Estimulo Picks 8 Labels With An Overlooked Catalogue To Dive Into
The ‘deep’ adept brings us to discover 8 labels you might have never heard of, with a selected example track from each
Estimulo is a self-described “avid record digger and die-hard music aficionados”. He has been running a weekly radio show since 2007, the EstimuloShow, and he’s consistently and constantly putting out new mixes (in the last month alone we could enjoy his mixes for Vodkast, Fruitcast, Tiella Sound). And we are yet to find a set of his which didn’t amaze us. The level of the selection, the transitions, the overall progressions seems to be just on another level than most DJs. And what’s most surprising is perhaps how it seems that it’s mostly music that unheard of: you will rarely even get that “hmmm, I think I heard that DJ play it at that event” feeling.
His journey trails back to the late 80s. Through the years he put together an incredible collection (as well as encyclopaedic knowledge, we imagine) in the realms of deep and obscure electronic music (and beyond, you might be surprised by more instrumental works along the way). “Deep” seems indeed to be fil-rouge connecting his taste as a selector - there’s something about the way hidden gems pop-up through his mixes, making you feel like you discovered something special every time as you are brought to these deeper lands of music.
As one of the top selectors worldwide for us, we are especially proud to host him on Guerrilla Bizarre. We decided to ask Estimulo to point us at catalogues of labels that might have gone overlooked - the genres were completely up to him, but of course you can hear his signature selector’s taste while skimming through these. There’s some true treasures in here, and we hope you’ll enjoy diving in it as much as we did:
Skunk Records
This UK label run by Simon Bentley was active from 1992 to 1995 and seemed to release mostly a psychedelic form of progressive house on their A-Sides. But wait, hidden away on some of the B-Sides of their well worth digging-into catalogue there are some seriously tight dub/reggae/house crossover versions.
Nice + Smooth
While there isn't a massive amount of EPs on this canadian house label that was active mostly in the late 90s to early 00s, those few are well worth checking out - especially the Teknostep ones. Up to recently they were still plenty of copies available too.
Styles Kickin
Germany's Styles Kickin is a label as under the radar as it gets. Active only in 2001 and 2002 but amounting to 14 releases in that period, it seemed to release mostly quality disco oriented deep house but hidden away on the B-Sides there are some oddballs venturing into deep hypnotic shuffley techno as well as UK garage. Well worth diving into!
FILTER
I don't know if Dorado sublabel Filter could be called an overlooked label at all but there are certainly some overlooked releases on it. Maybe they just pressed so many records that they are still widely available. Deep House, breaky techno and future jazz at it's best. Head straight for the DJ Q, Sunship and Amalgamation Of Soundz jams.
Neutonmusic
Neutonmusic was the In-House label of well-known german distributor Neuton. While I would recommend most of their early deep dub house releases (and they can be found cheap as chips), this one by Pino Shamlou under his Measures guise stands out for me,
TCB Music
Not much is known about this sublabel of Nick Holder's DNH but it was active only for a few releases in the early 90s and the name points to it being ran by Troy Brown who also features as an artist on 4 out of the 7 releases. If deep, dirty & driving garage house tools are your thing you will certainly get happy here.
Heliocentric Music
Lovely detroit techno interpretations from this German label and most of them flew well under the radar. All of their releases are well worth checking out!
Poets Club Records
Finally a Downtempo / Dub / Drum & bass / Future Jazz label after all those house and techno outlets. Active in all those fields of dope beats and freestlye rhythms, this German labels catalogue is well worth an extended dive. My favorite release on there must be this one by Slop Shop (including a remix by Brian Eno).
