Global Underground

Global Underground is a music label founded in 1996 by Andy Horsfield and James Todd. The label symbolizes the international explosion of dance music during the 1990s and first manifesto for high-end DJs such as Sasha, Paul Oakenfold, John Digweed, Danny Tenaglia, Nick Warren, Dave Seaman, Darren Emerson, and James Lavelle.

Contents

Background

Global Underground refers to a series of electronic music compilation albums which reflect the performances of high profile DJs in venues from 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 Boxed closed in 2001 and was superseded by Global Underground Ltd.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 gained huge success and became a hallmark in the progressive house world. The music featured is mostly progressive house, but there are some house, trance, and breakbeat releases. The first five installments were live recorded from respective clubs, while the rest are mixed and recorded in a studio.

Conceptual Development

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 and extensive sleeve notes.

Features

There are consistent characteristics in almost every album in the series including:

International Recognition

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 Releases

Thrive Records was the US distributor for some of the early Global Underground releases which had a different numbering scheme for Global Underground albums. The releases came with different artwork, but were otherwise the same.

Catalog

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.

GU Official

A GU008: Nick Warren - Brazil is set in São Paulo even though it was released as Brazil.
B GU015: Darren Emerson - Uruguay is set in Montevideo even though it was released as Uruguay.
C GU026: James Lavelle - Romania is set in Bucharest even though it was released as Romania.
D GU039: Dave Seaman - Lithuania is set in Palanga even though it was released as Lithuania.

GU Sampler Series Releases
Anniversary Compilations

GU DJ

Nubreed

Nubreed features mix albums from what Boxed considers "up-and-coming DJs", though it has featured experienced DJs such as Satoshi Tomiie.

NuBreed Series Releases

Prototype

24:7

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'.

24:7 Series Releases

Chill out compilations

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.

Electric Calm Series Releases
Afterhours Series Releases

Lights Out

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. Steve Lawler was allowed to dive into what were considered new territories of time including remixing tracks for his compilations. He also included music and methodology that had never been used on studio mixed CDs before.

Lights Out Series Releases

Fundacion

Fundacion Series Releases

GU Music

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 that starts a new occasional series of the same name that will consist of music sought from GU Music.

GU Music Album Releases
GU Mixed Releases

GU002

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 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.

References

  1. ^ Mason, Kerri (June 17, 2006), "BeatBox: Wink with a Nod to Compilations", Billboard 118 (24): 62, ISSN 0006-2510 

External links