Features
The Top 20 Record Labels Of 2016
These imprints have driven dance music forward this year
11 Studio Barnhus
“If you see a new Studio Barnhus record in a record shop you shouldn't have a clue what it's going to sound like,” Kornél Kovács, who co-founded the label alongside Axel Boman and Pedrodollar, told us in his Gold feature this summer. It’s true, the Swedish imprint is home to one of the more distinct discographies in the sphere of house music.
“Is that…a funky house cover of Cher’s ‘Believe’?!” is a thought that crossed our minds, combining mixed emotions of exhilaration and bemusement, during the opening track of Kornél’s marvellous Lab LDN set this year, which turned out to be Your Planet Is Next’s track of the same name, released through Studio Barnhus in July on an EP also featuring the bouncy ghetto-pop infusion ‘Do U Wanna Freak?’. It’s a release that sums up the charmingly peculiar output of the label, which has thrilled us over and over again in 2016.
The centrepiece outing was Kornél Kovács’ debut album ‘The Bells’, arriving in August packed full of interesting melodies, emotional depth and floor-primed bangers. Further releases have ranged from the summery vibes of MLiR’s ‘Swedish Lo-Life’ EP to Carli’s hypnotic vocal trance single ‘Lights & Strobes’ via booty-shakin’ disco from Lukas Nystrand von Unge. The artwork has also been as varied as the sounds it adorns, with our pick being the eye with a colourful 12” centre label for a pupil fronting LD Nero’s two-track contribution.
All of this and the Swedes aren’t done yet, with Mount Liberation Unlimited’s ‘Double Dance Lover’, due to drop on December 16, set to make a late bid for most exultant cut of the year. P Hinton
