Hyperdub Records — London's Most Significant Electronic Music Label
UK Bass & Electronics · Updated May 2026
Hyperdub was founded in London by Steve Goodman (Kode9) in 2004 and has since released some of the most important electronic music made in the UK — most significantly Burial's two studio albums. It is the label that gave structural definition to the post-dubstep and UK bass spaces.
The Origins of Hyperdub
Steve Goodman began Hyperdub as a music website before launching the record label with his own Kode9 productions in 2004. The label's early releases — Kode9 and Spaceape's Memories of the Future (2006) — established the Hyperdub aesthetic: sub-bass weight drawn from dub and reggae, the 140 BPM grid of dubstep, and a atmospheric quality that distinguished the label's output from the more aggressive DMZ strand of the same scene. Burial's self-titled debut (2006) was the defining moment: a record that used the Hyperdub infrastructure to distribute music that had no precedent in UK or global electronic music. Untrue (2007) confirmed that the debut was not a fluke. The combination of Kode9's theoretical and musical intelligence and Burial's production genius made Hyperdub the most important small label in UK electronic music at a moment when the British music press was paying more attention to guitar music than at any time since Oasis.
The Hyperdub Roster
After establishing itself through the Kode9 and Burial releases, Hyperdub expanded its roster to include Cooly G (whose 2012 album Car Boot Sale applied the Hyperdub aesthetic to R&B and 2-step), Laurel Halo (whose Quarantine (2012) was one of the most critically discussed electronic albums of that year), Jessy Lanza and DVA. Each artist extended the Hyperdub vocabulary in a distinct direction while maintaining the atmospheric and formally experimental qualities of the early catalogue. The label's consistent willingness to release music that did not fit existing genre categories — that required new descriptive language rather than old — has made it the benchmark for independent electronic music label practice in the UK.
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Hyperdub's Legacy
Hyperdub's influence on the UK electronic scene is disproportionate to its catalogue size. The label's willingness to release Burial's anonymous, uncommercial music in 2006 — a record that required significant explanation to a music press oriented toward conventional star-making — established a precedent for the post-club space that every subsequent label in that territory has followed. The Burial merch collection references the visual language of the Hyperdub releases directly.
