XL has been the avant-garde of British and American music for the past 30 years. Every artist that has spent time under the label has been at the forefront of innovation, sparking movements and capturing the imagination of millions.
XL is everything an independent label should be: inventive, risk taking and jaw dropping, leaving us wanting more and always being the ones to set the agenda.
There is a cloud of mystery surrounding artists at XL. We haven’t quite worked out why, but there is an extra terrestrial quality to all of them. Whether they come out of nowhere only to disappear disappear, like SBTRKT, The Avalanches and Jai Paul or they hover above everyone else, in a celestial realm, dropping gifts without warning like Frank Ocean and Thom Yorke, or they dominate the media landscape, demanding our attention like Adele, Dizzee Rascal and Tyler, The Creator, or they are so odd, that coming from a different planet can be the only explanation, like The White Stripes or Prodigy.
XL Focus - Rough Trade Exclusives
Richard Russel - Liberation Through Hearing
The story of XL Recordings, the UK's leading independent record label, told through the life, and in the words of its owner, Richard Russell.
Further XL Album Highlights
Bobby Womack - The Bravest Man In The Universe
On Bobby’s final album, Damon Albarn and Richard Russell reupholster Womack’s earthy and organic sound with warm electronic textures and extra help from Fatoumata Diawara, Lana Del Rey and Gil Scott-Heron. The significance of the album feels ever present: Womack’s almost archeological wales of pain, pleasure and passion buckle underneath the weight of the human experience, gradually merging with the unburdened sounds of synthesized information and energy.
We're New Again, A Re-imagining by Makaya McCraven
One of the most vital new voices in modern jazz re-imagines the devastating farewell album by Gil Scott-Heron. Makaya creates lush visualisations of Gil’s poems, from the uncontrollable flight of “Where Did The Night Go” to the manic hustle and bustle of “New York is Killing Me” to the reassuring piano loops of “I’ll Take of You”.
De Stijl
De Stijl grabbed everyone’s attention in 2000. As the post-punk revival was gathering pace in New York, the Detroit duo offered a different slice of American rock history. Bluesy garage punk mixed with vaudeville imagery and pre-war tradition, made by a couple shrouded in alien mystery. It is often forgotten the commotion The White Stripes stirred with De Stijl.
The XX
Another debut from XL that felt like an earthquake. The XX’s idiosyncratic slowed down disco punk sounded like Joy Division covering Aaliyah. The cold minimalist strokes contrast the warm, emotive harmonies, in a beautiful dance between morbid resignation and an overabundance of emotion, that is as gothic as anything by Bauhaus or The Cure.