Underground Music Movement (UMM) is an Italian

house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...

label based in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

and founded by Angelo Tardio. The UMM catalogue includes classic releases from artists including

Daft Punk Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. They achieved popularity in the late 1990s as part of the French house movement, combining house music, funk, disco, tech ...

Todd Terry Todd Norton Terry (born April 18, 1967) is an American DJ, record producer and remixer in the genre of house music. His productions helped define the New York house scene in the 1990s and used extensive samples that blend the sounds of classi ...

Roger Sanchez Roger Sanchez (born June 1, 1967) is an American house DJ, remixer and producer. He won a Grammy Award for his remix of "Hella Good" by No Doubt in 2003, and is best known for his song " Another Chance", which was an international hit in 2001. ...

Alex Party Alex Party is an Italian electronic dance group. The band consisted of the Italian brothers Paolo and Gianni Visnadi (also of Livin' Joy), DJ Alex Natale, and vocalist, singer and songwriter Shanie Campbell. Their most famous single to date is ...

, Fathers of Sound, Blast, Francesco Farfa, Glenn Underground, and MAW. Emerging in the 1990s as an early pioneer of the burgeoning Italian house music scene, UMM cemented legendary status as an underground house record company offering a wide range of sounds ranging from

deep house Deep house is a subgenre of house music that originated in the 1980s, initially fusing elements of Chicago house with the lush chords of 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. Its origins are attributed to the early recordings of Larry Heard ...

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

. UMM was crucial for the development and spread of house music in Italy and today it continues to be a reference point for electronic music fans in general. UMM was a division of Flying Records until their bankruptcy in 1997. In 1998, Media Records purchased publishing rights and restarted UMM, debuting with their first release, "Proud Mary". Other sublabels of Media Records include Big in Ibiza, UMM Progressive, UMM White, and Underground Music Movement USA.

Justin Timberlake Justin Randall Timberlake (born January 31, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, and dancer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Prince of Pop", ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' honored him as the b ...

Groove Armada Groove Armada are an English electronic music duo, composed of Andy Cato and Tom Findlay. They achieved chart success with their singles " At the River", " I See You Baby" and " Superstylin'". The duo have released nine studio albums, four of ...

, and Tiesto also signed to the label. In 2003, following success in Japan, UMM ventured into the vibrant landscape of a new and booming New York City electronic music scene. 2005 saw Media Records manager

Gianfranco Bortolotti Gianfranco Bortolotti (; born 2 May 1959) is an Italian electronic music producer and manager of Media Records and Media Studio. He was a member of Cappella, and 49ers who had several hits, and Fits of Gloom, who had a UK No. 47 hit with "Heave ...

leave the music realm to pursue other interests. In 2006, the label closed operations globally.

ZYX Music ZYX Music GmbH & Co. KG is a German record label founded in 1971 by Bernhard Mikulski. It is one of the most successful German record labels of the 1980s and 1990s. Until 1992, the label was known as Pop-Import Bernhard Mikulski. The label speci ...

of Germany purchased the Media S.r.l. rights for digital distribution in 2010. Bortolotti returned to music in 2015 to revive Media Records and sublabels including UMM, BXR, Underground, and

Heartbeat Heartbeat, heart beat or heartbeats may refer to: Science and technology * Heartbeat (biology), one cardiac cycle of the heart * Heartbeat (computing), a periodic signal to indicate normal operation or to synchronize parts of a system ** Heartbea ...

. After a long hiatus, UMM started again in January 2017 with the ''Eighteen EP''. UMM has also featured an apparel line since the '90s.

References

Italian record labels House music record labels {{Italy-record-label-stub