Peter Kersten first tried his hand at producing in 2000, releasing his first ever effort on Dial, the label he had just set up with friends Carsten Jost and Paul Kominek (Turner). His melancholic, measured brand of house and techno has been consistent in its quality for more than ten years, thirty singles, five full length albums and around fifty remixes. In the realm of electronic music, maintaining such a consistency of quality is rare; having your first releases sound remarkably undated over this length of time is almost unheard of, yet this rings true for Kersten’s music. With Lawrence as his most well-known moniker — dedicated to his deeper musical expressions — he uses the handle Sten for his dance floor oriented material. Over the years, Dial has seen a remarkable run of releases from kindred artists like Efdemin, John Roberts, Pigon, Pantha Du Prince, Roman Flügel and many more. Its off-shoot label, Laid, has since 2009 done similarly well on a deep house tip, with memorable releases by Rick Wade, Kassem Mosse, Smallpeople and RNDM. In 2006, Kersten, along with a few close friends set up the record store and physical label Smallville Records. The friendly vibes and family feel of the store also extends to the regular parties they throw and of course the music that the label releases. Little White Earbuds got in touch with Kersten to talk about the longevity of Dial, which producers are exciting him right now and the forthcoming projects for his various enterprises.

You’ve been releasing music for over 10 years now. One thing that has always struck me about your productions is that right from the start you’ve had a very polished sound. How do you feel your own productions have changed or evolved over the years?

Writing music for me is a very spontaneous issue. For over a decade I have been digging a lot of styles — house music, techno, ambient, hip-hop — from my very first album to my latest CD, Until Then, Goodbye on Mule Electronic. I don’t see any straight line of changes, but I am still hungry for trying out any sound that fits. The new release on Koze’s Pampa imprint was quite an adventure, as well as my latest project, an experimental jazz band with Christian Naujoks and Richard von der Schulenburg.

Likewise there is a strong aesthetic running through the artwork that accompanies your albums and single releases, which has remained consistent in theme and style. Do you work closely with the people who are responsible for the artwork?

Yes, there is a close relationship to almost all artists who are responsible for the artworks of our labels. One of my very best friends, Stefan Marx, has done all the covers for Smallville and Mule Electronic. He even released his own “record,” a gatefold cover including three gorgeous posters. Our graphic designers Christian Doering for Laid and mainly Till Sperrle for Dial Records are doing an extraordinary, wonderful job, as well as all the artists contributing their amazing pieces. After running Dial Records for more than 10 years, we just started running an art gallery in Berlin called Mathew.

Dial has also remained a by-word for quality in the world of deep techno. What has been your approach to the running of the label in terms of keeping it moving forward yet retaining its consistent high quality?

What holds the Dial family together is the never-ending openness and curiosity for any kind of music. The musicians appearing on our little eccentric label are into so many music styles, whether it is contemporary classic, Norwegian black metal, or sine wave drones. Listening to African mbira music or some old Folkways records at Phillip Sollmann’s place, for example, is part of our influences for making dance music too.

With vinyl becoming more and more rare and less of a tradable commodity, can you tell us the reasons behind setting up the Smallville store?

Exactly when selling vinyl turned out being only a business struggle, including dumping prices on the Internet and discussions about downloads, Julius Steinhoff, Stella Plazonja, Just von Ahlefeld, and myself hardly missed the main points of running a record store: having nice selected music, a great interior setup, lovely people meeting in a cozy atmosphere. Finances are not our thing, but still its working quite well with doing the Smallville parties and printing Stefan Marx t-shirts, et cetera.

And how about the label? What is the mission of the label and how does it differ from Dial and Laid?

Smallville is a straight, deep, club label with focus on friends being part of it. Laid is a house music label too, including contributions by some heroes we love.

Have you had any formal musical training or are you self taught?

I am 98% self taught, I would say. Or let’s say I don’t know much theoretically about production — it still is a very intuitive process.

How long were you experimenting with production before you started making things you were happy enough with to release?

My first try ever was also my first released track, “Shoes,” appearing on Dial-00.

Since you started releasing have there been any major changes to your studio setup that have changed the way you make music?

Oh yes, I started only playing some samples on an E-mu E64 and Kurzweil [K]2000 using Cubase. For quite a while I am using mostly Logic Audio but the really important part of my studio is some selection of vintage acoustic instruments, including a steel drum and an old Deagan vibraphone.

In terms of your album releases, how much planning goes into your albums? Are they thought out with material written around certain themes or ideas, or are they more just a collection of tracks?

There is never any kind of master plan. When I finish a single track or an album I never see an approach regarding the beginning or a straight process. But surely the feeling behind it creates a whole piece of art, not just a collection of tracks. The same goes with my first mix CD, Timeless, on Cocoon — it was quite a long process to collect the tracks and to let them grow together.

Is there non-electronic or non-dance related music that you listen to that influences your own productions?

All the time I am listening to non-electronic or non-dance related music all the time. Schubert, Scelsi, Linda Perhacs, Jeremy Jay, Ariel Pink, Robert Wyatt — a never-ending list of music — that’s my life!

Apart from the remix of the Lawrence track “Never As Always,” it’s been a few years since we’ve heard anything from your Sten alias. Do you have any Sten material you’re working on at the moment, or is your focus on Lawrence?

The focus is on Lawrence at the moment — quite influenced by Sten though.

Your latest release has come out on Pampa. Did you make the tracks specifically for the label, or did you already have them completed? Are you interested in working with the label again in the future?

“Kurama” was intended to be the very first track of my next album. But then at one of the very sweetest festivals ever — the Smallville Open Air in August 2011 — I played back to back with DJ Koze, and he fell in love with that number. He constantly tried to convince me to have it as a Pampa single. If there isn’t any new album by Lawrence this year, it’s because of Koze. But I love him; I would even give him my last pants.

Speaking of labels, what have been some of your favorite labels in the past while apart from your own ones?

Workshop has been a top label for between-the-chairs dance music, I love all the releases here. The Kann guys from Leipzig are my favorites when it comes to cozy house music. Live At Robert Johnson, Underground Quality, Pampa, Aesthetic Audio, It’s, Sistrum — a lot of great stuff is recently coming out. I cannot believe that I am digging electronic dance music for over 20 years now and it never gets boring.

And are there any newer artists you’ve discovered lately who you’re really enjoying?

Richard von der Schulenburg, aka RVDS, is not just my favorite DJ ever — he is an excellent producer playing the keys of deepness all night and day. The Juniper boys from Manchester are the shooting stars of today. Kyle Hall is one of the most exciting newsters — wicked stuff. And Smallpeople, Moomin, Christopher Rau — the Smallville’s magic releases are getting me all the time. And watch out Kassian Troyer!

What can we expect from you over the next year across the board, from Lawrence to Sten and with Dial, Laid, and Smallville?

A Lawrence remix for my friend Superpitcher should be coming out soon. As I am still not deep enough into production for my next album, I’ll be finishing a new Dial 12″ soon. The Smallpeople will be releasing their first vinyl album this year, and I just can’t wait for it — it’s gonna be wonderful! On Dial we will leave the dance floor for some new albums by Christian Naujoks, Phantom Ghost, and a new project by Stephan Abry and Pantha Du Prince called Ursprung. The year will be started by 12″s from Kassian Troyer on Dial and a various artists single on Laid featuring Palisade (aka Redshape), Moomin, and RNDM. What a happy new year!

Tells us a bit about who you are and what you do for Smallville Records on a day-to-day basis.

Smallville is run by Julius Steinhoff and Just von Ahlefeld, also known as Smallpeople, and Pete Kersten, also known as Lawrence. Basically the Smallpeople run the everyday life at the Smallville record store: we sit in the shop to sell records, do the orders at the distributors, plan our parties and label projects from the store and pack orders from our online store. The shop is a place to hang out and meet people, to listen to and talk about music or start a track. But around Smallville is also a great gang of people who are part of it, working and helping out. It’s really a good bunch of people, like Stefan Marx, who is responsible for the complete visual side of Smallville; Jacques from Smallville Paris, who lives in Hamburg for some years now; Richard aka RVDS, who is running It’s and releasing good music, recently on Laid; Wiebke (aka Elin), who runs the party series Dear in Hamburg, Christian (aka Blessing) works in the store with us plus does the artwork for Laid; Helena Hauff is also working sometimes and is a great DJ. It also includes people like Christopher Rau and Tilman tausendfreund, who are friends and also help out if needed; and last but not least Stella, who lives in Berlin now but opened the store with us in 2005 and is a initiator and member since the very first thought about the store.

How did the Smallville record shop come about? When did you branch out with the Paris shop? And what spurred you to start releasing records?

Actually we just wanted a good spot in Hamburg, a shop and hangout. We didn’t really think about whether it would work or not, more just did it. And it worked, we’re doing good — actually better then ever before now. After six years of doing the shop, we know a bit more how everything works. We cannot offer every record that is out there and we don’t want to. We would rather take a large number of one record that we believe in to offer it in the store for a long time. We just made two people really happy a minute ago, because we still had Workshop 9.2 on stock. I guess it’s very good for the store to have a certain sound that we stand for and offer. It’s always the music we love the most, that we sell the most, even if it’s a wide range between deepest house and techno. But that is a good thing and a very important point for our good feeling in the store. The plan to release records and do a label, too, was there from the beginning — it just took a while to set up everything.

The Smallville shop in paris is run by Jacques who lives in Hamburg, but he’s doing the orders from here and visits Paris regularly. The Smallville shop there was originally initiated by Pantha Du Prince, who just stocked a lot of Dial stuff and some good records in a shop for clothes; and he found Jacques to help him out with the daily work in the shop. But meanwhile Smallville paris is integrated in another record store called ground Zero, which is cool. If you are in Paris, you should check it out at 23 Rue Sainte-Marthe, 75010 Paris — it’s nice and cosy.

For a while the label was very closely affiliated with Dial, to the point De:Bug felt it necessary to say “Smallville nicht Dial ist.” Was it difficult to establish the label as its own entity?

Well, actually not. Dial and Smallville are close together due to Pete, who co-owns both imprints, but Dial is 11 years old and smallville only six. The Smallville record store is kind of a Dial shop now, too, as we have the Dial/Laid warehouse in here. Maybe Dial and Smallville are like brother and sister in a way, but in the end still two different labels run by different people. We were not looking to divide it music-wise — this comes naturally — and it’s also natural that it’s still close together, working well with each other. But yeah, there are things in common — artists, sounds and everything — but mostly also the way we look at running a label: without any need to be functional or to fullfil any commercial purposes.

Smallville’s records are synonymous with the artwork of Stefan Marx. How was he first involved with the label and why was he chosen to visually represent the label?

Stefan is a fixed part of the Smallville family and a long-term friend of ours. He was working for Smallville since the very beginning — his first work was our small village logo and text. He’s responsible for every part of our visual body — record covers, party posters and the windows of our record store. Stella actually introduced us to Stefan before we opened the store and we were amazed by his stuff. Stefan also likes the freedom he has to do things. He also released on Smallville; Smallville 25 is from him, it’s called The Dead Sea, a three poster collection in a gatefold record sleeve. All in all, we believe it’s the best thing that could have happened to Smallville. we are very thankful to have him.

What is your A&R policy like these days? Are you mainly seeking out music from people close to you or are you open to demos? How did the Melchior & Pronsato record about?

The Melchior & Pronsato record actually just happened. We knew Bruno and Thomas before and Bruno once just told me they had two unreleased tracks and if I’d be interested to listen, as they like Smallville. Of course I was interested. We all liked the tracks, so we released them — it’s not a long story. But besides, that we must admit, we are not really listening to a lot of demos. There are just too many and unfortunately a lot of bad music that doesn’t fit at all. We got to listen to so much music every day and during the week, so we find it hard sometimes. Most of the Smallville releases came naturally through friendship and people around we knew and like or find interesting. For us it’s important to have a good feeling with the artist, too, and to be on the same wave length, doing it from the heart.

The label’s releases can generally be described as deep house music, but there have been some outliers — perhaps most notably STL’s “Silent State.” Are you looking for specific aesthetic choices to align with the Smallville sound or is it more a certain vibe you’re aiming for? Is there anything specific you won’t put out?

There is no certain aestethic we are looking for, or at least nothing that is verbalised. It’s really more the vibe, the feeling. If something fits Smallville, we will realize it quite fast.

Smallville has been around since 2006, and obviously the musical climate in house has changed a lot since then. How much do you feel the need — or even pressure — to respond to what’s popular at the moment or that year?

We don’t feel the need to respond to anything. I guess that’s important. Of course we are influenced in a way by what is around because we go to parties, clubs, places and cities, and play a lot, so that’s an influence. But not in a way to react on something “popular.”

How much input does the artists themselves have in the final product?

You mean the artwork? It is always an important step to visit Stefan Marx in his studio and to have a look at his works. After that the process comes naturally as there is a lot of inspiring stuff at Stefan’s studio. So artists can definitely take part in the process as long as they don’t want a surprise.

What is one of your favorite releases on Smallville? Why?

It’s a good feeling that we are still feeling all the releases, from the beginning until now. Standouts in terms of the label might have been the album by Move D & Benjamin Brunn, as it was out first album on Smallville. It’s really a timeless piece of music and we got a lot of so nice feedback from around the world. That was amazing to realize and it still makes us happy to see it on Smallville. We won’t forget when we first listened to it in the store. And the same with the “Silent State” track. This also got so much love from so many different camps. I still carrying it in my case wherever I play.

What are some labels, past and present, that have influenced how Smallville is run, and why?

Dial, Emphasis Recordings and FXHE! The first Omar-S records on FXHE were just coming out when we opened the record shop. We loved them a lot and also invited Omar-S to play in Hamburg a short while after. There are a lot of timeless tracks on these labels. Emphasis is the label from Steven Tang. Every record is great and these are always a good hint for people digging for records in the store. We bought a lot of these, so we can offer them as long as possible. Steven was also guest at our Smallville party series and it was great to finally meet him.

Is there anyone Smallville wants to release who it has not yet released? What are your plans for 2012?

The release of a Steven Tang record would be something truly great for Smallville. We are big fans. As for 2012, we are working on a Smallpeople album, hopefully for the first half of 2012. There is some really good stuff in the pipeline for the Smallville label.

Talking Shopcast 14: Smallpeople (67:17)

Tracklist:

01. STL, “Birdart” [Something]
02. Herbert & Dani Siciliano, “I Hadn’t Known (I Only Heard)” [Phonography]
03. Sun Glitters, “Beside Me” (Essáy’s Calm Interpretation) [Kann Records]
04. Ben Westbeech, “Hang Around” (Karizma’s Kaytronic Dub Mix)
[Brownswood Recordings]
05. Juniper, “Jovian Planet” [Ominira]
06. Smallpeople, “untitled” [white*]
07. Smallpeople, “Black Ice” [Smallville Records]
08. Capracara, “Flashback 86″ [Soul Jazz Records]
09. Tang, “Horizons” [Emphasis Recordings]
10. Glenn Underground, “Vision” (GU’s Original Instrumental)
[Strictly Jaz Unit Muzic]
11. Inner Sense, “Vibin” [9Ts Records]
12. Second Life, “Inner Love (Give It Up)” (Black Keys Rework) [Running Back]
13. Omar-S, “Phazed” [FXHE]
* denotes tracks which, as of the time of publishing, are unreleased

[Smallville Records]

There’s not yet a lot to tell about Moomin. The Berliner debuted in 2010, pairing with his friend Oskar Offermann for the well-regarded Hardmood/Joe McDaddy. Then earlier this year, there was his first solo record, Spare Time. As you’d hope, Sweet Sweet is a little bit different to both, foreshadowing the tone of his imminent album. The title track is fairly simple, banking heavily on repetitions of a central motif; a kind of resonant chiming, like a happier grandfather clock. Moomin carefully shifts this star player repeatedly through a filter, giving it plenty of room to shine by ignoring sharp percussive elements. Thus, woody snares and a powdery shaker make up the bedrock. The only thing left to compete for attention is the kick, its frequent stuttering imparting a jerky groove.

In completely discarding this rhythmic chiming, Oskar Offermann’s remix of “Sweet Sweet” renders itself completely foreign to the original. This time, slightly acerbic hi-hats take the lead, an element of which he seems fond. Layering in vocals — exultant but hardly audible — and dramatic pad sweeps, Offermann slowly builds his version to a bridled peak. Last, “The Game” shares parallels with Julius Steinhoff’s Out In the Woods EP. Most of the track is made up of gentle hi-hat sprays and blissful pads swirling round the spectrum. As with “Sweet Sweet,” these form a central hook, but it’s not so obvious and certainly not catchy. That’s part of its appeal, though. An understated sense of confidence infuses the piece, expressed by — among other things — fine blasts of white-noise, probably inaudible away from headphones. Like Steinhoff, Moomin took his first steps cautiously, collaborating before moving ahead alone. Judging by this accomplished release, however, he need not have been so timid.

[Geography Records]

Until recently, nearly all of Julius Steinhoff’s valuable contributions to the world of house music were collaborations. His Hamburg-based record shop-cum-label, Smallville Records, is a joint venture with Peter Kersten (aka Lawrence) that’s delighted listeners with artfully crafted house tracks by everyone from Christopher Rau and STL to Move D. Steinhoff’s initial forays into production were collaborative as well, first with with Abdeslam Hammouda (as Steinhoff & Hammouda) and later with Hammouda and Just von Ahlefeld (as Smallpeople). After testing the waters with a solo track on a Smallville split 12″, the serial collaborator strikes out on his own with the Out In the Woods EP for Geography Records.

Although underpinned by the soothing pads that have been Steinhoff staples, what sets this EP apart from his past work is the introduction of vocal samples throughout. They’re tools he utilizes masterfully, choosing curiously effective spoken samples and arranging them to foster tension in relatively placid instrumentals. For “Mischief Of One Kind and Another,” he takes snippets of Vinia Mojica pronouncing Talib Kweli’s name from his track “The Blast,” letting her syllables pierce tranquil grooves. Stuttering, grainy vocals act as percussive elements next to the vintage claps and hi-hats of the title track while gradually building melodies envelop listeners. And on “Zealand,” a simple statement provides gentle support for swelling tones and the ridged progressions winding along their contours. The Out In the Woods EP is a triumph, an immaculately produced record that swiftly establishes Steinhoff as a force to be reckoned with by himself.

[Smallville Records]

Smallville has long maintained a low key approach to releasing music, even when a critically adored album (Move D & Benjamin Brunn’s Songs From the Beehive) and gargantuan 12″ (STL’s Silent State, our top track of 2009) propelled the Hamburg-based label into the unexpected position of being one of the most discussed labels for reduced house music. Not carried away with big names, one of Smallville’s charms has been their equal preference for established producers and newcomers. Following a solid label compilation released last fall comes their eighteenth record from the team of newcomer and Smallville Paris clerk Jacques Bon and relative newcomer Christopher Rau. “Cloverleaf Days” was featured on the aforementioned And Suddenly It’s Morning and is nice to have available on wax. Its underwater harp strokes and buoyant bass are very much business as usual for the Smallville collective, and that’s still very much a good thing.

On the flip are two new tracks, kicking off with “Brothers and Sisters.” Bon & Rau give it a bit more hustle than the plush A side, somewhat referencing late 90′s filter house arrangements but heard through an opioid fog, chiming and flashing without ever fully unveiling its charged core sample. The “Poodle Dub,” quite possibly named in homage to Hamburg’s treasured Golden Pudel Club, is a stark departure from the original. Despite being furnished in crowd ambiance the mix strikes a somber, relaxed mood, greeting clubbers with the first light of morning in their eyes with facile chords and ascending melodies. Few will be surprised with how closely Bon & Rau interpret textbook Smallville aesthetics, but its DJ-friendly deep house grooves further elucidate how the label has come this far without breaking a sweat. Still, the duo should continue to refine their focus beyond the Smallville boilerplate that works so well — for now.

To start off our year end coverage, LWE correspondent Chris Burkhalter breaks down the top five labels of 2009

Dance music enthusiasts are almost certainly the most label-conscious people in the record-buying world. How else can you explain the bickering over new Perlon signings, the ubiquity of the compound adjective “buy-on-sight,” or the hastily depleted stocks of anonymously-produced 12″s? We follow our favorite DJs and producers, naturally, but a record publishing operation with vision and taste is very often the best guide to the sounds we thirst for. 2009′s cream of the crop — labels like Running Back, Uzuri, Prologue, Dial, Sound Signature, Blueprint, Apple Pips, and Time To Express — did more than narrow the field of available records, but sharpened our expectations of what new music should achieve. And the mushrooming of secretive private presses (many of them fostered by Hard Wax’s distribution) yielded results that were just as rewarding. But from where I’m standing, these five labels loomed largest.

In some circles, Joy Orbison’s “Hyph Mngo” might be reason enough to include Scuba’s imprint among the ranks of the year’s most important, influential, and exciting labels, but there was a lot more going on at Hotflush than just one huge track. Between the mid-tempo melancholy of Mount Kimbie’s “Maybes” EP and Untold’s trio of bubbling rhythm tracks, Hotflush pursued curious new paths for bass music’s future. Meanwhile, records from Sigha and Pangaea showed that, with a little personality, the label’s more tried-and-true sonic templates still bang plenty hard. And Scuba himself turned out three discs worth of material, continuing his steady creep toward techno, and delivering one of his finest tracks to date in “Symbiosis.” Hotflush’s quality control team is certainly due for a raise, as their 2009 strike rate was virtually unrivaled.

Was any label as enigmatic as Macro this year? Unpredictable and often challenging, the label’s 2009 run sometimes seemed to provoke its audience, but it was all essential listening – whether the goal was meeting the latest challenge or verifying fierce objections. The elusive Stravinsky edit left even ardent supporters scratching their heads, but it was Goldmann’s grandiose/kitschy remix of Santiago Salazar’s “Arcade” that was most contentious. Macro still trades in proper dance music, of course, but on its own terms. Raudive wove stately jazz abstraction into his twisting techno single for the label, while the promotional blurb for Peter Kruder’s tense 12″ name-checked Tchaikovsky. And the original version of Santiago Salazar’s “Arcade”? Electrifying techno quicksilver, and a proper classic. The label’s most notable releases, though, involved a trove of previously unheard punk/new wave/proto-techno that Patrick Cowley recorded with singer Jorge Socarras in the Seventies. An expansive archival project that seized the label’s full resources for the second half of the year, it felt more like a gift to dance music than a market product.

Four months after announcing the end of publishing activities, Clone found a whole mess of music they wanted us to hear — and too much for just one label. So Clone switched the lights back on and splintered into half a dozen niche sublabels. Combined, they turned Clone’s “going out of business” year into one of its most prodigious. In general, the new imprints are founded on retro tastes, with Clone Jack For Daze and Clone Loft Supreme styled after vintage Chicago and New York house sounds, respectively, Clone Basement Series taking on classically-minded techno, and so on. The artists showcased came from all over, and had their own creative itineraries, but the records generally presented minor updates on beloved house and techno sounds. The least of these were skillfully-executed, stylish homages, and the best were astounding. For myself, the highlights were A Made Up Sound’s fresh reconfigurations of house, Reggie Dokes’ “Chicago Pimp,” and the Mike Dehnert records (including the deliciously garish Levon Vincent remix). Your own year-end list might not include those tracks, but it’d be hard to believe that it escaped Clone’s tentacles entirely.

2009 began gloriously for Hyperdub with Joker’s “Digidesign” and Kode9′s own “Black Sun,” and the label hasn’t let up since. The beefy 5 Years compilation officially celebrated the label’s five-year anniversary, but its eclectic disc of new material doubled as the announcement of Hyperdub’s transition from a hungry young label to a confident musical institution whose reach now extends well beyond the garage continuum. Artists well-known to Hyperdub fans — Zomby, Darkstar, Samiyam, Ikonika, and yes, Burial — turned in potent new material, but it was the first-timers to the label that really got people talking. The aforementioned Joker track stands proud beside the label’s finest releases to date, and was backed by that slinky, R&B-steeped track from 2000F & J Kamata. Mark Pritchard’s drunk 8-bit “Wind It Up” was utterly unavoidable. And then there’s Hyperdub’s newest star, Cooly G. Add to this a full album from King Midas Sound, and visits from Martyn, Mala, and Flying Lotus, and we wouldn’t blame you if you were still playing catch-up in January.

This Hamburg label’s handful of records (totaling just fourteen tracks) traded in light melodies, gradual builds, and mild flavors, capitalizing on the allure of warm glow over searing heat. There was always a thumping functionality for the dance floor, but a subtle one easily concealed by the elegance of the often melancholy compositions. The And Suddenly It’s Morning compilation appropriately arrived in autumn, and went a long way toward characterizing the label’s sweater-and-scarf aesthetic, but the highlights of the year were the two EPs that preceded it. STL brokered with Smallville for one of the finest entries in his exhaustive catalog, a record of bright, layered melodies and brooding dub atmospherics. And the label’s only remix for the year, Jus-Ed’s scrub of Steinhoff & Hammouda’s “You Are,” positively smoldered. As we got to know these records, Smallville emerged from under the long shadow of the kindrid spirits at the neighboring Dial, and grew to be a cherished favorite of DJs, critics, and fans alike. And, just like Dial, Smallville’s wares worked at least as well on headphones as in the club, so that if Smallville wasn’t responsible for an indelible moment toward the close of your best night out this year, there’s a good chance they soundtracked a memorable walk home.

[Smallville Records]

Hype-mongers have been talking up Smallville Records recently as label of the year based on a mere two releases, “Silent State” from STL and “Touch” by Steinhoff & Hammouda. Not that they haven’t both been excellent, but it seems some are only just realizing what long term admirers have known ever since the first hand-stamped release in 2006. Unlike that other famous record shop cum label, Smallville haven’t embarked on the empire building Kompakt had achieved at the same point, but nonetheless they’ve left quite a mark on the techno and house landscape. With distinctive artwork provided by Stefan Marx and a quiet, unassuming air in keeping with their name, Smallville have steadily built up an extraordinarily back catalog that features, among others, Move D & Benjamin Brunn, Sven Tasnadi and Sten. Celebrating five years of the record shop, Smallville now showcase these talents across four slabs of vinyl and eventually a CD entitled And Suddenly It’s Morning. The compilation’s title gives a clue to its intentions — music so entrancing it becomes possible to lose all sense of time, until the dawn light begins to seep through the blinds. This split, between Lowtec and Dimi Angélis with Jeroen Search, is the first installment, and fully delivers on that promise.

Dimi Angélis & Jeroen Search’s “Our Life With The Wave” is based on samples of the Waldorf Wave synth provided by Mike Huckaby’s excellent Octavio Paz-referencing project. Opening with a bounce reminiscent of early Speicher releases, this is much harder than usual Smallville fare. Yet the dubby echoes and cosy pads bring a familiar warmth and depth similar to others on the label, notably the mysterious DJ Swap. On the other side, Jens Kuhn aka Lowtec’s “Meandyou.dub” is a tribute to a Manchester based club-night that has played host to his own label Workshop. In the same way that last year Move D was rediscovered by a whole new audience, it seems that in 2009 Lowtec is receiving similarly overdue plaudits. This piece is another of his unusual recipes, throwing together a handful of ingredients to make a tasty whole: tart claps, Hammer Horror synths and creeping bass that should mark the start of many a party. One for early, one for late; both so bewitching the morning really will be unexpected.

[Smallville Records]

As one of the founders of the Smallville Records retail store and record label, Hamburg’s Julius Steinhoff has a proven ear for quality when it comes to forward-thinking dance music. The same refined taste can be detected in Steinhoff’s handful of collaborations with Abdeslam Hammouda (and, in this case, Dionne as well). Last year’s “Tonight Will Be Fine” EP was built of cottony hums, cascading melodies, and patient grooves. Their sophomore EP offers warm, deep house to get lost in — a perfect compliment to the immersive, deep techno of the year’s other Smallville release. The undeviating repetitions of the title track’s cheap-sounding piano stabs lend a touch of minimal, but also summon a cloud of magician’s smoke, diverting our attention from developing modulations in the percussion that discretely reward a full play to the end. By the time the sunny, “woo-woo” vocals begin five minutes in, we only faintly perceive how far we’ve come.

Personal preference selects the B-side as my favorite, with Connecticut appraiser of Underground Quality Jus-Ed turning in a remix of last year’s “You Are.” His mix manages, through editing and layering, to enhance the original’s already formidable hypnotic power. At the same time, by replacing the original’s brushed-sounding percussion with blipping tech-house beats, the remix asserts a more urgent dance tempo. The pairing of smoldering analog grooves and determined analog rhythms puts me in mind of Ed’s pal Cassy Britton — and not only because of the Roland cowbell. An inspired transformation of the material, I’m hoping Jus-Ed and Smallville will keep the communication channels open for future projects.

Record nerds of the world are greeted daily by news of the music industry’s impending doom. Yet record labels — in dance music, at least — have refused to fade away. All profitability aside, might the concept of the record label in 2009 be as strong as it’s ever been? As record stores continue closing at an alarming rate (Manhattan’s Etherea Records, one of my personal favorite spots for dance vinyl, shuttered this past February), there exist less shelf space for the familiar sleeve designs and logos of your favorite imprints to stare down enticingly at you. But in this digital era, where dance music is more easily disseminated than ever before, the filter of a reputable record label has taken on supreme importance in separating wheat from chaff. Tellingly, some of 2009′s most exciting labels have de-emphasized genre affiliation in favor of amping up their reputation for quality output. Others, realizing how quickly novel sounds can weave their way through the scene via the blogosphere (ahem), are starting labels as incubators for daring new tracks that might not have found an outlet otherwise. And despite the seemingly endless tide of new music gushing through the cracks of record bags and hard drives, some of the best labels have resisted the urge to flood the market with their brand, releasing only the choicest of cuts.

This list of 2009’s best record labels so far, in no particular order and in no way definitive, showcases some of modern dance music’s most interesting and innovative wellsprings for grade-A music. The prophecy may continue to foretell the industry’s gory death, but as best as I can tell, the record label lives on!

Hyperdub

You knew you’d find this here. Kode9′s coterie of Flying Lotus eaters has had one hell of a run in 2009 so far, with each release catching anyone who thought they had this London-based label’s sound pigeonholed as dubstep completely off-guard. From the autotuned wonky-n’-blues of 2000F & J Kamata’s “You Don’t Know What Love Is” to The Bug’s slow-mo electronic dub of his second King Midas Sound 10″ to LD’s gorgeously tense “Traumatic Times,” Hyperdub has displayed a deftness at rendering relatively disparate sounds cohesive. Cooly G, who recently released her debut 12” on the label, might be its mightiest A&R snag since Burial (or at least Zomby), and her poker-faced funky house constitutes yet another hard left turn that somehow makes a whole lot of sense.

Do Not Resist the Beat!

Ostgut-Ton and the Berghain crew might be the torchbearers of the purist techno underground, but they’re hardly the only ones throwing down brutally to-the-point 4/4. Of all the hand-stamped labels hotly-tipped by Berlin’s Hardwax record store, Milton Bradley’s and DJ Zeal’s Do Not Resist The Beat! imprint has its ears trained most strongly towards techno’s future. (Frozen Border, whoever you are: you’re a very close second.) Milton Bradley’s three 12″s for the label this year — murky, bubbling stews equal parts “Classics”-era Aphex Twin, Marcel Dettmann, and Shackleton — have each built impressively upon each other. As more of the world heeds the label’s namesake request, these small-batch slabs are sure to become tough catches for record collectors. Grab ‘em while they’re hot!

Apple Pips

Like Hyperdub, Apple Pips has spent 2009 showing us that dubstep is literally only one side of the story. While Ramadanman — once solo and in collaboration with labelhead Appleblim — has stayed true to the bass, dub savant Sven Weisemann and Aus/Simple’s Will Saul & Mike Monday have contributed pitched-down, unexpected reworks on the flips. One imagines the production process was an educational one for all involved. Yet Appleblim’s alchemical A&R this year has given us more than just interesting cross-genre pairings. White-hot Londoner Brackles contributed “Get A Job/Lizards,” melding Joker keyboards and Untold’s rhythmic absurdity into pure subs-driven gold. It’s enough to make you forget, at least momentarily, Skull Disco’s untimely demise and join the throngs of us anxiously awaiting Pips’ next sure-to-be-slamming transmission.

Cómeme

I have no idea what a BumBumBox party must be like — YouTube suggests something like a reggaeton-themed bar mitzvah held in a parking garage. But judging by the output of this new imprint from Kompakt’s Matías Aguayo, the kingpin of those guerilla lo-fi mini-raves, it must give deep house purists one serious collective nosebleed. Cómeme finds Aguayo and a cast of unknowns filtering an M.I.A.-like mélange of global street music, underground UK house percussion, and ‘80s pop through the Latin-minimal songbook. Despite (or perhaps because of) never taking itself too seriously, the label’s three sugar-coated releases have been some of 2009′s most original — or, if you prefer, most unhinged — club tracks. Assuming they stay as fresh as they sound right now, Aguayo’s near-”I Want Candy” cover “Bo Jack” and smooth-rapping “Pata Pata” will undoubtedly keep the world’s conga-lines a-chuggin’ (and haters hatin’) through the year’s end.

Smallville Records

Smallville has not been terribly prolific in 2009, but I’ll be damned if its two 12″s this year haven’t been stone-cold classics. LWE has already heaped praise on STL’s modulating epic “Silent State,” and it’s hard to imagine a more subtle and supple house record dropping this year. Like some lost Fennesz-Basic Channel collab, Stephan Laubner’s rare departure from his own Something label bathes your brain in heavy dub while insistent hi-hats keep you pinned to the dance floor. Steinhoff & Hammouda’s recently released “Touch,” a Lawrence-style deep percussion jam as awesome as any of the tougher sides found in Smallville’s impressive back catalog, is no slouch at working crowds either. But it’s the B-side, a Jus-Ed remix of the duo’s 2008 track “You Are,” that should excite house heads most. With that producer’s Underground Quality imprint and his associates making some of the strangest deep music around as of late, the potential for more tunes on the Hamburg-New York axis should be cause for much salivation indeed.

[Smallville Records]

As the owner and sole driving force behind the label Something, the enigmatic Stephan Laubner manages to freely indulge his prolific nature without sacrificing quality. In 2008 alone he notched up six well rated releases, three of which could be considered albums, only one arriving on another label (“Lost In Brown Eyes” for his friends at Perlon), and he’s already released a new 2×12″ in 2009. Laubner’s efforts also seem immune to easy characterizations. They stretch from massaged field-recordings to wistful deep house, caustic techno to more chipper tech-house treats, and that’s ignoring the many loops etched into most STL releases. What’s surprising, then, about STL’s debut for Smallville Records is not that it turns the page in the self reliant producer’s catalog, but rather its potential to loom large over what came before it.

Silent State finds Laubner introducing dub techno’s vast palette of reverbs and delay to his repertoire and varies greatly from track to track. The most fascinating is the title cut, a sub-aquatic meander whose elegant craftsmanship unfolds across 12 minutes without feeling even a second too long. Ambling forward as an enthusiastic guide, the tuneful bass line steers listeners towards several synth lines mingling at different depths, ripples following wherever they go. Each melody flows at its own pace yet feels interconnected to its companions, even the sharpest, most fleeting progression and sustained snare hits. Laubner’s command of synthesizers is so great he’s captured an entire eco-system in flux in the form of a functional techno track. To call it breath-taking is almost not enough.

You’d be forgiven if it takes a few spins before feeling ready to flip the record, but side B is equally rewarding. “Six In A Row” is a substantially grittier affair that channels its energy into the grumbling central riff. Squirming along a bed of tape hiss and street noise, reverb magnifies its jagged edges until they gnash together, their resonance creating eye-opening new pitches. And while “Six In A Row” could easily find its way into many techno sets, it’s not too far a stretch to include the rarefied lo-fi aesthetics of black metal among its extended family. While more conventional than its siblings, “From A Distance” is impressive in its own right. As the insouciant yin to “Six In A Row”‘s overcast yang, the tune’s placid underpinnings are as celebrated as the dubbed out washes bouncing gamely off the walls. Hushed Rhodes tip-toes between two chords, holding together the unpredictable reverberations like a serene glue. Its lucid beauty rivals some Maurizio tracks, so don’t be surprised when “From A Distance,” like the rest of the EP, is stuck in DJs’ rotations. If STL hasn’t yet been canonized on the strength of his bountiful back catalog, Silent State seems poised to be his ticket to the front of the line.