Fourth Dimension Records is a British

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

, specialising in international

underground music Underground music is music with practices perceived as outside, or somehow opposed to, Popular music, mainstream popular music culture. Underground styles lack the commercial success of popular music movements, and may involve the use of avant-g ...

. It was founded by Gary Levermore as an offshoot of his Third Mind label before being taken over by Richard Johnson (aka Richo) in

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

. The label became quite successful in the 1990s, releasing music by Simon Wickham-Smith &

Richard Youngs Richard Youngs (born 29 May 1966) is an English musician based in Glasgow since the early 1990s. His catalogue of solo and collaborative work formally begins with ''Advent'', first issued in 1990. He plays many instruments, most commonly choos ...

KK Null , known by his stage name KK Null, is a Japanese experimental multi-instrumentalist active since the early 1980s. He began as a guitarist but learned how to compose, sing, play drums, and create electronic music. He also studied Butoh dance at M ...

The Gerogerigegege () (derived from Japanese terms for vomiting, diarrhea and onomatopoeia for an expression of disgust) is a Japanese experimental music project, founded in 1985 by . Though they are often categorized with Japanese harsh noise acts such as Me ...

Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all point (geometry), points in a plane (mathematics), plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the Centre (geometry), centre. The distance between any point of the circle and the centre is cal ...

, Splintered,

Thurston Moore Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter best known as a member of the rock band Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running ...

Hijokaidan is a Japanese noise and free improvisation group with a revolving lineup that has ranged from two members to as many as fourteen in its early days. The group is the project of guitarist , its one constant member, who is head and owner of the O ...

, and

Merzbow is a Japanese noise project started in 1979 by Masami Akita, best known for a style of harsh noise music. Since 1980, Akita has released over 500 recordings and collaborated with numerous artists. The name Merzbow comes from the German dada a ...

, side projects by members of

Amp Amp or AMP may refer to: * Ampere, a unit of electric current, often shortened to amp * Amplifier, a device that increases the amplitude of a signal Arts and entertainment Music * After Midnight Project, Los Angeles alternative rock band * A ...

and

Skullflower Skullflower is a British noise rock band, formed in 1987 in London, England. Led by guitarist Matthew Bower, the band attained a cult following using a sound based on "sludgy, Black Sabbath-style riffs overlaid with feedback, fuzzed-out guitar ...

and myriad 7" and 10" singles by experimental artists from the UK, US, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Japan. Alongside the label, Johnson also ran a mail order service, stocking rare underground releases from around the world. Shortly before taking over the label, Johnson began editing a fanzine called Grim Humour, initially covering non-mainstream artists such as

Big Black Big Black was an American punk rock band from Evanston, Illinois, active from 1981 to 1987. Founded first as a solo project by singer and guitarist Steve Albini, the band became a trio with an initial lineup that included guitarist Santiago Dur ...

Swans Swans are birds of the genus ''Cygnus'' within the family Anatidae. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometim ...

Killing Joke Killing Joke were an English rock music, rock band formed in Notting Hill, London, in 1979 by Jaz Coleman (vocals, keyboards), Paul Ferguson (drums), Geordie Walker (guitar) and Youth (musician), Youth (bass). Their first album, ''Killing Joke ...

Lydia Lunch Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Anne Koch; June 2, 1959)Martin Charles Strong. ''The Great Indie Discography''. 2003, page 85 is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no ...

Whitehouse Whitehouse may refer to: People * Charles S. Whitehouse (1921–2001), American diplomat * Cornelius Whitehouse (1796–1883), English engineer and inventor * E. Sheldon Whitehouse (1883–1965), American diplomat * Elliott Whitehouse (born ...

and

Sonic Youth Sonic Youth were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1981. Founding members Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar), Thurston Moore (lead guitar, vocals) and Lee Ranaldo (rhythm guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of ...

. These often came with cassette or vinyl compilations (usually given FD catalogue numbers) with participants including the aforementioned Sonic Youth,

Cindytalk Cindytalk is an experimental music project, founded in 1982. Cindytalk operated as a group for many years, but more recently has been a solo project by Cinder, a Scottish performer and the only constant member since 1982. Cinder was also credi ...

Ausgang Ausgang (German for "exit") is an English deathrock Deathrock (or death rock) is a rock music subgenre that merges punk rock and post-punk with Gothic fiction, gothic and glam rock visuals and elements of horror film scores. Often overlappin ...

Con Demek Con or CON may refer to: Places * Commonwealth of Nations, or CON, an association of primarily former British colonies * Concord Municipal Airport (IATA airport code CON), a public-use airport in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, United States * ...

and Portion Control. The fanzine ceased in the mid-1990s but Johnson has since launched a new title, Adverse Effect, which has been praised by

Record Collector ''Record Collector'' is a British monthly music magazine focussing on rare and collectable records, and the bands who recorded them. It was founded in September 1979 and distributes worldwide. It is promoted as "the world’s leading authority o ...

and

Ptolemaic Terrascope {{Infobox magazine , image_file = pto.png , image_size = , image_caption = ''Ptolemaic Terrascope'' logo , editor = Phil McMullen (1988–2005) Pat Thomas (2005-07) , editor_title = , staf ...

, lasted four editions and now can be found as a blogspot and via the Fourth Dimension website. Although Fourth Dimension was dormant for a short while in the late 1990s, it has since relaunched with further releases from Merzbow and Circle, as well as albums by Johnson's own project Theme,

The Fields of Hay ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The' ...

and British sound artist

Andrew Liles Andrew Liles (born 11 March 1969) is a British sound artist and multi-instrumentalist. He has released recordings since the mid-1980s, covering a variety of styles as experimental music, dark ambient music, progressive rock and hints of hard ...

. He has also begun a second label, Lumberton Trading Company, a joint venture initially started with Hassni Malik

The Vitamin B12 ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The' ...

. It has issued a number of albums by artists including

Experimental Audio Research Experimental Audio Research (commonly shortened to E.A.R. or EAR) is an experimental music collective formed around Peter Kember (a.k.a. Sonic Boom), formerly of Spacemen 3. While Spacemen 3 were a relatively traditional rock and roll band with s ...

, Theme,

Thighpaulsandra Timothy Lewis – best known by the stage name Thighpaulsandra – is a Welsh experimental musician and multi-instrumentalist, known mostly for performing on synthesizers and keyboards. He began his career working with Julian Cope in the late ...

, Human Greed and

Michael Gira Michael Rolfe Gira (; born February 19, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, author and artist. Now based in New Mexico, he founded the band Swans, in which he sings and plays guitar, in New York City in the 1980s at the height of ...

. More releases are also planned. Besides the fact Fourth Dimension and Lumberton Trading Company continue to this day, Richard Johnson is still writing about music, is involved in the band Theme, plans to oversee a reissue campaign by his last group, Splintered and is working on a book devoted to his Grim Humour fanzine. Another book dedicated to

Adverse Effect An adverse effect is an undesired harmful effect resulting from a medication or other intervention, such as surgery. An adverse effect may be termed a "side effect", when judged to be secondary to a main or therapeutic effect. The term compli ...

will then follow.

External links

Fourth Dimension page at Discogs
*
Lumbarton Trading Company
British record labels Record labels established in 1984 Experimental music record labels Noise music record labels Industrial record labels {{UK-record-label-stub