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Euphoria — the king of dance music compilations
Reported by benz
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Submitted 18-10-06 11:56
There was a time when commercially-orientated dance music compilations consisted of little more than ‘Dance Zone’, ‘Now That’s What I Call Dance’, ‘Club Zone’ and ‘The Best Dance Album In The World... Ever!’ OK, they are clearly all awesome and there was also the slightly more underground effort — ‘Energy Rush’ (more on that later) and ‘The Annual’ made impressive dents on the compilation charts — but credible, commercially successful dance music collections were somewhat of a rarity. The long-running, massively popular Euphoria series was one of the turning points in this timeline, deftly pleasing commercial audiences as well as die-hard clubbing ones.
Eddie Short, a former employee of the now-defunct Telstar, was responsible for creating the brand. “I joined the record industry at the age of 19 working for what was then Polygram. I was an album sales rep. Mario Warner employed me, as he was the sales manager. He left Polygram and went to work for Dino Entertainment who were the main competitors to Telstar.” Mario was the man behind the aforementioned Energy Rush series and Ultimate Hardcore. Eddie soon left Polygram and went to work for Sony when Mario called him offered him the position as Sales Manager at Dino. He took the job and was soon working in the world of TV-advertised albums — coming up with concepts for new compilations and seeing them through from drawing board to record store.
“The first was Drive Time, which as a series has sold over 2 million. Dino folded when the record companies stopped licensing their repertoire in order to make their in-house departments more successful. Mario and I formed a consultancy company coming up with ideas and selling them to record companies for an override. We would design the sleeve, compile, make the TV/radio commercials and advise on a marketing strategy. It was during this time I came up with the Euphoria concept and presented it initially to Universal who said no, and then to Telstar who went for it.” With each Euphoria compilation selling up to 300,000 copies, Universal must be kicking themselves — ouch!
“I had been on a big night out at The Gallery,” Eddie recalls, harking back to 1998, “and had returned with a group of friends to chill out and listen to some tunes. I put on Paul Oakenfold ‘Live In New York’. The room went quiet for the duration and when the CD finished I said, imagine there was an album called ‘Euphoria’ — you would just have to buy it! Everyone there said immediately they would.” And the rest is history…
“At the time dance compilations catered for to many styles of music on one CD” he explains, further pinpointing the reasons for Euphoria’s success. “It was only the Global Underground CDs that got anywhere near the mark. These were so dj-driven that they often just adopted the formula of a set in a club, which is just not interesting enough for repeat home listening. If you woke up on a Monday morning with the blues it would not exactly get the spirits flying again to put on a John Digweed Global Underground mix on the way to work. Euphoria just predominantly compiled the records that djs would place at the peak of their sets. Some would be well known, others always remained underground and it was this unusual mix that appealed to buyers as they would always discover so many new tracks selected by the latter formula.”
Eddie employed some cunning tactics to keep the audiences as wide as possible — the old adage of “don’t tell them what they’re dancing to” seemed to work nicely, and also ensured that the brand could develop without any ultra-specific identity at its core. “I always refused to let the record company use the word ‘trance’ at any point during a Euphoria advertising campaign. In dance, genres come and go. Euphoria established a brand identity that the content of the album induces euphoria. I also wanted the flexibility to periodically release sub-brands of Euphoria such as ‘Chilled’, ‘Deeper Shades’, ‘White Label’, ‘Hard House’.”
The series was a huge success from the off. The first release remains the best-seller to this day, shifting over 300,000 copies. It was the first compilation to run TV adverts with only one track in — seen as a huge gamble at the time when few big record labels were willing to go against the grain. “But those 20 seconds of one track was enough to give you that little tingle at the back of the neck, combined with the ‘Alien’ style graphics.”
Over the years, Eddie and his colleagues developed the brand to encompass a multitude of different flavours — Frantic Euphoria, Judgement (Sundays) Euphoria, Lashed Euphoria, tidy Euphoria, Ibiza Euphoria, Extreme Euphoria, Progressive Euphoria, Classic Euphoria, Deep & Chilled Euphoria... the list goes on and on. “I loved the Deeper Shades as they were such a journey and interesting listen. Jay Burnett would spend hours playing around with elements of records and if you listen carefully there are up to 4 parts of different tunes playing at one time. The albums blended breakbeat, chillout, and full on tunes, but each record still had the same core formula.”
The compilations are often sold on the strength of the tunes, rather than on the reputation of the dj mixing it. “DJs know how to play a set and mix a set together. But would you go and listen to that dj play the same set 10 times in a row? Repeat listening just does not work on the principles of a club set, it needs to be more varied for a CD. However. with the sub brands such as hard house, progressive and hardcore, they need to be much tighter to the specific scene they are reflecting. This has usually been more dj and genre-lead.”
Knowing how to adapt to the targeted market has been one of the strengths of the series — especially in hard dance, where they have collaborated with most of the biggest brands in the scene to provide accurate representations of the genre.
Now with the latest addition to their catalogue, Hardcore Euphoria, they have enlisted the help of six of the biggest djs in the scene to help make their mark on the genre. Why Hardcore now though? “Those [hardcore ravers] are the people having the best time in clubs at the moment and Euphoria has always tried to reflect in its sub-brands a scene in which people are experiencing euphoria.” Hardcore fans would certainly argue that there is nothing more euphoric than the uplifting sounds of their genre of choice — and the theme of the music certainly sits well with the theme of the series.
Eddie remains passionate about the series, and cites classic compilations from the past as an influence “I grew up on a diet of the early Renaissance CDs and Volume 2, the silver one mixed by John Digweed, was in my view the peak of the series. Buying it and examining the packaging was all part of the experience. Today many dance CDs have a throw away feel about them, which I can understand for the hits of the moment, but would hate that to happen to Euphoria.”
The brand continues to produce some of the most popular and rated mainstream compilations around, and with the Extreme, Old Skool and Hardcore Euphoria club nights, it has become more than just a banner for mix albums. I’d be willing to bet that the majority of people on this site have owned at least one Euphoria compilation at some point in their life. What’s your favourite flavour?
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Other Features By benz:
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Eat Static return for Lost In Space
Coburn bring their live show to UP^^
The return of The Colosseum
Modernism, Politburo and Sedition: Matthew Duffield’s manifesto
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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Comments:
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From: Danny Luu on 18th Oct 2006 13:16.39
Deep and Chilled Euphoria is wicked 
From: benz on 18th Oct 2006 13:19.34
I wanna get one of the chilled ones! they look wicked
From: dirtyrascal on 18th Oct 2006 13:21.00
Euphoria Albums are always worth the purchase, the latest Hardcore Euphoria is blinding. 3 CDs of new fresh Hardcore tracks! Woo Hoo!
From: cherryjam on 18th Oct 2006 13:43.54
awesome album and write up- been buying euphoria for years and this one -althought out of the box- is really really good -anyone supporting the hardcore scene or into the music needs to go out and BUY THIS NOW!
From: Andy Dunford on 18th Oct 2006 13:45.50
I must have about ten of these, and I got the very first one from my (still) partner for my 21st birthday! The Chilled ones are probably the best as they are timeless and the "Deeper shades" is of a very high quality as mentioned above.
I do think that the Euphoria brand has sold out in the last couple of years though with things such as House Euphoria. Plus the few trance ones that come along these days are all "classic" albums when there is so much good trance out there. These albums used to be innovative but I don't think they are any more.
Having said that they are up there if not ahead of the likes of Gatecrasher in terms of their impact on the music industry.
From: Lisa B on 18th Oct 2006 16:12.25
Big up all Euphoria Albums!! I have a vast range of all the albums and even have my name in quite a few of them Wahoooo!! ... Hardcore Euphoria came out Monday and is going to be huge
don't forget to join us on Friday 10th November at mass in Brixton as we take you on a journey through this incredible new album with all the stars that made it possible !!
From: Adam White on 18th Oct 2006 20:34.30
The man behind the music is EDDIE SHORT, not Eddie Dunn 
From: benz on 19th Oct 2006 10:20.02
Shit cheers Adam - I was pretty short that was his name until he left me an answerphone message the other day and I could have sworn he said "Hi it's Eddie Dunn...." ....I was like, hmm that's odd....
thanks for the heads-up! Changed
From: Mizz_behavin on 22nd Oct 2006 14:21.05
The first one was amazing and I remember listening to it with my flatmates at the time and we all were like "wow" and has to be my favourite Euphoria one, I still regularly play it  John Flemming's "White Label" and Dave Pearce's "Total" are also wicked and so are the "Chilled" ones.
Lately though I just dont think they are as good, bought an Extreme one and only played the first CD before it got resigned to the shelf....and as for Hardcore :yuk: but thats just my music taste
I prefer the Global Underground series
From: dimitry on 23rd Oct 2006 12:37.15
good write up mate,
chilout euphoria is the best for the day after.
From: jimbarkanoodle on 24th Oct 2006 01:33.23
euphorias used to be amazing and represent great value for money- 3 cds packed full of good tunes. i think these cds defeintly helped me get into dance music.
a favourite of mine was the limited edition one mixed my matt darey and adam white and the blue extreme euphoria by lashes.
however since being taken over by ministry it has become clear that they are now just a money making machine and are much more commercial. all the albums have the same tunes on again and again and they really arent that good anymore. maybe one of the cds will be good the others rubbish.
i remember the euphorias of old would be stuck in my stereo for ages, nowadays one listen if they are lucky and banished to the shelf to collect dust.
oh well, was good while it lasted
From: Dubster on 24th Oct 2006 09:57.38
That first one still remains one of the best dance albums of all time imo. Mine is battered to hell but holds a special place in my heart. Top stuff.
From: ck on 25th Oct 2006 13:45.50
What Caver the Raver said  I too have about ten of these albums but stopped buying the hard/extreme ones when I stopped clubbing to HH, although the olders one are still classics, particularly the Cally and Juice bootleg  The rest jsut seem to be spun out without any love. More new trance euphorias would make a welcome addiction.
From: Toxic on 30th Oct 2006 09:56.08
Dont own a single one, they've always been gash when compared to Gatecrasher / Gods / Global Underground / Renassiance CDs. !
From: captin tictac on 24th Dec 2006 21:15.11
Add your comments here !i love the euphoria albums and have had many a good time with all of them most of all the best cd ever made the classic bounce mixed by super whitby keep it coming
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