WestCom (full name: WestCom Neue Medien Tonträger- Produktions- und Vertriebs

GmbH (; ) is a type of Juridical person, legal entity in German-speaking countries. It is equivalent to a (Sàrl) in the Romandy, French-speaking region of Switzerland and to a (Sagl) in the Ticino, Italian-speaking region of Switzerland. It is a ...

) was a German recording company that operated the

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product. Labels are most often affixed to packaging and containers using an adhesive, or sewing when affix ...

Off Beat, Visage Records and others.

Company history

Founded around 1993. In addition to WestCom, its owner also operates NovaTekk and Euromedia. Headquartered in

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; ) is the List of cities in Germany by population, 25th-most populous city of Germany and the 11th-most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher, Emscher River (a tribu ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. In 1999 Stefan Herwig, A&R manager at Off Beat, left the company over differences in promotion, to join forces with Eskil Simonsson (

Covenant Covenant may refer to: Religion * Covenant (religion), a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general ** Covenant (biblical), in the Hebrew Bible ** Covenant in Mormonism, a sacred agreement b ...

), Johan Van Roy (

Suicide Commando Suicide Commando is a Belgian electro-industrial music act formed by Johan Van Roy in 1986. For live shows, it consists of Van Roy himself on vocals, Torben Schmidt on keyboards, and Mario Vaerewijck on drums. History Van Roy began experimen ...

), Bryan Erickson (

Velvet Acid Christ Velvet Acid Christ (VAC) is an electro-industrial band based in Denver, Colorado. The band was formed in 1990 by its leader vocalist, musician, and producer Bryan Erickson (aka Disease Factory), and later featured various ex-members of Toxic Com ...

) and

Ronan Harris Ronan Harris (born 14 June 1967) is the founding member of the electronic music project VNV Nation. He is credited with the songwriting, production, lyrical and vocal aspects of the band's music. In the years preceding VNV Nation's debut album, ...

(

VNV Nation VNV Nation, also known as Victory Not Vengeance, are a British-Irish electronic music group formed in London and led by Ronan Harris in the roles of singer, songwriter and producer, with live members being keyboardists Mike Wimer and David Ger ...

) to form a new label,

dependent A dependant (US spelling: dependent) is a person who relies on another as a primary source of income and usually assistance with activities of daily living Activities of daily living (ADLs) is a term used in healthcare to refer to an individ ...

(which opened January 1999). When he left, most artists switched to the new label, effectively shutting down WestCom.Bayross, Mark (2004)
''VNV Nation - Ronan Harris''
interview. Retrieved 11 August 2008.

Labels

Off Beat

Off Beat was a label specialized in

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

with industrial and experimental rhythmic features which was founded in 1993 by Stefan Herwig and Thorsten Stroht. After having signed German electronic music group Project Pitchfork as first band to the label, ''Off Beat'' took a number of unsigned bands such as

Haujobb Haujobb is a German electronic musical project whose output has ranged drastically within the electronic music spectrum, from electro-industrial to ambient and techno. They have become a staple crossover act, bringing several forms of electro in ...

Download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar systems. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...

and

Decree A decree is a law, legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state, judge, monarch, royal figure, or other relevant Authority, authorities, according to certain procedures. These procedures are usually defined by the constitution, Legislativ ...

under its wing. Also, at the time already well established groups such as

Front Line Assembly Front Line Assembly (FLA) is a Canadian electro-industrial band formed by Bill Leeb in 1986 in music, 1986 after leaving Skinny Puppy. FLA has developed its own sound incorporating elements of electronic body music and electro-industrial. The ba ...

Skinny Puppy Skinny Puppy was a Canadian electro-industrial band formed in Vancouver in 1982. The group was among the founders of the industrial rock and electro-industrial genres. Initially envisioned as an experimental side-project by cEvin Key (Kevin Crom ...

and

joined the label. ''Off Beat'' established license partnerships with American labels

21st Circuitry 21st Circuitry was a record label based in San Francisco, California, that was founded in early 1991. The label released music from genres, such as electro-industrial, industrial rock, and other similar styles of music. The label signed a number ...

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...

, Electric Death Trip and Re-Constriction as well as with Swedish label Memento Materia that added

Mentallo and the Fixer Mentallo and the Fixer (sometimes written as Mentallo & The Fixer) is the project name used by American electro-industrial musicians Gary Dassing (Mentallo) and Dwayne Dassing (The Fixer) from 1988 to 1999, and by Gary Dassing alone from 1999 t ...

and

among others to the roster. Originally the catalog numbering followed the codes issued by its distributor

SPV GmbH SPV GmbH (short for ''Schallplatten Produktion und Vertrieb GmbH'', "Vinyl Production and Distribution Company") is a German independent record label. Founded on 1 January 1984, it has slowly grown to be one of the largest independent distributors ...

(like ''SPV 085-22292'' for

's 1995 album Hard Wired). Around 1996 the label started its own format, starting with a

capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

O followed by the release number. Previous releases were attributed numbers, that were added to the artwork in reprints.This is a conjecture taken from the ''Off Beat'
discography
at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

Visage Records

Visage was a label/division specialized in

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s ...

. Aside from several

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an synthpop bands as Elegant Machinery and The Northern Territories, it was responsible for the ''Vis-à-Vis'' series of compilation albums.

Poison Ivy

Poison Ivy was a label/division specialized in

goth rock Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie an ...

. It started 1998 with the release of the album ''One Day'' by the band Near Dark.Near Dark - One Day
at

Nightshade

Nightshade Productions was a specialized label and division dedicated to

dark wave Dark wave, or darkwave, is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics and have been perceived as being dark, ro ...

music prominently featuring artists such as Sara Noxx.

References

External links

Nightshade Productions
at

Off Beat
at

Poison Ivy
at

Visage
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Westcom German independent record labels Industrial record labels Electronic music record labels