Ahead of the release of Soul Heaven’s latest studio LP – Miguel Migs’ Dim Division – Defected’s Ben Lovett charts the history of one of house music’s most celebrated record labels.
Soul Heaven Records was born in a packed club, fuelled by loud, funky music and a party atmosphere. The year was 2002 and ‘Little’ Louie Vega was talking to original Heaven gatekeeper Oli White about the unique opportunity to deliver soulful house music to major global events; this hadn’t previously been explored. Closely affiliated to Bobby & Steve and their promotional DJ agency Zoo Management, White spoke to friends at Ministry Of Sound (namely Gareth Cooke and Simon Patterson, chiefs of Saturday night staple Rulin) about the concept of a super-soulful club night and, in turn, Soul Heaven was born, featuring Bobby & Steve as residents.
Of course, there was no record label yet. Soul Heaven Records would arrive in 2006, following the staggering expansion of White’s original party franchise from Ministry to the farthest flung corners of the clubbing world – America, Australia, Korea, Thailand and China. White’s crack DJ team, Phil Asher, Andy Ward, Aaron Ross and Neil Pierce (Zoo twins Bobby & Steve had moved elsewhere), were bowling over all before them, and now here was a label promising similar reach, style and quality. The imprint’s earliest releases, including Soul Central feat. Billie’s ‘In-Ten-City’, Druw & Perez feat. Don-e’s ‘Bonafide’, The Muthafunkaz feat. Marc Evans’ ‘I Don’t Want You Anymore’, Kerri Chandler’s ‘Oblivion’ and Liquid People’s ‘Son Of Dragon’, not to mention a series of mix albums from Blaze, Masters At Work, DJ Spen and Osunlade, duly dished slick yet engaging soul-grooves for house’s discerning core, an encouraging sign of times to come.
A year later, however, and White had left to pursue other opportunities within sport and entertainment. Enter Fleur Woolford, already owner of Zoo, and the Soul Heaven events arm. Woolford first inhabited the dance music scene at rare groove clubs in the eighties and house clubs in the nineties before leaving 15 years in theatre production to host parties and launch the varied Hush Hush imprint with husband Kenny Mac and partner Craig Smith. In 2003 she joined White at Soul Heaven. Four years later, she was running everything herself.
Soul Heaven Records’ next phase of releases steadily upped the ante. Soul-house burners from the likes of Terry Hunter (‘Wonderful’), Peven Everett (‘Can’t Do Without’, following album release Power Soul), Andy Ward (‘Streets Of The Sun’) and Arnold Jarvis & DJN Project (‘Wake Up’) cemented their loyal audience whilst offering sharp new electronic twists on the trad-diva sound and therefore an appealing accessibility to savvy new dance fans. Zoo, meanwhile, was renamed SWEntertainments (a nod to early Louie Vega alias ‘Small Wonders’), its consistent application of soulful house events around the world further accelerating the label’s success.
“It was an amazing experience for me,” Woolford remarked last year, “watching this thing grow so positively and so quickly. It was absolutely fantastic. And as I got more involved with the brand, and eventually became owner, it was great to have so many amazing mentors. People like Louie [Vega] and Kenny [‘Dope’ Gonzalez], and then Spen, Kerri Chandler, Terry Hunter, Kevin Hedge [former Blaze man] and of course Barbara Tucker and Ultra Nate; these were people I’d originally followed as a club fan, and they had...still have...so much experience.”
Last year, following further, diversifying house releases from Matthew Bandy (‘Time Me’), Deep City Soul (‘We All Fall Down’) and Beaten Soul (murky, stabby 2012 delight ‘Lead Me’, featuring Lady Alma), Soul Heaven formally re-aligned itself with Defected Records. The two stables had enjoyed a productive association many years before, even before Soul Heaven officially launched; reunited, an effective platform was established from which to unleash a new and innovative cascade of Heaven-ly music.
“Personally speaking, I never really wanted to leave Defected,” Woolford said at the time of reunion. “We were associated for a number of years and the relationship drove a lot of great music. There are a lot of interesting developments happening within house music right now which compliment what we want to achieve, so I think the new set-up makes perfect sense.”
Soul Heaven’s latest fruits have ripened in some style. Supremely soulful Brit singer-songwriter Terri Walker was first out of the blocks, post label re-launch, dropping the substantially deep rhythms of EP ‘He Love Me’ (backed by majestic Osunlade remixes). Subsequently, came EP outings by talented newcomers Sonny Fodera and Pablo Fierro (deep Melbourne jack on the one hand; lowdown disco loopin’ from Tenerife on the other) and earlier this year a spell-binding long-player via South African producer Cuebur – entitled For Headz Only, Cuebur’s nine-track fusion of raw tribal and smooth, emotive electronic included hit single ‘I See You’, featuring the silky tones of Vikter Duplaix.
Elsewhere, Soul Heaven has released pedigree outings from Jose Burgos feat. Kenny Bobien (‘For Your Love’, sweet brass-fed swing), DJ Able feat. Donald Sheffey (‘Watcha Gonna Do’, infectious key riffin’) and, just last week, Miguel Migs (‘Let It Play’ - featuring smooth vocals from Martin Luther over deep, abstract house grooves it perfectly reflects what is to come on impending album Dim Division).
“At Soul Heaven we have always kept it real musically” Louie Vega commented upon the brand’s 10th anniversary. “Soul Heaven always kept a close contact with the fans, and there is always a class set of entertainment. With the CDs, events worldwide, and quality of music they bring, you can’t go wrong.”
Indeed Soul Heaven, with the label at its absolute cutting edge, continues to engage meaningfully with a huge fan base – not simply recycling the same well-trodden garage-house motifs but shrewdly incorporating elements of genres right across the electronic spectrum. Soul Heaven Records, in the latest period of its evolution, has broadened its remit; successfully balancing breadth with soulful depth. Woolford would be proud. “We won’t just pander to our existing audience... we need to be open-minded if we’re going to get anywhere” she said last year. “I’m hoping our family can grow, and that we can build great tracks, build talk-of-the-town events...build our name over a long and successful period of time. That’d be awesome.”
Soul Heaven is well on course for that.
Words: Ben Lovett
Miguel Migs’ new single ‘Let It Play’, featuring Martin Luther, is out now on Soul Heaven Records. His new long-layer Dim Division follows on the label 26 October - order from iTunes
Dimi Division is streaming in full on Thump - listen here
