The beatdo diary

Writing on electronic music, labels, artists and vinyl culture.

• 2000s house: the decade nobody looks at, and where you can still find things — Everyone goes hunting for Chicago '86. But of the 1,872 house records that have passed through our crate, 1,441 are from the 2000s: the decade that was pressed the most, played the most, and searched for the least. How to find your way around it.
• Buying remember vinyl: what to check before you part with your money — Remember records were properly played, and played hard: this is the category where condition matters above everything else. How to read the grading, which flaws you can hear and what to ask before buying.
• British hard house: the other engine behind those sets — Alongside the Spanish labels, DJ booths here were full of imported plastic. We look at what British hard house brought to the table, why it arrived on vinyl, and how UK and Spanish pressings sit side by side in the same crate today.
• Max Music and Blanco y Negro: the labels that put dance music in every corner shop — Compilations, 12" singles and promos: the two labels you'll run into most often on the Spanish dance shelves, and why they're still the cheapest way into a remember crate.
• Bit Music: the label half of Spain's dancefloors went through — It's the label we've handled more records from than any other within this family of sounds. Here's how it sounds, why its label copy shares credit with half a dozen other names, and what to check before you take a catalogue number at face value.
• Hard House, Hard Trance, Makina and Hardcore: how to tell them apart by ear — You recognise the track but you can't put a name to it. Here's a listening guide: which kick, which bass and which break each style has, and why the same record ends up tagged three different ways.
• Remember: the guide to the hard dance that ruled Spain's DJ booths — Between the mid-90s and the mid-2000s, a single night could hold hard house, hard trance, makina and hardcore. This is the guide to understanding that sound and rebuilding the crate.