The History & Future of Hope Recordings

Hope hasn't all been about global partying and sun chasing. Oh wait yes it has.  Still It began in the back room of a house somewhere in Bristol in the glint of Steve and Leon's eyes. Here's a potted history. 

 


Hope 001 was by Bristol tech funk legend Jamie Anderson and the game was on. More tracks from Timo Maas & Martin Buttrich, Starecase, General Midi, Way Out West and then within 10 months it went off the hook with "Der Schieber", the funkin' for hope mix being instrumental in the influence and creation of a new breaks scene, the A side helping propel Timo & Martin into the big league. The first compilation Hope Classics Vol. 1 was followed by the huge selling Music for the Maases Vol. 1 and the signing of new Artists like James Holden, Max Graham and Loafer. For awhile the tougher funkier sound of the first year and a half got replaced by a proggier vibe, Starecase released a great first album Firstfloor and all was good.
We started throwing great parties mainly in the US, the first Friday of WMC 1999-2004 striking a particular chord. Musically we felt we needed a slight change and sensing the environment shift around us 2002 and 2003 heralded a funkier stripped back phase with the hugely underrated Capoeira Twins who released a number of singles with us and a great album "Reansville Heights" , a small trip down drum and bass alley with the Distorted Minds

and the German Moguai whose U Know Y became one of the catalogue's biggest sellers getting into the charts and sound tracking another musical change in club land. Part of this era where also Cologne artfunkers Filmpalast who I can only recommend most highly and finishing off with the exceptional Grayarea, forever Chicago’s big boys in the alt punk prog house scene.

Now after all that we've got the freshest of new starts that somehow takes us right back to the beginning. Bristol's finest Nick Warren has joined us and is busy signing material from over the world, already tried and tested by him.  Australia's Matt Rowan & Jaytech coming up trumps and someone we're going to be working with a lot in the future, Texan Derek Howell & the return of the mighty Starecase. A good overview of all this is available in the new album 7 Year Itch

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