Features
The Top 20 Record Labels Of 2016
These imprints have driven dance music forward this year
7 Bala Club
Bala Club was the sound of London in 2016. Founded by brothers Kamixlo and Uli-K and best friend Endgame, the crew/label/party flooded the city’s underground with next-level electronic music that’s as weird and aggressive as it is introspective and sensual.
The hostile takeover began with the first official Bala Club party on New Year’s Day (featuring Evian Christ, Visionist and Dark0 on special guest duties) and continued with raves across the capital, sweeping through an assortment of spaces including Corsica Studio’s hallowed Room Two, the legendary ICA and a boxing ring in Brixton, inviting a host of club music DJs including Venus X, Juliana Huxtable and Toxe.
Accompanying this Superman punch on London venues was the Bala Club label, which was minted with the one-two of Uli K’s ‘Elusivo’ EP in March and the ‘Vol 1’ compilation in June. The former presented the young vocalist’s sensitive songwriting and ear for anthemic pop hooks while the latter introduced the Bala Club squad in full, showcasing an international network of producers and lyricists all intent on creating their own new forms of music and disrupting the underground status quo as much as possible. “We’re not about playing along with this scene or system that’s already going on right now,” Uli K told us. “It’s about going against it and creating change.”
The second half of the year saw EPs from outsider vocalist Lunarios and Kamixlo, who served up more of his signature industrial reggaeton. There was also a spellbinding pop single from Uli K and Mechatok as well as a residency on NTS and guest spots on Rinse FM. In ‘16, Bala Club became a production factory doing things on its own terms, housing a set of flourishing musicians using SoundCloud, internet radio and Facebook event pages to make a real impact both URL and IRL. S Wheeler
