Label Profile // 4AD

have had an important role to play in the history of musical evolution over the last thirty years. Founded as Axis Records in 1979 by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent as part of the Beggars Banquet group that included record stores and a label, 4AD quickly adopted its currently moniker a year later and was originally designed to be a testing ground for new and unsigned bands. The idea was that successful acts would graduate to Beggars Banquet, but only one band followed this path – Bauhaus - as by 1981 4AD had taken over a personality of its own and became a distinctive identity under the sole ownership of Watts-Russell. It was in the late 1980s and early 1990s that 4AD began to take off. Bands such as The Breeders, Pixies, Cocteau Twins and Throwing Muses provided the label with success, particularly in the US underground rock scene. This was particularly unusual as before 1992, the label had no real distribution in the US and generally speaking only released records in the UK. However, a deal with Warner Bros Records in 1992 saw the label expand over the Atlantic and begin to focus a lot on the US market. By 1999, the label was such a success that Watts-Russell sold it back to the Beggars Banquet group, and by 2008 overtook the rest of the labels in the group (including Beggars Banquet itself) to such an extent that they were all merged together into 4AD. In that time, 4AD released records for many considerably talented artists including Scott Walker, Beirut, Future of the Left, Stereolab and Frank Black. 4AD continues to have considerable success. Current acts include Broken Records, Iron & Wine, The National, Deerhunter, Camera Obscura, TV On the Radio, TuNeYaRdS and Bon Iver, many of whom we highly rate here at the 405. Since 2008 the label has introduced the 4AD Sessions, an ongoing series of video performances of artists’ back catalogues and alternative materials, of which there have been seven so far and have been a great success. They are also currently putting on a series of shows in Japan and have just released the new Broken Records single ‘You Know You’re Not Dead’ as well as a new Iron & Wine album set for release later this month. 2010 was a great year for 4AD (Deerhunter’s Halycon Digest won our Staff’s record of the year); let’s see what 2011 can bring. A selection of 4AD records you should own 4AD Sessions