Kinetic Records was a New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

-based record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 founded by Steve Lau (founding member of Sire Records

Sire Records

Sire Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer, each investing ten thousand dollars into the new company. Its early releases as a...

 act the Ocean Blue

The Ocean Blue

The Ocean Blue, formed in Hershey, Pennsylvania in 1986, is an American indie pop band that combines melodic guitars and synthesizers. Its core original members included David Schelzel on lead vocals/guitar, Steve Lau on keyboards/saxophone, Bobby Mittan on bass guitar and Rob Minnig on drums and...

), that launched the careers of artists and DJs such as Paul Oakenfold

Paul Oakenfold

Paul Mark Oakenfold is a British record producer and a trance DJ.-Early Career: 1979–84:Paul Oakenfold's career was set to be a chef, after having hopes of becoming part of a band. He describes his early life as a "bedroom deejay" in a podcasted interview with Vancouver's 24 Hours, stating he grew...

, BT, Deepsky

Deepsky

Deepsky is an electronic music act based in Los Angeles. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Deepsky formed in 1992 when its two founding members, J. Scott Giaquinta and Jason Blum, met at the University of New Mexico...

, Kosheen

Kosheen

Kosheen are a British trip hop, breakbeat and rock group based in Bristol, England. The trio consists of producers Markee Substance and Darren Decoder , with singer and song writer Sian Evans...

, Tilt

Tilt (producers)

Tilt is a British group of electronic record producers, composed of Andy Moor and Mick Parks.Tilt was started in Coventry, England by Mick Parks and Mick Wilson. They became resident DJs at Eclipse, one of the early 1990s rave dance clubs. During their time at Eclipse, they met Sasha, who...

, Timo Maas

Timo Maas

Timo Maas is an electronic music DJ/producer and remixer.-Career:Maas bought his first set of turntables at the age of 17, and played his very first DJ set in 1982 at a party in his friend's home...

, Grace, Sandra Collins

Sandra Collins

Sandra Collins is an American DJ.She got her start on the West Coast of the U.S. in Phoenix, Arizona and into residencies in Los Angeles, and eventually moved towards trance. She used American producers to give herself a unique sound...

, Billy Thermal

Billy Thermal

Billy Thermal is a band formed by hit songwriter Billy Steinberg in 1979. The name Billy Thermal comes from the vineyards located in Thermal, California where Steinberg's father Lionel Steinberg owned Freedman Farms....

, Binary Finary

Binary Finary

Binary Finary are a British trance act originally comprising Matt Laws and Stuart Matheson, who were later joined by Sasha Vatoff who acts as DJ and live performer. They are best known for the dance hit single "1998", especially for the Paul Van Dyk and Gouryella remixes, which charted in many...

, and Shpongle

Shpongle

Shpongle is an English psychedelic downtempo/psybient music project formed in 1996. The group includes Simon Posford and Raja Ram . Their musical style combines eastern ethnic instruments and vocals with contemporary western synthesizer-based psychedelic music...

. Other successful artists on the label included Ash

Ash (band)

Ash are an alternative rock band that formed in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland in 1992. The band has sold 8 million albums worldwide.-Band beginning, Trailer and 1977 :...

, Sasha and John Digweed, South

South

South is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.South is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to east and west.By convention, the bottom side of a map is south....

, Faithless

Faithless

Faithless were a British electronica band consisting of Maxi Jazz, Sister Bliss and Rollo. The group is best known for their dance songs . Faithless recorded six albums. During their career they sold over 15 million records worldwide...

, DJ DAN

DJ Dan

DJ Dan is an American electronic house music DJ and producer. Dan previously released works through the Moonshine label....

, LTJ Bukem

LTJ Bukem

LTJ Bukem is the stage name used by the drum and bass musician, producer and DJ Danny Williamson . He and his record labels Good Looking and Looking Good Records are most associated with the jazzy, atmospheric side of drum and bass music....

, Dario G

Dario G

Dario G is the name of a dance music trio from Crewe, Cheshire, England. Despite popular belief the group are not named after the manager of Crewe Alexandra, Dario Gradi but changed their name from Dario to Dario G after being threatened with legal action from an artist of the same name...

, Luomo, Infected Mushroom

Infected Mushroom

Infected Mushroom is an Israeli psychedelic trance DJ act and electronic group originally formed in late 1997 as a duo by producers Erez Eisen and Amit Duvdevani in Haifa...

, Max Graham

Max Graham

Max Graham is a Canadian DJ, composer and producer who manages to transcend genres while producing international hits in the dance music scene. He is most famous for his hits “Sun in the Winter” and “Nothing Else Matters”, His Cycles CD Series/Radio show as well as his remix of the classic song...

, Dave Ralph

Dave Ralph

Dave Ralph is an English electronic musician, best known as a house and trance DJ.Ralph was born in Liverpool and first deejayed in the 1970s. Through the 1980s he performed at clubs such as Cream and Shelley's, and began working with Paul Oakenfold, releasing recordings on his Perfecto label...

 Music Instructor

Music Instructor

Music Instructor is a German electro-dance music project. The producers and songwriters of Music Instructor are Mike Michaels, Mark "MM" Dollar, and Mark Tabak, also known as Triple-M Crew. Triple-M has also produced other artists and bands such as Highland, The Boyz, Overground, Before Four, US5...

, and Hybrid. It was also well-known for its Tranceport

Tranceport

Tranceport is a trance music DJ mix album series. The series debuted in November 1998 with Paul Oakenfold's Tranceport, released on Kinetic Records...

 series, of which Paul Oakenfold

Paul Oakenfold

Paul Mark Oakenfold is a British record producer and a trance DJ.-Early Career: 1979–84:Paul Oakenfold's career was set to be a chef, after having hopes of becoming part of a band. He describes his early life as a "bedroom deejay" in a podcasted interview with Vancouver's 24 Hours, stating he grew...

's first installment is considered to be the breakthrough record for the trance

Trance music

Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...

 genre with the highest sales of any mix compilation. The release of Sasha

Sasha (DJ)

Sasha is a Welsh DJ and record producer. Sasha began his career playing acid house dance music in the late 1980s...

's Airdrawndagger

Airdrawndagger

Airdrawndagger is an album by Sasha. It was released in 2002 by Kinetic Records and BMG. It also featured appearances from Charlie May and Junkie XL. The term "air-drawn dagger" was used in Macbeth to characterize an emotional outburst. The album has a very different sound from Sasha's other...

 and Sasha and Digweed's mix compilation Communicate were also big releases for the label. Kinetic was the exclusive distributor of the Perfecto

Perfecto

-People:*Gregorio Perfecto , Filipino journalist, politician and jurist*Martín Perfecto de Cos , 19th-century Mexican general*Perfecto de Castro , multi-awarded Filipino musician*Saint Perfecto -People:*Gregorio Perfecto (1891–1949), Filipino journalist, politician and jurist*Martín Perfecto de Cos...

 label in the US as well as the Another Late Night compilation series, which featured Howie B., Fila Brazillia

Fila Brazillia

Fila Brazillia was an electronica collaboration from Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire in North-East England. Formed in 1990 by Steve Cobby and David McSherry...

 and Rae and Christian. The label was distributed by Reprise

Reprise Records

Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...

/Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...

 from its inception until 2001, when Kinetic switched distribution to BMG

BMG

Bertelsmann Music Group, , was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japan's Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann...

. The latter eventually absorbed the label during the merger with Sony Music.