Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwide success over time, with the success of platinum performers Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson, Devo, Tangerine Dream, Genesis, Phil Collins, OMD, the Human League, Culture Club, Simple Minds, Lenny Kravitz, the Sex Pistols, and Mike Oldfield among others, meaning that by the time it was sold, it was regarded as a major label, alongside other large international independents such as A&M and Island Records.
Warp Records is a British independent record label founded in Sheffield in 1989 by record store employees Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell and record producer Robert Gordon. It is currently based in London.
Spooky are a British electronic music production and DJ duo consisting of Duncan Forbes and Charlie May.
ZTT Records is a British record label founded in 1983 by record producer Trevor Horn, Horn's wife and businesswoman Jill Sinclair, and New Musical Express (NME) journalist Paul Morley. The label's name was also stylised as ZANG TUMB TUUM and ZANG TUUM TUMB on various releases.
William Mark Wainwright, known professionally as William Orbit, is an English musician and record producer who has sold 200 million recordings worldwide of his own work, his production and songwriting work. He is a recipient of multiple Grammy Awards, Ivor Novello Awards and other music industry awards.
Chrysalis Records is a British record label that was founded in 1968. The name is both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders' names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis. It started as the Ellis-Wright Agency.
Caroline Records is a record label originally founded in 1973. Initially founded in the United Kingdom to showcase British progressive rock groups, the label ceased releasing titles in 1976, and then re-emerged in the United States in 1986. The label released the work of American punk rock, thrash metal and new wave music bands. Caroline had a number of subsidiary labels, including Astralwerks, Gyroscope, Caroline Blue Plate, Beat the World, Scamp and Passenger.
Acid jazz is a music genre that combines elements of funk, soul, and hip hop, as well as jazz and disco. Acid jazz originated in clubs in London during the 1980s with the rare groove movement and spread to the United States, Japan, Eastern Europe, and Brazil. Acts included The Brand New Heavies, D'Influence, Incognito, Us3, and Jamiroquai from the UK and Buckshot LeFonque and Digable Planets from the U.S. The rise of electronic club music in the middle to late 1990s led to a decline in interest, and in the twenty-first century, the movement became indistinct as a genre. Many acts that might have been defined as acid jazz are seen as jazz-funk, neo soul, or jazz rap.
Progressive house is a subgenre of house music. The progressive house style emerged in the early 1990s. It initially developed in the United Kingdom as a natural progression of American and European house music of the late 1980s.
Deram Records was a subsidiary record label of Decca Records established in the United Kingdom in 1966. At the time, U.K. Decca was a different company from the Decca label in the United States, which was owned by MCA Inc. Deram recordings were distributed in the U.S. through UK Decca's American branch known as London Records. Deram was active until 1979, then continued as a reissue label.
Charisma Records was a British record label founded in 1969 by former journalist Tony Stratton-Smith. He had previously acted as manager for rock bands such as The Nice, the Bonzo Dog Band and Van der Graaf Generator. Gail Colson was label manager and joint managing director.
Junior Boy's Own is an English record label specialising in electronic dance music. Underworld, The Chemical Brothers and X-Press 2 are its most successful artists.
Relativity Records was an American record label founded by Barry Kobrin at the site of his company, Important Record Distributors (IRD) in metro New York. Relativity released music that covers a wide variety of musical genres. When it entered into a deal with Sony Music Entertainment, it became more known for its heavy metal and hip hop releases.
ZYX Music GmbH & Co. KG is a German record label that was 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's name was Pop-Import Bernhard Mikulski. The label specialized in disco, early house music and 1990s techno. Founder Bernhard Mikulski is credited with coining the term "Italo disco" in the 1980s. After the death of Bernhard, his wife Christa Mikulski took over in 1997.
Darren Paul Emerson is an English musician, DJ and producer best known as a former member of the British electronic music group Underworld.
John Graham is a British record producer, songwriter, vocalist who is also known under the pseudonyms Quivver, Skanna, Stoneproof and Space Manoeuvres. He was a former member of music production team Tilt and has recorded and toured with the Welsh electronic group, Hybrid in the past.
Bassomatic were a British band that recorded house music in the 1990s. A project of William Orbit, the band included vocalist Sharon Musgrave and rapper MC Inna Onestep amongst others. For the second album, singer Sindy Finn replaced Sharon Musgrave on vocals. Both albums were produced at Guerilla Studios, founded by William Orbit with Laurie Mayer and Grant Gilbert, and released by Virgin Records.
Y Records was a British independent record label set up in 1980 by Dick O'Dell in the United Kingdom, and distributed by Rough Trade.
Hooj Choons is a house record label formed by Alex Simons and Red Jerry in 1990. The first release was "Carnival de Casa" by Rio Rhythm Band, however, it was not until 1992's release of Felix's "Don't You Want Me", which Red Jerry and Faithless founder-member Rollo co-produced, that Hooj Choons had their first crossover hit. Over the next ten years, Hooj Choons had several notable releases including productions from artists such as Diss-Cuss, Tilt, Oliver Lieb and JX. The label built up a roster of popular club hits and smaller underground classics over 20 years.
Gargantuan is the debut studio album by English electronic duo Spooky, released by William Orbit's Guerilla Records in March 1993. Having established their place at the forefront of the progressive house scene, Spooky recorded the album in two London studios using analogue production. The record is largely instrumental and incorporates rigid percussion and rhythms with melodic house phrasings. The single "Schmoo" reached the UK Singles Chart, but Gargantuan under-performed commercially. It was however well received by critics, and today is regarded as a landmark album in the history of progressive house and British dance music. After the album went out-of-print, Spooky re-released it themselves in 2006.
