00Deep - A Review Of the Decade - 2003

NRK's mix compilation series, "nite:life", was fast gaining a reputation as one of the best series in a largely saturated market. We were not interested in ploughing one musical path, rather we wanted to provide a snapshot of the current sounds and trends in dance music. The year of 2003 was no different, as NRK released another 5 mix albums in the series from label regular Jamie Anderson (nite:life 013), Pete Heller (nite:life 014), Chicken Lips (nite:life 015), Rolando (nite:life 016) and Kenny Hawkes (nite:life 017). Out of these, it was perhaps Chicken Lips and Rolando that pushed the boundaries for us, with Chicken Lips enjoying huge success with their electro/disco tinged sounds that blended together old electro classics from Captian Rapp and Electra with contempory experimentalists Playgroup, Daniel Wang, Freaks, the Idjut Boys and Kelvin Andrews's Soul Mechanik. Subtitled "Body Music", the Chicken Lips nite:life offering was just that, and vertainly helped pave the way for today's electro fascinations. NRK also scooped a major compilation in '03 from one time Underground Resistance member, DJ Rolando. Enjoying huge success from his "Knights Of The Jaguar" track, Rolando mixed up an amazing DJ mix for nite:life 016, fusing Detroit and European techno and house sounds with great flair and energy.

Single releases in 2003 included our debut from Dick "Magik" Johnson, with the brilliant "Kingsland Dubs EP", a revisit to a genuine house classic in the shape of Ralph Falcon's "Every Now & Then" with remixes from Pete Heller and Kenny Hawkes, another offering from Dave Lee, AKA Joey Negro, and his single "The Way" which came with remixes from Magik J and Octave One, and Nick Holder announced his third album "The Other Side" for NRK with the release of the single "On My Mind" which came with a very groovy Ian Pooley remix.



2003 was also our year with Peace Division, who released their three part single series "Beatz in Peacez". Devastatingly deep, tribal monsters, "01" and "02" were typical of Peace Division's big sound, and perhaps marked a turn in style for NRK to the more minimal sounds. However, it was "Beatz in Peacez 03" that caused the most ruckus, with it's heavy disco bassline and hypnotic vocal sample, so big was this tune that it was re-released later in the year under the title "What Is This Sound" and was remixed by Tom Stephan, and later King Unique.

Honchos Music saw the release of a brace of A J Scent singles, including the brilliant Medicine8 remixes of "Pling Plong", Rob Rives double EP "Standing Alone", singles from Scott Pace and Dano, and another offering from Ian Pooley & Magik J, with the masterfull "Heke".