On the whole, compilations are a much safer bet for us – once you know your market, you have a fairly good idea which ones will work and how many they will sell. What is the best deal / business : to make reissues or to produce / co-produce new records? I think we generally know instinctively straight away if an album will work as an idea or not. For an album to work, it needs to be a unique idea with global potential, preferably with an interesting back-story. It can happen in a variety of ways – I may spot a gap in the market for a particular album, one of the collectors we work with regularly may have an idea or we may just get approached by someone that we have never worked with before. How do you decide on the choice of reissues/issues ? There’s a broad philosophy of back catalogue dancefloor music that has influenced today’s generation so Strut covers everything from undiscovered “world” fusions to disco, post-punk and industrial music to early house. What could be your editorial/aesthetic line? We try and present our albums to appeal to any music fan – it’s personally satisfying to take the music away from over-protective collectors and DJs who feel like they somehow own the music and make it available more widely. “Put the artists first and make amazing, lesser known original music available to everyone”. I was obsessed with The Meters so ‘Cissy Strut’ was probably coming to mind…
It’s obviously inspired by funk records that used ‘Strut’ in their titles too. It’s a funky walk! You’re feeling good and you’re struttin’ down the street. With Strut, I kicked off with an Afro-funk / Afrobeat collection compiled by Brighton DJ Russ Dewbury – ‘Club Africa’. I started a dance reissues label before Strut called Harmless (still going through Demon Music) and we started that in ’95 with a compilation of Masters At Work’s remixes called ‘Masterworks’. Running an indie label doesn’t make you rich and I have two growing kids these days but any spare pennies still go on the vinyl. You would hear a real variety of sounds in London clubs and warehouses from rare groove to boogie to Washington DC go-go, hip hop and early house and it just felt like a very open-minded time for music.Īre you still digging’, buying vinyl, visiting record shops? There are brilliant records and some DIY efforts which have dated really badly but that whole period had a particular innocence and is still very special.ĭo you have a particular style or favorite period?ġ970-1973 was an incredible time for music but my personal favourite is probably around 1986-1987. I would travel from the suburbs to Central London and fight through the bomber jackets at the counter in Soho’s Groove Records to get the latest imports. What LPs did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them? I started buying vinyl seriously around 1983. This month, Quinton Scott, the man behind Strut Records, talks about his passion since more than thirty years and goes back on his choices, reissues as new stuff. Each month, we are focusing on a record label founded by an active digger.
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