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Do you have a favorite record label?

There has been much consolidation in the music industry, so many independent labels are now parts of corporate conglomerates, but through out the history of recorded music individual labels have had identities.

  I grew up in Detroit in the sixties so of course Motown was front and center in my consciousness.  I just returned from a few days in Memphis and loved visiting the Stax, Sun Records, and especially the Rock and Soul Museums.

  I don’t listen to much Jazz but I am aware that labels such as Blue Note had distinct profiles.  The same is true for Reggae and World Music labels.

  My genre is Classical and many small independent labels have really driven the creativity in the industry.  While the so called major labels were duplicating the Classical Top 100 ad infinitum, labels such as Naxos, Musical Heritage Society, Erato, and then later Hyperion, BIS, Chandos and most importantly cpo have greatly expanded the amount of repertoire available to listeners.  It’s never been a better time to be a listener.

  Other favorites?  Any genre goes, and perhaps offer a few words about why you value that label

mahler123
simonmoon's avatar
simonmoon
648 posts
 

I have a few that I love. 

ECM - jazz label that has been around since the late 60’s. There seems to be a characteristic ethos running through most of their releasses. The vast majority of their releases are not typical jazz. Much of it is by European musicians, and has quite a bit of European music influences. Some may be classified as "chamber-jazz". 

Their recordings are universally very good quality, with a lot of space, and percussion is typically recorded very well. They also made the transition to digital very well.

ECM

Kairos Music - Avant-garde and contemporary classical music label. 

Lots of great, avant-garde classical. Musically, your mileage may vary, since most of their catalog is atonal, and "thorny" sounding. 

Overall, very well recorded, with large, well defined soundstages, and great imaging. 

Kairos Music

Cuneiform Records - Specializes in avant-garde prog-rock, jazz, jazz-rock, and hard to categorize music. 

Loads of creative, progressive, boundary pushing musicians and bands, with off the charts levels of musicianship. 

Tend to be better recorded than most labels, but it is not always a given. 

Cuneiform Records

Brain Records - Now defunct 70’s and early 80’s German record label. 

Specialized in Krautrock, prog-rock, and some jazz-rock. 

Loads of progressive and experimental artists. Vere well recorded, pressed on the highest quality vinyl available. Much of their recordings were recorded by engineer, Konrad "Conny" Plank, who had one of the best recording studios in Europe. 

A few modern progressive labels:

Inside Out, Laser’s Edge, K Scope

mashif
497 posts
 

BIS Records

Everything they put out is high quality performance and sound quality. 

mahler123 OP
4,147 posts
 

@mashif 

 

re BIS. As you may know, their owner Robert Von Bahr sold out to Apple and then was shortly afterwards bounced from their management.  Hopefully the label continues to thrive 

middlemass
1,000 posts
 

Another vote for BIS...consistently outstanding.

richardbrand's avatar
richardbrand
1,476 posts
 

@mahler123

their owner Robert Von Bahr sold out to Apple and then was shortly afterwards bounced from their management

I did not know that!  BIS was always excellent.

Apple bought the classical streaming service Idagio, and shut it down while they worked on 'improvements'.

I've never bought any of their 'records' but Norwegian label 2L.no is outstanding for immersive sound quality.

I have a love / hate relationship with Decca and Deutsche Grammophon vinyl records.  How the mighty have fallen since being acquired by the Universal Music Group.

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