Bit Music: 216 records that have passed through the crate

The story of Bit Music

Bit Music was born in 1994 in Barcelona as a sublabel of Divucsa, a house with a wildly heterogeneous catalogue that needed somewhere to put whatever was turning electronic. That somewhere ended up far bigger than the brief.

In 1998 it passed to Arcade and in 2000 it went back to Divucsa, and it was precisely in those years that it became what anyone who ever set foot in a Spanish DJ booth remembers: the house of Makina. It wasn't releasing one scene, it was releasing several at once, and that is why it ended up unfolding a whole family of sublabels — Chasis, Xque, Hardcore Come Back, 100x100 Makina, Bit Dance — each aiming at a different crowd on the same floor.

How to spot a Bit

The catalogue prefix says almost everything. The 71- references are the long nineties series, the one running from 1995 onwards where the bulk of the club sound sits; the 72- ones come later and already share space with hardcore. Seeing a three-figure 71- on the label places the record between 1995 and 1998 without checking anything else.

Why it ends

In 2008 it stopped pressing vinyl. In 2010 it stopped accepting Makina productions. It wasn't a loud closure: it was the end of a format and of a scene at the same time, which is why the catalogue freezes exactly where the last batch of twelve-inches left it.

The record to start with

How Bit Music sounds in our crate

216 different releases on Bit Music have passed through beatdo, 312 copies counting duplicates, pressed between 1995 and 2008.

What comes up most often, in this order: Makina, Hardcore, and Hard House.

4 copies are available right now.

How to recognise a Bit Music release

The catalogue numbers we have seen follow the pattern 71-, 72-, CRMX. It is the first thing to check on the centre label when a record comes with no sleeve, which in this repertoire is the norm.

In the crate now

The archive: 214 releases on Bit Music