Strictly Underground Records

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Profile:	Strictly Underground Records (S.U.R.) was established in 1988 and is owned and run by Mark Ryder. S.U.R. was a prominent label throughout the UK rave era of 1988 to 1995. Initial releases were house/garage, but as the rave era progressed so did the label and releases became breakbeat/hardcore, then jungle/drum & bass. After the rave era dissolved the label went back to garage.
Parent Label:	S.U. Corporation Ltd.
Sublabels:	S.U. Studios, ...
Info:	(defunct) S.U. Corp, P.O.Box 300, Romford, Essex, RM5 2DL, England, UK (defunct) 45 Junction Road, Romford, Essex, RM1 3QR, England, UK tel: +44 (0)1708 760 953 fax: +44 (0)1708 768 103
Links:	Facebook

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FranklinRoadRecords Oct 11, 2019
Edited 5 years ago

While SB might have done a few sell out tracks, they also put out some absolute bangers too. SU always been one of my favourite labels btw.
Jayfive Jun 3, 2007
Edited 18 years ago

True story - back in the early 90s I was a naive teenager in the pre-internet days, I used to phone up a few record companies to find out a bit about singles and so on - for instance a nice lady at XL Recordings would tell me about Prodigy tour dates and the like.
So imagine my surprise when I phoned up Strictly Underground records using the number of the record sleeve and Mark Ryder himself answered the phone (what?, to my mind at the time 'companies' might they had receptionists and stuff. Just run with me on this one...)
Once I'd finished being a gushing fanboy we chatted for some while and I learnt a good few things about the music industry in general and the gulf between the corporate and the underground. Mr Ryder was more than happy to talk at length about the way he wanted to take his brand of music and his words definately went unminced - I recall the guy was particularly scathing about Suburban Base and their 'selling out' of the Smart-Es records.
S.U. was an excellent label which moved from early hardcore to full-on jungle with ease while never compromising. And mention has to be made for those charmingly home-made sounding adverts featured on some of the albums: 'oi oi! Strictly Underground Records in the place!'