Formation.
Hello,
Well, it's been a while since I did a blog...ages in fact! That's because 2025 has seen Kniteforce Records, Kniteforce Distribution, and both the online and physical shop, and, well...everything...grow at a ridiculous pace.
If you want a good example of how mad this has got, then here it is: I signed a deal with Dj SS for Formation and F-Project releases in the summer or 2025, its now 10 days until 2026, and this is literally the first time I am able to talk about it with any real depth.
Not because I was asked not to.
And not because I was trying to keep it a secret.
But because we had so many other huge things going on. I couldn't talk about Formation because I was talking about You Had It, and before that there was the Foul Play set (which is no small thing I think you will agree), and before that the Mega City 2 set, and before that Bug Kann & The Plastic Jam's classic "Made In Two Minutes", and before that Nicky Blackmarket's legacy set part 2...and so on.
At no point could I just plop in a "by the way, check out this huge deal with Formation" without derailing the promotion and support for all these other wonderful releases.
It's a weird thing to not be able to talk about something so amazing, because of all the other amazing things. It's a new thing for me. 2025 has been a very exciting year full of changes I would never have expected. Not only with the music we release, but with the amount we distribute and with more full time staff members (seven of us now! SEVEN! Jesus...) and pretty much every aspect of Kniteforce.
However, finally I can talk about Formation as it is pretty much the NEXT thing. I mean, there are certainly a load of other wonderful releases coming between now and the first set of Formations, but...yes, I think at last, I can finally talk about it properly without it overshadowing any of the other things we are doing!
Simply put, Formation is a BIG deal. Big in scope, big in the fact that it took 18 months to get the deal sorted, and big because Formation is one of the most successful and long lived "legacy" labels, born in the very early days of our scene and still going strong today. Every raver and junglist knows Formation, and every vinyl record Dj and collector knows the Formation and F-Project back catalogue is filled with epic music that people have been wanting represses of for a very long time. So the Formation deal is also big in another way: Previously I have done deals with various artists and labels for everything all in one go, but "everything" in this case is, well, vast...
Dj SS and I have discussed how to do this at length, and it was tricky to formulate a plan because of that issue...what to actually start with, when there is just so many represses people want.
In the end, we decided the best way was to start with the main Formation releases and move to F-Project a little later. Even just focussing on the main label initially doesn't help a great deal because there are still so many incredible Formation releases to choose from...but we felt the best way was to put releases together that made sense, and to do it in stages. Without further ado, welcome to stage one and its release dates:
Thursday 26th February: Rhythm For Reasons Set
Thursday 26th March: Tango Set
Thursday 30th April: International Rude Boyz / Sound of The Future set
Each set is of four 12" EPs. And yes, they will come as sets, but yes, there will also be singles!
It was high priority to make sure each release was lovingly remastered to the highest standard, and to release it in the same format and style as the original pressing.
We have had Beau at Ten Eight Seven master everything to ensure the best possible cuts, we have rebuilt the original sleeves and label designs for each EP, and we aim to make sure we pay homage to the legacy of Formation while also giving the highest treatment to this amazing label.
I am not going into all the details right here, but some things need to be said.
We have kept each individual EP the same as its original format - in other words, the same tracks in the same order on each release, no new remixes.
While they have new KFORM catalogue numbers, we have also kept the original Formation FORM catalogue numbers clearly visible as they were on the original sleeves.
We have then made the sets up by picking EPs that go together. So for Tango, we have the Impact EP, The Impact EP Remixes, Future Followers EP, and Future Followers Remixes.
Speaking of Tango, the entire profit from the Tango releases will be going directly to Tango's family. Dj SS made it very clear that is what he wanted, and I agreed wholeheartedly. Other than the production costs, neither Formation nor Kniteforce Records will be taking a cut on those releases.
Another thing I feel that needs to be pointed out is that some of the early Formation releases are a little rough around the edges. Formation was one of the first labels to establish itself, and Dj SS's talent was undeniable from the off, creating classic and inventive old school releases one after another....but the original recording are a product of their time, and they are what they are.
Of course we have done everything we can to make the entire catalogue sound as wonderful as possible, and for most it was a relatively easy thing to do. It was tougher with the very earliest releases though. For example, a few of the original recordings had a low level high pitched whine in the mix. This sound is from the studio when the original recording was made...We now have the technology to remove that, and have done so. Back in the day, we all sampled from vinyl (CDs were not yet a thing), and Formation sometimes had vinyl sound in the samples they used - pops and crackles etc. We have cleaned those where we can.
However, there are things you cannot fix that are baked into the earliest recordings, such as some tracks were recorded in 8bit, and some are a little distorted. And a few have less than ideal eq's. Back in those early days we all worked with whatever we could on whatever studio we had. I personally feel that these initial Formation releases are part of history, warts and all, and other than doing what we can to make them sound as good as possible, I am not sure they even should be "fixed". Even if they could be. They are glorious in their way, harking back to the very beginning of the rave world, and should be preserved as such...but anyway, even if we wanted to fix such things, the only way would be to rebuild the tracks from scratch - which we are not going to do. So...where were we....
Oh yes...
Each set will have superb packaging - we have come up with something really special for this - and there will be color versions of the sets (limited to 150 copies) and black versions of the sets.
There will also be black singles available of each release after the sets are sold.
We do plan to have a few of these sets available at Black Gold in Bristol on the 14th of February.
And we are working on stage 2, which will likely include some fo the rare EPs like Big Bad Head and the Black EP, along with some remixes and some F-Projects - but again, we are still in the planning stages on that...
And I think thats about all I have to tell at this time. I hope you are as excited as me on this....
Nice one,
Chris