The Rush Hour record store in Amsterdam is 10 years old, and they’re touring Australia with some serious talent to celebrate. Simonfromuk swaps emails with head honcho Antal to find out more…

Ten years ago a pair of dedicated crate diggers started up Rush Hour, which is now one of the most respected outlets for underground dance music worldwide. Comprising a mail-order website, physical store, distribution arm and a number of record labels, Antal and Christiaan have managed to cut themselves a path to the heart of their musical world, and now they’re coming to Australia with some friends to give us a taste of what they call ‘The Rush Hour Flavour’.

As Antal tells it, there was no real grand plan to become a global outpost of ‘Good Shit’, it just sort of happened. “When we found good stuff for cheap, we started reselling. That turned out to be fun and we never stopped…” Of course, Amsterdam was not exactly a paradise for finding those ultra-rare trophies prized amongst the digging fraternity, and so they travelled abroad in search of their bounty. While visiting record stores in London they met Deepart, a UK-based producer
whose music Antal and Christiaan rated. And so it was in 1999 that ‘Collage #1’ by Deepart was pressed up with the catalogue number RH-001.

Rush Hour’s distribution of other Dutch artists and labels was starting up at this time, thanks to the amount of overseas wax the shop was importing – Antal fills us in: “Because of our international relationships we were also able to export music more easily, so friends like Marsel from Delsin or Steven De Peven from Rednose we could easily help to export their music. There turned out to be more labels interested in our distribution work so that’s how we grew…”

When listening to music from Rush Hour’s label, or stuff on sale in their shop, it’s quite apparent that there’s a big Detroit connection. Much of the music is heavily influenced by the Detroit tech sound, and 313 deities such as Kenny Larkin and Carl Craig have released on Rush Hour. The Detroit connection is, however, only one aspect to what is known as the ‘Rush Hour Flavour’. As well as plenty of lush pads and melancholy chords, there is a diverse collection of music available from the store, including some intriguing second-hand items. And it all conforms to some sort of aesthetic, that isn’t easily described, perhaps because it’s always evolving, mutating.

“It’s definitely our taste. We don’t see any use of being a grocery store full of music that doesn’t interest us. There are other stores who can do that. We find fun in offering stuff we like and want to promote. Since we promote the music like this – which means from the heart – we have met up with a lot of freaks and music lovers who also tell us about music, so along the way we have learned about Brazilian, Afrobeat, rock, pop, [new] wave, disco, soul, funk and lots more, [and] our shop collection also became wider…” And what’s the latest hotness in the Rush Hour world? “I am digging a lot of Brazilian music as well as having a revival of Chicago house music.”

And it’s this aesthetic, this ‘flavour’ which has established Rush Hour and seen them prevail while record stores hit the wall daily due to the MP3 explosion. Part of this has been their global relevance – about 90% of their sales happen outside Holland, and while Antal doesn’t have the militant hatred of MP3 so common amongst vinyl junkies (in brief: he likes mp3s because you can get music out there really quick, but wouldn’t be caught dead dropping one on a sound system) he passionately warns against the loss of something very important with the death of all these record stores.

“Specialty record stores must be seen as places with knowledge. Each time you go in there you learn. You can discover things. It is our task as Rush Hour to bring people interesting stuff – for collectors, for diggers, for lovers of the medium. This is also what makes a DJ interesting: because he has been digging music for years, he or she knows his or her shit and why to play a certain record. Copy cats won’t keep it alive. So as soon as it dies – if it dies – one will discover the art of digging and the thing grows again.”

Antal is somebody who’s passionate enough about his cultural universe to be an evangelist – when asked to name people from Amsterdam who he thinks should have more exposure he goes on to list nearly 30 different artists, club nights and spaces (reprinted in full at the bottom of this article). It’s obvious that he’s not merely a businessman operating a profit-making enterprise, but a missionary, spreading his good word far and wide. And soon he will come to Australia, together with live techno producer Aardvarck and business partner/lifemate All Out K, repping Amsterdam (“Aardvarck… brings the vibe for many years,” “Allout K is my partner in crime, I met the fool 10 years ago, we fell in love and started the record shop. I heard they say ‘date short, marry long!’ Rush Hour nonstop!”)

The tour is to celebrate Rush Hour’s 10th anniversary, and of course the hackneyed question which presents itself must be asked: Where will Rush Hour be in ten years’ time? Antal leaves us with these thoughts, “We will be 20 years old. If the tax company and others don’t be parasites on us, we hope to be a place which can be inspiring for creative people in any form possible. Movies, clothes, film, design, documentaries, magazines, theatre, art – all are inspiring to us and someday we will make a connection with one or another. This is what it’s about, promoting cool things, no matter the medium, although music is the answer!”

Antal’s Amsterdam hot 28:

[ Cinnaman | Tom Trago | La Melodia | Rednose Distrikt | Harco Pront | KC The Funkaholic | Comtron | Delslin | INT | Pipslab | Newworldaquarium | Bitterzoet | Club Eleven | Flexbar | Patta Sneakershop | The Spuistraat Massive | Cris Backer | Toby or not Toby | Waxwell Records | Quince | Shinedoe | Melon | San Proper | Dopeness Galore | Kid Sublime | Overlast | 8Bar | Wunderbaum ]

Rush Hour – 10 Years Non-Stop tour, featuring Aardvarck, Recloose, Antal and All Out K plays the following dates in January:

18 Jan – Electric Light Hotel, Adelaide
19 Jan – Public Office, Melbourne
20 Jan – Hermann’s, Sydney