4AD


4AD is a British independent record label, founded by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1980. It was originally funded by, and an imprint of, Beggars Banquet.
The label gained prominence in the 1980s for releasing albums from alternative rock, post-punk, gothic rock and dream pop artists, such as Bauhaus, Cocteau Twins, Modern English, Dead Can Dance, Clan of Xymox, Pixies, Throwing Muses and Watts-Russell's own musical project This Mortal Coil. In 1987, the label scored an international hit with the dance music single "Pump Up the Volume" by the one-off project M/A/R/R/S. 4AD continued to have success in the 1990s and 2000s with releases from The Breeders, Lush, Red House Painters, Camera Obscura, TV on the Radio, St. Vincent and Bon Iver. The label's current roster includes acts such as The National, Grimes, Beirut, Daughter, Deerhunter, Big Thief, Purity Ring and Future Islands.
4AD now forms part of the Beggars Group, along with fellow independent labels Matador, Rough Trade, XL and XL imprint Young Turks. The label's history has been detailed by Martin Aston in the biography Facing The Other Way, released in 2013.

History

and Peter Kent, employees of the Beggars Banquet record store and label, founded Axis Records in late 1979 as a property of Beggars Banquet that was run by the two. After the first four Axis singles in early 1980, the name was changed when it became apparent that the name Axis was already being used by another music company. The solution to this problem came from a promotional flyer that they had printed to call attention to the new releases. The flyer's designer had added some typography that played on both the new year and the idea of progress:
1980 FORWARD

1980 FWD

1984 AD

4AD
Scrambling for a new name, Ivo glanced at the flyer and suggested "4AD." Peter Kent agreed, and, with that split-second decision, 4AD was named.
An initial idea for the label was that it would be a "testing ground" for Beggars Banquet; successful acts would graduate up to Beggars Banquet after a year at 4AD. The only band to follow this path would be Bauhaus, who were signed to Beggars Banquet in late 1980 before Ivo and Peter purchased the label outright.
The two were the sole owners for about a year. Kent sold his share to Watts-Russell at the end of 1981, and started a new Beggars Banquet subsidiary, Situation Two Records. Watts-Russell would maintain ownership of the label, and act as its president, until the late 1990s.
Watts-Russell invited the graphic designer Vaughan Oliver and the photographer Nigel Grierson to create sleeve art for the label, and as a result, 4AD acquired a visually distinctive identity. Its artists, such as Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance, developed cult followings in the mid-1980s, but 4AD continued to evolve, and, after signing Throwing Muses and Pixies, the label increasingly concentrated on underground American rock music. In 1983, 4AD had a minor hit in America with the Modern English single "I Melt With You". In 1987, 4AD had a UK number-one hit with the collaged "Pump up the Volume" by MARRS.
In the 1990s, 4AD established an office in Los Angeles and had success with bands such as The Breeders, Red House Painters, Unrest and His Name Is Alive.
The label's deal with Warner Bros. Records in the United States in 1992 would start the beginning of a new phase in 4AD history. New signings that year included American underground acts Kendra Smith, Tarnation, Air Miami and The Amps. The following year Watts-Russell started a sub-label, Guernica, who would release records by Unrest, That Dog, and Bettie Serveert.
In 1999, Watts-Russell sold his share in 4AD back to the Beggars Group, but the label continued to release music and add new artists to its roster.Simon Halliday took control of the label at the end of 2007. Immediate successes were Bon Iver's critically lauded debut For Emma, Forever Ago and Dear Science by Brooklyn's TV on the Radio. In 2008, the Beggars Group re-aligned itself so that several labels, including Beggars Banquet itself, were folded up on to the 4AD label. Bands including The National were moved to 4AD as a part of this merger. 2009 saw the release, amongst others, of St. Vincent's second record Actor and Camera Obscura's My Maudlin Career, with 2010 bringing The National's High Violet and acclaimed albums from Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Blonde Redhead and Deerhunter.
In the next three years, 4AD oversaw new releases from Scott Walker, Bon Iver, Iron & Wine, and Tune-Yards, whilst also expanded its roster with a number of beats and electronic acts in the shape of acts including Purity Ring and Grimes, with the latter releasing one of the best received albums of 2012. The latest signings to the label are bEEdEEgEE, of Gang Gang Dance, Lo-Fang, and British producer SOHN. At the start of 2014, the label also announced the additions of Future Islands and Merchandise, followed by D.D Dumbo.
2015 saw critically lauded releases by Deerhunter and Grimes, amongst others, with the following years seeing the label, and The National, land their first ever UK #1 record with Sleep Well Beast. Latest signings to the roster include Aldous Harding and British artist Pixx.

Distribution

While 4AD did not handle any distribution outside the United Kingdom for many years, it had many willing distributors in many countries: Virgin Records for France, Nippon Columbia distributed much of the label in Japan, while PolyGram subsidiary Vertigo Records released many of the label's records in Canada. The United States had always been a tough market for 4AD, even though its records sold well there as imports. Only a few of the label's acts had deals to license their recordings in the US, among various labels.
In 1992, Ivo signed a five-year distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records so that nearly all 4AD releases would be released in the United States. While this seemed to be a simple licensing deal, in reality executives from Warner Bros. took a lot of control during this period, as 4AD shifted focus to the US market, signing more American bands. While still president, it is clear that Ivo ceded some control during this period, and when the deal ended, he offered to sell the label back to Beggars Banquet. Dead Can Dance's oeuvre, however, stayed with Warner Bros. until the sale back to Beggars Group.
The deal with Beggars was completed by early 1999, and since then it has owned 4AD and its distribution worldwide. This led to many negotiations for the label's back catalogue, like getting back US distribution rights for the Pixies, Dead Can Dance, and Cocteau Twins.

Artists

Current

Former

For all 4AD releases with a Wikipedia article see :Category:4AD albums.

Catalog numbering scheme

For the most part, 4AD's official UK releases follow a standard scheme for designating catalog numbers. Although there have been some variations over the years, some general rules can be devised to easily determine the format and year of release by looking at a 4AD catalog number.

Prefix

The first part of a catalog number is a prefix that contains a variation of "AD," based on the 4AD name. Some standards are:
Special editions of releases had an extra "D" added to the prefix:
Some other "AD" variations have been used less frequently over the years, including :
4AD only released one LP on DAT format, Cocteau Twins' Blue Bell Knoll, which was designated CADT 807.

Numerical designation

The second part of the catalog number is a number that represents the year of release, and the order of release in the particular year. For example, This Mortal Coil's LP It'll End in Tears is CAD 411. The "CAD" represents that the release is an LP, the "4" in 411 represents 1984, and 11 marks the 11th release of that year. This is the vinyl LP release; cassette versions have "C" added to the prefix ; CD versions have "CD" added at the end.
A side effect of this scheme is that it made it seem like 4AD had hundreds of releases early on. Again using CAD411 as an example, a causal observer might assume this was the 411th release in the label's catalog, when 4AD actually had less than 100 total releases in their catalog at the time. In the 1990s, 4AD changed the first part of the number from "100s" to "1000s," temporarily making the number not correspond with the number of years since 1980. Releases in 1990 used "00" directly after the prefix ; 1991 used "10" directly after the prefix, 1992 used "20," and so on for the rest of the 1990s.
Wanting to return to numbering with the years since 1980, 4AD had to provide a workaround for releases in the year 2000. Since the "20" numerical designation had been used in 1992, all releases in 2000 used "2K". Between 2001 and 2009, the catalog numbering scheme returned to the original format, with the first two digits of the number representing the years since 1980. Things have not been too consistent since, and there have been several gaps. 2010 releases feature the numerical designation 3X, as "30" had already been used in 1993.
This process appears to have come to an end with the few xAD37nn releases of the early months of 2017. The catalogue numbers of all releases since April 2017 have begun with 4AD00nn and ended with letters indicating the release format. No indication of release year is given.

4AD Sessions

The 4AD Sessions are an ongoing series of video recordings with various acts from the label's roster. Following on from the Deerhunter session at the Studio Plateaux on Platts Eyott island in 2008, the recordings see 4AD artists performing back-catalogue covers and alternative versions of their own material. They are housed on the label's website.