SL Records was a record label based in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

. It was founded in 1997 and is known for releasing

anti-folk Anti-folk (sometimes referred to as unfolk) is a music genre that emerged in the 1980s in response to the remnants of the 1960s folk music scene. Anti-folk music was made to mock the perceived seriousness of the time's mainstream music scene, an ...

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, and

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and su ...

albums. The label's first release was the compilation album ''It's a Life Sentence'', which was released in May 1997. The album compiled tracks by different artists who had performed live on a radio show co-hosted by Ed Pybus, who later became the label's founder, along with his flatmate Merlin Kemp. Pybus started the label soon after graduating from university; "SL" in the label's name stands for "

student loan A student loan is a type of loan designed to help students pay for Higher education, post-secondary education and the associated fees, such as Tuition payments, tuition, books and supplies, and living expenses. It may differ from other types of l ...

s". The label came to greater attention after its first single, Khaya's "Summer/Winter Song," was played on air by multiple British radio hosts, including

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

Notable artists

Notable current or former SL Records artists include the following: *

Ballboy Ball boys and ball girls, also known as ball kids are individuals, usually human youths but sometimes dogs, who retrieve and supply balls for players or officials in sports such as association football, American football, bandy, cricket, ten ...

* Dawn of the Replicants *

Misty's Big Adventure Misty's Big Adventure are an English eight-piece band from Birmingham. Their music is an eclectic mix of jazz, lounge, psychedelia, 2 tone, pop and punk. The band is composed of singer and sole songwriter Grandmaster Gareth (real name Gareth ...

* Saint Jude’s Infirmary *

Withered Hand Dan Willson (born 23 July 1974), also known by his stage name Withered Hand, is an Edinburgh-based indie rock musician. He lived in Bishops Stortford during the 1990s and played guitar for local band Tin Foil Circus. His first studio album, ' ...

References

Record labels established in 1997 Scottish record labels 1997 establishments in Scotland Companies based in Edinburgh {{UK-record-label-stub