XL Recordings : Classic or Dud?

I can't think of as disparate and high quality a roster on another (similarly sized and financed) UK label....

Dave.

"The Prodigy Experience" - was the first album their best one?

Interview Jonny L

Better techstep albums - Ed Rush & Optical 'Wormhole', Grooverider's own 'Mystery Of Funk' and Source Direct's 'Exorcise The Demons'

XL as a label rocks tho! they've managed to successfully get out of just being the Prodigy's label and expand the roster with brilliant artists to become the best small label in ther world for me...White Stripes, Avalanches, Lemon Jelly - for once it really is All Good

Jonny L's 'Sawtooth' is my favourite single artist jungle album. No weak track, all different and 'Piper' is one of the weakest tracks on it, see wot I mean?. Bit of a lost classic, as is that Source Direct album (got lost a bit in the chaos of everybody jumping the jungle ship don't you think? ;)

So anyone for a 96-97 Techstep revival? :)

Better than some of their recent successful releases ?

Davec.

But for pure listening pleasure today... hmmm...... the first Basement Jaxx record, the Avalanches, "Jilted Generation" and recently Lemon Jelly give it a run for its money...

As a side issue - the Lemon Jelly record has to be a contender for coolest packaging on the label!!

DC.

http://richardxl.tumblr.com/

this mix is pretty fucking great

http://xlrecordings.com/images/13.jpg

Strange this thread didn't take off again, given that there's at least one news article a week on how XL is the model for saving the record industry.

There was some discussion on the Adele thread this week about an interview with Richard Russell I think.

I think XL is classic. They have a great roster and have released some of the best albums of the last couple of decades. Some of it is now unfashionable of course but that's what happens.

wish this label would fuck off

why do people - like 90% of the UK music press as far as I can tell - get such an automatic boner for everything with the XL brand? as someone said v perceptively on twitter to me, XLification = the musical equivalent of an instagram filter

get such an automatic boner for everything with the XL brand?

(while literally ignoring similar stuff WITHOUT the brand)

why do people - like 90% of the UK music press as far as I can tell - get such an automatic boner for everything with the XL brand?

because from 1991 through 1993 at least, they were one of the best record labels on the planet

agreed. The Azealia Banks thing had me thinking it was going to sink her. Maybe it's a British thing, people want to get back to Creation/Warp/Rough Trade adoration thing where they don't have to actively seek stuff out.

I was reading that thing about Levitation where Bob White said 'Rough Trade did what Rough Trade do: add a tremendous aura of cool to something, then go bust"

because from 1991 through 1993 at least

two bloody decades ago!

owenf otm there's totally this romantic idea that people like to buy into of a the "perfect" indie record label that you can be slavishly loyal to

Well it's a good, artist-friendly label with old-fashioned labour-intensive A&R skills and it's the only cross-genre indie label that gets it right most of the time. Successful labels have always attracted disproportionate attention, whether it's Rough Trade or Asylum. I assume your beef is related to certain R&B acts not getting enough attention but how is that XL's fault?

Because no one ~ever~ does that with dance labels. Or any other kind of genre. Ever.

Unless you meant indie as in independent as opposed to the genre?

Damn iPhone not warning me on x-posts.

It's just a weird comment to make because I swear I've encountered more label slaving in dance music than I ever did in indie-rock.

well i know XL is a good business, but i don't think the quality of music they release is particularly notable, and insofar as they have an aesthetic, in the narrative they craft around their acts, it's one i find off-putting. it's the automatic nature of the attention that bugs me - as if the mere fact of the XL brand is validation in and of itself, and an artist who might be doing similar things musically but doesn't have that brand/credibility narrative around them isn't worth paying attention to

i guess i have less beef with XL the label, which i mostly don't care about, than with the disproportionate, and irritatingly automatic, press attention lavished on it

I love XL/Beggars Group, but it is getting hilarious how everything they release is automatically "important."

Like if Bobby Womack released the exact same album on Atlantic or something, I doubt indie sites/mag would even recognize that it exists.

^^^^^^^^^^^^yes

lex what labels are you a fan of?

There's a few labels I will check out blindly as i feel there's a really good chance i will like it and trust them re: quality. None as big as XL though.

xp Yes I meant independent. They started out as a dance label and I wouldn't call Bobby Womack, MIA or Adele indie. Obviously there are lots of dance labels that attract devotion but they're not cross-genre in the same way - I guess Warp would be the closest.

Lex, I think what you're missing is how much effort they put in to make an album work, whether it's tracking down Gil Scott-Heron or getting the right team together for 21. It's not like they just sign people up, slap an XL logo on them and wait for the kudos (Radiohead being a special case). You might not like the artists but the work they're doing on XL is certainly notable in their field. Not saying they're perfect but it's hardly surprising that people take XL releases seriously. Whether those same people should also be keeping an eye on more acts on low-profile labels (they should) is another matter - it's not an either/or situation.

The Bobby Womack album is fantastic BTW, and if it was still produced by Damon Albarn and featured Lana Del Rey than yes, it would be noticed whatever label it was on. (Though obviously Richard Russell co-produced it so it wouldn't exist in that form without XL)

(I was asking Lex, I got what you meant, DL. Like I wanted to know was his problem w its being perceived as capital I Indie / and or indie-kid approved, or the business model or what?)

I think XL do a good job with their shit and the way they market it, I don't think the amount of attention they have is disproportionate

I don't like the kind of stuff they release tho

i don't think putting lots of work into making an album either qualifies XL for more attention, or is a particularly noteworthy aspect, or most importantly makes the music any better.

did not think much of the bobby womack album, it's aight here and there but mostly sounds awkward and mismatched. but, suffice to say that i don't think the attention being lavished on it is because people are blown away by the combination of r&b voice with modern production, given how easily - one might say wilfully - they ignore that when it's not wrapped in a ready-made narrative of indie-cred.

(I was asking Lex, I got what you meant, DL. Like I wanted to know was his problem w its being perceived as capital I Indie / and or indie-kid approved, or the business model or what?)

its being perceived as automatically credible & important, mostly.

doesn't make the stuff they release better (obviously!) but they use their position well

also the stuff they release IS credible, whatever THAT means

I used to complain that in the 2007-2008 era of Vampire Weekend and signing Titus and El Guincho (LOOOOL) that XL was just pilfering whatever P4k/Stereogum covered with no attention to whether it was good or not. But at some point XL/Beggars became the leaders and not followers of nu-indie and now they seem to have more power than any website or mag.

because most websites & mags seem to be followers by nature

Well it needs to be worked out what exactly is meant by “credible” if the word isn’t synonymous with “sellable to white people.”

"slap an XL logo on them and wait for the kudos" Would Tyler be another example? The AB record might have been too. Maybe they're getting lazy.

Don't think Lex has a problem with the Label really, surely it's more to do with it's subscribers.

because most websites & mags seem to be followers by nature

― kanye kardashian (lex pretend), Friday, May 25, 2012 9:08 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Right, but the press-vs-XL relationship was switched just like five years ago!

About 21 specifically, I don’t give a shit how much “effort” the label put into it because pop isn’t a building site. Especially when it’s such an underwhelming and sorely overrated record, even if it “pays for the goodies” (it’s likely to be number one again on Sunday, after the early week Joe Bonamassa/John Mayer fanbase has burned itself out).

If a record’s rubbish you’re not going to persuade me that it’s any good because so much work was put into it and (subtext) so many people’s jobs depend on it. It’s the media view of indie as a deserving charity and it stops clear thinking from getting through.

I like what I’ve heard off the new Womack, personally, but Poet II it ain’t – talk about a voice (voices, if you count Patti Labelle) slicing through and tearing apart contemporary (mid-eighties) mores of music production.

I reckon the best record Richard Russell’s been involved with is “The Bouncer.”

maybe people who like XL just lack the intelligence that we have

lol LG

could be a genetic thing

has this ever been investigated? i often think people who disagree with me are stupider.

why are you pretending to stick up for Adele?

i guess that's everyone interested in why certain aesthetics are privileged told with those pert rejoinders LG, aren't you clever

If a record’s rubbish you’re not going to persuade me that it’s any good because so much work was put into it

I'm not.

and (subtext) so many people’s jobs depend on it.

Not the subtext.

Whether or not you (or I) like the Adele album has no bearing whatsoever on my argument.

i guess that's everyone interested in why certain aesthetics are privileged told with those pert rejoinders LG, aren't you clever

sorry, i prob lack the thoughtfulness of your revive. i fear i will forever be amongst the sheeple, following.

well can you fuck off and do it elsewhere then

i would but i keep refreshing this thread slavishly waiting for word on the new XL release

I think there's a Joey Barton kind of sort-of-ironic thing going on here.

The Adele album has total bearing because if it didn't exist, none of these other records would either, and as far as I can see it's built on the same precepts; "edgy" music for people whose idea of "edgy" is to triple park outside their local Giraffe World Cafe.

everything I've heard from the Adele album has been slightly less edgy than a sphere and I don't know a single person who thinks it's "challenging" or whatever

I'm talking from a Heart FM perspective.

Nobody but nobody thinks Adele is "edgy" and that album only came out 18 months ago so what exactly are you talking about?

Illegal parking is edgy?

can't remember last time i saw people use the word "edgy" outside of the above context

if adele wasn't on xl she'd receive exactly as much critical attention and respect as norah jones or michael bubbly

a conspiracy, or just other people being stupid?

fuck off ronan

Lex - I think both deserve more critical attention and respect - have you heard the new Norah Jones album? I was surprised at how good it was.

I repeat that Adele is "edgy" if Heart FM is considered (as it is by millions) "normal."

I don’t give a shit how much “effort” the label put into it because pop isn’t a building site

it kind of is though

i've seen people say that about the n.jones album elsewhere, i guess i should check it out.

adele's massive success just makes me sad jazmine sullivan's career never happened to the scale it should have

totally agree.

they know their audience, and their audience is big

their audience is big because rabid aspie weirdos like us are a minority

besides, people like gatekeepers, and being gatekeeped - gatekeepers in themselves imply a world of cool shit that has been sifted through and presented as the shorthand creme de la creme. people prefer this illusion to definitively knowing that a is better than b, which equals c. people, man

"definitively knowing that a is better than b" - contradiction in terms.

so

xp Lex, Adele's success has very little to do with the credibility of being on XL (who in the US knows or cares what XL is?) and a lot to do with the kind of record XL helped her make (whatever any of us think of it) so she's pretty much the worst example you could choose to make your case that XL fools all the indie sheep. I'm not even sure what your argument is at this stage apart from a general frustration that the artists you like aren't better-known.

i'm trying to think of any U.S. analogue to XL's arc of going from being kind of a cool kids brand to a 'thinkin person's house of hits' label w/ a larger umbrella. maybe Interscope in the '90s?

Def Jam?

I'm not even sure what your argument is at this stage apart from a general frustration that the artists you like aren't better-known.

in a nutshell - the patina of "credibility" with which XL markets its artists and which pretty much guarantees them acres of press coverage, even the non-adele ones, coverage that many of them wouldn't get if they were released on a different label, is wank

when the news of the womack album first emerged, a nigerian singer i follow on twitter said something about how it was most reflective of where music biz power lies, and i pretty much agree with her

i mean, rtc otm obv, but it doesn't mean i have to LIKE it

Where the power lies how? Upthread you said the Bobby Womack album was about "the combination of r&b voice with modern production" but surely it's about the combination of BOBBY WOMACK with modern production - it's his rep as much as (or more than?) XL's. It's not like there's loads of other underreported albums with an equivalent artist. How does that relate to the Nigerian singer? Not a rhetorical question - I want to understand your point.

And the "if they were released on a different label" point doesn't make sense because an album like Womack's wouldn't exist in that form without XL. The label puts in more than "credibility" - it shapes the music.

After reading some recent articles, I'm thinking about how Willis Earl Beal and Shamir have very similar stories about not wanting to be boxed in and marketed as this soulful r&b singer, and subsequently getting dropped after one record.

Sure it's the label's money and they can do what they want, but it seems like Russell has this very trad, classicist idea of black American r&b (see his recent record), and that it's been rough going for the artists who try to depart from that (at least he let them out of their contracts, but still, the whole process).

don't forget about azealia