Kompakt records is still going strong after all these years. They are a label with a deep back catalogue and a strong vision and sound. Although I can’t profess to loving everything they do, they were definitely a label that opened my ears to a certain strand of Techno and beyond. I’ve selected 5 below that I will always go back to.

These records are amazing, if you see any of this EROS series, simply grip them on sight! They touch on alot of the important things I want to hear in dark rooms, chuggy hypnotic disco, machine drum workouts, great vocals & sleazy basslines. Their choppy style of arrangement means they have a great energy to them, always work the floor and stand out on the night. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE…

One of the things I think is important if you are involved in the sheer madness of buying records (and I know you are) is not to fall into the trap of spending silly money on so called rare records that you don’t really love anyway. We’ve all done it. More importantly for me is finding the forgotten b side on a cheap record. There’s plenty of amazing records out there for only a couple of quid if you do a bit of digging that blows any rare african synth private press b-side out of the water. Although if you have a copy of that private press hit me up and maybe we can do a swap!

Below are five that I picked at random from my records that are ‘common as muck’  and all available for only a couple of quid.

There are few people who’s names crop up regularly between myself and Mr Black in our music convos. Mr Weatherall is one and for obvious reasons, because of his constant musical evolution, his great DJ sets and his pigheaded mission to follow no one. One personal favourite of his many projects was the Two Lone Swordsmen double act with Keith Tenniswood. It covered everything from weird stripped back house to fuzzy electro and dubby rock music.

Here are five from that chapter…

I-F is a legend. Pure and simple. He is going to do whatever he likes and couldn’t give a toss about fads and trends. Every so often he gets some love, but to be honest he puts most djs and labels to shame. He knows his shit. Viewlexx is the label he has ran for over 20 years and it’s consistently great. There wasn’t much thinking to the ones I wanted to list, these were the first five I grabbed from my shelves.

All killer no filler.

Some people are amazing at reworking other peoples music, Ned Pegler (aka Medlar) is one. He’s also not a one trick mode kind of a guy, as he is as adeft at reworking a disco classic as he is on a deep, afro or electro workout. Here’s four killer reinterpretations (and one of him) that i’ve hammered by one of the UK’s finest remixers…

Every few years this band seem to get ‘rediscovered’. It’s because their brand of raw and at times brutal electronics will never sound dated. Quite close to Suicide in terms of political stance and sonics married with equally interesting and arresting imagery. They were the total package. Many have tried to imitate but few have managed to get right, proving that make music this stripped back and dynamic takes serious chops.

One label I have a lot of love for (I was partly educated on a lot of their output in the 90s) and seem to have amassed a fair portion on the black round stuff, is the UK’s ace Peacefrog Records. I loved their varied tastes which ranged from the new crop of Chicago to peaktime techno and off kilter jazz and funk, these guys only had one thing that united their broad palette and that was warmth & soul. Impossible to pick five, so below are ten I was raised on that are still good to go!

There’s some hype around this man these days and deservedly so. He’s always been a bit of a maverick, flying his own flag and sticking to his guns (almost literally) and come good for it. I was drawn to his records in my teens because they always sounded a bit rough and ready and had a different kind of energy compared to a lot of other stuff that existed on 12″ at that time. Also, like all the best djs and music makers, I love his diversity. One track might be a dub heavy percussive cut, another an italo infuenced peak time number, next a raw disco or soul edged edit. Some deserve the hype, some it’s hard to argue a decent case for but there’s definitely only one DJ Harvey.