Hooj Choons
Hooj Choons is a British label whose greatest strength was refusing to freeze its taste. Red Jerry and Phil Howells launched it in 1991 with almost no money, then moved from Balearic house and early hardcore through progressive house, trance, tribal and deeper club music. The catalogue became a map of the long 1990s rather than a monument to one genre.
No money, strong taste and post-acid-house momentum
Hooj’s own history is unusually candid about how improvised the beginning was.
Blackfriars, 1991
Red Jerry Dickens and Phil Howells started Hooj Choons in a tiny Blackfriars workspace in 1991, fuelled by the possibilities that acid house had opened rather than by serious capital. The first releases immediately show why Hooj resists neat retrospective genre labels.
Rio Rhythm Band’s Carnival da Casa carried a Latin-flavoured Balearic feel. Early catalogue entries then moved through tougher London rave and the first wave of progressive house. Instead of deciding what Hooj “was”, the label followed what its people thought would work in clubs.
That policy became its identity. Felix, Andronicus, JX, Tilt, Salt Tank, Lustral, Lost Tribe, Solarstone, Space Manoeuvres and licensing projects all make sense on Hooj when the common factor is taste and dancefloor usefulness rather than one production template.
A catalogue that keeps changing lanes
The official label history describes this movement openly: Balearic, hardcore, progressive, trance, tribal, deeper tech and finally early electro/disco signals.
Hooj made it bigger — Hooj did not create it
The record is a perfect example of why licensing history matters.
Eye Q first, Hooj later
Energy 52’s Café del Mar belongs first to the Frankfurt story: the original appeared through Eye Q in 1993. Hooj’s importance comes later, when the UK label licensed and repeatedly reworked the record for a British club market.
The Three ‘N One remix became crucial to that second life. The 1998 Hooj issue, catalogue HOOJ064F, reached No.12 on the UK Singles Chart and spent two weeks at No.1 on the Official Dance Singles Chart.
That distinction strengthens both histories. Eye Q gets credit for the original record; Hooj gets credit for recognising that the track could be recontextualised and pushed to a much larger UK audience.
From JX to Gamemaster
Three Hooj landmarks — from progressive house to trance
JX, Energy 52 and Lost Tribe trace three different sides of the Hooj catalogue.
Hooj • 1994JX — Son Of A Gun (Red Jerry & JX Mix)
Hooj UK campaignEnergy 52 — Café del Mar (Three ‘N One Remix)
Hooj • 1997Lost Tribe — GamemasterThe catalogue keeps being reopened
Hooj described its 2003 stop as a “long break”, which turned out to be accurate. The label has resurfaced through archive projects, remasters, new mixes and selective contemporary releases rather than trying to recreate the 1990s wholesale.
The official catalogue still shows new work: Red Jerry returned with a solo Hooj release in 2024. That continuity makes Hooj a living catalogue with an unusually self-aware relationship to its own past.
Hooj’s own catalogue is the backbone
The official Hooj site provides both the label history and unusually detailed release pages; Official Charts is used to separate original underground life from later chart campaigns.
