favourite record labels

[The Dr]

i was just listening to another mississippi records release 'o graveyard you can't hold me always' and as always for the label it is great, as is releases on sublime frequencies so i was wondering what people's 'never fail' labels are- the likes of factory maybe? creation?

[spunder]

Bluenote and ECM, such great and distinctive sounding records. could waffle on for hours about them. Put a record on from one of those labels and you get such a unique atmosphere filling the room.

Kompakt also release records with a distinctive aesthetic.

Constellation! how could I forget them?! haven't listened to anything from them for a few years but there was a time when I devoured everything they put out.

[niamhm]

I`m sadly old enough to have been through a Factory and Creation period, both great labels putting out some truly classic records, but recently I`ve been particularly impressed with Sacred Bones Records, some fantastic releases this last few years imo, a great looking aesthetic and attention to detail that always makes me want to spend the cash

I must make a mention of the more boutique type label Cardinal Fuzz, digging relentlessly at a seemingly endless seam of the unsung international psyche, if that`s your bag then this label is a little gem.

[angelsighs]

Factory and Creation definitely both had some golden years, but the truth is no record label is perfect and they all put out a bit of crap too. we just remember the good stuff. but yeah, both those labels in particular had a really high strike rate of truly iconic artists. there's also the danger that labels put out watered down versions of their hit acts- weren't there quite a few New Order copycats back in the day?

I would agree that the best labels are those who pay that extra bit of attention to detail, in terms of branding or cultivating an image you can trust. Sacred Bones and Constellation spring to mind, but others have beaten me to it by mentioning them already!

I would add Rune Grammafon who release mainly swedish free jazz/noise artists and similarly have a consistent image and aesthetic in terms of their sleeves and stuff. but also aren't too restrictive in terms of what the bands actually sound like. I've not heard anything from them I've disliked as yet.

[olan]

I am definitely old enough for the Factory, 4AD, Creation etc stuff to feature heavily in my collection. These days I buy a fair amount of stuff from Dave Cambridge at Cardinal Fuzz, Dom Martin (Great Pop Supplement [now finished ], Deep Distance and Polytechnic Youth) and Jason at God Unknown. Dave Schmidt at Sulatron records in Germany has been mining a rich vein of psyche for years but has released so absolutely awesome LPs in the last couple of years.

There are a bunch of people on here who either run solo operations like Adam at Drone Rock doing new releases or who are involved with anarcho-syndaclist communes doing art-house re-releases (me).

I used to buy a lot from the USA from the likes of Sacred Bones until the postage rate went up about 300% overnight a couple of years back.

[ro]

I’m not a collector, but I woke up thinking of eremite records. so here they are

https://www.eremite.com/