There are certain artists that have not only made major contributions to dance music in terms of their own musical output, but have also contributed in terms of scene building and lifting those around them up to their highest and fullest potential. Toronto’s Ron Allen is one of those artists.
From his pivotal vinyl imprint Strobe Records, which he co-founded in Toronto in 1991 with fellow Toronto producer Hayden Andre, to his now classic catalog of productions for seminal dance music labels such as Definitive, Strictly Rhythm and Plus 8, Allen has always forged his own path while still making time to help others benefit from his guidance, mentorship and experience.
Coming full circle and the 2020s saw Allen relaunching Strobe Records along with getting his classic productions and impressive back catalog to a new generation of listeners. In addition to all of this activity, Allen has now released a full length album project under his own name entitled DIASPORA.
‘I’ve always tried to have my own sound.’
Allen got his start in his native city of Windsor, Ontario, Canada while in high school during the early 80s, living right across the river from the new and emerging American dance music sound we now know as Techno coming out of the city of Detroit.
Joining a breakdancing crew in his youth, Allen quickly took up the production duties for the group, DJing, scratching and eventually creating beats to be showcased during their sets. “I was making the beats and I was the DJ behind the whole group, so that just got me into recording and starting to make records. We never made records at that time. We just made tapes, you know boombox mix tapes, and we were just rapping to them.”
Leveraging this new found production knowledge, Allen began to gravitate to the new dance music coming from Detroit, discovered via DJ sets broadcast over Detroit local radio. Frequent family trips to the Motor CIty (Allen has strong family ties to Detroit) lead Allen to a records store called Records 4 U. Says Allen, “I would visit Detroit and I would go to a place on Woodward called Records 4 U. My good friend, Damon Booker, was working there and that’s where I was exposed to so many new things. Damon just turned me on to a lot of the new stuff. He showed me the X-ray record for instance” (Derrick May and Juan Atkin’s seminal early techno project, with releases on May’s newly minted Transmat Records) along with other now seminal early Techno releases.”
Piecing together the sounds floating around in his head, Allen quickly put together a demo of tracks and sent it off to Derrick May. Getting feedback from May helped Allen focus on fully building up his own studio and gave him the confidence to realize that he was on the right path musically. Future trips to recording studios in Detroit and being able to see artists like Maze doing sessions gave Allen exposure to an older generation of artists, helping his productions develop an assured maturity that one can hear in Allen’s now classic early releases.
Allen then moved up The 401 Highway (a major East/West corridor in Canada) to the bigger city of Toronto in the late 80s to begin his university studies in the downtown core. On the strength of those same early demos he had sent off to May, Allen quickly got signed to the Toronto dance music label Big Shot Records (seminal early Toronto house and dance music label whose founders went on to set up world renowned Canadian record labels such as Hi-Bias and First Choice). Using this new development as a foundation, Allen released a string of well received releases for not only Big Shot but other labels such as Richie Hawtin’s newly formed Techno imprint Plus 8 Records from Allen’s old home town of Windsor.
‘After doing a few bigger records, I felt it was time to fully develop my own sound, and Strobe became a big part of that.’
Strobe Records began in 1991 after Allen met Hayden Andre through Big Shot and they began to collaborate on music projects together, releasing them on their newly formed label. Feeling an opportunity to take control of his own artistic vision, Allen and Andre began an impressive run of releases and their partnership led to some of Strobe’s biggest records. The Hayden Andre Project, Infra-Red, The R.A.S.E and Helen Sharpe were just some of the label’s projects that quickly caught the ears of DJs and dancefloors around the world. Licensing deals and compilation appearances quickly ensured and within a year Strobe Records was quickly on the international dance music map.
The thrill and the sound of Ron Allen’s first love slowly lured him back into the house and techno music fold.
“I was able to get in some time at Ron Nelson’s studio,” Allen says, referring to the artist known as the “godfather of Toronto hip hop.” “He really helped me expand my sound and fill in any musical gear and equipment I might not have had access to at the time.”
Not only did Strobe Records become a major player on the international scene, it began to foster and mentor up and coming new Toronto talent. Nick Holder (now veteran Toronto house producer and founder of his own renowned Toronto based imprint, DNH Records) released his first double 12″ on Strobe, “The Digital Age” in 1992 and the label became a home for other rising Toronto producers and artists such as Marcus Turcotte.
“We had ended up with 10 releases over about three years,” he says. “Which was a big rush and very gratifying. We were shipping a lot of records.”
As quickly as Strobe Records established itself as a major player on the international dance music scene, Allen began to release his own productions at a prolific pace. Under various aliases, as was the custom during that early 90s period (think Pal Joey and his numerous dance floor hits, all under different aliases and names), Allen released a string of top shelf and now classic dance records for influential and respected labels such as Definitive, Stickman Records, Strictly Rhythm and even coming full circle to release on Nick Holder’s now established imprint, DNH. His tracks as Wax Fruit, Warpath and Psyance (his collaboration with Strobe partner Brown) are still appearing on DJs playlists, dancefloor mixes and compilations to this day.
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‘As long as it comes from the heart of that underground culture. It doesn’t matter either way. It could be a hit record, but as long as you can feel some authenticity, and it just happens to do well. That’s what I’m after.’
After this initial blast of success in dance music, Allen wound down Strobe in the mid-’90s and slowly moved into producing almost every genre of music, from country, R&B and rock right through to his introduction to production, hip hop, working with major labels such as Atlantic. But the thrill and the sound of Allen’s first love slowly lured Allen back into the house and techno music fold.
Reconnecting with Hayden Andre, the pair agreed to re-launch the label as a digital entity with Allen basically taking over the controls in 2012. He re-released the initial run of still in demand early Strobe releases and slowly began the monumental task of securing the rights to all of his release masters that had appeared under his various aliases throughout the previous years and decades. Allen considered this period as kind of a “soft launch” of the label, trying to get both his own new music and the output of Strobe ready for a new generation of ears and also to gauge the interest and willingness of new listeners to hear his impressive output.
“Even my records on Strobe were all under different names,” he says. “So I’ve changed that now. All my records are under Ron Allen. Except for the R.A.S.E, which is the Ron Allen Sound Experience.”
Fast forward to the 2020s in Toronto and Allen began fielding a number of requests for licensing and appearances on compilations for his back catalogue. Hamilton based Collective Rhythm Network reached out in 2018 to re-issue his now classic track “Whispers,” originally released under his Wax Fruit alias. A number of requests from European tastemakers such as Clone and German based Rawax then followed, motivating Allen to put in the effort to fully relaunch Strobe Records (Allen thinks of this as “Strobe 3.0”) properly as a both digital and vinyl record label again in 2024.
‘I started in Techno and technology and it was always a forward looking music, right? So I’ve always had that futuristic view on things, so it was perfect for me. It was easy for me to do.’
Allen slowly went though all of his old dats, tapes and demos (quite a daunting task) and tracked down all of his own productions, assembled everything under one banner and then made them available initially via the online sales outlet Bandcamp. Looking at the traffic analytics that they generated, it was an easy decision to start releasing both his classic productions along with his new productions on vinyl, given the excitement this bandcamp avenue generated, both in clicks and full downloads. “I found all this other music. I also took back all my masters from all of the things that I licensed over the years, so that was amazing.”
5 Mag Issue 224
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The Heart of House: First published in 5 Mag Issue #224 featuring Juliet Mendoza, Ron Allen, PBR Streetgang and more. Become a member for $2/month and get every issue in your inbox right now…
With a newly relaunched platform, Allen began to ramp up Strobe Records in preparation for his own album project, DIASPORA, a follow-up to his previous album Underground Harmonics as the label prepared to celebrate an amazing 35 year run in existence. A series of new 12″ Strobe vinyl singles started to catch the ears of DJs around the world and these releases quickly confirmed both Allen’s return and cemented his status as a legendary dance music producer.
DIASPORA blends all of the sounds of the dancefloor that Allen excels in. Atmospheric, driving, deep and futuristic all at the same time. It’s a balance that Allen handles masterfully. It’s this eclectic mix and ease of incorporating different styles that has always been at the heart of Allen’s output and precisely what makes his musical efforts stand out, always sounding a bit different from the rest of the dance producers around him. Allen says this album project legitimizes himself in some ways and brings him full circle to accomplish what he wanted to do in the first place.
‘My love has always been in Toronto, I’m a 401 rat! There’s a drive I have and I’m gonna give it all I’ve got from now on. Just to build upon what I’ve been able to accomplish so far. And then there’s also the desire to ultimately build something amazing for my daughter.’
Embracing his native Toronto, a Strobe 35th Anniversary Party (StrobeFest, taking place over 3 days) featuring a bill of local Toronto DJ legends, peers and special guests from his peers from Detroit along with newer Toronto names from a younger generation took place in Feb 2026. Keeping in line with Allen’s spirit of mentorship to also support those around him, it was a mini festival of sorts. The celebration took place across multiple nights, multiple Toronto locations and featured DJs, live acts and collaborations from both Toronto and Detroit. It also featured acts that have ties to either Strobe Records or Allen and Andre themselves. For Allen, it meant a few great nights of music and an avenue to not only celebrate his past successes but to celebrate those around him, both the artists and the fans that have enjoyed the last 35 years of Strobe Records along with him.
With more projects and remixes in the pipeline, Allen has arrived — again. And in doing so, he is doing something more artists envy, looking forward and proudly looking back both at the same time. And not being tied to either view.
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