In the current era of streaming it’s easy to forget how much of a gamble record shopping used to be as a DJ. Before the days of Spotify, Apple Music and Youtube you had to rely on the Essential Selection or remember what you heard on the dance floor when it came to tracking down those most-wanted tunes. If you were lucky enough to be in a decent record shop you would be able to listen to records before you bought them but sometimes you just had to take the plunge and go with your gut feeling. In some cases however just the calibre of the record label alone would be enough to seal the deal and HOOJ CHOONS was one such label.
Home to countless uplifting house music bangers over the years, Hooj tunes was originally formed in 1990 by Alex Simmons and Red Jerry. It was in 1992 when things broke overground with ‘Don’t You Want Me’ by Felix (co-produced by Red Jerry and Rollo of Faithless fame).
From there things would continue to escalate as Hooj carved out an enviable legacy starting with post-rave house shenanigans before moving onto ‘hands in the air euro-screamers’, ibiza-fuelled trance bangers and finally evolving into an outlet for deeper, progressive tracks. As a vinyl buyer you knew that whenever you picked up a sleeve with that distinctive logo you would be sure that it was a worthy purchase.
And so I present to you a Spotify and Apple Music playlist built from the first 100 releases of HOOJ CHOONS (at least what I could find on both platforms), plus a few remixes thrown in for good measure. It’s like a real-time capsule that captures various genres of house through the nineties and into the early 2000’s.
Whilst you’re here why not check out this previous episode of Retro House Mixtape, featuring a couple tunes from the HOOJ catalogue along with a bunch of other up-for-it tracks.
Follow Retro House Mixtape online....