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Downwards Records
Downwards Records is a record label founded by the techno DJs and producers Regis and Female in Birmingham, England in 1993. The label was initially established to release the set of tracks that fellow Birmingham DJ and producer Surgeon had recorded in the small studio that ex- Napalm Death drummer Mick Harris had built in his downstairs toilet. Although most closely associated with techno's Birmingham sound The Birmingham sound is a subgenre of techno that emerged in Birmingham, England in the early 1990s. It is most commonly associated with the city's House of God club night, the Downwards Records label, and the local DJs and producers Regis, Surg ..., which it pioneered, the label has released a wide range of music, from garage rock and shoegaze to industrial music and electronica. References British independent record labels Techno record labels Record labels based in Birmingham, West Midlands {{UK-record-label-stub ...
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Record Label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing, promotion, and enforcement of copyright for sound recordings and music videos, while also conducting talent scouting and development of new artists, and maintaining contracts with recording artists and their managers. The term "record label", derives from the circular label in the center of a vinyl record which prominently displays the manufacturer's name, along with other information. Within the mainstream music industry, recording artists have traditionally been reliant upon record labels to broaden their consumer base, market their albums, and promote their singles on streaming services, radio, and television. Record labels also provide publicists, who assist performers in gaining posi ...
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Techno
Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often characterized by a repetitive four on the floor (music), four on the floor beat. Artists may use electronic instruments such as drum machines, sequencer (musical instrument), sequencers, and synthesizers, as well as digital audio workstations. Drum machines from the 1980s such as Roland Corporation, Roland's TR-808 and TR-909 are highly prized, and softsynth, software emulations of such retro instruments are popular. Much of the instrumentation in techno emphasizes the role of rhythm over other musical parameters. Techno tracks mainly progress over manipulation of timbre, timbral characteristics of synthesizer presets and, unlike forms of EDM that tend to be produced with synthesizer keyboards, techno ...
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Regis (musician)
Karl O'Connor, known professionally as Regis, is a British techno musician and record label owner.Regis’s classic 2001 LP Penetration reissued
, '''' Magazine, 10 May 2003, retrieved 20 June 2010
As co-founder of , O'Connor, alongside his label-mate (aka Anthony Child), was one of the originators of the

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Female (musician)
Female ( symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and males are results of the anisogamous reproduction system, wherein gametes are of different sizes, unlike isogamy where they are the same size. The exact mechanism of female gamete evolution remains unknown. In species that have males and females, sex-determination may be based on either sex chromosomes, or environmental conditions. Most female mammals, including female humans, have two X chromosomes. Female characteristics vary between different species with some species having pronounced secondary female sex characteristics, such as the presence of pronounced mammary glands in mammals. In humans, the word ''female'' can also be used to refer to gender in the social sense of gender role or gender identity. Etymology and usage T ...
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Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands metropolitan county, and approximately 4.3 million in the Birmingham metropolitan area, wider metropolitan area. It is the ESPON metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom, largest UK metropolitan area outside of London. Birmingham is known as the second city of the United Kingdom. Located in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of England, approximately from London, Birmingham is considered to be the social, cultural, financial and commercial centre of the Midlands. Distinctively, Birmingham only has small rivers flowing through it, mainly the River Tame, West Midlands, River Tame and its tributaries River Rea and River Cole, West Midlands ...
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England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight. The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic period, but takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe deriving its name from the Anglia peninsula, who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century and has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century. The English language, the Anglican Church, and Engli ...
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Surgeon (musician)
Anthony Child (born 1 May 1971), better known as Surgeon, is an English electronic musician and DJ. Child releases music on his own labels Counterbalance and Dynamic Tension. Established imprints, such as Tresor, Soma, and Harthouse, have also released Surgeon's original material and remixes. He has also been recognized as one of the first wave of DJs to use Ableton Live and Final Scratch to supplement his DJ sets. History Child grew up in Kislingbury, in Northamptonshire, England. In 1989, he moved to Birmingham to study audio-visual design, where he played in a jazz/rock/fusion band called Blim, and learned to DJ from friend Paul Damage. At that time, there were no Techno clubs in Birmingham so he and his friends started House of God, and by 1992 he was DJing there regularly. In 1994, he released his eponymous debut EP on Downwards Records. Surgeon's musical style is characterised by his incorporation of the more cinematic and left-field aspects of his musical background i ...
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Napalm Death
Napalm Death are an English grindcore band formed in 1981 in Meriden, West Midlands. None of the band's original members has been in the group since 1986. But since '' Utopia Banished'' (1992), the lineup of bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mitch Harris, drummer Danny Herrera and lead vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway has remained consistent through most of the band's career. From 1989 to 2004, Napalm Death were a five-piece band after they added Jesse Pintado as the replacement of one-time guitarist Bill Steer. Following Pintado's departure, the band reverted to a four-piece. The band is credited as pioneers of the grindcore genre by incorporating elements of crust punk and death metal, using a noise-filled sound that uses distorted, down-tuned guitars, grinding overdrive bass, high-speed tempo, blast beats, vocals that consist of incomprehensible growls or high-pitched shrieks, extremely short songs, and sociopolitical lyrics. The band's debut album '' Scum'', released in 198 ...
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Mick Harris
Michael John Harris (born 4 October 1967) is an English musician from Birmingham. He was the drummer for Napalm Death between 1985 and 1991, and is credited for coining the term "grindcore". After Napalm Death, Harris joined Painkiller with John Zorn and Bill Laswell. Since the mid-1990s, Harris has worked primarily in electronic and ambient music, his main projects being Scorn and Lull. He has also collaborated with musicians including James Plotkin and Extreme Noise Terror. According to AllMusic, Harris's "genre-spanning activities have done much to jar the minds, expectations, and record collections of audiences previously kept aggressively opposed." Early life Michael John Harris was born in Birmingham, England. He grew up listening to the radio shows of John Peel and would later record Peel Sessions with both Napalm Death and Scorn. Harris was influenced by listening to bands such as Coil and Skinny Puppy. He started playing drums in 1984 at the age of 16, after a f ...
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Birmingham Sound
The Birmingham sound is a subgenre of techno that emerged in Birmingham, England in the early 1990s. It is most commonly associated with the city's House of God club night, the Downwards Records label, and the local DJs and producers Regis, Surgeon and Female. It is characterised by a hard, fast and uncompromising style that strips the music of the bassline funk that characterised the techno of Detroit and Berlin, leaving only "huge slabs of unrelentingly unchanging minimalism". The Birmingham sound marked a turning point in the development of techno and its influence can be heard throughout the Berlin techno of the Berghain and Ostgut Ton Ostgut Ton (also known as Ostgut Tonträger) was a German record label owned by the club Berghain in Berlin. Resident Advisor described it "a dominant force in dance music, beloved for its mix series and dozens of EPs, albums and compilations."h .... It also formed the starting point for Regis and Female's later Sandwell District project. ...
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Garage Rock
Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The style is characterized by basic chord structures played on electric guitars and other instruments, sometimes distorted through a fuzzbox, as well as often unsophisticated and occasionally aggressive lyrics and delivery. Its name derives from the perception that groups were often made up of young amateurs who rehearsed in the family garage, although many were professional. In the US and Canada, surf rock—and later the Beatles and other beat groups of the British Invasion—motivated thousands of young people to form bands between 1963 and 1968. Hundreds of acts produced regional hits, and some had national hits, usually played on AM radio stations. With the advent of psychedelia, numerous garage bands incorporated exotic elements in ...
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Shoegaze
Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with "dream pop") is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volume.Pete Prown / Harvey P. Newquist: "One faction came to be known as dream-pop or "shoegazers" (for their habit of looking at the ground while playing the guitars on stage). They were musicians who played trancelike, ethereal music that was composed of numerous guitars playing heavy droning chords wrapped in echo effects and phase shifters.", Hal Leonard 1997, It emerged in Ireland and the United Kingdom in the late 1980s among neo-psychedelic groups who usually stood motionless during live performances in a detached, non-confrontational state. The name comes from the heavy use of effects pedals, as the performers were often looking down at their pedals during concerts. My Bloody Valentine's album '' Loveless'' (1991) is often seen as ...
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