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#22694 |
Phase 1: The Vinyl Years
Guidance Recordings was founded in 1996 by current partners Ivan Pavlovich, Rob Kouchoukos, and Sid Stary. Pavlovich and Kouchoukos first met while running the day to day operations at Curtis Jones¹ (a.k.a. Cajmere and Green Velvet) legendary Cajual, Prescription and Relief labels. Having helped guide the label group to the pinnacle of the house music renaissance that swept through the Windy City during the mid 90¹s, the two left Cajual and joined forces with Sid Stary, who had just completed a finance degree at the University of Illinois, to launch their own record company.
Inspired by a new wave of producers who were successfully expanding upon the Chicago house music blueprint by adding state of the art production techniques and a cosmopolitan edge to art form, Guidance embraced the emerging globalization of electronic music culture by assembling a diverse and talented roster of artists from across Europe, the UK, and North America.
The label released its first two singles, Free Energy “Happiness” and Projekt: PM¹s vocoded house classic “When the Voices Come” in May 1996, and haven¹t looked back since. It followed with a string of timeless twelve inches that helped launched the careers of house music legends such as: Austin “Abacus” Bascom, Deep Sensation, Blueboy, Fresh and Low, Kevin Yost, and Chicago¹s very own Glenn Underground, prompting Muzik Magazine to proclaim Guidance “the best new house label in the world” in its 1997 year end issue. Although Guidance initially made its mark in the industry on the strength of its deep house singles, the label¹s goal has always been to release a diverse spectrum of soulful urban electronic music encompassing but not limited to house, dub, downtempo, hip hop, lounge, electro and world influenced sounds.
All three of the label¹s founding partners came of age in club culture during the late 1980¹s when things were much more open and DJ¹s weren¹t afraid to take chances and rock reggae, hip hop, house, freestyle, electro and techno all in the same set. Guided by the mantra that “good music is good music regardless of the sub-genre assigned to it by a journalist or a record store clerk”, the label encouraged its artists to indulge themselves and include different styles and tempos of music on their releases.
This open minded music policy soon paid off in spades when Blueboy¹s “Remember Me” an infectious downtempo mash up of Marlena Shaw¹s soulboy classic “Woman of the Ghetto” became a world wide smash hit, remaining on the top ten of the British pop charts for six straight weeks, and achieving gold record sales status in several countries.
David Liam 38214,7762962963 #30624 |Phase 2: The Compilation Era and the Move Towards Artist Development
Inspired by the critical and commercial success of Blueboy¹s “Remember Me”, Guidance forged ahead with its diversification plans, launching its well branded Mundial Muzique, Midnight Express, and Hi Fidelity House, Dub, and Lounge compilation imprints, all of which have found their way onto the top compilation of the year charts published by leading music industry magazines uch as DJ, Muzik, Mixmag, and Urb. This foray into the CD compilation market proved to be a crucial phase in the label¹s expansion, exposing the Guidance sound to a wider music buying audience beyond the confines of DJ culture and paving the way for the label¹s transition into a full scale record company dedicated to artist development. Over the years, Guidance has been very fortunate to have a number of the acts on its roster grow with the label and evolve from DJ¹s producing the odd one off single into versatile artists capable of releasing engaging full length albums. The year 2000 marked the release of the label¹s first proper artist album, A:xus “Soundtrack for Life” produced by Toronto¹s Austin Bascom. Hailed by critics as one of the best electronic albums of the year, the record¹s seamless fusion of house, electro, jazz, downtempo and drum and bass sounds proved that these disparate underground styles could co-exist to form a compelling long player that could be enjoyed on or off the dance floor. In early 2001, Guidance followed suit with “Doubts and Convictions” the masterful debut album from Marseille, France based trio the Troublemakers, whose potent blend of evocative funk rhythms and cinematic film score inspired soundtracks prompted Muzik Magazine to describe their sound as “lounge music from heaven!² “Doubts and Convictions” became a massive commercial success in Europe, placing the Troublemakers in the same peer group as artists such as Kruder and Dorfmeister, Thievery Corporation, and Air and heralded Guidance¹s long and fruitful foray into the electronic album market. Refusing to rest on its laurels, the label continued to keep the quality level high, delivering the sterling sophomore album “Numero Deux” from Milan based duo, The Dining Rooms, which is now widely regarded as one of chill out¹s crowning moments and has become a perennial favorite amongst the Hollywood music supervisor set. The next stop in Guidance¹s never ending search for the perfect beat landed it in Helsinki, Finland, home to Nuspirit Helsinki, a multi-talented collective of local DJ¹s producers and musicians that ascended to the forefront of the European nu-jazz scene on the strength of their peerless singles productions for Guidance, Jazzanova/Compost and Ubiquity. Nuspirit¹s self titled 2002 debut album, an exquisite longer player fusing smoky live jazz funk arrangements, melodic neo-soul grooves, and dark undulating broken beat rhythms was praised by critics as a release of major beauty and importance and compared to the works of legends such as Miles Davis, the Weather Report and Lalo Schriffin. Since the album¹s release, Nuspirit have taken their big band show on the road, dazzling crowds at jazz and electronic music festivals across the UK and Europe with their forward thinking fusion of accomplished musicianship and relentless dance floor energy. Recent Guidance releases such as Norwegian folk electronica trio, Flunk¹s stylish synth pop love affair “For Sleepyheads Only” and Caia “The Magic Dragon” a captivating album of far east inspired electronica from Andy Cato of Groove Armada, have further solidified the label¹s status as one of the world¹s leading purveyors of stylish and soulful electronic music. With the recent signing of Bent, Nottingham, England¹s undisputed champions of leftfield dance music, as well as exciting new artists such as Seattle¹s Young Circle and Tennessee¹s Skyway 7, the label¹s future is in very capable hands as all of these acts add depth and diversity to the repertoire while falling comfortably within the parameters of the trademark Guidance sound.
#30625 |Phase 3: Label Diversification
During its eight year history, Guidance Recordings has built an unparalleled catalog of quality electronic music which has enabled the company to diversify and enter markets outside the realm of traditional record sales. In addition to the inclusion of titles from its catalog on countless compilation albums, the label has been commissioned to compile exclusive premium CD¹s for leading national retail chains, boutique hotels, music and lifestyle publications. Within the realm of synchronization licensing, Guidance has repeatedly placed songs from its repertoire in major motion pictures (Forces of Nature; The Truth About Charlie); National Advertising Campaigns (Apple Computers) and Nationally Syndicated Television Shows (HBO¹s Emmy Award Winning series Six Feet Under and the Six Feet Under Soundtrack; HBO¹s Sex in the City, Showtime¹s Queer as Folk, and CBS¹s CSI: Miami). In recent years, the label has also tapped into the burgeoning video game market, compiling the soundtrack and companion soundtrack album for the popular Play Station 2 game Smuggler¹s Run, and placing songs from the Guidance catalog on Midnight Club 2 and Grand Theft Auto III, currently the number one selling video game in the United States.
#30626 |Phase 4: The Future for Guidance Recordings and the Company’s Place in the Emerging Digital Music Revolution
The music industry is currently experiencing a shake up of epic proportions. An entire generation of teenagers and college students have come of age downloading their music collections for free, unaware that they are infringing copyright laws and depriving record labels and their favorite artists of much needed revenue. 12 year old kids from Eastern Europe can now crack any copy proof CD technology the Recording Industry throws at them in a matter of minutes, and Steve Job¹s prophesy that the CD will become obsolete by the end of the decade is looking more and more accurate by the millisecond. Despite these vast potholes in the ever-changing music industry landscape, the Guidance crew remains steadfastly optimistic about the label¹s future. Guidance Recordings was built on the philosophy that what matters most is musical content and regardless of what formats emerge to take the place of phonographic records and compact discs, as long as the label continues to make good on its mission to deliver a steady stream of quality and innovative sounds into the global marketplace, technology will only make it easier for the company to identify and captivate a receptive audience of music lovers. Accordingly, Guidance has embraced the nascent digital music revolution by forming strategic partnerships with forward thing companies such as E Music and Apple¹s I-Tunes store, both of whom have proven that there are millions of honest music fans who are more than willing to purchase the music that they love in a digital format. Viva la digital revolucion!
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