Mute Records: История Независимого Лейбла

British record label

Mute Records is a British independent record label owned and founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller. It has featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Einstürzende Neubauten, Fad Gadget, Goldfrapp, Grinderman, Inspiral Carpets, Moby, New Order, Laibach, Nitzer Ebb, Yann Tiersen, Wire, Yeasayer, Fever Ray, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Yazoo, and M83.

During 1978, Daniel Miller began recording music, using synthesisers, under the name The Normal. He recorded the tracks "T. V. O. D." and "Warm Leatherette" and distributed them through Rough Trade Shops under the label name Mute Records. "T. V. O. D."/"Warm Leatherette" became a cult hit ensuring the future of the label. "Warm Leatherette" was later covered by Grace Jones
That year, Mute licensed the single "Fred Vom Jupiter" from the German record label Atatak. The track was recorded by Holger Hiller, Andreas Dorau and the schoolgirl Marinas. Their album that year, Some Great Reward, reached number one in Germany and became their first hit in the United States. Gilbert recorded with engineer John Fryer at Blackwing Studios. In subsequent years, the band would also record for the label under the names Fortran 5, John Came and Komputer. 1984 ended with the long delayed release of Easy Listening for the Hard of Hearing by Frank Tovey and Boyd Rice. In 1985, a new incarnation of Simon Bonney's Crime & the City Solution formed, including ex Birthday Party members Mick Harvey and Rowland S. Howard. Stewart recorded his first album for Mute, As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade, in November 1985, also produced by Sherwood, under the name Mark Stewart and the Mafia. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released their second album, The Firstborn Is Dead, recorded at the Berlin recording studio, Hansa Tonstudio, co produced by Flood. Fad Gadget began recording as Frank Tovey in 1985 and released the single "Luxury" in August that year, co produced with Daniel Miller. To celebrate five years of Depeche Mode, Mute released a compilation album of the band's singles, The Singles 81→85. Wire member Graham Lewis launched his project in 1985, known as He Said, with Mute releasing the project's debut single, "Only One I". Lewis released his debut album the following year after two more singles. Erasure released the single "Sometimes" in 1986, and it became a UK top ten hit. Crime & the City Solution released new material in 1986 including the album Room of Lights and the twelve inch single Kentucky Click/Adventure. The new album won the band acclaim in the European press showing the Australian band's growing popularity across Europe. In September, Mute released Music for the Masses. The album was supported by a world tour.

Mute released Mark Stewart's album, Metatron, in May 1990, which included the single, "Hysteria". Stewart continued working with producer Adrian Sherwood. Mute signed Goldfrapp in 1999, consisting of Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory. The duo began recording their debut album, Felt Mountain, in a hired cottage in Wiltshire, South West England. Goldfrapp completed the recording after six months, and the album was released in September 2000. This started out running as an FTP site, Telnet site and a bulletin board system in 1994. To mark the anniversary, Mute released the Rough Trade Shops 25 Years four CD box set. Daniel Miller remained in charge of the company's global activities. Gahan debuted as a songwriter on the album, written and recorded along with Gahan's friend, Knox Chandler. Mute released another Depeche Mode solo project that year, Counterfeit² by Martin Gore, a collection of cover songs recorded at Gore's home studio. The eleven tracks on the album included songs that were recorded originally by Iggy Pop, John Lennon, and Brian Eno.

Goldfrapp released their fifth album, Head First, in March 2010. Recorded in 2009 in Bath and London, the album included the singles "Rocket" and "Alive". In September 2010, EMI and Daniel Miller reached an agreement in which EMI would support Miller in the establishment of a second record label. The Mute brand once again became an independent record label as Mute Artists Ltd. The album incorporated vintage electronic sounds and textures recorded over two years in France and the Philippines.

In 2012, albums by Cold Specks, Liars, Crime & the City Solution, and Soulsavers were released, among others. The Germany based BMG Rights Management acquired the original Mute back catalogue from Universal in December 2012, as part of the regulator forced sale of European assets belonging to EMI Music that were acquired by Universal Music in September 2012. EMI kept the rights of the Mute archives when Miller took the company independent in 2010. In May 2013, the EC approved the catalogue acquisition. Months after acquiring the Mute catalogue, BMG selected INgrooves to distribute the catalogue in North America, PIAS Recordings for all other territories, and Sony Music Entertainment to distribute Depeche Mode.

In the aftermath of the Universal’s acquisition of EMI, in February 2014, Mute left Caroline Distribution, once part of former parent EMI, and signed a new USA distribution deal with Alternative Distribution Alliance, returning to Warner Music Group, which was its American home 20 years prior. European distribution for Mute was now handled by PIAS. In September 2014 New Order announced that it had signed with Mute Records for its tenth studio album.

The wholly independent label continued to sign new artists such as Lee Ranaldo plus the catalogues of Throbbing Gristle and A Certain Ratio plus released new albums from Erasure, Goldfrapp and Ben Frost amongst others. In November 2017, the book 'Mute: A Visual Document: From 1978 – Tomorrow' was released in partnership with Thames & Hudson, the book was named Book Of The Year by Rough Trade. Additionally the label relaunched the legendary techno label NovaMute with releases from Nicolas Bougaïeff and Terence Fixmer.