In 1993 Rave ad salesman Simon Berry (Art Of Trance) began work on the label. Simon’s love of electronic music had been fired up by an early purchase of a low quality synthesizer. It was a life changing moment. Riding on the vibe of the music he ended up a regular at clubs like Troll, Drum Club and Chemistry. Fired up, the first Art Of Trance record “Deeper Than Deep” launched the label, immediately identified by a certain quality and depth of production.

The quietly successful and prolific label was rocked in 94 by the release of a certain record called “Children” by the then unknown Robert Miles. A track that blew the scene open, with everybody and their mother whistling the tune in the street. A huge multi platinum success and the sound of 95. Setting up a more secure basis for the label was perhaps the most important result of this success, enabling album and artist development as well as allowing Simon to indulge more in his original passion. It was later in the 90’s that trance became synonymous with a more banging, European style of production. Although contributing to this scene with the anthemic Ferry Corsten production of Art of Trance’s “Madagascar”, Platipus weren’t about to compromise the label philosophy to follow the more “production line” vibe of the new sound. Tracks like Libra’s “Calling Your Name” and Oliver Lieb’s various guises maintained the consistent quality of the labels releases. Platipus artists began to look to a new generation for the sounds of the future, Swiss youngster Moogwai’s euphoric but subtle sound and Pob’s highly advanced progressive tracks being fine examples of the labels philosophy in action.

In 2002 Platipus reached it’s landmark 100th release, and also saw Platipus changing with the times and leaning towards a more streamlined, musical sound. The label was clearly heading in the right direction as big-name jocks Sasha and Steve Lawler hammered releases like Leama’s ‘Melodica’ and ‘Into Sea’ by Adam Dived, another Dino Lenny alias. In the meantime, keep em peeled for more stunning releases from the likes of Jan Johnston, Moogwai and the massive follow-up single from Kansai as well as a new series of chillout albums.

The future’s bright, the future’s Platipus.