Hello people, just a quick update on all things Freerange for those who like to get their news upfront. Major projects to look forward to this year include the debut Swell Session album and Jimpster’s 3rd LP and first for Freerange. For the Swell LP, Gothenburger Andreas Saag has teamed up with the crème de la crème of the nujazz and beats world on an album that boasts Seiji, Domu, Landslide, Mr Scruff, Kyoto Jazz Massive and Jimpster amongst the contributors. Just in the final mixing stages, this looks set to be one of the standout LP's this year and will certainly put the young Andreas on the map as one of the best young producers in Sweden. Also nearly completed is the Jimpster LP which looks set for release in the Spring. Provisionally entitled “Amour”, the LP features a number of guest vocalists including Diamondancer, Alexander East, Capitol A and Elsa Hedburg. Jimpster fans can rest assured this LP contains some of his best work to date and goes right across the board from blissed out ambience through to deep, minimal house and covers everything in between. You could say a real journey. Another great release for early this year is an exciting new collaboration between Freerange regular Shur-I-Kan and deep house don Milton Jackson. The guys have got together to produce 2 top quality EP's of dancefloor friendly deepness entitled “I Want It” and “Special Powers” EP's. These are already big in the box of Tom Middleton no less! February will see the release of the 3rd instalment of our ever expanding series of “Colour” compilations, this time a delectable shade of Red. In keeping with the previous Yellow and Blue comps we’ve made sure to include not only our finest moments from the past year but also a selection of brand new and exclusive cuts only available to this CD and the accompanying vinyl sampler. Big hitters such as Switch’s “Bounce 2 This” and Only Freak’s “Can’t Get Away” nestle nicely alongside underground gems like Square One’s “High Rise” and DJ Spinna’s mix of the Robert Strauss track “Spinning Inside Your Love”. Also included are the deep house bomb from Mike Monday entitled “Ca$h” plus recent solid gold tracks from Brazil’s Marco De Souza, Audiomontage and Palm Skin Productions. All in full length, unmixed and unedited glory. Still flying out of the shops are the latest Audiomontage EP entitled “Fun Kit” as well as the positively huge “Cant Get Away” from Belgian funkateers Only Freak. Freerange will be 10 years old in June! Make sure you come and party with us at one of our birthday celebrations in a city near you. The new look and greatly improved Freerange website is now up and running with all the releases available for preview and purchase from the online shop. Come and visit at www.freerangerecords.co.uk.

It’s obvious that the whole world is raving about the German minimal, tech-house and elektro sound. That’s great for us Germans, but I see two problems: 1, is it really good that everybody plays the same? Just as DJs like Chris Liebing and Tiesto and Morillo all play Pokerflat records and love Wighnomy Bros….? strange. It was always healthy in the underground club scene, when DJs played differently and can inspire each other. We need that inspiration to move on and innovate. 2, that minimal thing is in danger of becoming the second boring and dull progressive house. Where the ladies don’t dance anymore and without ladies there are no great club nights. Please let’s all be aware of that and not become too dark and boring. Concerning the Great Stuff label family we had a great first year 2005 and started 5 labels. The mother-ship Great Stuff Records had huge success with tracks by Coburn, Trick & Kubic, The Egg and Lützenkirchen…. and we will continue. One of the next highlights will surely be new mixes of Whirlpool Productions “From Disco 2 Disco”. Our second label CRAFT MUSIC is Tomcrafts own label which truly reflects his DJ set. Very big elektro and techno influences. Soon to come is a new project by Stephan Bodzin (Huntemann, Schumacher, Marc Romboy, Elektrochemie…) called “Swoop”. Kling Klong is our label with great tech-house/minimal DJ Martin Eyerer and forthcoming release by Oliver Koletzki will be a big highlight. Swings Records is our house label with Jean Claude Ades alias JCA (mainly for his own great productions). He’s so talented. Finally Pineapple Records is our fifth label with our friends Gusgus from Iceland. They are simply great and original as DJs, live-act and in the studio.