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Spurred on by his frustration in the lack of British support and knowledge of the music that he was into at that time, Tortured Records was launched in January 1997 by label owner Billy Nasty. In fact, techno was going through a quiet phase at the time: many of the current high profile techno producers were just starting out while some of the more established were laying low. Adam Beyer had just started his Drumcode label, but apart from that you1ll be hard pressed to come up with any major developments in the scene.<p>
<a href="http://www.torturedrecords.co.uk/open/main.html">Dance music record label - Tortured
<img src=/tortured.jpg alt="Dance music record label - Tortured">Dance music record label - Tortured</a>
Tortured will be 4 years old in January 2001, and in these 4 years it has grown to be one of the best British techno labels as well as achieving cult status all over the globe representing some of the newer stars of techno. One spinoff of the label has been the pioneering Open to Torture club night at the end, soon entering its fourth year.<p>
During this time, the label has put out top quality releases from amongst others Adam Beyer, Cari Lekebusch, Marco Carola, Gaetek plus British acts The Cause (Craig Walsh and Scott Braithwaite), The Sound Associates (Daz Saund and Ben Tisdall) and Mark Williams. Billy Nasty has released under the guises of Barb Wired (with Richard Brown), Pomegranite and Kamarflarge.<p>
2000 has brought with it all sorts of developments for Tortured, primarily the first in a series of mix CD1s. "Torture Chamber Volume 1" is an album of Tortured tracks mixed by Billy, with other Tortured artists following in his footsteps.<p>
To coincide with the release of the CD, Billy embarked on a worldwide tour from February to May taking a variety of Tortured artists with him wherever he plays. He visited America, Canada, as well as throughout Europe.<p>
More recently Billy has launched his new electro based label - Electrix - with 2 EPs entitled Zeta Reticula. These have been constructed by the everimpressive Umek. Apparently the title means "forest moon that you can see with a telescope". Hmmmm.<p>
The idea behind Electrix is simple: to provide dancefloor electro for DJs. EP 3 will be by the Advent. The feedback and buzz on these records really has been amazing with support coming from Laurent Garnier, Andy Weatherall and Justin Robertson to name a few. Coming soon to your nearest discerning dancefloor.<p>
Keep an eye out for the next Torture Chamber CD, mixed by another Tortured artist, coming next year.<p>
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