#1 Rough Trade
The big daddy of British indie labels, Rough Trade has had its ups and downs since 1978 when Geoff Travis founded it in the back of his Notting Hill record shop. Its early roster was an embarrassment of riches: the Smiths, the Fall, and Stiff Little Fingers whose Inflammable Material, Rough Trade’s first ever album release, sold more than 100,000 copies. The label went bust in 1991, losing a decade, but soon after its relaunch in 2000, Travis happened upon a little-known New York band called The Strokes. Now owned by Beggars Group, the label manages acts as diverse as Antony & the Johnsons and Micachu.
#2 Creation
From 1983 to 1999, the lion’s share of carousing and brawling in the British music industry was done not just by the roster of Creation Records but also by its management. Whereas most labels attract signings with lucrative deals, Creation, according to a former label manager, “used to drink and drug the bands into submission”. This worked a treat with Oasis, its biggest success story, and Primal Scream, neck-and-neck in the debauchery stakes. However, despite a host of great names on their roster, Alan McGee’s company never got the hang of turning a profit
#3 Factory
Few defunct British music institutions inspire more nostalgia than Factory, the label that put Manchester on the musical map. Established in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus, Factory is remembered for its highs – Joy Division and New Order, the halcyon days of the Hacienda nightclub, Peter Saville’s sleeve designs – and lows, notably the suicide of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis in May 1980. No less memorable was Wilson’s fearless approach, championing “difficult” bands and declining to make them sign contracts. The label closed in 1992, but Factory’s influence remains
#4 XL Recordings
Not many labels combine critical acclaim and profitability with greater aplomb than XL Recordings. It started out in 1989 as a dance offshoot of Beggars Banquet Records and has since grown in scope and success. The label’s roster reads like a who’s who of exciting crossover talent – MIA, Dizzee Rascal, the xx, Vampire Weekend – and with Adele’s second album, 21, dominating the charts, XL’s accountants must be grinning ear to ear. While his label thrives, boss Richard Russell still commands street-level credibility: his latest acquisition is LA rap wunderkind Tyler, the Creator
#5 Warp
If the early years of Warp Records could be summed up by a noise, it would be a loud bleep. The Sheffield label, with acts such as LFO, infected early-90s techno with bass and a panoply of bleep sounds. Over the years, Warp has evolved away from the dancefloor to brainy electronic music (anything by Autechre) and nuanced rock (the likes of Grizzly Bear). Its output is always imaginative and well-considered, but just as impressive is it’s visual sensibility, fostered through work with the Designers Republic and director Chris Cunningham, who traumatised us with Aphex Twin’s Windowlicker video
#6 Ninja Tune
Set up by Coldcut in 1990, Ninja Tune was born out of dissatisfaction with the British music industry and the DJ duo’s interest in musical innovation and the far east. As its logo, a record-throwing ninja, has become more futuristic over the years, so has the label’s sound, evolving from instrumental hip-hop and nu-jazz to dubstep and cutting-edge electronica. Funki Porcini’s Hed Phone Sex was an early classic; more recent triumphs include London Zoo by the Bug. Meanwhile, Ninja’s hip-hop offshoot, Big Dada, continues to foster British talent, from Roots Manuva to hot new Ipswich rapper DELS
#7 Domino
The £40-a-week enterprise allowance scheme that seeded Domino Records in 1993, when Laurence Bell set it up to license American records for the UK, has yielded some very handsome returns. In 2006, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not by Arctic Monkeys, became the fastest-selling debut album in UK chart history. Before that, Domino had scored big hits with the first two albums by Franz Ferdinand, who eschewed the majors in favour of the little south London label. With the help of its star acts, Domino continues to release offbeat material from artists such as Anna Calvi, Wild Beasts and Four Tet
#8 4AD
In 1980, Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent borrowed £2,000 to start an offshoot of the Beggars Banquet label. With the punk era in ashes, 4AD negotiated a space for atmospheric, darkly emotional music from bands such as Bauhaus and the Cocteau Twins. Later in the 1980s, it diversified, releasing M/A/R/R/S’s cut-up classic “Pump Up the Volume” and turning its attention to the US rock scene. Here it found its greatest success, the Pixies, as well as Throwing Muses and, later, the Breeders. Thirty years on, 4AD is in rude health, thanks to a new breed of US acts, notably Deerhunter, Ariel Pink and Gang Gang Dance
#9 Hyperdub
Dubstep is arguably the most exciting musical style to emerge from the UK in the past 10 years and no label has done more for the genre than Hyperdub, the London-based imprint run by Scottish DJ/producer Steve Goodman. The label’s most famous – and media-averse – signing is Burial, whose two highly acclaimed albums fuse melancholic dubstep with elements of 2-step garage and house. The label has also released material by Joker, King Midas Sound and Darkstar, as well as Goodman himself under his Kode9 alias. The 5: Five Years of Hyperdub compilation offers an excellent introduction to the label’s achievements
#10 Mute
Daniel Miller didn’t set out to establish one of the UK’s biggest independent labels when he released a single in 1978 as the Normal, but that’s how it turned out. The single, a surprise success, had Miller’s address on the back, and hopeful musicians started sending him demos. He decided to release some of them, and Mute Records has had an idiosyncratic hold on British music ever since. Guided by his love of synth music, Miller signed acts such as Depeche Mode, but Mute’s aesthetic is hard to pin down. How does one categorise a label whose back catalogue includes Nick Cave and Moby, Add N to (X) and Goldfrapp?
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