It’s been a great year for Toolroom Records. The ever-growing house and techno imprint headed up by Mark Knight continued their run of excellent Toolroom Knights parties at Ministry Of Sound, launched a superb compilation series of the same name, set up a new sub-label showcasing hot new talent, released a steady stream of chart-topping, club-destroying tracks like Funkagenda’s WTF? and his and Knight’s reworking off Laurent Garnier’s Man With The Red Face, scored a UK Top 20 hit with Baditude, and have seen their very own Dave Spoon become a Radio 1 DJ. What began back in 2004 as an output for Knight’s production has gone on to become one of the most popular house music labels – and indeed brands – the world over.
“I’d released records on various other labels but I felt my own label was needed to fully establish my identity and sound” explains Mark. “We knew who we wanted to aspire to, and we set out a plan to do so.” Establishing said identity and sound has been a crucial part in getting Toolroom where they are today; you generally know what you’re going to get with the label, and from the early days it’s been about electronic house music. Electronic in the sense that it’s not generally about the organic, “live” textures of labels like Defected, for example – but more a continuation of what people like Futureshock, Medicine8 and Underworld were doing in the years preceding the launch of Toolroom. Futuristic house, if you will - and with a penchant for peak-time, big room numbers running through the catalogue. The label’s consistent form over the last 5 years has seen it garner acclaim throughout the house scene and of course made its loyal fanbase keep coming back for more, but taking things to that elusive next level were by no means simply a result of this. “Getting to where we are today has taken a lot of hard work from a dedicated team. The hardest thing I’ve learnt since running the label is the dedication it requires and maintaining a balance between having a life and work.”
As the label has continued to grow over the last couple of years, Knight and has team have increasingly turned their attentions to taking on and nurturing promising new talents, both with the likes of Funkagenda and Dave Spoon as in-house producers of sorts, and with their dedicated Leaders Of The New School imprint, pushing the likes of our New Talent favourite Matt Samuels. Much to their credit, it’s an ethos that has worked very well – with Spoon graduating to his aforementioned Radio 1 slot and Funkagenda getting props from techier DJs and producers as well as the usual house-heads. “It's a weird one to be honest, not your average story!” says Spoon of his introduction into the Toolroom fold.He came across one of Toolroom’s staff selling some records online, and asked if he could send in his track 21st Century for some feedback. The next day, Knight was on the phone to him asking if he could sign it, and whether he had any more material up his sleeve. “Things were always building very nicely for them whilst Mark's career started to soar worldwide, so Toolroom was getting a lot of attention all of a sudden, so I was also able to grow with them which has been great over the last few years.”
Meanwhile Funkagenda first met Mark back in 2005 when the Toolroom boss came to get a track engineered at his Birmingham studios. “He was doing a tech house track for his Saturday Sessions EP and liked my sound as an engineer. The track was called The Box. After that we did a number of releases together, drank about 13,000 mugs of tea, and began fighting crime as an "above the law" super-duo. Since then I built a strong relationship with the label and now consider it to be my home from home...I even have a sleeping bag and a stash of biscuits and porn behind the air-con!”
“Toolroom basically put me on the map, together with the whole digital revolution” says Spoon. “Making music became more accessible for me again a few years back, and having a label like them to grow along-side meant a lot happened in a short amount of time. Their passion for quality all round has always been inspiring and the way they are run, almost as a family business is also nice to be around.” Funkagenda is similarly gushing about the label that has looked after him so well: “They understand what their artists want to achieve, and they help them get there”
The sound of Toolroom now is very cutting edge – fusing hard-grooving minimal techno percussion and rhythm with the big room, electro house sounds that they’ve honed over the past few years. The combination of minimal and maximal styles makes for a fresh, dynamic juxtaposition, and is creating some of the most exciting productions around.“What I liked about minimal was the production ideas and sounds” explains Knight, “it was a new and fresh sound. What I think it lacks is melody and dynamic. If you marry these production techniques with melodies you create something really works.” Meanwhile they’ve continued to smash it across the world with their Toolroom Knights parties, both at Ministry and abroad in places like Miami, at Amnesia in Ibiza, and at various residencies across Europe.”Toolroom Knights at Ministry is one I always look forward to, there’s always a fantastic atmosphere. You can really drive it on that soudsystem. What can people expect? Loads of up front cutting edge music and a fantastic party atmosphere.”
Finally, one has to ask – what did Garnier think of Knight & Funkagenda’s reworking ofhis classic The Man With The Red Face, a reworking that has been inescapable all summer long? “He loved it, and so did his publisher! Once we’d completed the track we spoke with him – he listened to what we done, gave it the LG seal of approval and only then did we proceed.” Can they do no wrong?
Toolroom Knights' 2nd Birthday takes place at Ministry of Sound this Saturday 11th October.
Click here for more details