Max Music: 80 records that have passed through the crate

The story of Max Music

Max Music was set up by Ricardo Campoy and Miguel Degá in Barcelona in 1984, and within a year they had landed on the formula that would define two decades of dance music in Spain: the megamix. Max Mix starts in 1985 and behind it come Máquina Total, Bombazo Mix, Ibiza Mix, Caribe Mix and Lo + Duro. These weren't compilations; they were whole DJ sets sold in a corner shop to people who couldn't get into the club.

That explains the catalogue you see here. The eighties MAX references are italo and euro licensed for Spain — Silver Pozzoli, Miko Mission, Bruce & Bongo — and the nineties NM ones are already house and eurodance produced in-house.

How it ends

Campoy left Max Music in 1997 to set up Vale Music, and the company closed in 1999 over legal matters. Its catalogue and its way of doing things didn't disappear: they were shared out among the labels that came after, and a good part of what today gets called «remember» comes, literally, out of those boxes.

The record to start with

How Max Music sounds in our crate

80 different releases on Max Music have passed through beatdo, 85 copies counting duplicates, pressed between 1984 and 1998.

What comes up most often, in this order: Euro House, House, and Italodance.

6 copies are available right now.

How to recognise a Max Music release

The catalogue numbers we have seen follow the pattern NM, MAX, MAX-. 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: 75 releases on Max Music