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Absolute Analogue
This label was run by British Hi-Fi distributor Absolute Analogue for a few years and specialised in re-releasing of late 60's/early 70's rock music on 180g vinyl. They had by 2007 stopped issuing records and by 2008 there were only 3 or 4 titles left in stock and now they are all gone.
Almafame
British reissue label based in London that concentrated on compilations featuring rock oriented musical styles and the 80's, also issued under the Mapps Cafe, Anathema, Mudslide, VinylShminyl and Victory Works stensils, in addition to mid-price products using the YEAAH! label that were mostly live recordings many of which had previously been issued as bootlegs. Distributed and allegedly funded by Universal, the label disappears around 2005 altogether but even by then we had not heard from them for a couple of years at the least, there appears to be no stock of their records left in the channel. AFAIK Almafame only released CD’s.
Amarilli Classical
Tiny British label that specialised in viol music, did in the end only put out 2 disks, a pressed CD that came out around 2000 called “A pill to Purge Melancholie” that featured music for 2 Lyra Viols from Jacobean era in England and was played by The Alchemy Ensemble, Brian Capleton and Angela Cranmore and in early 2003 a Compact Disk Recordable by the same group of musicians that featured “relaxing music” by Sainte Colombe and Capleton and was called “Exotic Spheres”. The company is still around as a book publisher but no longer sells CD’s. -- Official homepage.
Anathema See --> Almafame
AMP Records
A British label founded in 1985 by Ashok Prema, Mark Jenkins and Peter Beasley with their first release being a compilation LP called simply “The Amp Records Compilation Album” that featured tracks by the 3 founders. At the time the founders stated that they were trying to gather some momentum for the UK Electronica scene but apart from Zomba British labels were not releasing electronica at all despite relatively healthy record sales by established labels of such acts as Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze. They started by buying the E-Mix fanzine in 1995, apparently simply to get hold of their mailing list, by 1986 the label had picked up some momentum and had taken on artists such as Michel Huygen (Neuronium), White Noise and Steven Joliffe.
However AMP was being run at a loss which led Peter Beasley to leave the company in 1987, for promotional purposes the label started issuing compilation albums on the cheaper cassette format but in addition to their own material they sometimes included unsigned artist on them such as Steve Hillman. Ashok Prema (Ash Prema at the time) had left the label by the early 90’s and was by that time run solely by Mark Jenkins and did during that period release interesting electronic music of varying styles but as the 90’s wore on became more connected with "progressive" and New Age music.
In 1994/5 the label had releases a Christmas album by Keith Emerson (??) and announced that they had signed Tangerine Dream but apart from one licensed release nothing became of that. By 2000 much of AMP records output is by the proprietor himself and the label had more or less suspended operation by 2002 but Mr. Jenkins continued to issue the odd CD under the AMP Music label until 2007, and possibly later, but has since started issuing mostly under the Mark Jenkins Music name but still has stocks of some 20 odd AMP releases for sale on his site. Peter Beasley, one of the original founders of the label has a few copy of early AMP releases for sale on his webpage as of summer 2012.
Andante (Historical clasical recordings) See --> Andante
Apple On The Moon
Tiny Dutch label that put out modern jazz, other improvised music and contemporary classical works, with much of the labels output featuring Dutch pianist Marc van Roon. The label was quite active in 2000 but appears to have only released 2 CD’s since then and nothing since 2004 even though its website stayed up until 2011.
Balkan Records Company
Founded in Berwyn (Chicago), USA, in 1945 by Ivan John Krilcich and Louie Hlad, the label specialised in releasing music by musicians of Slavic and specifically Balkan origin although more oriented towards musical styles popular in those regions rather than folk music per se, i.e. more polka than throat singing. Many of their records featured an in-house orchestra known as Dave Zupkovich Balkan Records Orchestra (that also toured under this name) and the label was incredibly prolific in and around 1950 when literally hundreds of 78's were cut, but seems to have disappeared in the mid fifties, but apparently Mr. Krilcich continued in the record business with his Balkan Record Distribution Company. A label called Balkan Records appropriately enough specialises in re-releasing cassettes and CD's with material taken from old recordings by this label.
BASF Records
A label run by giant German chemical company BASF, but they had started financing recordings of classical music in the 1930's primarily as a showcase for their open reel tape and started making stereo recordings in the early 1940's. Functioned as a small to mid sized record label from the 50's mostly putting out classical and jazz records but some popular music as well, these were noted at the time for their recording quality. The label was discontinued around 1976 or so more it appears out of lack of interest within the mother company than due to financial matters but appears to have made a brief comeback in the 1980's to release material from their pre-50's archives on CD's. Sadly missed.
Boulevard Records
British "exploitation" label that was active from the late 60's into the mid 70's, most of the performances are so bad that it makes Pickwick and Europa at their worst seem wholesome by comparison, and the covers are so bad that they can be used as conclusive proof that 70's really was the decade of evil..
Carlton Records
USA based label that issued mostly easy listening records in the late 50's and early 60's, but also some spoken word etc. Label had a reputation as a hi-fi label in it's day and indeed the sound quality is above average, but then again the term "hi-fi label" had different connotations back then than it does now. Sub labels included Guaranteed and you can find more info on the label and a discography here.
CD Memphis
Launched in 2000 with much fanfare and press coverage, the CD Memphis label along with a studio complex and related activities collectively known as Cadre Entertainment was started by veteran musician and producer Norbert Putnam in association with local businessman Tommy Peters, and appropriately enough located in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. It had the rather odd business plan of selling locally produced R&B music directly to Europeans via the Internet, their website went down in 2001, a bad sign for an Internet based label, and all contact was lost that same year.
The recording studio was by 2002 a different company by the name of "Memphis Records" but they changed their name to Young Avenue Sound in 2003/4, Memphis Records claimed to be a record label as well but we never managed to find a release by them. It should be noted though that in the R&B and rap music worlds in the USA the term "record label" is newspeak for we traditionally call a management company.
Champion See --> Gennett Records
Cisco Music
USA based company that started life in Chatsworth in California in 1981 when they licensed portions of the Decca classical catalogue and re-released them on 180 gram audiophile quality vinyl, soon thereafter started licensing music from the Japanese jazz label Three Blind Mice and other Jazz music. Incorporated in 1985 and later released gold CD’s of mostly light jazz and classic pop recordings but re-started issuing audiophile recordings in the 2000’s with the rise of the analogue fetish and started issuing SACD disks as well in a limited fashion, the SACD’s were mostly the labels staple of light jazz and pop re-releases but the LP’s featured some excellent classical re-releases as well. Co-founder David Fonn left the company in 2006 and Cisco Music disappears in 2008 but Fonn founded Box Star Records and that label has carried on with some releases originally announced by Cisco Music while other Cisco team memders went on to found Impex Records.
Claritiy Recordings
Small audiophile label based in San Francisco in California, USA. Specialised in minimalist 2 microphone recordings of acoustic jazz and classical music, contact lost in 2001, we would appreciate if anyone out there has more info.
DCC Compact Classics
Reissue and audiophile label formed in the mid 80's as Dunhill Compact Classics but changed it's name to DCC after a lawsuit, published reissues on 180 gr. high quality vinyl and 24k gold plated CD's but in the latter years it increasingly concentrated on issuing compilations at mid price. Went bankrupt in late 2001, and after that there were accusations of mismanagment against the CEO of the company, one Mr. Marshall Blonstein (ex-Island, now with Audio Fidelity Records) due to the setup of a production company that his wife owned but was finacned by DCC, bit odd given that DCC was a re-issue label. A buyer claimed to be taking over the remains of the company in early 2002 but nothing has been heard from them since.
les Discophiles Français
French classical label run by Henri Screpel active in the 1950's and into the mid 60's that specialised in issuing works by French performers that did not get published by the majors although the company did also release a small number recordings by German artists. Their catalogue contained a number of gems by artist such as L'Orchestre Hewitt and Marcelle Meyer, but also a small number of absolute duds. The fact that the French majors were not actively developing and recording much local talent at the time means that releases by the company are to a degree the only records available of a number French artists from the 50's and this has made releases by the label highly collectable, especially in southern Europe. Note that a number of DF album issues were not LP's but box sets of 33 RPM 7" singles and that a few catalogue numbers appear to have been released in Belgium, although that may be just a distributors rearrangement. Some DF releases have been reissued on EMI France through the years and Coup d'Archet has recently been releasing some of the Discophiles recordings as part of their L'Archet d'Or subscription series.
Edison Records
You can find a short introduction to the Edison label here, there also exists a company called American Sound Archives that is dedicated to re-issuing Edison recordings.
Gennett Records Company
A independent label based in Richmond, Indiana, USA. It was founded in 1916 as an offshoot of the Starr Piano Co. piano and phonograph manufacturer and was originally known as Starr Records but was forced to change their name to Gennett Records in 1918 when they fond that dealers that also sold pianos from manufactures that were in competition with Starr where unwilling to stock anything with that name on, later the company also released under sub-labels such as Champion. The Gennett catalogue has got lot of interest lately due to their releases of some early Jazz masterpieces such as piano solos by Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton and it was the original label for the Wolverine Orchestra but that band included the great Bix Beiderbecke, due to this and that fact that this was the first USA label to issue Jazz records in any quantity it's often referred to as a Jazz label, but in actuality that style of music only a minor part of their output with the company simply recorded anything that they thought would sell and that included speeches and all kinds of folk and popular music of the day. Gennett was one first USA based company to start recording electrically in the mid 20's but the ravages of the great depression hit the company hard and they stopped issuing records in 1934 although the record division continued pressing records for third parties and the production team continued making sound effects records until the late 40's at the least, but these where not sold to consumers. The Champion label and catalogue was sold to Decca (USA) and although attempts where made in the 1940's to revive the label they turned out to be short lived.
Largo Records
German classical label based in Köln (Colonge) that was founded by Uwe Buschkötter of UBM Records fame in 1984. Interesting repertoire, originally mostly 18'th and 19'th century works by little known composers but later when bigger labels started to thread down that path the company refocused on unfamiliar or seldom heard 20'th century music by composers such as Markevitch, Zemlinski, Toovey and Wahren. The website of the company went down in 2002 and their CD's have been disappearing from stores, I did write to Mr. Buschkötter's other company (who handle the recording & publication rights for the Largo catalogue) for further info but did not get an answer, their catalogue will be sadly missed.
Mapps Cafe See --> Almafame
Mirage Tapes (UK Electronica - early 80's) See --> Mirage Magazine
Mudslide See --> Almafame
Jeffran Music Company
Small USA based publisher founded in the late 1960's by pedal steel player Jeff Newman. The label issued a number of albums that featured popular tunes of the day arranged for the pedal steel guitar, sought after these day's as curiosiata. The company is still around although no loner publishing music recordings, is now called Jeffran College and puts out pedal steel educational material and holds courses etc.. -- Official homepage.
Pope Music
Audiophile label founded in 1994 by Gene Pope and Alan Leftwich, based in Saddle River, New Jersey, USA. Concentrated on making classical recordings using mostly Russian artist on one hand and on the other recordings of American singer/songwriters. Recordings were made with a pair of DPA omni's, custom mic amps and straight onto tape without mixing in a typical minimalist audiophile label fashion, and most of their disks were available either as straight aluminium or with a gold coating. Went out of business in 2000 for reasons unknown.
Three Blind Mice
Legendary Japanese jazz specialist label, issued only music by local artists but some of them quite notable such as Terumasa Hino and Sleepy Hidehiko (aka Matsumoto Hidehiko), but the company was best known for the astonishing recording quality of their releases and coupled with superior Japanese pressings meant that their releases were popular as audiophile demonstration disks worldwide in the 70’s and 80’s.
Three Blind Mice was founded in June 1970 by Takeshi Fujii and started issuing records shortly thereafter, their output slowed down in the latter half of the 70’s and stopped altogether in the mid 80’s with only a couple of their releases appearing on CD’s, but all in all the catalogue from the company was less than 100 releases in total. Three Blind Mice however still exists, it was actually a subsidiary of a printing company or some such and they have licenced the catalogue from time to time but have not released any new material and are primarily an specialist on-line Jazz record store. USA company Cisco Music released some of their issues in the 1980’s while Audio Trade released portions of their catalogue on CD in the same decade, more recently Sony Music put out a large part of their catalogue on SACD in 2006/7 and in 2008 Box Star Records has released a compilation album on three 45 RPM vinyl disks. -- Official homepage.
Resources: Three Blind Mice discography
Victory Works See --> Almafame
VinylShminyl See --> Almafame
Waverley (Scotland 1920'a Accordion rel. music) See --> A. H. Wilkinson & Co. Ltd.
YEAAH! See --> Almafame