Andy Van and John Course Spent 34 Years Building Vicious Recordings. Their Next Move Is a Brand New Label, And It's Already Number One.

Thirty four years is a long time to run anything in dance music, let alone an independent label that put out Avicii's first nine releases, early Carl Cox cuts and Andy Van's own Madison Avenue smash 'Don't Call Me Baby'. That's the resume Andy Van and John Course built at Vicious Recordings since founding it in Melbourne in 1992. Now, with that catalogue still active behind them, they've opened a second front: a new imprint called Dance Again Music.

Why start a new label after 34 years?

The pitch is a clean split. 'Dance Again is our house focused label while sister imprint Rave Again will handle the tougher tech house and club sounds,' Course said. 'We want to ensure we get some really fresh, forward thinking music out on the two imprints, so if you're a producer then get your demos into us.' It reads less like a retirement plan than a reorganisation: Vicious stays on the shelf as the legacy brand while Dance Again and Rave Again become the working rooms, open to outside producers in a way a 34-year-old institution rarely feels.

Why relaunch with a cover, not new material?

Instead of chasing an unknown debut single, Van and Course reached for a song the floor already knows by heart. Soul Central's 'Strings Of Life / Un Amore Supremo' carries the DNA of 'Strings Of Life (Stronger On My Own)', the Kathy Brown-voiced cut that UK listeners voted the fourth greatest dance record of all time on BBC Radio 1 in 2008. Licensed from CENTRL Music, the track has been a fixture from Ibiza's opening and closing parties to club nights in Miami and Melbourne for two decades.

For the Dance Again launch, Sgt Slick built a muscular Nu Disco rework, and Van added a remix of his own under his disco alias Super Disco Club, the project he runs with singer Cassie Van. 'Strings of Life is such an incredible record and we couldn't resist the opportunity to release new remixes of such a special house music anthem,' Van said. 'I even added my own Super Disco Club remix to the package!'

"Strings of Life is such an incredible record and we couldn't resist the opportunity to release new remixes of such a special house music anthem. I even added my own Super Disco Club remix to the package!"

It worked. Sgt Slick's version went to number one on Traxsource's main chart and the package debuted at number two on the ARIA Club Chart, with Carl Cox, Jamie Jones, Joseph Capriati, Claptone, Basement Jaxx and Mark Knight all playing it out.

What happens next for Dance Again Music?

The label throws its first party on December 13, 2026 at One Six One Rooftop in Prahran, running 4pm to 11pm, with Soul Central, John Course, Sgt Slick, Super Disco Club, Andy Murphy, Colin McMillan and SUNISUN on the lineup. Both Dance Again and Rave Again are open for producer submissions, which is the real test: a number-one debut built on a 20-year-old song buys attention, but a label's actual future gets decided by what it signs next.