly delicate yet powerful and emotional music and as soon as we heard it we knew we wanted to release it."

"We’ve been fans of Pev since his very first releases, and through everything he’s done for UK music and for the scene in Bristol. He was one of the only established producers that we’d always really hoped to release music by, and when he submitted this record to us we were over the moon."

"TJ had released a couple of 12”s through a distribution deal set up by Jack Revill at Rubadub, which we’d supported heavily as DJs. ‘Cactus’ was actually an older track that TJ had almost written off as a bit of a pastiche, but we were convinced by it and immediately signed it. It still sounds totally alien and in a world of its own. It took a while for the B side to emerge but it was worth the wait – it continues to take dancefloors apart with almost surgical precision."

"This was our first artist album, which felt like a milestone for the label musically. Working on a bigger project also gave David the opportunity to think about how visually to represent the record, which resulted in the distorted portrait photos on the cover, which were shot through bent and folded mirrors. The record is relatively abstract and restrained, and the reception from the dance music community was initially mixed, but it seems to have meant a lot to the people who connected with it, which has been great to see."

"Bruce is part of a new-wave of Bristol-based artists, along with producers like Ploy and Batu, who we’re really excited about. They’re all a few years younger than us and are making some of the most interesting, forward thinking club tracks that we’ve heard recently. ‘Steals’ is so distinctive and memorable, it was sending the track ID crew crazy for a while pre-release - we’re really excited to hear more music by all these guys!"

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Staff Writer, follow him on Twitter