Blaou, thegreatesthits

Blaou was a weirdo label, a kind of Berlin-based small clubby Ladomat. This CD is of the label showcase type mixed by Mitja Prinz, famous long-time resident of Globus Club (the house side of Tresor) and Dixon, best known for his connections with Sonar Kollektiv and his Innervisions label.
Including many big (or gonna be big) names in their roster (Schaffhaeuser before Ware, Erobique, Arc-En-Ciel, Pierre Deutschmann, Kissogram, Larsson, Kid Q & more) and with the support of a lot of Berlin's underground, they released mostly house music with indie mentality, paving their way since the mid '90s and managing to score a few hits and release some wonderful 12''s in the meantime. They stopped releasing at 2005 in the middle of a rather ambitious project, the release of ten 12''s of KLF covers/remixes by 'contemporary' artists (Villalobos, Deichkind, etc) of which only the first three circulated. Actually, they were rather disappointing.
Which had nothing to do with the other Blaou releases, half of them showcased here. From the hypnotic '6 Uhr Morgens' to the manic 'Jus', from deep and minimal house to distorted guitar electro, from Woody's remix on Kissogram's debut to Erobique's vandalism on I-F's 'Space Invaders', it's a sound still fresh and relevant even today. A decade later, many of those artists (then mostly newcomers) are considered artistically successful, they make a living of their music and hopefully they'll continue to do so.

By the way, the success of key Berlin free-of-style house labels (like !K7, SK, etc) also proves that the Berlin attitude on purism I've mentioned before is not adopted by everyone there. Probably it's a result of the last 5-6 years' wave of 'cultural immigration' on the techno/club scene, or something. Purism in art is the equivalent of death and stagnation, cross-breeding implies growth and evolution. And not just in art, actually.

VA - 2001, Blaou - thegreatesthits
Mixed by Dixon & Mitja Prinz
Part 1 - Part 2
Info here.