Most important record labels in prog (as of 2021)?

[Scrotum Scissor]

You're giving me a gold watch? Some whiskey? An ex wife?

You can have my grand uncle thrice removed, ol' Trygve from Smøla.



And yeah, Soleil Zeuhl are obviously one of the great ones as well. ProgQuébec were awesome. And Stupid Dick Records don't even exist yet, yet they'll be post-proto-neo-RIO exclusively when they finally do.

[NogbadTheBad]

Soleil Zeuhl are great but haven't been very active for a while.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Soleil Zeuhl are great but haven't been very active for a while.

Has any label as of late?

[spacefreak]

Has any label as of late?

True.

[NogbadTheBad]

Has any label as of late?

Even less so than most. Two albums last year, one the year before.

[Trane]

It's a damper to you, personally, but it's completely and understandably within their very smart and forward-looking business model. Most of these labels would not exist if they *had* to release physical. It allows them a place in the market on terms that they can afford. And maybe they'll grow to the point where they can offer a physical project.

It's also allowed Cuneiform to have a ongoing 'digital-only' series.

Win. Win. Win.

If you want physical and a label doesn't offer it, that is too bad for you, but it isn't a strike against BC's very well thought out business model and the strategies that it makes possible for all the indies, larger and smaller and even tinier to have a place at the market.

Was I saying anything else? Or were you again trying to read me wrong?

But in general, I agree: BC has been a major improvement for the music scene in the last 10 years.

Soleil Zeuhl are great but haven't been very active for a while.

Moreso than Musea, methinks.

SZ was never releasing more than 5 or 6 /year (not sure they ever reached that maximum).

And they depend on whatever groups they publish ... if the groups don't record, Alain doesn't release.
OK, Scherzoo went elsewhere for their latest.

And Stupid Dick Records don't even exist yet, yet they'll be post-proto-neo-RIO exclusively when they finally do.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Even less so than most. Two albums last year, one the year before.

It's all coming to an end now, whether or not it's untimely.

Even after the so-called "reopening", the live scene here in Oslo (previous to the pandemic one of the capitals of creative current musics in Europe) is all but gone. It takes a while to restore things, of course - but by then it might all have been subjected to a paradigmatic shift in generational adjustments which definitely won't serve advanced or edgy, non-commercial artists.

Apollon Records postponed that upcoming Shamblemaths release with nearly five months. Now it won't hit the prog-hot streets until mid-March next year.

[JKL2000]

^ At the Bent Knee show I went to recently (my first live show since COVID), it was a bit sad to see all the 20-somethings standing in their little pods as though they had never known any differently. There weren't many over 30-somethings (let alone over 50's), so it was mostly the pods keeping their social distance from each other. Good for them, but I felt bad that they couldn't work up a bit of a sweat dancing around or something. And I felt bad thinking that once/if things return to normal they'll be so used to the distancing that they might not return to what for us was normal.

[smcfee]

Ad Perpetuam Memoriam was fabulous during the 90s, but admittedly a bit "Cunei light" at the time. AltrOck/Fading were absolutely great throughout their entire run and still are (what's left of it, anyway), but they are/were still "ideological apostles" of the grand Cuneiform as I see it. Still, everything they released is certainly listenable and collectable.

I share your enthusiasm for APM but would not describe them the same way. They were kind of a mix of identities (whether that mattered I'm not sure, today we would tut tut at the market segmentation fail). There were good reissues from Atlas, Kultivator, Blåkulla, the Akasha which I think was an archive, and then the new stuff from the likes of Steensland or deathORGAN.

heh, just looked them up on Discogs and totally forgot about Myrbein and Hoyry-Kone, and I own those. And of course Eskaton. Great stuff over such a brief period.

[smcfee]

However, BC allows those small labels and indie bands to exist (which is good), but often without releasing physical medias - which is a damper IMHO.

I think it comes down to what the alternative is. We'd like to think those releases would end up on physical media in the absence of digital distribution, but a lot of them probably never get out at all. I have also noticed many long-OOP CDs come to Bandcamp the last 2-3 years. While part of me wishes for a $15 CD, maybe that was just never going to happen... it's going to be a $75 CD from Discogs, or I can get it on Bandcamp, and honestly the CD was getting ripped into MediaMonkey anyway.

[Steve F.]

I think it comes down to what the alternative is. We'd like to think those releases would end up on physical media in the absence of digital distribution, but a lot of them probably never get out at all. I have also noticed many long-OOP CDs come to Bandcamp the last 2-3 years. While part of me wishes for a $15 CD, maybe that was just never going to happen... it's going to be a $75 CD from Discogs, or I can get it on Bandcamp, and honestly the CD was getting ripped into MediaMonkey anyway.

QFT.

I got a string of releases I plan to do; some won’t sell enough to warrant a physical CD (new 5uus, archival and first NeBeLNeST releases, a small series of live Curlew shows, the three No Safety releases just done).

They come out digitally only on BandCamp or they don’t come out at all. No amount of unhappiness or whining about lack of physical release changes that equation.

[chalkpie]

Cuneiform
ReR

Those two labels have enough amazing albums to keep one satisfied musically for a few lifetimes, and maybe longer.

[Bake 2]

"No amount of unhappiness or whining about lack of physical release changes that equation."
Gotta' whine and act disemboweled about it anyway. Not sure if the Intakt, Clean Feed, Babel and BMC (Budapest Music Center) labels have already been mentioned. Anyway they've been putting out some pretty good brain frying stuff during the last five years or so.

[JKL2000]

One of my New Years resolutions is to try to focus less on buying reissued old stuff this year, and more on newly or recently created music. I already do a lot, but I've got to the point where I have more than enough old and archival stuff to listen to, but checking out new music is always rewarding, and I like to support the up-and-coming, starving musicians more than those who are long-ago established.

But something like the hopefully almost finished Muffins box set will be a must-have!

[NogbadTheBad]

I'm with you Jed though I don't tend to focus on reissues, more on old stuff I've never had. I'm about 50:50 old stuff and new stuff but I find the new stuff gets much more listens.

[Steve F.]

But something like the hopefully almost finished Muffins box set will be a must-have!

TRULY music to my ears.
Thank you, Jed. Nice to read.

I hope that it will be out later / late this year. The music is all chosen and 9 CDs are mastered/finalized. It will be 12 CDs and a DVD. The DVD (NEARFest 2005) has to be mixed and the booklet and package has to be put together.

[Steve F.]

"No amount of unhappiness or whining about lack of physical release changes that equation."
Gotta' whine and act disemboweled about it anyway.

Please DO post photos!

[JKL2000]

TRULY music to my ears.
Thank you, Jed. Nice to read.

I hope that it will be out later / late this year. The music is all chosen and 9 CDs are mastered/finalized. It will be 12 CDs and a DVD. The DVD (NEARFest 2005) has to be mixed and the booklet and package has to be put together.

Great to hear!

[zeprogmeister]

Musea is still going, Minimum Vital keep releasing albums on there. I would probably guess they don't put out as much as they used to, I don't hear about a lot of new bands or reissues on the label anymore.

[alanterrill]

What about Bad Elephant Music? I don't like everything they put out, but with Lost Crowns, Emmett Elvin and The Bob Lazar Story amongst their roster, they've put out some of the best of the new stuff in recent years. https://music.badelephant.co.uk/

[NogbadTheBad]

What about Bad Elephant Music? I don't like everyhting they put out, but with Lost Crowns, Emmett Elvin and The Bob Lazar Story amongst their roster, they've put out some of the best of the new stuff in recent years. https://music.badelephant.co.uk/

Good label, I do buy some stuff from them.

[Progatron]

What about Bad Elephant Music?

The new Ciccada album was on my top 10 of 2021!

[Scrotum Scissor]

Myrbein

I absolutely LOVE Myrornas Krig; to my mind it's like a garage-rehearsed, even wackier take on the whole Samla approach. Their wealth of ideas and whims is sometimes almost overwhelming, and they're able to pull all of it off. I'd really love to find the vinyl of this, but apparently it's even more scarce than the ones by their contemporaries Psynkopat and Kräldjursanstalten. Great days for oddballistic progressive Swedes, those early 80s!