Strictly Underground Records....

[extreme]

Re: the later jungle stuff, always struck as a little odd how sought after it's become since (for as good as some of it is...) there isn't a single 'new' or original idea in any of it, and I can't ever recall anyone playing them on any sets bitd... maybe because of the aforementioned threats to sue :D

The 94/95 jungle stuff they put out always seemed abit outdated to me, everyone else had moved on months ago to doing different things & SU were just doing the same stuff. Unity FM (of course owned by them) were the only place i ever heard them being played.

Thats prob why they are doing better these days as a retro thing & not being judged in the timeframe they came out.

[ian saunders remix]

What I never understood, was how, without having any hits outside of the underground, and without licensing that many tracks to compilations, how they claimed to have a turnover of around 3 million quid in the mid-90s. Even with all the house/Ibiza compilations they released I'm not sure they would earn that much.

Then again, he does seem to have done alright out of it. He's always in Cyprus or Bulgaria working on these itunes albums.

[Thrash]

Fantasy UFO - Headstrong is my favourite tune on this label.

[rage]

That's a killer tune! Dancehall Dangerous has to be my fave.

[eazyflow]

Re: the later jungle stuff, always struck as a little odd how sought after it's become since (for as good as some of it is...) there isn't a single 'new' or original idea in any of it, and I can't ever recall anyone playing them on any sets bitd... maybe because of the aforementioned threats to sue :D

The 94/95 jungle stuff they put out always seemed abit outdated to me, everyone else had moved on months ago to doing different things & SU were just doing the same stuff. Unity FM (of course owned by them) were the only place i ever heard them being played.

Thats prob why they are doing better these days as a retro thing & not being judged in the timeframe they came out.

That's a great point.

Now that I think about it the rise in the popularity of jungle in recent years kinda coincides with the prices of SU stuff shooting up. There are some great tunes on there when you judge it in terms of what sound is currently popular right now, but you're spot on about them being months behind everyone else in terms of what was actually going on at the time.

[pineappletribe]

Fantasy UFO - Headstrong is my favourite tune on this label.

Great label if a little repetitive with their early sounds... Wicked tune - just bought a copy like both sides of it n all!

Love the Strictly Hardcore sublabel releases:

STHC 1-5



My fav is Acid Rydims

[Elusive9T2]

Even the very early releases were published by Virgin records
The label wasn't as underground as it was made out to be, clever marketing
For all his mad ways Mark was a genius & he had his head screwed on business wise 
Love strictly underground, some amazing tunes came out on those labels

[ian saunders remix]

I'm not so au fait with the music industry, but isn't publishing basically collecting money from when tunes are on radio, on compilations etc etc. As he didn't license much outside of his own SU releases I'm not sure how much extra moolah that would have brought in.