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As privileged as it is to be part of something so authentically house, there's also a burden of responsibility that comes with being a Chicago based house music label. Started by Mazi Namvar (Audio Soul Project) and Nathan Drew Larsen, the influence for their deliciously named 'Fresh Meat Records' label has been the 'other side' of the famous Chicago house sound, that is the deeper, soulful, dubby and throbbing emotional and experimental records that are at the heart of the Chicago inspiration

Drew Larsen and Namvar's association goes back to the loft parties in the early 90s second wave Chicago, where along with other DJs like Justin Long, friendships were made that would become the basis of their lengthy careers in the business. Fresh Meat eventually began in 2005 after each partner had close to 15 years of international DJ gigs under their respective belts, including clubs like Fabric, Avalon and Crystal, Istanbul. Furthermore, heralded productions and remixes, such as of Nosmo v Kris B & Ben Brown's "La Cocina", which was licensed to Darren Emerson's Bogotá Global Underground 36 compilation, along with a thousand and one ideas about how they could do things their way, meant Fresh Meat was born on the butcher's block and made into perfect slices of aural pleasure.

Nathan's best known production moniker, House of Black Dress, provided the label with one of its biggest hits "No One To Care For" and others like 'Anymore' by Badmouth and 'I Want You' by Wiretappeur have achieved critical acclaim. Things got a bit silly in 2009 with a total of 13 releases and 2 mix compilations and perhaps most significantly, a continually burgeoning roster of artists and collaborators that now include Will Saul, Phonique, King Roc, Luna City Express, David Duriez and Kris Wadsworth. On the back of such a phenomenal year, Fresh Meat will be re-launching a vinyl label - hats off to them for that! - with Wiretappeur's 'Colours & Motions' getting the vinyl ball rolling and Mazi will also following up his 2002 Audio Soul Project album, Community, with another long player. Needless to say you can expect to be hearing and seeing plenty more Fresh Meat raw cuts ready to sizzle in 2010 and beyond.