Positiva’s class of now

Positiva has been helping shape British club culture for over three decades, relentlessly pushing artists that sound like they’re rewriting the story of the dancefloor in real time. The label’s iconic “+” has also remained one of the most recognisable logos in electronic music: it’s a clean, blunt and universal cue for a label that has soundtracked multiple generations. And that didn’t happen by accident.

“I wanted the logo to be simple and effective in the way that the XL Recordings logo is,” recalls founder Nick Halkes, who previously ran that equally foundational label. “I came up with the basic idea, and Jaffa at Unknown Partnership turned it into something ready to run with. Respect due, Jaffa!”

The label was born in 1993, in the thick of Britain’s second-wave rave adolescence, when dance music was shaking off its outsider status and pushing into the mainstream at speed. Having already guided XL into the era of breakbeats and hardcore, Halkes — who now DJs, releases as Nick Reach Up, and manages acts such as The Prodigy, Bad Company UK, and Woody Cook — sensed the need for a platform that could operate inside a major while still moving with underground instincts.

Initially releasing singles from artists including Barbara Tucker, Judy Cheeks and The Disco Evangelists, Positiva landed a Top 10 track in the UK Singles Chart with Kenny “Dope” presents The Bucketheads’ ‘The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)’. What followed was a seismic run of hits: Adam F’s seminal drum & bass gem ‘Circles’ (“culturally important”, says Nick, “a highlight of an emerging British underground scene”), BBE’s ‘Seven Days and One Week’, music from Binary Finary and Alice Deejay, and countless other chart-bothering dance classics.