Hooj Choons
Hooj Choons mapped the long 1990s by following club taste across Balearic house, progressive, trance and deeper electronic music.
Hooj Choons is a British label whose greatest strength was refusing to freeze its taste. Red Jerry and Phil Howells launched it in a Blackfriars shoe cupboard in 1991 with almost no money, then followed club culture wherever it moved: Balearic house, London hardcore, progressive house, trance, tribal and deeper techier music. The label’s own history describes more than 130 singles, 20+ albums, four sublabels and the Elements club night before the 2003 “long break” — a catalogue that reads like a map of changing UK club taste 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. In specialist shops that made the Hooj name itself useful: buyers could follow the label even while the sound underneath the logo changed.
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, entered the UK Singles Chart at its peak of No.12 and spent two weeks at No.1 on the Official Dance Singles Chart. That is a measurable example of remixing, licensing and promotion giving an already-established club record a much larger British life.
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)▶ Play
Hooj UK campaignEnergy 52 — Café del Mar (Three ‘N One Remix)▶ Play
Hooj • 1997Lost Tribe — Gamemaster▶ PlayThe 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 Hooj site still treats 2003 as a “long break”, which is historically useful language: the original run ended, but the catalogue was not written off as a dead brand. Archive projects, remasters, new mixes and selective later releases have reopened parts of it without pretending the 1990s never ended.
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.
