Rotterdam Records

Rotterdam Records was a Dutch record label founded by Paul Elstak in 1992. It released hardcore and gabber music. It stopped in 2012 and restarted again in 2018 with MP3 releases.

Rotterdam Records
Founded	1992 (1992)
Founder	Paul Elstak
Defunct	2012 (2012)
Genre	Hardcore Techno, Gabber
Country of origin	Netherlands
Location	Rotterdam, Netherlands
Official website	www.rotterdamrecords.com[dead link‍]

History

Original label owner Elstak in 2011

The label was set up by Paul Elstak who around 2000 quit to start his own label Offensive Records at Rige Entertainment.^[1] DJ Neophyte and DJ Panic took control of the label and three other labels (Forze Records, Neophyte Records and Terror Traxx). The label stopped in 2012 when Mid-Town Records went bankrupt.^[2]

Alongside Mokum Records in Amsterdam and Lenny Dee's New York based Industrial Strength Records, Rotterdam Records was an influential label in the early 1990s gabber scene.^[3]

Releases

Founded in 1992, the label brought out over one hundred vinyl hardcore and gabber releases as well as CDs, DVDs and other merchandise. Sublabels included Forze Records, Rotterdam Records Classics, Rotterdam Records Special, Rotterdam Tekno and Terror Traxx.^[4]

An early release was "Poing" by Rotterdam Termination Source (Maurice Steenbergen and Danny Scholte) which went to number 2 in the Dutch Top 40 and became world famous.^[5][6]

It also released tracks by the Euromasters such as "Amsterdam waar lech dat dan?" (Amsterdam? Where's that?) which stoked rivalry with Amsterdam.^[7] As Elstak moved towards releasing happy hardcore and softer music in the mid to late 1990s (for example "Rainbow in the Sky"), the original fans voiced their anger. Nasenbluten released the diss track "Rotterdam Takes It Up The Ass".^[8]

References

1. "Offensive Records". Discogs. Archived from the original on 7 June 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
2. "Rotterdams gabberimperium Mid-Town failliet". RTV Rijnmond. Rotterdam. 13 October 2012. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
3. "Thunderdome: 25 years of hardcore". Resident Advisor. Archived from the original on 28 May 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
4. "Rotterdam Records". Discogs. Archived from the original on 7 June 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
5. Deboick, Sophia (17 May 2020). "The Vengaboys, Eurodance and beyond: is Rotterdam the port of pop?". The New European. Archived from the original on 5 July 2020. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
6. "Weird Hit Wonder #5: Rotterdam Termination Source – Poing". 3voor12 (in Dutch). Vpro. 4 May 2020. Archived from the original on 18 May 2020. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
7. Foster, Richard (20 April 2015). "A Quietus Interview: Hard Voor Weinig; Klopt! Rats On Rafts And Rotterdam". The Quietus. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
8. Reynolds, Simon (2013). Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture (eBook). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-78316-6. Retrieved 19 July 2020.