The Sound Of: Over/Shadow

2 Bad Mice cemented their place in the annals of UK rave history in the ’90s. Their track ‘Bombscare’ ranks among the most iconic hardcore tracks of all time, while their tenure at seminal label Moving Shadow, and later Partisan, saw them usher through countless other celebrated artists and releases. But since 2020, their legacy has once again begun to actively evolve with the launch of Over/Shadow.

The story of Over/Shadow really begins back in 1997. The duo, formed of Sean O’Keeffe and Simon Colebrooke, were partners in Moving Shadow — the label founded by Rob Playford — heading up the design and A&R, respectively. But the friendship with Playford ended abruptly, and the duo, along with several others, parted ways with him, a decision Sean describes as “really painful”. The group started Partisan, which ran for about two years before ceasing operations. Sean explains how they always felt they had “unfinished business” with Moving Shadow, however, and almost two decades later, they decided to do something about it. Having stayed in touch with many of the label’s artists over the years, in 2018 they invited over 30 members of the extended crew to a pub in King’s Cross, London, and floated the idea of a new outlet.

“Some of them hadn’t met each other before and some of them hadn’t seen each other for 20 years,” recalls Si. “So it was kind of like a really cool reunion.” Needless to say, the artists loved it. “We felt that we helped build Moving Shadow, it was a big part of our history, even though Rob was the boss,” says Sean. “So we wanted to have a nod back to Moving Shadow, but do something new, and that was when Over/Shadow was born.”

On paper, their goals were simple: to maintain a varied, forward-thinking output, to bring in new blood alongside the classic names, and to make sure the music was valued — from having high-quality art and physical products, to ensuring the artists were properly paid.

It had been a long time since the glory days of flogging thousands of vinyl to record stores, however. Social media now ruled supreme, the vinyl ‘resurgence’ wasn’t necessarily all it was cracked up to be, and there were about a gazillion more DJs, producers and labels in the world. “We went into doing Over/Shadow with a deliberate sense of naivety, because we knew that the market and the landscape had changed,” explains Si.

They decided to forego streaming sites and digital distribution, except via the Over/Shadow website and Bandcamp page, and set the price of digital tracks slightly above average — around £2 per track for an mp3 and £2.50 for a wav. Sean explains how the label’s fan base includes quite a lot of “older heads”, who are willing and able to pay a bit more to make sure the artist is getting a fair deal and can hopefully then sustain themselves from their art. And it’s working.

“We sell a larger quantity of vinyl than we’d predicted,” he continues, “because we had a ready-made market, as people who were Moving Shadow fans back in the day, and collectors of that stuff, will buy our new stuff on the day of release.”

Simon’s partner Rebecca, who oversees the social media accounts, recounts the moment Over/Shadow dropped its first release — two cosmic cuts from Blame — in November 2020: “I turned around and said to Simon, ‘I don’t think you’ve pressed enough’.” She was clued up on how hungry the audience was, having previously launched a Moving Shadow fan page to help some of the producers who weren’t too social media savvy connect with their fans. Her prediction was correct, and despite already pressing more than most modern labels, the records sold out almost instantly, and two represses followed.

Si and Rebecca also handle most of the distribution — something that’s resulted in several funny stories about having pallet-loads of records in their house — but they do supplement that by using Bleep to hit overseas markets where it’s too difficult or costly to ship to themselves.

Rebecca’s online interactions with fans have generated some innovative ways to form connections and benefit the artists too. She’s built relationships with collectors around the world, and came up with the idea to auction the vinyl test presses. She laughs now remembering how Simon had initially dismissed the idea, thinking it would never work. “With the first one... I got about 100 emails of people asking me about the test presses. There’s only 10 to sell, and then the rest go to crew, but they’re signed and numbered and we keep a note of everybody that’s bought them.” 

All the money from the auctions goes to the artists, meaning they’re sometimes receiving a hefty payment before the record is even officially released. “Simon and Sean, where they’ve both been taken advantage of in this industry, the way that they run Over/Shadow was all about looking after the artists from day one — that was their priority,” Rebecca enthuses.

Since that first outing nearly all of the physical releases have sold out, including several more represses. But no amount of historic goodwill would keep buyers coming back if the music wasn’t up to scratch. Just some of the highlights from Over/ Shadow’s impeccable run to date include DJ Trax’s gorgeously jazzy ‘Break From Reality’ LP, the return of Mixrace after a quarter of a century, Detboi’s ominous ‘Into The Shadows’, the offkilter d&b of Etch’s ‘The Creeper’, Dom & Crystl’s break-wielding barbarity, and the downtempo genre-splicing of Vromm.

The label’s biggest success to date has to be Sully’s ‘5ives’, a masterclass in breakbeat manipulation that dominated throughout 2021 and garnered fans from across the electronic music spectrum, including Bicep, who played it as their very last tune when they closed iconic venue Printworks London. “Sully wrote ‘5ives’ at a time when there was no gigs. He hadn’t tested it out, and I remember he messaged me, ‘I sent you this track, I don’t know if it’s any good’,” recalls Si, wryly. “I just had a gut instinct it was gonna be a massive, massive hit,” Rebecca continues. “I played it non-stop in my car for about six months.”

Backing the cutting-edge tracks is stunning design. In this, Sean is joined by Gary Haslam, who also used to design for Moving Shadow, friend and London-based designer Craig Thomas, and Dave Kirby, who runs a design agency with Sean. “It’s nice to be able to share the burden, but get those different kinds of creative approaches,” says Sean. All engage in a bit of healthy competition as they come up with new ways to represent the Over/Shadow logo on the record sleeves — from mycelium tendrils to paint splotches, a fiery planet, insectoid wings, a school of fish, and even the view from a cave mouth. “We’re really privileged to have this group of guys around us that can create that art for us and keep that theory of ‘this is an art piece, musically and visually’,” says Si. “We get people buying two copies of records now; they’ll play one and then they’ll frame one.”

There are even more ambitious vinyl products in the works, the first of which dropped in December. Taking inspiration from Moving Shadow’s ‘Two On One’ series — a set of nine releases with cover art that formed one large image, which has since achieved near-mythical status among record collectors — Over/Shadow’s latest project is dubbed ‘Quadrant’. Featuring four EPs by four different artists, the covers will also match up to form a larger picture that looks like some kind of futuristic targeting system. Tracks include Nectax’s system-splintering ‘Voychek’, which has been tearing up dancefloors for the best part of two years already, Abstract Drumz’s operatic epic ‘Ambient Illusion’, the thundering ‘Feel It’ by Detboi, and Overlook venturing into moody electro on ‘Bear Trap’.

Moving into 2024, the label will break from tradition to put out an EP of previously unreleased tracks from Flytronix (his first drop in over 20 years), and hope to do more events in order to create new revenue streams for artists.

Though continuing to put out the kind of groundbreaking music its predecessor was known for, the crew are understandably keen to stress that Over/Shadow is not a resuscitated Moving Shadow, and in just three years, it’s already made such an impact as to almost make you forget the connection entirely. “This is our curation of where our story ended,” says Si. From where we’re sitting, it seems the story has only just begun.

Listen to The Sound Of: Over/Shadow mix below.