Studio K7 came into being in 1985 in Berlin as a music video production house. Their beginnings were documentaries of local (and sometimes not) bands pushing the boundaries of music. The Sex Pistols, Superchunk, Nick Cave, and Einsturzende Neubauten were all some of their subjects.
Fate, however, had other ideas. Fortunately for us K7 fans, Berlin techno (Tresor, Basic Channel) started to erupt in a big way around 1991. K7 was paying attention, and decided to cash in with their first (the world's first, in fact) computer-animated techno video, 3 Lux, in 1992.
The following year, the X-Mix series began, partially as a result of people taping the 3 Lux soundtrack and word getting back to K7 that people would pay money for these mixes. The series started with a Paul van Dyk compilation, and later retrieved their good taste and went with top-notch techno DJs such as Laurent Garnier, Ken Ishii, Richie Hawtin, and Kevin Saunderson. Several X-Mixes were available both mixed and unmixed on vinyl, making a few previously hard-to-find tracks widely available.
1995 brought the DJ-Kicks series, aimed at letting the DJ have as much fun as possible. This ranged from elaborate chopped-up samplefests to simple one-take mixes in bedrooms. This series started off on a techno slant and moved towards the downtempo side of things after Kruder and Dorfmeister invaded.
The third big compilation series from K7 is the Freestyle Files, a collection of breakbeats of all sorts. These are unmixed double-CD sets of hip-hop, trip-hop, drum and bass, electro, etc.
In 1996, K7 decided to stop limiting themselves to compilations and launched K7 Records. As with the DJ-Kicks series, K7 Records has been moving from straight-up techno to downtempo, with artists such as Sean Deason, Terrence Parker, Nicolette, Gaz Varley (one half of LFO). K7 Records frequently licenses recording from G-Stone Recordings, the home of Kruder and Dorfmeister.
http://www.studio-k7.de
Offering liner notes
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