Dorado Records
Dorado Records was founded in 1992 by Ollie Buckwell in Soho, London.
Key signings in the early years were D*Note, Outside, Jhelisa and Brooklyn Funk Essentials and the label released many classic recordings, such as The Plan and To Forgive But Not Forget by Outside, Friendly Pressure and Whirl Keeps Turning by Jhelisa, Take the “L” Train and The Creator Has A Masterplan by Brooklyn Funk Essentials and D*Votion and The Garden Of Earthly Delights by D*Note. The label was part of a movement that came out of London in the early nineties, tagged as Acid Jazz, UK Street Soul, or Trip Hop and that included several other independents, Acid Jazz, Mo' Wax, Ninja Tune and Talkin' Loud.
In 1995 Dorado launched the electronic dance off shoot, Filter and Sunship, DJ Q, Box Saga, Kid Loops and The Amalgamation Of Soundz were added to the roster. Sunship's Try Me Out and Cheque One Two, Kid Loops' Microphone Fiend, and the Amalgamamtion of Soundz' Enchant Me are still featured on playlists and compilations.
The label embraced technology very early with an award winning website that offered the catalogue streamed in full as early as 1998 and in 2003 they were one of the first independents to license their catalogue to iTunes. As well as developing artists, the label also nurtured executive talent. Charlie Lexton, Ross Allen, Iona Hames, Ed Millet, Roisin Duffy, Sam Sandell, Julie Bleeker, Rebecca Cresta, Marc Waxman, Sasha Nixon, Shirley McDermott, Duncan Stump, Chris Pattinson and Rachel Watkins mostly all had their first jobs in the music business at Dorado and contributed greatly to the label’s success.
In 2004, Dorado opened a US office and in 2005, released the debut album from Cities Of Foam, A Great Day For The Races with the track Without You featured on iTunes as single of the week. In 2006, the first of four albums from Natalie Walker were released Urban Angel (2006), as followed by With You (2008), Spark (2011) and Strange Bird (2015). These records received wide critical and commercial success and their tracks Waking Dream, With You, Uptight and Superstition, to name a few, have been featured in dozens of TV shows and movies. In 2015, Dorado and Brooklyn Funk Essentials reunited and released their fifth album Funk Aint Ova on November 13th. This album quickly became their most successful to date, thanks to wide support on streaming platforms. Brooklyn Funk Essentials released their sixth album Stay Good on September 20th 2019.
In 2021 Dorado signed NIN3S and released the debut album Hopeyard in April 2022. It included the singles Khokhoba and The Tunnel. Jhelisa also rejoined the label, releasing the meditational double album 7 Keys in 2021 and the 11 minute epic, Oxygen, featuring Greg Osby, in 2022. Outside returned to the label in 2023 with Almost Out and Brooklyn Funk Essentials released their 7th album Stay Good.
In 2024, the eclipse on April 8th sparked a viral trend on TikTok for Sunship’s UK garage “Into The Sunshine” remix of Friendly Pressure 26 years after its original release. Within a few months 500,000 videos were created with over 1 billion views. The mix was re-added to radio and streaming playlists around the world and passed 100 million all time streams. Galactica Rush Jhelisa’s debut album was remastered from the original analogue tapes and re-released digitally and on vinyl.
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