what labels are really exciting now?

DIRTNAP Records

Great punk revivalist stuff. The Exploding Hearts, The Spits, The High Tension Wires, White Wires...

all great stuff not dime-a-dozen hardcore

Numero Group are great, although the music they release is far from new. They're an archival record label with a couple of different series in which they compile forgotten or obscure music into solid gold, my favorite being their 'Eccentric Soul' series which focuses on the best funk and soul releases of a particular small label. Other ongoing series they have include:

Cult Cargo: foreign interpretations of American music genres

Wayfaring Strangers: folk music, usually from privately-pressed LPs

Good God!: religious soul and funk

Local Customs: a document of an area's music scene, typically centered around one particular studio

Katabatik - my favorite local label, originating in Alaska and now relocated to Oakland, Ca. The webpage and net is a little sparse on info thats because they mostly focus on events and local activities, something i admire very much in the modern internet age of human disconnect

They have 3 free amazing compilations that focus heavily on hardware based electronic music but range the gaumet. The newest comp has Exillon, Not Breathing and a bunch of other interesting folks

Download/stream them here - http://katabatik.org/kollektion/

Icasea - good new electronic music in the tradition of Skam, ran by either one or both of the guys from Team Doyobi, Atop turned me on to these guys. Highly recommended

http://www.icasea.net/ a lot of free stuff here as well, check out the compilation if anything and podcast here - http://www.icasea.net/search/label/Podcast

Vinyl On Demand - if you like minimal wave or obscure old synth or industrial music, this is the label for you. Basically it's a vinyl fetish collector label. Nearly every release is a decently priced Vinyl boxset ranging anywhere from 2xlp to 8xlp.

my favorites include the Esplendor Geometrico, Severed Heads, Insane Box & Nocturnal Emissions Set. They just put out a Rapoon 4xlp called 'ghost in the machine' , looking forward to hearing that one http://www.discogs.com/label/Vinyl-on-demand

and i heard from a friend this blog may be sharing a bit of their releases ripped to mp3 -

Creel Pone - cheap CDR bootlegs of out of print obscure synthesizer/electronic/kraut rock from 1960-1985, allegedly run by Hvartski aka Kieth Fullerton Whitman. He hasn't admitted it's him because he would probably be sued, haha.

samples of all the currently available Creel Pones here - http://www.mimaroglumusicsales.com/labels/creel+pone.html

Important Records - very interesting label that releases a lot of reissues as well as just downright strange electronic music and rock. They put out the series of Kouhei Matsunaga cds and vinyl last year.

They also put out the newest official Cluster record and re release early bedroom new age/ambient stuff like JD Emanuel. A lot of love put into this newish label and definitely not focused on commercialism

for you personally mr. alzado, i think you'd probably dig stuff on the first 3 i listed, the bottom 2 probably not so much.

Yeah Important Records really does it for me. Some fantastic artists on the roster, not least of which is Coil! I love Grails too.

I'm very much into Neurot Records too, they've issued some wonderful stuff over the years. Mute still bring out a lot of stuff I really like, esp Goldfrapp, Throbbing Gristle, Diamanda Galás, Kraftwerk...

I am still very much into Touch Records: http://touchshop.org , CCO ( http://www.city-centre-offices.de ) and Rump Recordings

I tend to keep an eye on R&S. With Pariah, Space Dimension Controller, James Blake and Model 500 they have been strong recently.

Tri Angle is under Kompakt and they have ooOoOO and Balam Acab at the moment, could prove interesting. Kompakt is generally worth watching.

Carpark Records have released Beach House and Toro Y Moi, I've been intending to look into more of their artists.

Hot Flush

Icasea, Touch, Raster Noton and 12k/line are the labels that I always look forward to seeing what releases they, erm, release !

Ohhhh yeah, Icasea is hot shit.

Reading threads like this makes me realize how out of touch I am with today's music.

http://www.12k.com/

of course what attracted me to them at first was the art direction of the releases. then i discovered the music.

http://wonderbeardtapes.tumblr.com/

I like the diversity and different music styles of this label. I also like the idea of releasing tapes. Some may think this is a hipster label.

http://www.recordlabelrecords.org/

goes without saying.

for the label i started with some partners, I've looked to these 3 labels as inspiration (along with lex records and stonesthrow). I have an indirect link with taylor d. from 12k. he mastered the summer of flux album and is doing another for zygote. i like wonderbeard's model. and I've gotten advice from RLR.

my own label, losers

for me it's the reissue labels:

soundway

sublime frequencies

mississippi

art yard

transparency

jazzman

probably more i am forgetting

  On 2/11/2011 at 1:06 PM, Coalbucket PI said:

I tend to keep an eye on R&S. With Pariah, Space Dimension Controller, James Blake and Model 500 they have been strong recently.

 

Tri Angle is under Kompakt and they have ooOoOO and Balam Acab at the moment, could prove interesting. Kompakt is generally worth watching.

 

Carpark Records have released Beach House and Toro Y Moi, I've been intending to look into more of their artists.

isn't he from here (wattem)?

kompakt

21 releases SO FAR this month.

I don't necessarily know if these are exciting, but they're always consistently great:

Root Strata

Digitalis

Type

Ghost Box

Touch

12k

Raster-Noton

Important

Kranky

Editions Mego

Finders Keepers

Thrill Jockey

Miasmah

Blackest Rainbow

Students Of Decay

Rune Grammofon

VHF

Hyperdub

Modern Love

  On 2/12/2011 at 6:54 AM, Boxing Day said:

kompakt

 

21 releases SO FAR this month.

Holy crap, how did I forget about Kompakt - yeah for years they've been on top of their game for sure !

Numbers and Night Slugs constantly put out good stuff...

Hot Flush has been consistently excellent.

Hotflush (Sepalcure, Mount Kimbie, Scuba)

LuckyMe (Machine Drum, Jacques Greene, American Men)

Werk (Lukid, Lone, Actress)

All City (Onra, LA Series records)

Tri Angle (Balam Acab, oOoOO)

Sub Pop (No Age, Beach House)

Ghostly (Gold Panda, Shigeto, School of Seven Bells, Lusine)

and still Warp (Bibio, The Hundred in the Hands, Shobaleader One, Seefeel)

http://error-broadcast.com/

http://www.svetlanaindustries.com/

http://kingdeluxe.ca/

http://www.makorecords.com/blog/

...of course, Night Slugs is going to go ultra-uber huge...

...Brainfeeder, Warp and Mu are almost always on my checklist...

...and Eskmo's release on Ninja Tune has redeemed my faith in Ninja Tune for 2011 onwards...

also, whatever label Bounty (iamamiwhoami) is going to start.

oh, and Turbo of course. always curious what Tiga's boys are up to.

  On 2/13/2011 at 9:34 AM, wake said:

http://www.arribamusica.com/

Now that's what I call an exciting label

Sacred Bones and Olde English Spelling Bee have been keeping my interest over the last year.