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Global Underground | |
---|---|
Founded | 1996 |
Founder | Andy Horsfield |
Genre | Trance, progressive house, trance house |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Location | London |
Official website | globalunderground |
Global Underground is a British record label and compilation series founded in 1996 by Andy Horsfield and James Todd. The label symbolised[ citation needed ] the international explosion of dance music during the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s and first manifesto for high-end DJs such as Tony De Vit, Sasha, Paul Oakenfold, John Digweed, Danny Tenaglia, Nick Warren, Dave Seaman, Darren Emerson, James Lavelle, Carl Cox, and Solomun.
The name Global Underground originally refers to a series of electronic music compilation albums which reflect the performances of various DJs in venues around the world. The Global Underground series was released by a record label formerly known as Boxed which featured several sister series such as Nubreed and Electric Calm. Boxed closed in 2001 and was superseded by Global Underground Ltd. Since its first release in 1996, the series was well received and became a hallmark in the progressive house world.[ citation needed ] The dance music style featured is mostly progressive house, but there is some house, trance house, hard house, techno and breakbeat included in the releases. The first five installments were live recorded from respective clubs, while the rest are mixed and recorded in a studio.
Each issue in the series is based on the idea that Global Underground would take DJs to play a party in one of the most unusual, exotic clubbing locations on Earth. The set is then released in a 2CD format that is formatted to capture the night of the party and the overall feel of the DJ visit in music, contemporary photography by photographer Dean Belcher and extensive sleeve notes.
There are consistent characteristics in almost every album in the series including:
Billboard has recognized Global Underground as the first DJ mix compilation to place high-quality photographs of DJs on the album covers. This, it further asserted, played a part in turning DJs into superstar figures within the culture of electronic dance music. [1]
Thrive Records was the U.S. distributor for some of the early Global Underground releases. Global Underground albums had an alternate numbering sequence and had different artwork, but were otherwise the same.
This is the complete listing of available albums in the Global Underground main series which includes the sequential number of the album in the series, the performing DJ/producer, the location in which the performance took place and the official release date. The listed catalog numbers are for the British releases. The numbers on the albums distributed by Thrive in the United States are shown in parentheses - those without such labels do not have a differing release number. Global Underground also has several "sub-series" entitled Nubreed, Prototype, 24:7, Electric Calm, Afterhours, and most recently Global Underground DJ.
Title | Artist | Release date | Peak chart positions | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UK Comp [2] | UK Dance [3] | US Dance [4] | NL [5] | |||
001: Tony De Vit, Live in Tel Aviv | 11 November 1996 | — | — | — | — | |
002 [a] | None | Not released | ||||
003: Nick Warren, Live in Prague | 24 March 1997 | 39 | — | — | — | |
004: Paul Oakenfold, Live in Oslo | 9 June 1997 | 21 | — | — | — | |
005: Tony De Vit, Tokyo | Tony De Vit | 6 November 1997 | 68 | — | — | — |
006: John Digweed, Sydney [b] | 13 April 1998 | 16 | — | — | — | |
007: Paul Oakenfold, New York [c] | Paul Oakenfold | 25 May 1998 | 12 | — | 43 | — |
008: Nick Warren, Brazil | Nick Warren | 27 July 1998 | 27 | — | — | — |
009: Sasha, San Francisco [d] | 9 November 1998 | 18 | — | — | — | |
010: Danny Tenaglia, Athens [e] | 15 February 1999 | 16 | — | — | — | |
011: Nick Warren, Budapest [f] | Nick Warren | 31 May 1999 | 20 | — | — | — |
012: Dave Seaman, Buenos Aires | 23 August 1999 | 26 | — | — | — | |
013: Sasha, Ibiza | Sasha | 28 September 1999 | 12 | — | — | — |
014: John Digweed, Hong Kong | John Digweed | 14 December 1999 | 24 | — | — | — |
015: Darren Emerson, Uruguay | 15 May 2000 | 20 | — | — | — | |
016: Dave Seaman, Cape Town | Dave Seaman | 14 August 2000 | 22 | — | — | — |
017: Danny Tenaglia, London | Danny Tenaglia | 18 September 2000 | 21 | — | — | — |
018: Nick Warren, Amsterdam | Nick Warren | 6 November 2000 | 24 | 26 [g] | — | — |
019: John Digweed, Los Angeles | John Digweed | 26 February 2001 | 14 | — | 11 | — |
020: Darren Emerson, Singapore | Darren Emerson | 2 July 2001 | 33 | — | — | — |
021: Deep Dish, Moscow | 29 October 2001 | 25 | 37 [h] | 13 | — | |
022: Dave Seaman, Melbourne | Dave Seaman | 29 April 2002 | 31 | — | 8 | — |
023: James Lavelle, Barcelona | 30 September 2002 | 18 | — | 19 | — | |
024: Nick Warren, Reykjavik | Nick Warren | 24 March 2003 | 34 | — | 25 | — |
025: Deep Dish, Toronto | Deep Dish | 2 June 2003 | 33 | 30 [i] | 1 | — |
026: James Lavelle, Romania | James Lavelle | 1 March 2004 | 27 | — | 26 | — |
027: Danny Howells, Miami | 28 March 2005 | 33 | — | 14 | — | |
028: Nick Warren, Shanghai | Nick Warren | 12 July 2005 | 44 | — | 14 | — |
029: Sharam, Dubai | 2 October 2006 | 35 | 1 | — | — | |
030: Nick Warren, Paris | Nick Warren | 19 February 2007 | 44 | 2 | 20 | — |
031: Dubfire, Taipei | 2 April 2007 | 42 | 2 | — | — | |
032: Adam Freeland, Mexico City | 4 June 2007 | 42 | 3 | — | — | |
033: Layo & Bushwacka!, Rio | 8 October 2007 | 44 | 4 | — | — | |
034: Felix Da Housecat, Milan | 13 May 2008 | 53 | 11 | — | — | |
035: Nick Warren, Lima | Nick Warren | 13 October 2008 | 57 | 1 | — | — |
036: Darren Emerson, Bogotá | Darren Emerson | 9 February 2009 | 71 | 11 | — | — |
037: James Lavelle, Bangkok | James Lavelle | 3 August 2009 | 31 | 8 | — | — |
038: Carl Cox, Black Rock Desert | 1 February 2010 | 38 | 12 | — | 28 | |
039: Dave Seaman, Lithuania [6] | Dave Seaman | 27 September 2010 | 39 | 24 | — | — |
040: Solomun, Hamburg [7] | 31 August 2014 | 72 | 25 | — | — | |
041: James Lavelle, Naples [8] | James Lavelle | 6 November 2015 | 41 | 5 | 23 | — |
042: Patrice Bäumel, Berlin [9] | Patrice Bäumel | 29 March 2019 | 48 | 5 | — | — |
043: Joris Voorn, Rotterdam [10] | 30 October 2020 | — | — | — | — | |
044: Amelie Lens - Antwerp [11] | 25 November 2022 | — | — | — | — | |
045: Danny Tenaglia - Brooklyn [12] | 22 November 2023 | — | — | — | — | |
046: ANNA - Lisbon [13] | June 2024 | — | — | — | — | |
047: Joseph Capriati - Montreal [14] | March 2025 | — | — | — | — | |
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |
Prototype was the first of a sub-series of releases separate from the mainline albums, was given to DJ Seb Fontaine to test if a spin-off series would be successful which after decent sales led to other series being produced like nubreed.
Nubreed features mix albums from what Boxed considers "up-and-coming DJs", though it has featured experienced DJs such as Satoshi Tomiie.
24:7 is a series where DJs are asked to put together a set of two notably contrasting halves, based on the conceptual opposites of 'day' and 'night'.
In 2002, former NuBreed DJ Steve Lawler was given his own imprint on the Global Underground label that he titled "Lights Out". The concept of the series of mixed CDs was to bring the darker, grittier side of the dancefloor into the spotlight.
Similar to nubreed a spin off series of albums given to newer DJs within the scene.
In 2003, the Global Underground franchise began their "GU Music" imprint. Up until this time, they were strictly a label that dealt in DJ compiled and mixed CDs. GU Music allowed Global Underground to get into full length artist albums and Vinyl/CD/MP3 single releases. The GU Music team commented: "Having nurtured some of the worlds finest DJs we have applied this expertise to original music, cherry picking the coolest future talent from across the globe..." They have featured releases from such artists as UNKLE, Lostep, and Trafik. In 2007, it expanded with the release of the compilation GU Mixed which started a series of the same name that consisted of music sought from GU Music.[ citation needed ]
Electric Calm is a series in the chill or "calm" side of electronica while Afterhours is similar to the Back to Mine series. Both Afterhours and Electric Calm, along with GU "Sampler" CDs, were compiled and mixed by Global Underground themselves.
In Boxed's UK releases, GU002 was the never released second installment in the Global Underground series (in Thrive's US re-numbered releases, Paul Oakenfold's New York mix was released as GU002). Global Underground jumped directly from GU001: Tony De Vit - Live In Tel Aviv to GU003: Nick Warren - Prague, which resulted in a lot of controversy and rumours[ citation needed ] on the nature of GU002. However, GU002 does exist in form of the tape pack of Tony De Vit's Tel Aviv CD as the actual catalogue number of the release is GU002T. When Boxed started the GU series in 1996, they did not have a clear vision about the numbering scheme (later to become part of their image), which resulted in the "missing" release. [16]
Paul Mark Oakenfold, formerly known mononymously as Oakenfold, is an English record producer, remixer and trance DJ. He has provided over 100 remixes for over 100 artists including U2, Moby, Madonna, Britney Spears, Massive Attack, the Cure, New Order, the Rolling Stones, the Stone Roses and Michael Jackson. Oakenfold was voted the No. 1 DJ in the World twice in 1998 and 1999 by DJ Magazine.
Sasha & John Digweed are a British DJ duo comprising Sasha and John Digweed. Digweed had been DJing for ten years before getting a gig at Renaissance where he met Sasha, who had been working the past few years in various acid house music clubs and raves. Together, they honed their DJ skills, focusing on track selection and technical mixing abilities. In 1994, they released the triple CD mix album Renaissance: The Mix Collection on Renaissance Records. It contained many popular dance hits of the time from artists such as Leftfield, Fluke, and 2 Bad Mice as well as original productions and remixes from themselves. Two years later, the duo became "true superstars" (AllMusic) with the release of their double CD Northern Exposure on mega-label Ministry of Sound. This release was brought to the United States the next year in a single CD package on Ultra Records. 1997 saw the release of the Northern Exposure 2 double CD mix album, again on Ministry of Sound. Sasha and Digweed toured internationally, helping define the sound of progressive house & trance music in the late 1990s. In 1998, both John Digweed and Sasha released separate mix albums on Boxed as part of the Global Underground series with Digweed's GU 006: Sydney and Sasha's GU 009: San Francisco release.
Antony de Vit was an English DJ and music producer. He is considered one of the most influential of his generation. He was credited with helping to take the "hard house" and fast "hard NRG" sounds out of the London and Birmingham gay scene into mainstream clubs. His single "Burning Up" reached number 25 on the UK Singles Chart in March 1995, with "To the Limit" making number 44 in September 1995. During that year, he won BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix of the Year Award, as voted by listeners of the show, and Music Week's re-mix of Year Award for Louise's "Naked". He remixed several UK top 40 hits during his career with artists such as Taylor Dayne and East 17. Between 1994 and 1998 his popularity with the clubbing public was rivaled by only Paul Oakenfold and Carl Cox. In September 2010, Mixmag UK announced the nominations of 35 DJs chosen by other big names in the world of dance music as those they considered the best DJs ever. A subsequent 15-month survey, which polled hundreds of thousands of global votes, asked who was the "greatest DJ of all time" and when the result was announced in January 2011, de Vit was ranked number 9.
Peter Michael Tong is an English DJ who works for BBC Radio 1. He is the host of programmes such as Essential Mix and Essential Selection on the radio service, which can be heard through Internet radio streams, for his record label FFRR Records and for his own performances at nightclubs and music festivals. Tong has also worked as a record producer and is regarded as the "global ambassador for electronic music."
Azuli Records was a British independent record label, focusing mainly on house music and other forms of electronic dance music. The label was founded by DJ Dave Piccioni in London, England in 1991 but went into liquidation in April 2009. Some of its back catalogue was sold to Phoenix Music International Ltd. The label was re-launched by Piccioni and administered by Defected Records. In 2012, the label was sold to Defected Records.
Global Underground 001: Tony De Vit, Tel Aviv is a DJ mix album in the Global Underground series, compiled and mixed by Tony De Vit. The set was recorded at a gig in the Alenbi 58 club in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Global Underground 003: Nick Warren, Live in Prague is a DJ mix album in the Global Underground series, compiled and mixed by Nick Warren. The set was recorded at a gig in Prague, Czech Republic. This is the second and last live recording in the Global Underground series. The subsequent albums are studio recordings inspired by the live sets in the featured cities.
Global Underground 007: Paul Oakenfold, New York is a DJ mix album in the Global Underground series, compiled and mixed by Paul Oakenfold. The mix is a retrospective look at a set played at Marc Ballrooms in New York City.
Danny Howells is an English producer and DJ. His music is often described as progressive house, though he prefers to associate more with tech house and is sometimes described simply as "deepsexyfuturistictechfunkouse". At performances, he is well known to interact personally with the audience. Howells has mixed several albums for Global Underground in addition to his Nocturnal Frequencies series. Howells is also a member of the duo Science Department with Dick Trevor, which has produced the singles "Breathe" and "Persuasion"/"Repercussion" as well as remixes for artists such as BT. From 2008 he has run his own record label, Dig Deeper - named after his long running club night.
Lostep was a production duo composed of Australian producers Luke Chable and Phil K. They have released singles on labels such as Eq [Grey]. Additionally, their music has appeared on compilations by Sasha and Dave Seaman. In April 2006, Lostep released their first full album, Because We Can on GU Music. The pair also used to DJ together.
Steve Lawler is a British house music producer and DJ born in Birmingham, England. He is a five time DJ Awards winner and has held residences at many popular dance clubs such as Space, The End and Twilo. Because of his successful performances at Space in Ibiza, he was nicknamed "King of Space". Lawler has released several mix albums and is especially well known for his Lights Out series featured on Boxed. He currently runs the record label VIVa Music. He also founded the now defunct Harlem Records leaving a list of creditors in its wake.
Global Underground 024: Nick Warren, Reykjavik is DJ mix album in the Global Underground series released by Boxed in 2003. It is mixed by Nick Warren and based on his performances in Reykjavík. The first CD is characterized by "ambient and experimental sounds", "trip hop style beats", and "atmospheric reggae grooves", as described by Progressive-Sounds.com. The second CD is much closer to the usual progressive house tracks put forth on the Global Underground series. The album reached #25 on the Billboard Top Electronic Albums chart.
Global Underground 023: James Lavelle, Barcelona is a DJ mix album in the Global Underground series, compiled and mixed by James Lavelle. The album is mainly breaks and trip hop, which is far different from the progressive house of other albums in the Global Underground series. The album reached #19 on the Billboard Top Electronic Albums chart.
Global Underground 022: Dave Seaman, Melbourne is a 2002 DJ mix album in the Global Underground series, compiled and mixed by Dave Seaman. The album peaked at #8 on the Billboard Top Electronic Albums chart.
Global Underground 025: Deep Dish, Toronto is a DJ mix album in the Global Underground series, compiled and mixed by Deep Dish. The compilation reached #1 on the Billboard Top Electronic Albums, #20 on the Independent Albums charts, and #29 on the Top Heatseekers charts. The release also includes two Afterhours mixes, each mixed individually by Sharam and Dubfire individually.
Michael Mayer is an electronic musician from Cologne, Germany. Mayer is a remixer, DJ and producer, and has released several singles on the Kompakt music label, working with founder Wolfgang Voigt. Mayer has also released music on Kompakt-related labels New Trance Atlantic and Kreisel 99.
The Annual is a series of compilation albums currently published annually by London-based electronic dance music brand Ministry of Sound. Described as Ministry of Sound's "flagship" series, the popular albums feature house, big beat and trance tracks popular in nightclubs, especially those in the United Kingdom.
Gerald C. Calliste Jr., also known as Hashim, is an American entrepreneur, producer, songwriter, publisher, and former DJ who is best known for the hip hop, electro, and dance music song "Al-Naafiysh " (1983).
555% is the fourth solo album by the English rock musician Ginger Wildheart. The full album of thirty tracks was only available online for a limited time; a 12-track version of the album titled 100% has been released commercially.
Rudy Nicoletti is an electronic music and record producer, working behind dance records and electronic music projects across Europe. 2013 on, he releases music through his own name and founds Out of System Records, a recording label based in New York, London and Rome, specialized in electronic music.