Razormaid Records

Razormaid was started in 1984 by Joseph Watt and Art Maharg in San Francisco, California as a music service for working club DJs. Their objective was to offer something other than just the regular versions that everyone had in their record bins. They created their own special versions of songs by editing and sometimes remixing the hottest club tunes being played (or about to be played) around the world. Their re-edited tracks set them apart from every other DJ service at the time and the music that they chose was some of the most cutting edge stuff available. Clever and witty design were always part of Razormaid's ability to stay one step ahead of the competition. Die cut jackets, full color printed sleeves and colored vinyl became the norm for every release. Each jacket, sleeve and vinyl pressing were designed with matching colors and each sleeve (once inserted into the die cut jacket) spelled out a letter of the word RAZORMAID in their cataloging scheme. Razormaid hit the peak of their popularity in the late 80's and early 90's. Joseph and Art made names for themselves with the major record labels and had some of their work released to the general public. Such groups as Data, Depeche Mode and Erasure (to name just a few) were some of the artists to showcase Razormaid mixes along with the standard mixes. Around 1992 Art Maharg passed away and the service took some different turns with changes in the choice of music and with the graphic design of the product itself. Joseph Watt still runs Razormaid Records today but unfortunately the status of Razormaid today amongst working club DJs, as compared to their status in the 80's, is nothing like it once was. Please note widespread deterioration problems exist with many of the CDr discs sold in the late 1990's / early 2000's, possibly due to the printed sticker labels applied to each disc's face. This problem is noticeably more prevalent in the colored back CDrs (lime green, red, etc.) than in the non-colored CDrs. The deterioration starts with digital noise in the tracks (tics, pops or momentary dropouts) and eventually leads to unplayability / unreadability.