B12

B12 Records was founded in 1990 by Mike Golding and Steve Rutter as a vehicle for themselves and other like minded individuals to release electronic music for listening and dancing. Many thought the duo hailed from Detroit, as their sound fused many of the elements of techno coming from the Motor City, alongside labels such as Transmat and Plus 8. Every record was hand-engraved in the run out grooves, with cryptic clues and messages, recurring themes of futurism and science fiction.

Releasing under a series of monikers, such as Redcell, Cmetric, and Musicology, their connections with Kirk DeGeorgio’s A.R.T. Records are well documented, each artist featuring on the others label, and even a pair of split 12”s with a label taking each side of the vinyl. The pair were also snapped up by Warp Records, featuring on the seminal Artificial Intelligence series and releasing two albums and an EP on Warp under the umbrella name ‘B12’

Then in 1996, with test pressings of B1215 in their hands, they disappeared without warning or reason. B1215 never made it to release.

Forward to 2005. Illegal bootlegs of old B12 material are circulating – poor quality, without the engravings in the run-out grooves. Mike & Steve return to play a live show in London to a sell-out crowd (the bouncers had to stop queues inside the building). B12 absolutely blew everyone away, a decade away hadn't dampened their sound one bit. The applause at the end was so overwhelming that the following act was shouting at the crowd to shut up and stop cheering so he could begin his set. They announced there was new material to come, and their intentions of re-mastering the back catalogue for release on a 12 CD box set, with bonus unreleased materials.

Now, in 2007, B12 Records has exactly the same goal it did in 1990, to provide quality electronic music for futuristic feet and forward thinking minds.

B1213D was released as T-Shirt.
B1219TA / B1219TB were released as T-Shirts [two different designs, to go alongside the B1219 album]
B1224.1 / B1224.2 / B1224.3 were released as T-Shirts [with 3 different texts printed on the rear]
B1225 BK / B1225 GY were released as T-Shirts [same design, on either a Black or Grey shirt]