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Almighty Records

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Almighty Records Ltd
Company typeRecord Label
IndustryMusic entertainment
Founded1989
HeadquartersUnited Kingdom London, United Kingdom
Key people
Martyn Norris: CEO and Head Producer
SubsidiariesBlast Records
Daisy Chain
East Side Records
Euphoric
Unit 4 Productions Limited
WebsiteAlmighty SolarSite

Almighty Records Ltd. is a British recording label founded in 1989, releasing their first single in the same year. Producing mainly Hi-NRG music, the label is best known for releasing remakes and remixes of mainstream pop songs. In 2009, the label celebrates its 20th anniversary with the release of a new collection which compiles some of their most successful chart hits and fan favourites from the past twenty years.

History

Since their first UK release in 1989, Almighty Records has been producing dance and club remixes of mainstream chart tracks. Starting its life as a record stall just off the dance floor of one of London's historic night clubs, its mission has always been devoted to DJs, dancers and dance music. Launched and staffed by disc jockeys and club enthusiasts for twenty years, the first 12-inch release on the Almighty label was a cover of a Limahl single called Never Ending Story, which was the title song to the 1984 film of the same name. Chosen because the artist's original label, EMI, had allowed the extended version of that song go right out of print, while club-goers still wanted to dance to it and buy it.
Almighty feature various artist names, which are in fact projects rather than actual singers or groups, with many different vocalists and session singers behind artists names[1][2], numerous of them already famous as recording artists and even hit songwriters.
By 1992 Almighty had enjoyed notable success thanks in part to their cover versions of ABBA tracks under the guise Abbacadabra. It was at this point that label boss Martyn Norris decided to give up his job and concentrate on Almighty full time. Pop producer Pete Waterman played some of these tracks on his UK television show The Hitman and Her which boosted interest in the songs and the label, so much so that Waterman picked up some tracks, including Dancing Queen for his own label PWL[3].

Almighty achieved their first UK Singles Chart top 20 hit in 1993 with I Will Always Love You, a cover of the song by Dolly Parton, Whitney Houston and others, which was performed by Sarah Washington and reached position 12 in the UK chart[4].

Almighty Records has been successful with various projects over the years, remaking almost all ABBA songs, including a track recorded, but unreleased by ABBA called Just Like That. To date Almighty have produced 5 albums and over 10 singles under The Abbacadabra project name, which has sold more than 250,000 units for the label. However, the project which has been the most successful internationally for Almighty is the Queer as Folk CD soundtrack which went gold within one month of going on sale in March 1999 in the UK. The release of this CD followed a request from the makers of the TV series, Red Productions, after another major record company turned down the opportunity due to poor rating of previous music-led television shows on Channel 4. Given a list of tracks, Almighty had one month to compile the music; however, some tracks could not be cleared in time for the release mainly due to time scales, including one by the group Steps who initially said that the show would be too "low profile" for them to be associated with. It was the success of this album which prompted Channel 4 to launch their own music division when the second series of Queer As Folk was made[5] - an international franchise which is still around today.

Recent Strategy and Activity

During the latter half of the 1990s Almighty concentrated efforts on producing remixes for record companies for the global club and dance scene and became de rigueur, and the most in-demand name in the pop-dance world, producing up to 5 mixes a week at their peak[6]. However since 2004 Almighty have stopped actively soliciting their remix services to record companies citing reasons of financial viability and industry competetiveness[7].

Today Almighty are popular around the world, especially among gay communities. In Almighty's own words, they have had "unwavering support through the years from the gay community, Almighty has become synonymous with the joyous, hands-in-the-air sound of summer dance music."[8] Almighty have released various albums specifically targeted at a gay audience[9].

In recent years Almighty have made their productions available to a wider customer base after making a deal with Universal Music which allowed Almighty to sell on digital platforms such as iTunes and Amazon.com, however products are not available in all countries, North America for example[10]. Not all of Almighty's productions are available on general release, however, The Almighty Club is available for anyone to join in which members will receive everything that Almighty ever produce including promotional material on a physical CDR[11].

Almighty have a policy of remixing anything they have been asked to do despite how difficult it may appear to be to them. In Almighty's own words; "...things like Diana Ross' 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough,' which were never recorded in a computer and so every beat has to be re-aligned and the timing worked out again as naturally real people do not play like a computer does. E.g. some disco tracks can vary in time from 129 - 139 bpm which would not happen on today's computerised programs."
It takes Almighty from one to three people to produce a track and single releases are usually a fashion item, especially if there are no remixes of the song in question in the Hi-NRG genre, of which Almighty produce. Albums on the other hand are planned months in advance[12].

A resident DJ at a Manchester nightclub, Cruz 101, is nicknamed Almighty Donald by regular clientele as he plays and mixes many tracks created by Almighty Records.

Release Highlights

  • Almighty Presents Handbag Heaven: Let This Feeling... by Belle Lawrence (2 CD Set or 3 CD Set with bonus third CD with full 12" mixes)
  • Almighty Presents NRG Anthems (2 CD Set or 3 CD Set with bonus third CD with full 12" mixes)
  • Almighty Anthems 1 & 2
  • Jackie 'O' Handbag Heaven - Back To Bitch (2 CD Set)
  • Belle Lawrence Handbag Heaven - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
  • Deja Vu feat. Tasmin Handbag Heaven - Against All Odds (2 CD Set)
  • Almighty Presents NRG Anthems (2 CD Set)
  • Almighty Gay Anthems 1,2,3 (2 CD Set Each)
  • Almighty Definitive Collection 1,2,3,4,5, 6 & 7 (2 CD Set Each)

See also

References

  1. ^ "Last FM - Belle Lawrence". Retrieved 2008-04-22.
  2. ^ Natalie Browne - Wikipedia page of the Almighty Records artist project
  3. ^ "Almighty Records - Abbacadabra". Retrieved 2009-08-27.
  4. ^ "Retro Charts - everyhit.com". Retrieved 2008-04-22.
  5. ^ "Almighty Records.com - Trivia". Retrieved 2008-04-22. {{cite web}}: Text "Page may need refreshing to see relevant information" ignored (help)
  6. ^ "Almighty Records.com - Remixes". Retrieved 2009-08-27.
  7. ^ "Almighty Records.com - The Almighty Crew comment on commercial remixes". Retrieved 2009-08-27.
  8. ^ "Almighty Records.com - Gay Anthems". Retrieved 2008-06-15.
  9. ^ "Almighty Records.com - Album Store - Gay Anthems". Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  10. ^ "Almighty Records.com - Remixes". Retrieved 2009-08-27.
  11. ^ "Almighty Records.com - The Almighty Club". Retrieved 2009-08-27.
  12. ^ "Almighty Records - Forum". Retrieved 2009-09-22.
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