October Update | Deep House Music Blog

October Update

It’s been a busy time at UM. Reflecting the ever shifting nature of the deep house music community around us. With the usual blend of record label stuff and the mixes keeping me occupied on a few fronts. Bringing the blog back to the site has come about thanks to some sage advice from a guy I work with about SEO and digital stuff - which I have never really understood if I’m honest, but as this ‘techy’ stuff builds finding how to get UM out there and noticed has been a near constant on my to do lists.

It started with ‘BOOST’ podcast - Data Transmissions Grahame Farmer started a tip podcast and I checked it out - and whilst much of it is really about artists and producers there’s been plenty in the there to get me interested and add to my things to do, namely: building my Spotify followers for the podcast and playlist, using Instagram more effectively and trying to build some routine around what I’m doing. So far so good.

What it did highlight was I needed to focus on the website a little more - some of it has been very basic, some of it way out of my skill-set. But early signs are that is has an impact, small and steady, and over the coming months I hope that’ll set things up for a cracker of a 2020!

There’s no denying how much the scene has changed in the last 5 years. How dominant Spotify has become, how vital social media has become for engagement and reach and how if you’re not in this for the love of the music then forget it.

Back in August I set some targets for social media growth – a small target of 5% growth on Spotify, Instagram, Youtube and Facebook - Spotify has seen tipping 10% growth month on month - which is just fantastic. Others not so strong, with Twitter even going down one month by quite a chunk!! But setting some targets and planning regular content on the platforms has been a good discipline and I hope people are enjoying that more.

Mixcloud introduced there Select product earlier this year - and whilst the $1 subscription I do has only grown by a couple of people this year it’s still something I’d like to develop myself rather than opt for Select - that said, I applied to be on the service, without hearing anything yet… so time will tell which way that goes. I recently started work on developing the offer for my subscribers, so will have more news on that soon! (that’s a tease isn’t it!!).

The rotation of the deep house mixes one week and the 5 best new releases from my inbox the next seems to be working well - both weekly shows get good listens/streams and the occasional Sunday Sessions is just me messing around with some old tracks here and there - nothing too regular on that front. With a big back catalogue of guest mixes to come too the podcast series is in good shape to keep it interesting for everyone.

And meanwhile the deep house record label continues to quietly go about it’s business - heading to the year end soon and the best time of the year - royalty payments! After a quiet 2018 this year has been steady and personally enjoyable - the releases a true reflection of the music I enjoy listening to. Long may that continue and with the SEO work ongoing I’m looking forward to more quality on the demo front.

I think I’ll do a blog post about sending demos - so much shit getting sent, might be interesting for everyone out there? What’s interesting the entire years catalogue has been made up by referrals or friends of friends and whilst a couple of demos (and by that I mean 2 or 3 releases) have been interesting nothing came of them.

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The best deep house labels

I often get asked what deep house labels people should be checking out. In an every shifting landscape that’s something that changes week on week for me - perhaps it’s less about the labels these days but more about the producers - and given most appear on a host of labels these days do we follow labels, like we used to, or the artist these days? As Spotify and streaming grows it’s dominance of the scene following the artist is what I do more I think - infact Defected are the only label I can think of that has a ‘profile’ on Spotify - maybe I should ask someone in Spotify HQ how to go about that - the Artists application doesn’t seem to allow for it!

So who are the best deep house labels?*

Older deep house fans, who developed their love of the music in the 90’s scene would have been vinyl buyers and in my view we were very loyal to a label. I faithfully bought labels like Paper Recordings, Toko, Shaboom, Slip n Slide, Nuphonic, Junior Boys Own, Solemusic, Groove On, Classic, F Communications, Roule, Naked Music… the list goes on.

Times change, many labels have been and gone, even over the last decade. She, very, very few labels have kept going - Jeff Craven’s Large Music, iRecords, Strictly Rhythm, King Street and the likes spring to mind.

Then there’s labels that haven’t gone, but have gone quiet - the likes of What Happens, Savoir Faire and others I can’t think of right now. Which just leaves who’s doing what right now and catching the ear? First problem here was actually finding much info on some of these labels - amazing how few have a website.

Moiss Music

https://soundcloud.com/moissmusic

Prolific new label Moiss Music, founded by Alex Moiss sprang into life in 2018 and has been firing through releases ever since - a regular on the UM Deep House Mixes packed with funky, disco, swaggering deepness and the odd surprise. The Russia based label lists Igor Gonya as its A&R man, meaning the links to his Lisztomania label and Sundries is tight - making them a serious source of quality deep house releases.

DeepWit Recordings

http://deepwitrecordings.com/

Denmark’s very own Deepwit Recordings, run by one of the real gents of the scene, Alvaro Hylander and his wife Sierra has consistently delivered for years. They describe themesleves as - “Dedicated to quality and consistency in the realm of all things deep and soul tingling in electronic music. Deep Wit Recordings caters towards noncommercial, resonant, innovative and intelligent deep sound. Bringing together talented producers from around the world who with their music will inspire your soul. The label was born out of a passion and love of all things deep and needing to share that passion with other like minded individuals.”

Salted Music

http://miguelmigs.com/salted-music/

Started in 2004, Miguel Mig’s the idea behind Salted is for Miguel to have a creative outlet for releasing forward thinking; soul based electronic music that is not limited in tempo. Not just instituted for Migs’ own creations, Salted is a vehicle for upcoming and well-known artists who come across his path and catch his ear.

"I wanted to start something new to keep things fresh, interesting, and exciting for me. I want to build my own catalog of material,” said Migs. “While on the road I always get demos from artists I’m into. I want to be able to release some of this material and help get it out there, push new artists with interesting, quality material of any style: funky, tech-y, soulful, vocal, instrumental.”

Salted is also the home for booking the voice of many of Miguel migs’ releases and that Naked Music sound that brought him to fame - Lisa Shaw - she’s one of those voices that gets me everytime! Other names of note that have featured on Salted Music are Julius Papp, Sebb Junior, Soledrifer, Jay West, Dutchman Soul and loads more. It’s frequent release schedule , events and of course the profile of Migs himself keep Salted in the charts, featured spots and a regular on the UM Deep house mixes.

Muzik & Friendz

https://muzikandfriendz.bandcamp.com/

Founded in 2015 by Pat Lezizmo, Muzik & Friendz Records is a Belgian Vinyl and Digital label, providing an exciting new addition to the underground electronic music scene, with a focus to bring together friends and like-minded artists creating a family to release limited vinyls all packaged in eco-friendly sleeves and materials.

Be Adult Music

https://beadultmusic.com/

The Ibiza based label has zero online to shed any light on the label. Owned by Rayco and supported by Ibiza Global Radio the catalogue boasts names such as Evren Furtuna, Gurham, Tibor Dragan, Vasily Umanets and a killer album from Sonophone that just was amazing. Mysterious as they are, well worth dedicating some time to hearing their catalogue.

Also well worth checking out… Gartenhaus, Batavia, Lisztomania, Sundries, Oh! Records Stockholm, Colour & Pitch, Ready Mix Recordsm Oh So Coy, and Ready Mix Records.