Emusic Labels

Here’s an abbreviated list of emusic labels — which is hard to keep in my head. I’m using as my reference omnifoo’s comprehensive annotated list of labels. I’m just adding links to emusic and bandcamp and maybe other resources.

Europe

Poland: (Browse RYM List of Polish performers)

Gone! Audio Cave (Bc) A profusion of trios and quintets from the last few years shows promise, and I’d be happy to own most of it. MN jazz more than occasionally looks Polish in 115 at usually quite low prices. Updating in 2020 and with a few from the 1990s, one might say they’re an exceptional steal. Far better than the big jazz donors in the wine caves. I picked up Silberman Quartet in part for it being among the least jazzy.
|| Gone! Gad Records (bc) (album summaries) RJN Lots of Polish instrumental and jazz stuff — including lots of soundtracks. Great stuff, but somewhat pricey.
Gone! Serpent Records (bc) Almost 200 titles ranging from classical, jazz, folk, and Krautrock. Might be worth spending a long time exploring, as many are inexpensive. Very low-key and abstract as a whole, sometimes a little off kilter..
Gone! Karrot Kommando. (Youtube albums) Polish pop, rock, jazz, reggae, and you name it.
Gone! Metal Mind. Polish label seems to be progressive rock at least as often as it is metal, and not very loud or hard metal when it is metal. Tracks tend to be on the long side, but don’t assume what they sound like. Sample (at least some let you listen to the whole track) or get burned! 59 titles from the 1980s to 2014.
Agora S.A. (Wiki page) Polish distributor (not a label). I like Pustki and Dagadana. I think this is Polish. 25 titles ending in 2014, and there’s plenty of pop vocal nonsense and live albums to filter out. RJN: Looks like they stopped adding albums in 2014. I really love the live albums which are all called Najmniejszy Koncert Świata. UPDATE 2023: Gone!
Gone! Box Music. Another of the Polish labels that inexplicably sometimes lets you listen to whole songs for risk-free downloading. Voo Voo is interesting rock, but the rest is highly questionable. 149 titles from the late 20th century to 2015.
Gone! MyMusic Group. (Catalog on Wiki) (preview by artist on Youtube). There’s almost certainly some interesting stuff in here, but I’m not going to click through 780+ titles to find it. Mostly Polish.
Gone! Tercet. 90s technopop Polish & Eastern European music and remixes.

Turkey – Gone! Turkuola (bc) ; Turkofon GmbH (bc)

Netherlands:

Songbird (Wiki page) RJN: sublabel of Black Hole Recordings, primarily known for its Search of Sunrise trance mixes. (All are great, especially the earlier Tiesto mixes). Great values too.
Black Hole Recordings (Wiki page) Bigger names in electronica like BT, Solarstone, Paul Oakenfold and Tiesto veering towards house and trance.
Cloud 9 Digital. (Catalog, Youtube, ) Dutch pop label with mostly eps and singles. Also a bunch of archival 90s techno eps.

Slovak Republic — Opus Records (Wiki page) 4/2023. Gone! RJN: A very odd assortment of 230 albums by Eastern Europeans over 4 decades. Probably overpriced and some albums sound cringey, but lots of great unusual stuff here! No separate Youtube page, although many albums are listed there. See also 100 Greatest Slovak albums of all time and a longer list here. (I found several interesting 70s and 80s albums here).

Portugal:

Lux Records (bc) Irreverent blues from Legendary Tiger Man, then lots of alt. rock in 38 titles from the end of the 20th century up to 2020. Occasionally in Portuguese. More than I expected stands up to scrutiny. There’s a lot of character(s) here you should introduce yourself to.
Pataca Discos (bc) YouTube. A smaller, less adventurous cousin of Potoco, perhaps? Most lyrics seem to be in English, others in Portugese, and the fare is light synth-rock on the poppy side. The bestseller Bruno Pernadas has a unique throwback to loungey 60s pop jazz with prog-rock-length songs worth hearing. Not super cheap but often under $4 for an LP, 22 titles in Feb.’22. (RJN: I enjoyed Auto Radio by Benjamin).

United Kingdom

Gone! Selectonic (bc) UK
Deltasonic UK (Wiki, Artists Page , RYM Listing). A fair heap of rock music, some well rated. Add “Records Ltd” or you’ll get only one result. High ratings and fair sampling led me to try Vryll Society, but I didn’t like the album after owning it. RJN: Dead 60s (British ska-reggae sounds pretty awesome)
Ditto Music. Indie distributor. If a pop listener just needed 800+ titles to sift through, I’d direct them here. Total grab bag, and obviously mostly crap, but poppy, well produced crap.
Gone! Trunk Records (bc) UK (label releases). A whole lot of vintage stuff to sort through, rockabilly and int’l combined confusingly with stuff that’d be a great find on cheap, old vinyl. 293 titles that often find themselves on the bestsellers list for big names in jazz.
Gone! Ghost Box (bc). Ambient, electronic. (Artist page and Wiki page) Early tests of this well regarded electronic label show promise, but it’s too soon for me to get on the bandwagon. Several users have expressed concerns about it leaving. I’d be sad but definitely survive. 58 titles almost all rated.
Earache Records (Artist Catalog and Wiki page) Finding this seminal metal label so recently makes me worry that I’ve missed a lot of labels in genres I don’t listen to at all. In 433 albums, I’d be surprised if nothing was worthwhile, even for me.
Lo Recordings (bandcamp) (Wiki article listing artists) Lots of good electronic stuff, especially when artists whose releases overlap mean labels that have disappeared are still available for a few albums. 168 titles
Gone! Burning Witch Records. (BC) Deadly Avenger and some highly rated electronica. Ten albums by Caribou have suddenly appeared in Aug.’20 on People Eating Fruit Records. RJN: I liked Oh Baby
People Eating Fruit Records. (Carabou BC). As Omnifoo points out above, Carabou has created their own label.
Gone! Damaged Good Records. (Label Artist catalog and wiki). Gotten into Holly Golightly lately, on a friend’s suggestion. Lots of other stuff is rated for easy exploration if you want to revive the dirty rock and blues sounds of old but want something from 2020. Large selection of 214 here can add 59 more by adding “Records” to the name.
Memphis Industries. (Bandcamp) List of artists. The folks responsible for Self have a real knack for production without letting anything sound overproduced. I believe some past releases were also called “Spongebath” Records and were less reliably nifty. 80 titles.
Nugene Records (catalog). Mostly blues/jazz music, with a small but distinguished catalog of artists.
Rabblerouser Music. Mainly a label for the excellent acoustic group The Unthanks. 20 albums.
Gone 6-2023! Cambrian Records (UK-WALES). Bandcamp . 8 country/folk albums.
Temple Records (UK-SCOT) (Label Artist Catalog) Youtube. Folk and Gaelic. RJN: Deep catalog of only a handful of artists.
Olive Grove Records (UK-Scot). Bandcamp. Wiki. Catalog. Alternative rock with several rated albums. 42 in total from 2010-2020

France

Pschent (Soundcloud) . French synth pop, house, and disco, deliberately cheesy and smarmy. Just over 50 titles ending in 2011, then add “Music” for a whopping 147 more, with many highly rated. Add Stéphanie Cadel et La Caravane for a few more. RJN: Look for the Hotel Costes EDM mixes. See also Sans Commentaire which is under Africa.
Because Music. (Bandcamp, Wiki listing) Decidedly not where I got my Beta Band cds, but if I didn’t have them, nice to know there here with Charlotte Gainsbourg and others among a whopping 357 in tota, 77 more under “Ltd.” and countless variations.

Germany:

Glitterhouse Records. (Bandcamp, Wiki, Catalog). A deep catalog, but 90 listings on emusic, half of which are singles. Mostly German bands but some Americans like blues guitarist Johnny Dowd and Jeffrey Lee Sessions project.
Mole Listening Pearls. (Youtube) Quite large electronic catalog with high ratings. Accessibly poppy and upbeat. 173 titles from the turn of the century to 2019. 186 in Sept.’21, and I haven’t seen fit to buy anything yet…maybe a little too smooth in its downtempo and too broad in its pop. (RJN: Start with Ohm Square and the Rewashed compilation album of label artists).
Springstoff. (Catalog) (Youtube). 237 titles and the site’s bestseller for May’22 are here in electronic, though I’m always skeptical of deep house. Up to 2022.
Gone 6-2023! LEITER Verlag GmbH & Co. KG (BC) A mighty unwieldy name for ten titles including bestselling new classical from Nils Frahm, broadwaved electronica from nonkeen, 2016-2021. I’ll be surprised if this one survives long, but it’s up to 26 titles in June’22, insulated by very high prices ($3.49 for an EP?!)…but that might mean I only buy on booster discounts that could scare the label away. (RJN:
Zyx Music. German music distributor which mainly deals with European compilations — with some odd things thrown in — classical, classic singers, audiobooks. Most compilations are 3.99 which isn’t bad. Omnifool disparagingly writes, “If a label of mostly disco thinks it can survive, it had better be Italian. Note that plain old “zyx” has 800+ titles but is disqualified from significance by the proportion of trash compilations.”

Spain:

Acuarela. (Bandcamp) (website catalog) Just over a dozen alt. rock titles, mostly short, cheap EPs, from 1993-1996 are a surprise find in Dec. ’19, but I don’t know anything about them. Carmine is polarizing, Yogur cheap but brief, others are a bit rough or intentionally sloppy. Out of the blue at some point in 2022 it blew up to 145 titles and put up the most famous (but old) indie rock on the site. eMusic is ever unpredictable this way.
Almoukri Records.
Mushroom Pillow (also here). (Youtube) Looks like a lot of alternative Latin groups, but on listening I think they might be from Spain. Worth exploring, starting w/ highly rated hazy shoegaze of Triangulo de Amor Bizarro. Fans of 1980s rock would be well served as a whole. Many listed releases are singles not labeled as such. 146 titles from 2004-17. Put an underscore between for ten more closer to the turn of the century.
Must Producciones. 17 titles by a couple of pop chanteuses en español from 2018-20 (RJN: It shows 40+ titles, check out Edurne).
Nubenegra. (Artist Catalog & Album Catalog & Youtube). Latin world music from the 1990s to 2010 in 81 titles. Add a space for ten in rock up to 2019. Mariem Hassan’s story as one of the most prominent female vocalists in desert blues sure sounds tragic, while her music should live on. (RJN: The label website is very helpful and impressive, but the Spanish language text appears on top of each page; the English version for each album and artist are found below the Spanish text).
MusicDifusion. 156 titles in electronica, folk, and more, some highly rated with a lot from 2020. Lots more in the (a Most Wanted Music division) variations, which confusingly change genres, become French or Spanish, and other devious ploys for attention. Unclassifiable, inconsistent, and too much to browse in one sitting. Ballooned to 999 titles in Jan.’22, with several rated. 3610 in Mar.’23, so good luck to anyone else brave enough to click through and report back!

Latin/South America

Beast Discos Artist Catalog (Chile) Rock en espanol and probably some worthwhile stuff among 170 (now 180) titles up to 2019. Pop someone w/ taste might call “tasteful.” 244 in Jan.’22 (RJN: I really love this label!)
Concepto Cero. Very small selection of tasteful pop and a nice soundtrack from Argentina, all 13 titles are from 2019. 26 in Mar.’23. Add the nine mostly singles on Leap Masters
CVRA LVDORVM (some on Bandcamp). (Some Youtube playlists). Ecuador.
Halcon, Limited label containing mostly 70s Norteno/Tejano music. Classic salsa and mariachi of the 1970s with contemporary examples. RJN: Rare stuff, but sadly overpriced on emusic.
Delhotel Records. (Youtube) Mexico label.
Disco Fuentes here and here Wiki article
Dinastia Inc. 451 Latin oldies involving acoustic guitars and crooners. Salsa and trashy-looking compilations in equal measure. In July’20 it’s ballooned to 1652 titles, 1800 by Oct.
DIW (Devil in the Woods (bandcamp). Artists’ list. Mexico. Many albums w/ tracks on the longer side suggest unlabeled post-rock en español
Faro Discos. (bandcamp, (Peru). Above average rock, pop rock, and punk en español in 41 titles up to 2020, though only a handful of artists and usually not cheap. Include five more by Mundaka on Anti-Rudo.
Gorgon Records. (RYM Catalog) (Jamaica) Reputable, classic dub.
Hueso Records . (Brooklyn/chile) Release old albums, working with multimedia artists.
Jabalina. (bc) Large selection of understated Latin pop, apparently going strong for 25 years and updating in 2019. Spanish label.
Naafi (bc) Mexico. 33 electronic titles from 2017-21 only discovered in Sept.’21 in a farewell post from eMusers. Short but also inexpensive albums, quality is decidedly a cut above most electronica thanks to worldly elements.
Oveja Negra (Black Sheep). (Chile). Now defunct.
Potoco Discos Chile. Also Potoco Discos Digital and Boa Musica/Potoco Discos(Youtube) What makes this rap en español so impressive, aside from slick production and the MCs’ delivery which could be said for any number of labels, is that their backing tracks range from blues to jazz to electronica that could stand on its own as interesting music. 44 titles ending in 2018 all deserve a sampling, 11 more by adding “Digital”. Not sure if Nimodo’s four titles on Fractualismo are quite good enough to be grouped here, but there they are.
Quemasucabeza. (Wiki) (Youtube) (catalog) Chile. Are these mostly Latin artists worth burning one’s head over? Only one way to find out. Lots of actual singles, and frustratingly, unlabeled singles. 119 titles from 2010-2020. 146 in Feb.’22, plenty of new stuff but still a lack of something distinctive enough to be wishlisted. Bland, conventional pop en español. (RJN: The Wiki page spells out some of the more notable artists: Fakuta, Congelador, )
Terrícolas Imbéciles Some big names in Latin alternative and others well worth exploring. Juana Molina turned out to be the only one I bought, though Presidente also seems OK. The rest is pretty mediocre rock. Go ahead and tack on all of Manu Chao’s stuff on Radio Bemba.
Gone 2023-6! Escapula Records (Label catalog) Brazil.

Asia

Demajors. (Indonesian label, mostly jazz ) full album streams on youtube ,(Artist List) and Wikipedia page in Indonesian I am pleasantly surprised by almost everything I find here.
Gone! Le Moesiek Revole, (Youtube).
Gone! Wing Hang Record Trading Co. Trove of late 20th century and early 21st century Chinese titles, 118 in total, ending in 2012 but extending well into the 1970s, mostly from the 70s to the 90s. The label name sounds like it’s Cantopop, as does the album art, but the song titles have been entered in Mandarin
KWAIOTO Other labels are pretenders. Japan. These dubstep EPs coming out of Kyoto are the real deal. Up to 2019. [[RJN: Lots of single tracks mixed in]]
Gone! Maestro Digital/Maestro Production (UZB Label) (Youtube). Russian is definitely nearby, but these pop vocalists look more like Central Asians, so I’m going to put their pop and hip-hop with the Middle East. 100+ titles up to 2019. Not the worst cheese I’ve heard. (RJN: Albums with the title “To’plam” mean that they are a compilation aka Greatest Hits. But they are not necessarily the best songs by the singers).
Gone! 2023-6 Nevo Music. (UZB) (Youtube) . RJN: Another Uzbek label, with a lot of songs in Russian. Based in Russia, I think, and the music production style seems very much in the bland techno Russian pop style.

Canada

604 Records. Catalog and Wiki page. Youtube. Nearly 200 to choose from, but I doubt the five-starredness of some of these alternative rockers and their conventional pop takes on folk, country, etc. There do seem to be more female vocalists than usual. Turn of the 21st century to 2020. Lots of variations of the name to sort through. Another reliable explorer has confirmed there’s nothing actually of interest here.
Light Organ. Wiki Page Catalog. Youtube. Large catalog of rock, folk, synth pop, etc. and on sampling the quality seems high. A few are rated, several 2019 titles. (RJN: Launched by 604 cofounder to appeal more to the college music crowd. )

USA

ESP-Disk (jazz) (Bandcamp albums) (label artists) (long interview-profile). Lots of low-priced classic jazz albums!
Gone Leaving Records. (BC) DNTEL, Odd Nosdam, and presumably lots of other gems to draw attention away from Laraaji, which I find intolerable. A semi-experimental cornucopia of 181 titles.
Sublime Frequencies (Bc) World guitars and similarly derived instruments, mainly from dry places? Inexpensive and high quality in 42 titles from 2007-18. (Based in USA)
Righteous Babes (bc) Ani Defranco’s baby, Another label one almost has to support for its feminism, but the music has yet to blow me away or congeal into the kind of artist or sound they’re proffering. Is Ani DiFranco in charge of it? One of those I respect more than I want to hear. Drums & Tuba are interesting. 40 titles. Add everything by Lenine on Casa 9. (RJN: I love this label, but bought a few on BC).
Gone! (This happens often, but they come back sometimes) Polyvinyl (bc) Interview with Polyvinl founder. RJN: Generally high quality indie alternative, but despite the huge catalog, the artists tend to resemble one another.
Gone! Stones Throw Records (bc) Wiki Page (USA). California label which does hip rock/experimental psychedelic rock.
Red Parlor Records (Wiki page) US Country rock. (RJN: Disappeared Nov 2022!)

Africa

East Africa Records (bandcamp). Uganda. A lot more singles than albums (List of Artists)

Sans Commentaire (Home Page, Bandcamp) (Paris/Mali). Just 19 titles in African world music by a small number of artists, but they’re all bargain priced and nice quality. At least one from 2020.

Etc….

Gone! J.D.L. Pre-WW2 European compilations. Overpriced, but definitely rare and listenable.

Timeline. RJN: Vintage live recordings by extremely famous US bands. Some were in US; some were abroad. Sound quality is spotty (even by the standards of the decade) and that explains why so few of them were released in the States. Also, these artists have lots of other albums, making these particular recordings not particularly special.

Masters of the Last Century: Compilation of Random US pop/jazz stars. Some interesting stars here, but overall they are not a particularly good deal for the money (usually 65-80 minutes for 6.49)

Independent (?!) Omnifoo surmises that the 10,000+ releases with this “label” were lumped together because the label field was never filled in. You can’t really sort by release date because about 95% of recent releases are singles only.

JSC-Firma-Melodiya — Obscure Russian classical label with lots of composers I’d never heard of.

Posted

6/9/2022

music collecting

Robert Nagle

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