Natural Records

In 1991, house music was considered boom-boom-boom, a lot of noise and only enjoyable on the dance floor when a good DJ was playing it. Natural Records radically changed that concept: house music was meant to be music in the first place, and should also be enjoyable outside the club. The label wanted to release tracks that would also stand on their own.

As a first impression, a beatmixed compilation "Natural Elements" was released, on which the tracks were mixed for the most in the beginning and end (unlike Arcade's TUTB House Party which only contained fragments of 1-2 minutes). Together with Outland's "Static Tracks", these compilations would become the blueprint for all DJ compilations in our country: the Fresh Fruit cocktails, First/Second/Third... Works, the iT albums and so on.

Later on, the label introduced the New York sound of Strictly Rhythm to the Netherlands, as well as tracks such as "ion" by Gat Decor. Natural Elements 2 was where I heard Jaydee's "Plastic Dreams" for the first time, before it was released officially as a single (Robin Albers himself considered it at its best only suitable for a B-side...).

Another one of the label's highlights was Chestnut's "Pot of Gold": for the first time, I had the idea that a Dutch club track could match the U.K. and U.S. ones. It opened the doors for Rene & Gaston, Olav Basoski & Erick E and many others.

When they rebranded themselves to Essential, they indeed brought our country one of the most essential tunes of 1994: River Ocean's "Love And Happiness"...