What Label Comp Tipped You Off to the Most Artists?

That would be Doing It For the Kids on Creation, 1988. The twilight of British jangle pop and the dawn of proto-shoegazing (or something to that effect). One of the last vinyl LPs I bought and one of the first CDs. Looking down the tracklist, I see it led me to buy quite a few albums on other labels (House of Love, PrmlScrm, Heidi Berry, MBV, Momus).

1. Cut Me Deep - Jasmine Minks
2. Ballad of the Band - Felt
3. Christine - House of Love
4. Well Done Sonny - Weather Prophets
5. All Fall Down - Primal Scream
6. She Paints - Biff Bang Pow!
7. Lot 49 - Jazz Butcher
8. North Shore Train - Berry, Heidi
9. Death Is Hanging Over Me - Sudden, Nikki
10. Cigarette in Your Bed - My Bloody Valentine
11. Jetstream - Pacific
12. Godevil - Times
13. A Complete History of Sexual Jealousy, Pt. - Momus
14. Reflect on Rye - Emily
15. Brighter Now - Razorcuts

curiously I saw your question, and thought "mmmm, Doing it for the kids, perhaps".

Wanna Buy A Bridge? snapped my little mind open like a Ritz cracker back in 1988 or so.

The Joint, put out by Moving Shadow and Suburban Base in 1993, introduced me to Foul Play, Hyper-On Experience, Omni Trio, DJ Hype, 2 Bad Mice, Sons Of A Loop Da Loop Era and Krome & Time. Admittedly, this was five/six years or so after the fact...

Important comps at one time or another in my life:

Identity II (Century Media during the metal years) Sometimes God Hides (Discipline during the King Crimson years) Songlines sampler (avant jazz that I've really been meaning to actually buy more records from) Soundbombing I & II (hiphop during, um, last year)

Great question. After admittedly not much thought I'll nominate the Space Age Pop series on RCA, through which I discovered Bernie Green, Dick Schory, The Three Suns and more.

Probably Modulation and Transformation 4 or .

― Mark, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

slash records early sessions

I'll second _The Joint_ and put in a special mention for Sire's "Just Say Yes" series, particularly _Just Say Yo!_ and _Just Say Mao_. Also, _Kold Krush Kuts_.

Headz....duh.

A CD that came with No Idea magazine, issue #11 (I think). Great stuff. Most bands were from Gainsville, FLA. Good variety of music. Got turned on to Less Than Jake, Radon, Route 66, a few others.

Although it didn't really tip me off, I had the 4AD sampler (that came with a magazine) on replay when I was on holiday in Japan. Other than that, I don't really care about comps all that much.

Unsurprisingly, Dan's answer pleases me. ;-) Except I had others in the Speed Limit series. And both Dan and I thought that Nasa would be good after hearing just the one song. D'OH!

Alternative Tentacles' LET THEM EAT JELLYBEANS turned me onto the most hardcore bands of the time (DK's, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Bad Brains, Flipper, etc.) Why this album's never been released on disc is a complete crime.

Simmillarly, 4AD's LONELY IS AN EYESORE paved the way for my interest in Throwing Muses, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil, the Wolfgang Press, etc. Lovely packaging as well.

A Sire New Wave compilation from 1977. English import. It had the first Dead Boys and Talking Heads songs on record and an alternate version of Richard Hell's "Love Comes in Spurts" with my favorite guitar solo ever. Plus Skyhooks! And Little Bob Story! And loads of cute pics of English punk kids on the cover.

And the Colossus Gold sampler from 1970, I think, with the Shocking Blue, the Tee Set, the Cherry People. And best of all, the George Baker Selection with "Little Green Bag". I seem to recall Shannon's "Abergavenny" being on it, as well, but it's not on the CD reissue. Maybe I mixed it up with some other comp.

at any embarrassingly early age, you could say that the Rodney On The Roq compilations warped me for life.

MR&R's 'Welcome to 1984' and SST's 'The Blasting Concept'... The first one really changed my life, I guess, though I never play it anymore... I've lost my taste for Finnish and Colombian blistering hardcore. The SST one was cassette only, so it's gone, gone, gone.

The Jimmi Gimme More compilation that Hausmusik released a couple of years ago.

I'll second the Wanna Buy a Bridge vote, and add Virgin's V, Warner's Zapped, Dangerhouse's Yes LA, Tooth and Nail's LA punk thing that I can't remember the name of but it had the Flesheaters, the Controllers, among others, Matador's 2-CD set (1st disk studio, 2nd live cuts) that I also can't remember the name of.

Arthur second call for the Sire/phongram album (called New Wave, red cover) was the one for me. Though Skyhooks and Little Bob Story never became favourites.

Oh, and Earcom 1, I became obsessed for a while with that, especially the graph track (nobodies gonna sink this ship because they got a fear of drowning') best song about the music biz ever, even better than the original version of Come Back.

Found this http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/1323 but cant find any info about Graph, I think one of the minor Human League members was in them

Yes on the Earcom (can't remember if it was 1 or 2). My first exposure to the Mekons.

Alexander--yeah, I mentioned Skyhooks and Little Bob Story because they really seemed the odd ones out on the compilation--a melodramatic Aussie glam band and a plodding French pub rocker. I guess there was only so much New Wave to go around at that point.

Xpressway Pile=Up. Don't hassle me i was only 13 and i needed something to get me through the mopey early teenage years.

Restless Records new artist sampler from 90 or 91 I bought used on cassette... I think there was a lot of metal that was on there... but there was also the Flaming Lips (among other bands that the damn Interweb is forgetting). The song was from "Oh My Gawd It's the Flaming Lips" and it was great (= it scared me)

the matador 3cd extravanganza was a great intro to stuff for me...and one of those weirdly named kill rock stars...they're always good.

Ooh, the Cherry Red comp Pillows and Prayers.

Back in my darker days, The Goth Box on Cleopatra. All sorts of bands I loved the crap out of back then and can barely remember now (except for the really good ones: Play Dead, BIG ELECTRIC CAT, etc) and the only good Bauhaus song, "Boys." Can we talk about how good Big Electric Cat are, especially the Burning Embers remix EP? So good...

I must confess to hardly ever being tipped off to an artist by a label comp. The two exceptions are numerous Little Darla Has A Treat For You comps, but #11 probably the most, and SpinArt's 1997 sampler which is still a monumental pop compilation.

A recent one: "Putting the Morr Back in Morrissey" (Morr Music)

I must confess to hardly ever being tipped off to an artist by a label comp.

I sure have been _misled_ by comps to try a few bands over the years. Either the song proved not to represent their oeuvre, or its sequencing on the comp lent it a completely different feeling. Nowadays, I usually hear a new band before they're on a comp.

Heheh. I said "oeuvre".

Glass Arcade on Sarah.

Doing it for the Kids and the Shadow Factory (not sure if it was a good thing, looking back.)

The Repo Man thread got me thinking about this: (and I probably should have just done a LIAE C or D, but this will be fine) "Lonely is an Eyesore" is another album that intorduced me to a whole new kind of music, the "4AD sound." I remember hearing it the first time and thinking, "Wow, there's a whole other world out there." I'm curious as to what you all think of it now and thought of it at the time. My only fault with it is that it caused me to start way too many mixtapes with Colourbox's "Hot Doggie."

TMFTML
http://intonation.blogspot.com

Hard one. Definitely the 'Doing it for the Kids', compilation as mentioned previously. But for some reason it was the Twisted Nerve samplers that alit me to new music as of late. The only label compilations to actually get played in mine. I dig my poptones compilation as it collects La Volume Courbe, Trashmonk and the various 'From the Vaults', reissues.

Repo Man, Lonely Is An Eyesore, The Story Of Creation, the Pyramid Meets The Eye (13th Floor Elevators tribute album which featured a who's who of dronerock and shoegazer)

More recently the Rocket Girl and Kranky comps have...well, they've not had the same effect because my taste in music is pretty formed now, but they've pointed me in the direction of things that conform to that taste.

I loved that 13th Floor Elevators sampler - got it to get the then unreleased Primal Scream track and Kate - were you as blown away by it as I was?

recently - Leaf Label's "Lost For Words"
& once upon a time - "Xpressway Pile=Up" (don't quite get what's it that hamish was sorta 'shamed 'bout it, upthread)

That 13th Floor Elevators comp Changed. My. Life. :-)

Wanna Buy A Bridge, Pillows & Prayers and Tuatara.

I'm thinking Soleside's Greatest Bumps and those Ninja Tune samplers.

Prolly for me it was Homestead's "The Wailing Ultimate"

1. Repulsion performed by Dinosaur
2. White Elephant performed by Volcano Suns
3. Valley of the Gwangi performed by Phantom Tollbooth
4. Sun God performed by Squirrel Bait
5. Song of the South performed by Breaking Circus
6. II Duce performed by Big Black
7. The Well performed by Salem Sixty Six
8. Blood and Shaving Cream performed by Death Of Samantha
9. In a Glass House performed by Antietam
10. Fort Belvedere performed by Live Skull
11. I Remember performed by Naked Raygun
12. Don't Look Back performed by Reactions
13. You're Not Patsy performed by Big Dipper
14. Letter to a Fanzine performed by Great Plains

.. Although I can't give much credit to any label comp, cuz that's not really/usually where I learned about bands...

Naive
Earache Records
Compilation CD
(Pulled early due to lawsuit from Evian, the bottled water company)
1. Fudge Tunnel - S.R.T.
2. Scorn - Spasm
3. OLD - Mazuraan
4. Pitchshifter - Deconstruction
5. Painkiller - Black Chamber
6. Clutch - Impetus (actually the demo version)
7. Sleep - Draginaut
8. Fudge Tunnel - Spanish Fly
9. Pitchshifter - Silo
10. Scorn - Thoughts Of Escape
11. Painkiller - One Eyed Pessary
12. OLD - Disconnect Self
13. Clutch - Pile Driver
14. Sleep - The Druid

AWESOME!!!

all recent:
troubleman mixtape (troubleman)
repopulation program (load)
putting the morr back in morrisey (morr)
V/A remixes of attn:cats ep (Reckankreuzungsklankewerkzeuge)

Making Losers Happy--my two favorite Dead C songs, Peter Jeffries, Alastair Gailbrath, David Mitchell, Plagal Grind, Terminals. Still one of my favorite records.

Glass Arcade on Sarah and What Do You Want A Japanese To Do on Vinyl Japan both tipped me off to many twee artistes..

I.R.S. GREATEST HITS VOLS 2 & 3

Cold, Cold Shoes -- The Fleshtones 2:37
Ain't That A Shame -- Brian James 3:30
Baby Sign Here With Me -- Henry Badowski 3:49
Action Time Vision -- Alternative TV 2:31
Backtrack -- Squeeze 2:19
Disgracing The Family Name -- Skafish 3:29
Wait For The Blackout -- The Damned 3:55
Thrills -- Klark Kent 2:15
Straighten Out -- The Stranglers 2:48
Urban Kids -- Chelsea 2:55
Uranium Rock -- The Cramps 2:24
I Live In The City -- Humans 2:15
Fallout -- The Police 2:01
Can't Keep Away -- Tom Robinson/Sector 27 3:01
Memphis -- John Cale 3:15
Mess Around -- Jools Holland 2:23
Jukebox -- Payola$ 2:46
Rebellious Jukebox -- The Fall 2:54
Computer Datin' -- Patrick D Martin 2:42
Only A Lad -- Oingo Boingo 3:31
You Say You Don't Love Me -- Buzzcocks 2:55
Office Girls -- Klark Kent 2:10
Lips -- Wazmo Nariz 5:24
Sodium Pentathol Negative -- Fashion 1:52

BEACH BLVD, The 1st 2 Rodney on the ROQ comps, HELL COMES TO YOUR HOUSE, the aforementioned WELCOME TO 1984, LUNG COOKIES, SOMEONE'S GONNA GET THEIR HEAD KICKED IN, the Ralph Records San Francisco comp w/Residents, Tuxedomoon, MX80 & someone else I can't remember, DEAF CLUB live anthology, YES L.A., NO NEW YORK, the SIREN, oh well, that's all I can think of w/o references!

Little Darla Has a Treat For You...

the little darla comps are outstanding value

Nardwuar the human serviette presents 'skookum chief powered teenage zit rock angst volume 1"
Jaap Blonk: Deutsche Lyrik
Harvey Sid Fisher: Mommy
The Ne'er Do Wells: Knock You Out
The Fall-Outs: Oi! Canada
Platon et Les Caves: Les Mauvais Garcons
The Subsonics: I Love You, I'll Kill You
The Tonics: Get It In Your Feet
Cub: She's A Sensation
The Goblins: 2 By 4
"Interview: Timothy Leary vs. Nardwuar"
The Evaporators: Higgle-Ly-Piggle-Ly (The Monks)
Leather Uppers: Purple Nurple
New Bomb Turks: Outta My Mind
The Smugglers: Stop! Look! Listen!
Delgados: Liquidation Girl
The Drags: Six & Change (Pagans)
Sit 'n' Spin: Goodbye
Teengenerate w/Joey Kline: Roadhouse
Eric's Trip: If You Don't Want Me
"Interview: Nardwuar vs. Beck"
Wonderful World of Joey: What Sweet Child O'Mine, Is This?
Paska: Intro (CD-only)
The Goblins: On Air (CD-only)

I don't think I ever gave as much a crap about a label as I did with Matador back in high school. from '94 to '97 or so I was THEIRS.

Add Darker Skratcher from the LA Free Music Society, and the New Underground samplers, Life Is Beautiful So Why Not Eat Health Foods and Life Is Ugly Why Not Kill Yourself.

ok its not a label comp...but: c81? f**k. remember waiting (and waiting and waiting) for it in the mail (we're talking pre-filesharing by 20 years) and, oh, man...Blood Ulmer, "black music", postcard, scritti, it changed my life. And thats why I read NME until the Happy Mondays Tits out issues.

Nickn, you're right, I forgot those 2 Life is...comps, they were excellent. Also, COTTAGE CHEESE FROM THE LIPS OF.., the EASTERN FRONT lps (the live Fartz was incredible!), and how could I forget TOOTH & NAIL? Geez, there are so many great punk comps that set me down so many paths!

Anthony - Matador had a real nice three disc comp for their tenth aniversery called Everything is Nice... that's only ten bucks. ¥

'What's Happening Stateside' got me into quite a few. Just checked the track listing on Amazon, though, and it's changed. There are only a few tracks in common between the CD and LP.

Still, wouldn't have the Garnet Mimms, O-Jays, Bobby Womack, Little Anthony & the Imperials or Irma Thomas records I've got without it. Probably more that I've forgotten.

Self-promo alert: I would also like to point out that the Dark Beloved Cloud Singing Catalogue label sampler is FREE (in exchange for a memory), if anyone would like one. Details at http://www.darkbelovedcloud.com.

The first two Kill Rock Stars Comps.

Yeah, Christoff. Though I prefer What's Up Matador? (only double CD, but damn cheap too). As I said, my love for Matador started to drop after '97. Barely there now. Even though I like Interpol, I think that's a pretty sell-out thing for them to sign. Unless Conflict hyped Echo a lot (which I DOUBT), I surprised he has time for the admittedly fine retread.

he=Gerard Cosloy. Former pigfuck zinester. Current Matador mouthpiece.

Echo or Kitchens of Distinction, importantly.

The Best of Invicta Hifi - I picked it up only because of the Ladytron track (She Took Me to the Movies) but discovered some other great electro-pop tracks on their. Sadly I've since not heard other tracks by most of the bands on it.

The Ninja Tune 3CD compilation - Got it for the Kid Koala track, and it just introduced me to a whole new genre of music, never used to be that much of a dance music fan

Invicta Hi Fi were good for a while but afetr Ladytron were bought up by Telstar I think they waved bye-bye. But yeah, their comps were great, especially Special Skool, for the classic never-recorded-by-them Pulp cover by Chevette.

A CD that came with No Idea magazine, issue #11 (I think). Great stuff. Most bands were from Gainsville, FLA. Good variety of music. Got turned on to Less Than Jake, Radon, Route 66, a few others.

holy shit! no idea mentioned on ILM!!! that's highway 66 by the way....(i lived in gville for 6 years)

um... kill rock stars comps. lil darla's ruled, although, they often had a lot of stuff from other labels.

dutch east indie's "buy this used cd" was a clincher back in the day.

not so specific to a certain label... deeper concentration comps rocked. some of the dj kicks comps were very high quality. freestyle files turned me onto some good stuff. elefant had some amazing comps. the city ones....monte carlo... i can't remember the other ones names.

troubleman mix tape. vermiform's "false object sensor". v/a if the 21st century blah blah blah 5rc comp. food not bombs had a couple good hardcore comps back in the day.

m.

Prego! '99 Camp-Master got me into the world of Trattoria beyond Cornelius and Kahimi Karie -- most notably Hideki Kaji & Hiromix, it also got me addicted to buying Trattoria CDs. (RIP)

Pop American Style!

(haha I was going to answer this thread but checked up thread to see if I'd already answered it and found the answer I was about to submit!)

Matador's triple CD thing seconded - otherwise, very few label comps have done much for me...oh shit, apart from Ninja Tune's Ninja Cuts - Flexistentialism which had a frickin' HUGE effect on me. So, that.

Can anybody burn me Doing It For The Kids? Did it even come out on CD? It looks splendid!

(I'll happily swap a DIFTK for, say, a minidisc copy of C86...)

Did "doing it for the kids" have a cover with a beautiful girl sitting in a garden, woozily looking up and away from the camera, or was this another creation comp? I wanted to buy whatever compilation that was but not for $22.98... I hadn't heard of any of those bands (in 88) and a 13-year old kid has priorities you know - "atom heart mother" and what not after all (*cringe*)

as for the subject header, it's certainly gonna be "blechsdottir" on warp records, single handedly resulting in maybe $200 worth of purchases from lfo to jake slazenger to nightmares on wax. "hey drag city" is a close second, and still worth breaking out now and again for the amazing palace bros track and the best ever silver jews song.

i'd tape you a copy of c86, if that's acceptable C. it was easy it was cheap, go and do it!! oops wrong era :)

Flying Nun label comp In Love With These Times. From the opening stop-start guitars of "Rain" (The Chills), I was paying full attention.

This is where I realize I don't listen to comps all that much.

This Mo’Wax Compilation from 1996 is one of the best snapshots of British trip-hop, and each set is also one of the nicest packaging i’ve yet come across.

Headz II: Parts A

1. A Nights Interlude — Nightmares on Wax
2. Cantona Style — Prunes
3. The Real Thing — Peshay
4. Modulor — Air
5. Searchin' — Dust Brothers
6. Flow — RPM
7. My Bloody Valentine — DJ Wally
8. Garage Piano — UNKLE
9. Kemuri — DJ Krush
10. Do You Understand? — Sever, Sam & the ROTLA
11. What Is Soul? — Stereo MCs
12. Covert Action — Urban Tribe
13. Cabin Fever — Lo-Fi Sensibilities
14. Code — Midnight Funk Association
15. Concentric Circle — DJ Food
16. 27 Years of Solitude — Cool Breeze
17. Discotron — Stasis
18. Mango Maracuta — Scott Free / Cybil Ant
19. The Source of Uncertainty — Tortoise
20. Karmacoma — Massive Attack
21. Bodishattva Vow — Beastie Boys
22. Simean Groove — Folk Implosion
23. Martian Economics — Olde Scottish
24. Eastward — Urban Tribe
25. Spacewalk — Lunar Funk
26. New Element — Forme
27. Pressure II — Solo
28. Organized Crime — Innervisions

Headz II: Parts B

1. Spectral Arc — Luminis
2. Sharp A2 — Luke Vibert
3. World Lesson Part II — Money Mark
4. Swiss Air — Twig Bud
5. Time Has Come — UNKLE
6. It's Coming — Grantby
7. Wirecutter — Donut Productions
8. The Groomsman — Dust Brothers
9. Crash — Skull
10. Flute Loop — Beastie Boys
11. Maze — DJ Krush
12. Sketch — Attica Blues
13. Ultimatum Ultra Mix — Jungle Brothers
14. Science Fu Beats — Danny Breaks
15. Future Tense — Force
16. The Beast — Palmskin Productions
17. The Real Thing — Peshay
18. In the Mood — Dillinja
19. Tribetoon — Roni Size / DJ Krust
20. The Silent Witness — Source Direct
21. The Counterpoint — As One
22. Bug in the Bassbin — Innerzone Orchestra
23. Object Orient — Black Dog Productions
24. Trilogy — Special Forces
25. Quiddity (Last Visit) — Max Four O Four
26. Shadow's Legitimate Mix (1991) — Zimbabwe Legit

"one of the nicest packaging" errr a, some of the nicest packaging.

i know it's kinda immediate an' all but Part 2 should be makin; R&B

Extra Yard is ace.

mute: tonal evidence.
bought it at main street records as a used tape--prolly 3 dollars at the time. wore that tape out. sad day when it finally fell to bits. wish I had some ohi ho bang bang. what a good tape that was. fortran 5, wire, frank tovey, diamanda galas, a.c. marias, renegade soundwave, who else? can't remember, but that was a great discovery for me.

UK Garage comps own this. The two Tuff Jam mixes and the first Artful Dodger one for Ministry were all dope.

For me, it had to be the Indie Top 20 comp (can't remember which volume, I taped it from a friend) that featured (among many others) : Teenage Fanclub, Field Mice, Carter USM, and most importantly from my standpoint, SPIRITUALIZED ("Anyway That You Want Me").

Does anybody know where I can find the full tracklistings for those comps?

one of the relapse contaminated comps from a few years back introduced me to a lot of cool death metal/grindcore bands like pig destroyer.

But they're not *label* comps, MindInRewind.

Blue Skied An' Clear

a1 Future 3 Alison
a2 ISAN Waves
a3 Lali Puna 40 Days
a4 Ulrich Schnauss Crazy For You
b1 B. Fleischmann & Ms. John Soda Here She Comes
b2 Limp Souvlaki Space Station
b3 Solvent When The Sun Hits
b4 Styrofoam Altogether
b5 Skanfrom Here She Comes
c1 ISAN Celia's Dream
c2 Komëit When The Sun Hits
c3 Manual Blue Skied an' Clear
c4 Herrmann & Kleine Dagger
c5 múm Machine Gun
d1 Manual Summer Haze
d2 ISAN My Last Journey (Weather Balloon)
d3 Guitar House Full Of Time
d4 Ulrich Schnauss Wherever You Are
e1 Styrofoam Fade Out Your Eyes
e2 Populous Cluster
e3 Future 3 Stuff
e4 Solvent Discontinued Parts (Instrumental Mix)
e5 Herrmann & Kleine Leaving You Behind
f1 B. Fleischmann Take A Day Off
f2 Icebreaker International & Manual Into Forever
f3 Komëit Same, Same
f4 Ms. John Soda Solid Ground
f5 Limp Silent Running

The latest Interscope comp. was AWSOME.

Talk about "Doing it for the kids", man! AWSOMENESS!

But they're not *label* comps, MindInRewind.
Oh shit, I misread the thread. Then I'll go with the first Click's N Cuts (Mille Plateaux), although perhaps it doesn't count either since not all of those songs were originally published on that label. In that case,
SKAMPLER
1 Lego Feet Leaves On The Line (3:38)
2 Boards Of Canada Hi Scores (4:58)
3 Jega Norton Midgate (5:04)
4 Bola Forcasa3 (4:34)
5 Gescom Mag (Ae Remix) (5:45)
Remix - Autechre
6 Freeform Refane (6:55)
7 Lego Feet Northwest Water (1:16)
8 Jega Phlax (3:43)
9 Freeform Many (5:25)
10 Lego Feet Keyop (2:51)
11 Bola Cobalt (6:22)
12 Gescom Keynell 1 (7:49)
13 Boards Of Canada Everything You Do Is A Balloon (6:58)
14 Gescom Stoop [Hidden Track] (6:20)
15 Jega Tamad [Hidden Track] (2:30)

Too bad Skam's greatness was so fleeting. Bola couldn't top "Soup". Autechre (as Gescom) couldn't repeat the awesomeness of that 1997 ep. Boards of Canada never sounded better than they do here.

ON-U Sounds : Pay it all Back - Volume 1

on vinyl for 99p when orig released. stared off 20 years of ON-U addiction. b*stard - still has my fave ON-U track ever on it . Bedward the Flying Preacher ..

For me: the Century Media 'Identity' comps (esp. 2) and Soundbombing. I know there are some really important ones I'm missing, I used to love these sorts of comps.

the "Just say" series that Sire used to put out was pretty great during my formative years. Just Say Roe, Just Say Yo, Just Say Mao, etc

Also, not really a label comp, but the first album that sorta opened up a whole new world of music to me was a comp - the Pretty In Pink soundtrack

ooh - clicks and cuts IS good... i feel like i cant think of too many other essential label comps from the past 5 years, though. maybe more techno comps - ghostly intl, kompakt, etc. that DFA comp was pretty good - the second one promises to be interesting, too.

As an incoming freshman in 92, my college suitemate had the Epic comps
-Theodore(with Poi Dog, Tracy Chapman covered by Liv Colour, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and Kate Bush)
-Stanley, son of Theodore (with BAD II, Public Enemy, Fishbone, etc).
I found a few new artists that way, but more than that, I kind of heard a new "sound" that I then set out to get more of.

More recently (2001), I found the 2cd set "this is next year" right after it was released in the used bin at my local music store for $5. Not label based, but it was Brooklyn based!

10 Cent Fix/JiffyBoy Records Comp.
A Day In The Park/ A Compilation of Now Sounds.
Sarah Records comp.

maybe not a strict label comp, but Strange Fruit's Manchester-So Much To Answer For Peel Sessions comp meant a lot to me.

as did Homestead's Human Music comp.

and a second for the various Sire Just Say... comps

and a second for Making Losers Happy

oh, man. No doubt for me it was The Wailing Ultimate, which I distinctly remember purchasing at Rock Records on Washington in downtown Chicago for $5.99, was formative for me. Volcano Suns' "White Elephant" is still one of my favorite songs ever. After that, Lonely is an Eyesore, of course. Also, Creation's I Love the Smell of Napalm.

Wailing Ultimate for me to. Got it after hearing Dinosaur for the first time on John Peel and I'd never even heard of any of the other bands apart from Big Black. All of a sudden I had about 10 new favourite bands, a few of which I still love enourmously (Live Skull! Salem 66!)

Blasting Concept Vol 2 I got around the same time for the Husker Du song ('Erase Today' - a really good song that I don't think appeared anywhere else). That was also my first exposure to Black Flag, The Minutemen, Angst, Meat Puppets, Saccharine Trust... and DC3, Wurm, Tom Troccoli's Dog and SWA!

In Love WIth These Times and Making Losers Happy were also amazing finds.