| Global Underground | |
| Founded: | 1996 |
| Founder: | Andy Horsfield |
| Genre: | Trance, progressive house, trance house |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Location: | London |
Global Underground is a British record label and compilation series founded in 1996 by Andy Horsfield and James Todd. The label symbolised the international explosion of dance music during the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s and first manifesto for high-end DJs such as Tony De Vit, Sasha, Paul Oakenfold, John Digweed, Danny Tenaglia, Nick Warren, Dave Seaman, Darren Emerson, James Lavelle, Carl Cox, and Solomun.
The name Global Underground originally refers to a series of electronic music compilation albums which reflect the performances of various DJs in venues around the world. The Global Underground series was released by a record label formerly known as Boxed which featured several sister series such as Nubreed and Electric Calm. Boxed closed in 2001 and was superseded by Global Underground Ltd. Since its first release in 1996, the series was well received and became a hallmark in the progressive house world. The dance music style featured is mostly progressive house, but there is some house, trance house, hard house, techno and breakbeat included in the releases. The first five installments were live recorded from respective clubs, while the rest are mixed and recorded in a studio.
Each issue in the series is based on the idea that Global Underground would take DJs to play a party in one of the most unusual, exotic clubbing locations on Earth. The set is then released in a 2CD format that is formatted to capture the night of the party and the overall feel of the DJ visit in music, contemporary photography by photographer Dean Belcher and extensive sleeve notes.
There are consistent characteristics in almost every album in the series including:
Billboard has recognized Global Underground as the first DJ mix compilation to place high-quality photographs of DJs on the album covers. This, it further asserted, played a part in turning DJs into superstar figures within the culture of electronic dance music.
Thrive Records was the U.S. distributor for some of the early Global Underground releases. Global Underground albums had an alternate numbering sequence and had different artwork, but were otherwise the same.
This is the complete listing of available albums in the Global Underground main series which includes the sequential number of the album in the series, the performing DJ/producer, the location in which the performance took place and the official release date. The listed catalog numbers are for the British releases. The numbers on the albums distributed by Thrive in the United States are shown in parentheses - those without such labels do not have a differing release number. Global Underground also has several "sub-series" entitled Nubreed, Prototype, 24:7, Electric Calm, Afterhours, and most recently Global Underground DJ.
| Title | Artist | Release date | Peak chart positions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Comp | UK Dance | US Dance | NL [1] | ||||
| 001: Tony De Vit, Live in Tel Aviv | Tony De Vit | 11 November 1996 | — | — | — | — | |
| 002 | colspan="5" | ||||||
| 003: Nick Warren, Live in Prague | Nick Warren | 24 March 1997 | 39 | — | — | — | |
| 004: Paul Oakenfold, Live in Oslo | Paul Oakenfold | 9 June 1997 | 21 | — | — | — | |
| 005: Tony De Vit, Tokyo | Tony De Vit | 6 November 1997 | 68 | — | — | — | |
| 006: John Digweed, Sydney | John Digweed | 13 April 1998 | 16 | — | — | — | |
| 007: Paul Oakenfold, New York | Paul Oakenfold | 25 May 1998 | 12 | — | 43 | — | |
| 008: Nick Warren, Brazil | Nick Warren | 27 July 1998 | 27 | — | — | — | |
| 009: Sasha, San Francisco | Sasha | 9 November 1998 | 18 | — | — | — | |
| 010: Danny Tenaglia, Athens | Danny Tenaglia | 15 February 1999 | 16 | — | — | — | |
| 011: Nick Warren, Budapest | Nick Warren | 31 May 1999 | 20 | — | — | — | |
| 012: Dave Seaman, Buenos Aires | Dave Seaman | 23 August 1999 | 26 | — | — | — | |
| 013: Sasha, Ibiza | Sasha | 28 September 1999 | 12 | — | — | — | |
| 014: John Digweed, Hong Kong | John Digweed | 14 December 1999 | 24 | — | — | — | |
| 015: Darren Emerson, Uruguay | Darren Emerson | 15 May 2000 | 20 | — | — | — | |
| 016: Dave Seaman, Cape Town | Dave Seaman | 14 August 2000 | 22 | — | — | — | |
| 017: Danny Tenaglia, London | Danny Tenaglia | 18 September 2000 | 21 | — | — | — | |
| 018: Nick Warren, Amsterdam | Nick Warren | 6 November 2000 | 24 | 26 | — | — | |
| 019: John Digweed, Los Angeles | John Digweed | 26 February 2001 | 14 | — | 11 | — | |
| 020: Darren Emerson, Singapore | Darren Emerson | 2 July 2001 | 33 | — | — | — | |
| 021: Deep Dish, Moscow | Deep Dish | 29 October 2001 | 25 | 37 | 13 | — | |
| 022: Dave Seaman, Melbourne | Dave Seaman | 29 April 2002 | 31 | — | 8 | — | |
| 023: James Lavelle, Barcelona | James Lavelle | 30 September 2002 | 18 | — | 19 | — | |
| 024: Nick Warren, Reykjavik | Nick Warren | 24 March 2003 | 34 | — | 25 | — | |
| 025: Deep Dish, Toronto | Deep Dish | 2 June 2003 | 33 | 30 | 1 | — | |
| 026: James Lavelle, Romania | James Lavelle | 1 March 2004 | 27 | — | 26 | — | |
| 027: Danny Howells, Miami | Danny Howells | 28 March 2005 | 33 | — | 14 | — | |
| 028: Nick Warren, Shanghai | Nick Warren | 12 July 2005 | 44 | — | 14 | — | |
| 029: Sharam, Dubai | Sharam | 2 October 2006 | 35 | 1 | — | — | |
| 030: Nick Warren, Paris | Nick Warren | 19 February 2007 | 44 | 2 | 20 | — | |
| 031: Dubfire, Taipei | Dubfire | 2 April 2007 | 42 | 2 | — | — | |
| 032: Adam Freeland, Mexico City | Adam Freeland | 4 June 2007 | 42 | 3 | — | — | |
| 033: Layo & Bushwacka!, Rio | Layo & Bushwacka! | 8 October 2007 | 44 | 4 | — | — | |
| 034: Felix Da Housecat, Milan | Felix Da Housecat | 13 May 2008 | 53 | 11 | — | — | |
| 035: Nick Warren, Lima | Nick Warren | 13 October 2008 | 57 | 1 | — | — | |
| 036: Darren Emerson, Bogotá | Darren Emerson | 9 February 2009 | 71 | 11 | — | — | |
| 037: James Lavelle, Bangkok | James Lavelle | 3 August 2009 | 31 | 8 | — | — | |
| 038: Carl Cox, Black Rock Desert | Carl Cox | 1 February 2010 | 38 | 12 | — | 28 | |
| 039: Dave Seaman, Lithuania[2] | Dave Seaman | 27 September 2010 | 39 | 24 | — | — | |
| 040: Solomun, Hamburg[3] | Solomun | 31 August 2014 | 72 | 25 | — | — | |
| 041: James Lavelle, Naples[4] | James Lavelle | 6 November 2015 | 41 | 5 | 23 | — | |
| 042: Patrice Bäumel, Berlin[5] | Patrice Bäumel | 29 March 2019 | 48 | 5 | — | — | |
| 043: Joris Voorn, Rotterdam[6] | Joris Voorn | 30 October 2020 | — | — | — | — | |
| 044: Amelie Lens - Antwerp[7] | Amelie Lens | 25 November 2022 | — | — | — | — | |
| 045: Danny Tenaglia - Brooklyn[8] | Danny Tenaglia | 22 November 2023 | — | — | — | — | |
| 046: ANNA - Lisbon[9] | ANNA | June 2024 | — | — | — | — | |
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||
Prototype was the first of a sub-series of releases separate from the mainline albums, was given to DJ Seb Fontaine to test if a spin-off series would be successful which after decent sales led to other series being produced like nubreed.
Nubreed features mix albums from what Boxed considers "up-and-coming DJs", though it has featured experienced DJs such as Satoshi Tomiie.
24:7 is a series where DJs are asked to put together a set of two notably contrasting halves, based on the conceptual opposites of 'day' and 'night'.
In 2002, former NuBreed DJ Steve Lawler was given his own imprint on the Global Underground label that he titled "Lights Out". The concept of the series of mixed CDs was to bring the darker, grittier side of the dancefloor into the spotlight.
Similar to nubreed a spin off series of albums given to newer DJs within the scene.
In 2003, the Global Underground franchise began their "GU Music" imprint. Up until this time, they were strictly a label that dealt in DJ compiled and mixed CDs. GU Music allowed Global Underground to get into full length artist albums and Vinyl/CD/MP3 single releases. The GU Music team commented: "Having nurtured some of the worlds finest DJs we have applied this expertise to original music, cherry picking the coolest future talent from across the globe..." They have featured releases from such artists as UNKLE, Lostep, and Trafik. In 2007, it expanded with the release of the compilation GU Mixed which started a series of the same name that consisted of music sought from GU Music.
Electric Calm is a series in the chill or "calm" side of electronica while Afterhours is similar to the Back to Mine series. Both Afterhours and Electric Calm, along with GU "Sampler" CDs, were compiled and mixed by Global Underground themselves.
In Boxed's UK releases, GU002 was the never released second installment in the Global Underground series (in Thrive's US re-numbered releases, Paul Oakenfold's New York mix was released as GU002). Global Underground jumped directly from GU001: Tony De Vit - Live In Tel Aviv to GU003: Nick Warren - Prague, which resulted in a lot of controversy and rumours on the nature of GU002. However, GU002 does exist in form of the tape pack of Tony De Vit's Tel Aviv CD as the actual catalogue number of the release is GU002T. When Boxed started the GU series in 1996, they did not have a clear vision about the numbering scheme (later to become part of their image), which resulted in the "missing" release.[11]