Label Of The Month

Label of the Month was a regularly updated feature on the Radio One section of the BBC website for over two years from (possibly) June 2002 [1], offering "John Peel with the record labels worthy of your attention".[2] A link to the series appeared on the main R1 page for Peel.[3]

It followed an earlier "Featured Label" slot, from the start of the decade, which appears to have been less frequently updated but covered labels including Warp Records [4], City Slang [5], Blood And Fire [6] and Shifty Disco [7].

The personal involvement of the DJ himself in the online content of LOTM is unclear, beyond presumably picking the labels to be highlighted, with research work by an unnamed "Peel Team" occasionally mentioned in the accompanying articles. These introduce a range of independent labels whose releases were played regularly by Peel in the early part of the century, including artists, interviews and occasional mixes.

The list below provides links to related pages still online, via archive.org. Please add more information if known. Some LOTM articles appear to be unavailable, with broken links to pages on MFS and Sympathy For The Record Industry. [8] [9]

Labels

(label-founder artists in bold)

• Tigerbeat6 [10]
  (Updated: 12 June 2002)
  (Artists mentioned: Kid606, Blectrum From Blechdom, Pimmon, Electric Company, Lesser, Wobbly, Nudge, Cex, Dat Politics, Disc, DJ/Rupture, Stars As Eyes, Numbers, Gold Chains, Pink And Brown, Knifehandchop)

• Track & Field Organisation [11]
  (Updated: 07 Aug 2002)
  (Artists mentioned: Kicker, Of Montreal, Great Lakes, Homescience, Tompaulin, Saloon, Projects)

• Thrill Jockey [12]
  (Updated: 19 Sept 2002 )
  (Artists mentioned: Gaunt)

• Earache Records [13]
  (Updated: 21 Oct 2002)
  (Artists mentioned: Napalm Death, Pitch Shifter, Iron Monkey, Ultraviolence)

• Bonkers [14]
  (Updated: 21 Jan 2003)
  (Artists mentioned: Sharkey)

• Bip Hop [15]
  (Updated: 4 March 2003)
  (Artists mentioned: Tonne, Scanner, Space Heads, Komet, Bovine Life, Si Cut db, Stepahn Mathieu)

• Rock Action [16]
  (Updated: 24 July 2003)
  (Artists mentioned: Mogwai, Pilotcan, Trout, Papa M, James Orr Complex, Random Number, Part Chimp, Envy, Kling Klang)

• Must...Destroy [17]
  (Updated: 8 Sept 2003)
  (Artists mentioned: (International) Noise Conspiracy, Darkness, 3 Inches Of Blood, Tramp Attack, Logh, Agenda, Of Arrowe Hill, Sludgefeast)

• Brighton special [18]
  (Rise Robots Rise, Stripe, Red Records and Lumenessence)
  (Updated: 23/10/03)
  (Rise Robots Rise artists mentioned: Cristian Vogel (Super Collider), Meteorites, Las Perras, House Of Fix; Stripe Records artists: Lunar, Planet ’t’, Parsec, ArCoN; Red Records artists: Lucky Jim, PISS!; Lumenessence artists: Backini, Leon Nine, Tiresias, Sketchie, F Soe Paing, Jane Bartholomew)

• Anticon [19]
  (Archived, 31 Oct 2003)
  (Artists mentioned: Passage(2), Alias, Sole, Jel, Dose One, Why?, Odd Nosdam. Pedestrian)

• Rephlex Records [20]
  (Updated: 30/01/04)
  (Artists mentioned: Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Mu-Ziq, Cylob, DMX Crew, Ovuca, Stakker, Baby Ford, 808 State, Bug, Soundmurderer, SK1, Luke Vibert)

• BPitch Control [21]
  (Updated: 28/01/04)
  (Artists mentioned: Ellen Allien, Paul Kalkbrenner, Soffy O, Tok Tok, Apparat)

• Adaadat [22]
  (Updated: 10/03/04)
  (Artists mentioned: Twin Turbo, Superdefekt, Reverbaphon, Kema Keur, Cow'p., Donna Summer(2), Ove Naxx)

• Deathchant Records [23]
  (Updated: 13/04/04)
  (Artists mentioned: DJ Hellfish, Secret Squirrel, Undercover Elephant, Narc, Minister So Sinister)

• Shitkatapult [24]
  (Updated: 23/06/04)
  (Artists mentioned: T. Raumschmiere, Apparat, Stormbow, Phon.o, Cia-Industries, Anders Ilar, Håkan Lidbo, Sami Koivikko, Das Bierbeben

• Blast First [25]
  (Updated: 21/07/04)
  (Artists mentioned: Sonic Youth, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr, Head Of David, Pan Sonic, Alan Vega, Suicide, Kaito, Erase Errata, Hovercraft, Liars, Sun Ra, Merzbow, Klang)

• Ghostly International [26]
  (Updated: 08/09/04)
  (Artists mentioned: Twine, Dykehouse, Tadd Mullinix, Matthew Dear, Disco D., Lusine, Kill Memory Crash, Vanisher, Audions, Aeroc)

• Mashit / Phantomnoise [27]
  (Updated: Oct 2004)
  (Mashit artists mentioned: DJ C, Aaron Spectre, Wayne And Wax, Ripley, Kid Kameleon; Phantomnoise artists: Alex Dee)