Relief

Relief is Green Velvet's Chicago techno label. the name on the records is "Relief", which is what Beatport's label page, the label's own SoundCloud display name, Deezer's label field on 74 albums and the copyright line on its newest single, "2023 Relief", all carry, while its own site title, Discogs and Resident Advisor call it "Relief Records". the label is run by Curtis Jones, who records as Green Velvet and Cajmere. the Discogs profile is two sentences long: "Label run by Curtis Alan Jones. Sublabel of Cajual." Grammy.com, in April 2024, called it "Relief Records, the home of Green Velvet's music". the parent is Cajual Records, Jones's older house label. the base is Chicago. the label's own site meta reads "Chicago Techno Label. Established in 1993", and Resident Advisor files it under Chicago, IL, established 1993.

the founding year is 1993 by the label's own count and by Resident Advisor's, and the first catalogue number, Green Velvet "Velvet Tracks" (RR701), is dated 1993 on Discogs. DJ Mag's headline of 16 June 2017 reads "Green Velvet discusses 25 years of Relief Records in new documentary: Watch", and 25 years back from 2017 is 1992. both stand here, unresolved. Resident Advisor's label bio, for what it's worth, still reads "20 Year Anniversary! Est. 1993 ~ Chicago, IL TECHYES LIFESTYLE!", a line left over from 2013. the label's own line for its sound is "Chicago Techno Label", so techno is the tag. Grammy.com's framing in April 2024 was that "Jones says he's been particularly prolific as Green Velvet because", and what follows in the article is the quote below. Discogs lists 723 releases, and Grammy.com noted the label "shared 10 releases in 2023 alone". after "Velvet Tracks" the catalogue runs through DJ Sneak & Armand Van Helden "Hardsteppin Disko Selection" (RR 767, 1996), Green Velvet "La La Land" (2001), which Resident Advisor later called an anti-drug record that became a club anthem, Green Velvet "Flash", remixed in 2011 and again in 2016, and the label's own compilations "I Need RELIEF" (2017) and "I Need RELIEF Vol 2" (2018). the newest release we can find is Green Velvet, DJ E-Clyps and Dajae "Hot N Spicy", 17 November 2023, and nothing newer turned up on Deezer or Discogs, so the label looks quiet since late 2023. that is an observation about output, not a claim that it has stopped.

the series is Relief Radio, a mix series on the label's own SoundCloud. the newest episodes are Nana Torres (2 August 2023), DJ Glen (1 August 2023), GetCosy (26 July 2023), Deeft (12 July 2023) and Marco Lys (14 June 2023), and nothing has followed since August 2023, so it looks dormant. Marco Lys is a Relief Radio guest rather than a Relief release, which is why he sits here and not in the roster line. a few things to keep apart. the YouTube channel the label's site links is branded Green Velvet rather than Relief. on Discogs, "Relief Records (2)" is a charity sub-label and "Relief Records Europe" is Italian hip-hop, and neither is this label. reliefrecords.bandcamp.com is unclaimed, so there is no Bandcamp link.

a few notes on the names. Green Velvet, who runs it, opens the catalogue with "Velvet Tracks" (RR701, 1993) and is on it as a remixer too, on "Is It All Over My Face (Green Velvet's Too Scared To Release Mixes)" (RR706, 1994) and "DJ Tools Vol. 2" (RR704, 1994). Jamie Jones is here as a remixer, on "Flash Remixes" (RR2041, 2011), "Relief #BeatportDecade House" (RR2071, 2014) and "The Chapters Of Green Velvet" (RR2073, 2014). ALISHA and SOSA are on the label's own compilations, "Tech My House" (RR2161, 2018) and "Various Beats" (RR2184, 2018). Armand Van Helden is on a 1996 twelve with DJ Sneak, "Hardsteppin Disko Selection" (RR 767, 1996). the rest are on their own releases or remixes: Bruno Furlan "Casa Do Amor EP" (RR2107, 2017), "Casa Do Amor" (2017) and "I Need RELIEF" (RR2142, 2017), CamelPhat "Hangin With Charlie" (2017), "Hangin' With Charlie EP" (RR2101, 2017) and "Gypsy King EP" (RR2112, 2017), Eats Everything as a remixer on "Flash 2016 Remixes" (RR2089, 2016), then "Loud" (RR2134, 2017) and "I Need RELIEF" (RR2142, 2017), GUZ "Black Cat" (RR2168, 2018), Layton Giordani "FUZION" (2019) plus the remixes "La La Land (Layton Giordani Remix)" (RR2219, 2020) and "Voicemail (Layton Giordani Remix)" (RR2244, 2023), Patrick Topping "Voicemail" (RR2072, 2014), "The Chapters Of Green Velvet" (RR2073, 2014) and "Now EP" (RR2081, 2015), Piem "Alarm EP" (RR2194, 2019), "Morrysom EP" (2019) and "Relief Miami 2020" (2020), Rebūke on the remix "Thoughts (Rebūke Remix)" (2022), Sidney Charles "Fargo EP" (RR2122, 2017) and "I Need RELIEF" (RR2142, 2017), Solardo "Matador EP" (RR2096, 2017), "Keep On EP" (RR2123, 2017) and "I Need RELIEF" (RR2142, 2017), Wade "Dirty Groove EP" (RR2084, 2016), Walker & Royce "Peep This Cat EP" (RR2093, 2016), "3 4 Shake It" (RR2113, 2017) and "I Need RELIEF" (RR2142, 2017), and Will Clarke on that same "3 4 Shake It" (RR2113, 2017), then "Mercy EP" (RR2170, 2018) and "Higher" (2019). 18 artists we track have released on it, a confirmed floor from a catalogue sweep, not the full roster: ALISHA, Armand Van Helden, Bruno Furlan, CamelPhat, Eats Everything, Green Velvet, GUZ, Jamie Jones, Layton Giordani, Patrick Topping, Piem, Rebūke, Sidney Charles, Solardo, SOSA, Wade, Walker & Royce, Will Clarke