How a Blog Became a Record Label Changed the Face of Electronic Music

“I do not want names, but it turned out that a lot of the top DJs really hated our tune and tried to ban it,” said Steve Goodman, better known as electronic music producer Kode9. He wrote in 2001. “And there was a secret meeting later where they were breaking us up, saying we were ruining the scene.” He expressed his frustration with the UK garage scene on his website, Hyperdub—three years before morphing into the iconic label that served as the incubator for Burial's Untrue and DJ Rashad's debut LP Double Cup—albums that changed the landscape of electronic music forever.

Goodman, who holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of Warwick, launched the now-defunct Hyperdub label in 1999 to document the happenings of the dark garage fusion scene, a more experimental subgenre of British garage that moved away from R&B pop. his influence. , and grime, its gritty, emcee-centric successor, which also draws from jungle, dancehall and hip-hop. Sometimes the zine included his personal experiences and sometimes it was interviews pioneering names like Wiley, the Godfather of Grime; Around 2000 to 2001, Goodman also ran a radio show called “Hyperdub Transmissions” on a UK internet radio program called Groovetech Radio and helped run a website called dubplate.net (A dubplate comes from reggae sound system culture and refers to an unofficial, unreleased recording of the song). The site featured audio clips of garage instrumentals that would help create the sound we now know as dubstep.

He recalls the mp3 boom changing the landscape of music consumption, causing fans and executives to wonder how digital download culture might affect the music industry. Goodman was curious about what this would mean on a local scale. Zooming in on the South London scene and dedicating his efforts to sharing the music from it as well as writing his observations about the scene, his work with Hyperdub and dubplate.net has become a historical archive of early dubstep and its origins of.

Kode9's ear is like a one-way time machine, always listening for the future of electronic music. Hyperudb's catalog, now hundreds of releases deep into its 20 years, only cements this. “I wanted to create a space where there could be long, raw interviews and thoughtful pieces that went beyond the dance music hype press packaging at the time,” says Goodman. Rolling rock. “I certainly had no sense that this particular sound was going to develop beyond the tight group of DJs and producers involved at that point. We just did our thing. But then there was an issue XLR8R magazine in 2002 which used the word 'dubstep' on the cover and featured a bunch of artists we were writing about on Hyperdub like EL-B, Horsepower and so on.”

Although dubstep gained mainstream recognition in the 2010s through names like Skrillex, it has a history of at least a decade that predates it. Dubstep officially started in South London in the early 2000s, but its roots can be traced back to the Jamaican sound system culture of the 80s. The genre is an offshoot of UK garage, it also infuses elements of jungle, dub, grime and breakbeats due to the influence of artists such as Steve Gurley, Zed Bias, J Da Dlex and EL-B.

Goodman's keen ear contributed to the growth of the scene and the success of Hyperdub, but he had no long-term plans to become a writer or editor. He also felt like he covered everyone he wanted to write about. It was the advice of English producer and musician The Bug that led Goodman to revamp Hyperdub as a label. In 2003, the two met and Kode9 sent him some of his early productions with The Spaceape. Bug told him to stop sending his tracks to labels and start his own – he even introduced him to a distributor.

Kode9 re-released Hyperdub as a label the following year. “Sine of the Dub”, his collaboration with Spaceape was his first release. Hyperdub has gone from documenting the history of music through Goodman's writing to becoming a major contributor through his own music as well as Hyperdub's growing catalog. His third release, his debut Burial Boroughs of South London The EP quickly helped solidify its position as one of the most influential labels in the early dubstep scene. Burial also became one of the most prominent and innovative names not only in dubstep but in electronic music as a whole. Label manager Marcus Scott shares that there is no secret to getting signed to the label. Sometimes he and Kode9 have ideas of who they want to work with already, other times they hear a demo that keeps them coming back for seconds. “Everyone is different,” she says. “Everyone wants something a little different as well and we try to honor and guide their vision as best we can.”

“Everyone we've worked with is so different from everyone else,” echoes Goodman. “Maybe this is what I'm looking for. Neither artist works very close to the style of others already on the label, but [they] also evolving and stretching my own taste. I was saying it's like licking a battery, it might give you a bit of an electric shock or a weird metallic taste. But I don't know what to say these days. it depends on the weather.” (March 12, Hyperdub was announced a publishing partnership with UK label Beggars Music, which will take over the management of its existing catalog and help with new signings.)

But the Hyperdub founder doesn't feel the need to outdo what he's already built. He adds: “The main pressure I feel, apart from the financial pressure all small labels face in 2024 in an industry in deep transition, is to do justice to the artists, in an age where it's relatively easy to release your own music.” .

While releasing your own music couldn't be easier than it is right now, electronic music is still very much a boys' club—less than five percent of producers are women — but Hyperdub has its diverse roster of artists to thank for its eclectic box set collection. In 2014, Goodman said Rake it wasn't intentional. “There's still a huge under-representation,” he said, when asked about it [champion] of the women. “If anything, there aren't enough women in Hyperdub.”

One of the label's newest signees, New York's DJ Haram, still agrees with that statement. “But 'several women' is relative,” he says. “I don't think a 100% her/his roster would be enough. What matters is that Kode has declared faith in a relatively impossible goal of addressing systemic misogyny and is taking on the duty of solidarity.”

For DJ Haram, joining the label was an exciting opportunity because there were “excellent musical peers on the roster, similarities in aesthetic and attitude that make collaboration easier.”

On March 15th, Chicago footwork producer Heavee celebrated the label's anniversary with their first release of the year, their new album, Fire. As a protégé of the late DJ Rashad, the producer understands the seriousness of the label's legacy. “Hyperdub has a history of doing amazing things in electronic music and I'm grateful to be a part of that journey,” they said. “This company and all the artists that have come before me share a huge legacy. It inspires me to combine my style and ideas. I feel grateful to have a first release to coincide with their 20th anniversary and I'm incredibly excited for the future.”

Legacy still means nothing to Goodman. In fact, he's still seeing where Hyperdub can go. “Other than to help provide a platform for a few like-minded freaks, it's not for me to proclaim what we've accomplished or our legacy. I'll leave that to others.”