Aus Music Celebrates 100 Releases with a Retrospective Compilation You Can Stream In Full Right Here

We've been huge fans of Will Saul's Aus imprint for years now, and with 100 top notch releases under their belt, that shouldn't be surprising. Having played home to seminal record after seminal record, they've cemented their place in the pantheon of UK club culture. This month sees Saul's label hit the 100 release mark, and they've decided to celebrate in style.

The ever evolving label has put together a comprehensive 24 track quadruple vinyl, triple CD and vast digital compilation, due for release 8th July Aus 100 features the likes of Bicep, Midland, Huxley, DJ T and Nick Hoppner so there's something for everyone here. We're beyond delighted to be bringing you an exclusive stream of the entire thing right here on THUMP.

We also caught up with Saul himself for a quick run down on how a label hits 100 releases without dropping a clanger. Tuck into it all below.

THUMP: Can you tell us a little about the genesis of Aus? What made you want to start an imprint in the first place? And how did you want it to stand out? Will Saul: The label was founded as an outlet for Sideshow (Fink's alter ego) and Lee Jones to release artist albums. I met Fink working at Sony nearly 15 years ago. I started out doing work experience there where I was basically "licking and sticking" (posting things) and making tea. I then progressed to being a junior product manager/A&R in Sony International. I started promoting my own little nights in London at the same time and Fin and I became good friends, we would DJ together at these parties and make music together in his studio. Back then he was signed to Ninja Tune as an artist, and I was running a label called Simple Records. Aus was initially an off-shoot of Simple. In German it means "off" and, as a bonus, it also sounds like house!

Aus started out as a pretty left-field label and this was why we started releasing early records by Ramadanman, Appleblim, Joy Orbison and Martyn. Their material was based in dubstep, and while it had a definite house and techno leaning, it was never considered as such. Aus has since developed into more of a house and techno label, and when that started to happen I decided to stop doing Simple—the labels were converging in sound.

I didn't really want it to stand out as such. I just believed in the music that my friend was making and felt it should be released and that people would like it and hopefully buy it.. To be fair not may people actually bought the first records on either label but we got there in the end!

Do you look back on these 100 releases with an incredible sense of pride? Are they the musical equivalent of photos of a toddler puking into a paddling pool that you might see on Facebook?
Yeah, it's a little bit like that. I have seen a fair few of the artists I've worked with over the years puke after a little too much from one thing or the other but thats a whole other story! I'm very surprised we've made it to releasing 100 records, that's for sure, and I certainly had no plan or intention to ever get this far. Working with !k7 for the last two and half years has definitely enabled us to release much more music and reach the milestone far quicker than I would have been able to on my own. I am also very proud of each and every record that we've released.

If you HAD to single out a single release as the one you were most excited about releasing, which would it be and why?
It's impossible to just pick one, but I guess we had a run of records of the space of a year—Joy Orbison ("The Shrew Would have Cushioned The Blow"), Ramadanman & Midland ("Your Words Matter"), Ramadanman & Appleblim ("Void 23 (Carl Craig Re-edit)"), SCB ("Loss"), George FitzGerald ("Child"), Midland ("Trace"), Leon Vynehall ("Brother"), and Dusky ("Careless")—that really built up momentum for us. Over that period we were the most charted record label on Resident Advisor and getting a lot of radio play and it seemed like we reached a lot of people.

Do you feel like Aus has changed the dance music landscape?
I don't think so, no, and if we had we probably wouldn't still be relevant today. In order to genuinely change the landscape of dance music you need to do one thing (and the first time it was done it was probably pretty special) over and over again until everyone wants a piece of it. People grow sick of that thing very quickly and you're no longer relevant as you have rinsed said sound out. I've seen this on so many levels over the years. I try to work with artists that are all unique and have their own individual aesthetic so that the label never gets too heavily associated with one sound but hopefully gets associated with regularly releasing good records. Hopefully this approach has contributed to our longevity.

Will we see 100 more releases?
I can't even begin to think about that but I still get the same buzz from releasing music I'm passionate about so why not! Aus 100 is out on July 8th on, yep, Aus.