R&S Records

The label received the name R&S Records from the names of Renaat and Sabine ( Renaat Vandepapeliere and Sabine Maes ), who are the founders of this label. At the time of its founding, the label was called Milos Music Belgium and only after its first release in 1983, Bubble Up records from Big Tony , was it named R&S Records. Since that time, almost on every new disc , a new label logo appears: a horse standing on its hind legs. Externally, this logo is very reminiscent of the horse that flaunts on Ferrari cars. The first few releases of the label were in the spirit of electro-acoustic disco , but the owners of the label were open to all new directions, so pretty quickly the label's repertoire became very diverse. Young musicians saw in him the support of their experiments, so they gladly sent their demos to R&S Records.

Quite quickly, R&S Records established strong and close ties with Detroit , where Derrick May , Juan Atkins, and Kevin Saunderson, later named the fathers of techno music , began to release music at that time . ) The R&S Records label has become the bridge between Detroit techno and European listeners. Many luminaries of techno music preferred to be released in Europe on this label. R&S Records has accumulated the best examples of electronic music from around the world, many of today's popular musicians owe their fame to this label.

In 1992, one of his first records “Digeridoo” , and the following year, the album “ Selected Ambient Works 85-92 ” , from which the musician’s popularity started at an unbelievable pace, was released by then unknown Aphex Twin , and Japanese Ishii Ken . Ken Ishii ) released most of his works, including albums, from 1993 to 1999 on R&S Records.

American musicians have already been said: American musician Kenny Larkin released his first promo release (then still on tape), Juan Atkins, Darrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Carl Craig , Carl Josh also repeatedly noted Wink ( Eng. Josh Wink ), Joey Beltram ( Eng. Joey Beltram ), Stacy Pullen ( Eng. Stacey Pullen ) and many others, and his famous work released the duet Jam & Spoon and Future Sound of London .

Over time, R&S Records got a lot of sub-labels, where they began to release jungle , trip-hop , IDM , house , drum and bass and other areas of modern electronics such musicians as Johnny L , Mike Paradinas , CJ Boland ( Eng. CJ Boland ); projects by Wax Doctor , Jacob's optical stairway , Capricorn , Sun Electric . If the release was successful, it was immediately duplicated by the head label. But the hallmark of the label, according to many, was the record of the Dutch musician Jaydee called "Plastic Dreams" , released in 1992 . This song became a real hit, dozens of remixes were made on it, and rightfully it can be called among the tracks that make up the golden fund of electronic music.

Prior to its last release, R&S records mainly released CDs with compilations of completely different compositions in style: from techno, acid and trance to ambient , drum and bass and experimental music. In 2001, the first year the label suddenly ceased to function. Officially, no closure was announced, but an inexhaustible stream of unsuccessful music suddenly dried up. For five years, R&S Records was silent and suddenly just as suddenly came to life in 2006 . Now the label has become more difficult to name, namely R&S Mission 2 . Throughout the year, it reissues most of the old releases of the label, and the new (or second, judging by the name) label's mission is to create a network of dance community , and not so much in the "release of standard material for the electronic scene . " Now the label positions itself as an Internet platform for all kinds of young musicians, where you can lay out your tracks, listen to and evaluate others, and communicate with each other. In a word, everything is like at the dawn of R&S Records, only on the Web.

As mentioned above, R&S Records had a lot of sub-labels. They arose because the main label simply began to run out of air to listen and release all the music that had flocked to Belgium since the opening of R&S. The label’s staff grew, as did the revenue, so Renaat and Sabrina were able to afford to open labels literally because of one release. But this release was absolutely successful, so the open units continued to calmly stay afloat and produce thematic music, often in the same style. We list all of these units and give them a brief description:

• All Good Vinyl is a drum and bass label. Functioned from 1996 to 1997
• Apollo is a label releasing music in the aesthetics of chill out: ambient, intelligent techno, downtempo. His activities lasted from 1992 to 2001. During this time, he released many later become diamonds of musical works.
• Cutty Shark - a kind of label that released music that sounds close to rock. It was created by Renaat as a search for a new sound other than techno. After four singles ceased to exist.
• Diatomyc is an acid label, opened in '93, in the wake of the popularity of acid house music and the love of the sounds of the Roland TB-303 synthesizer. Existed 6 six, releasing 14 records.
• ETC - this label was open for the publication of European popular electronic artists and projects. As a result, he occupied a niche between progressive and hard trance and music in the NRG style, which was so fallen in love by young people on large raves such as Mayday in the early 90s, and managed to release almost fifty in a year of its existence (from 1991 to 1992) similar releases.
• Generations is a very interesting label that aims to support talented but little-known musicians and let them develop their abilities. One of their first releases on this label was Percy X, Steve Rachmad and John Tejada. There was also a mid-90s.
• Global Cuts - claimed to be just a dance label. Most of the releases released on it are commercial progressive house and simple music for clubs. Although, for example, there were exceptions in the form of Capricorn or representatives of Detroit - Kelly Hand and Eddy "Flashin" Fowlkes. It existed for 8 years, starting in 1993.
• Labirynt Records is a trance label specializing in challenging, fairly deep trance and house music. It existed from 1993 to 1995.
• Limited Club Edition is the very first R&S sublabel launched in 1988. He released quite a few releases (less than ten), but was one of the first record companies in Europe to produce high-quality electro, synth-pop, or as they called this combination “new beat”. It lasted a year.
• Maffia Music is a relatively modern label that appeared in 1999. He was mainly engaged in reprints of old classical works by Chicago and Detroit musicians. It was closed in 2001.
• Outrage Recordings - This label released mainly local Belgian musicians who wrote mainly techno and house. Famous for the fact that it was on him that the first release of Dave Angel took place.
• R&S Records UK is a UK head label division. The British branch reprinted some of the releases for the local market. It existed from 1991 to 1992.
• TZ is a very conceptual label, an example of secrecy. Each of the ten releases released on this label was untitled, and the plate apples were completely white. In terms of music, TZ produced a rather tough mix of techno, trance and acid.
• TNI is a label that opened in 1991 and released just one disc of the then-unknown Space Cube project, which was attended by future electronic music stars Ian Pooley and DJ Tonka. This record also has a remix of a young musician named Richie Houtin.
• Satori is a sublabel created in 1995 to release local musicians but never developed. Only 5 records were released on this label, one of which later belonged to the famous Dutchman Orlando Voorn.

Below are some significant releases released both on the head label R&S Records and on its various units (sublabels). For the most part, these recordings (most often albums, less often singles) gave their authors worldwide fame and relevance. Some have turned their creators into real stars of electronic music. But it was at R&S Records that they took their first steps as musicians, and it was from the records and CDs released here that they began to recognize them.

• Joey Beltram - Beltram vol. 1 (R&S, 1990) (EP) - American Joey Beltram's first record, with which his popularity began. It is in the tracks from this release that his “signature” style is visible: a fairly loud and very minimalistic techno with a focus on analog sound loops and their frequent repetitions. This is especially noticeable in the track "Energy Flash". In his subsequent creations, Beltram only honed his sonic mastery, which he obtained with great success.
• Future Sound Of London - Accelerator (R&S, 1991) - the debut album of the famous English duo. It was released under the license of the Jumpin 'and Pumpin' label. From this album, the ascent of this project began.
• Biosphere - Microgravity (Apollo, 1992) - reissue of the first album of the famous Norwegian Geir Jenssen, released a year earlier in Norway. His experiments with musical styles and deep ambient music earned him the respect of many connoisseurs of electronic music. And this work brought him fame.

• Official site
• “We need labels with eggs!” Interview with Renat Vandepapielere