Glitterhouse

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Glitterhouse Records
Logo of the label
Logo of the label
Active years since 1984
founder Reinhard Holstein, Rembert Stiewe
Seat Beverungen
Website label.glitterhouse.com
distribution D: Indigo / A: Hoanzl / CH: Irrascible and various sales service providers in Europe and Asia
Genre (s) Indie rock , folk , singer-songwriter , rock , world

Glitterhouse Records is a German independent label and mail order distributor based in Beverungen , North Rhine-Westphalia . Founded in the mid-1980s, it was the European branch of the American label Sub Pop until the early 1990s . The Orange Blossom Special Festival is held once a year in the garden of the company headquarters .

Label history

The beginnings

Founded in 1981 by Reinhard Holstein and Rembert Stiewe, the fanzine "The Glitterhouse" laid the foundation for the record label of the same name . The magazine mainly contained 60's garage and psychedelia, offshoots of punk, weirdo folk and similar genres. After a vacation in Australia, Holstein imported a number of singles from Citadel Records , which were distributed in the parallel mail order company. The first own release was a music cassette of German garage bands with the title "Battle of the Bands". In 1983 the first vinyls were released with the "Hipster's" 7 "single -" Sound Of The Young Soul "and the compilation LP" The Declaration of Fuzz ". This was followed by publications by German artists such as Surfin 'Dead, The Strangemen or the Shiny Gnomes . By registering a business in 1984, Glitterhouse Records changed from a pure hobby to a business enterprise.

development

1987 started a license cooperation with the music label Sub Pop from Seattle . Sub Pop had contracts with Nirvana and Soundgarden , among others, and is later referred to as the trigger and trailblazer for the success of grunge music . This cooperation gave Glitterhouse increased attention and an improved market position. The bands marketed in Europe initially included Green River , Mudhoney , The Walkabouts , Tad , Supersuckers and Seaweed, and later Afghan Whigs , Spinanes, Codeine , Big Chief, Pond and many other bands from the Seattle label. The cooperation with Sub Pop lasted seven years , most recently as a joint transatlantic GmbH , and was ended in 1995 by mutual agreement.

At the same time, from 1988 to 1995, Glitterhouse also marketed products from the Amphetamine Reptile label , such as Helmet , Cows and God Bullies. This cooperation ended when Glitterhouse could no longer identify with the musical content of the American noise label. In addition, their own signings were also published under the Glitterhouse label, including Monster Magnet , Sylvia Juncosa, Sister Double Happiness and Bitch Magnet.

From around 1994 it was time to give the label its own direction. In addition to alternative rock and various American musicians, many new bands of Scandinavian or English origins were signed by Glitterhouse. Pop ( Midnight Choir , The White Birch), indie-electronica (Lilium, Ai Phoenix), avant-garde (David Thomas & Two Pale Boys, Pere Ubu ), singer-songwriter (Ben Weaver, Scott Matthew ), "gloomy contemporary" ( Wovenhand , 16 Horsepower , Chris & Carla, The Walkabouts , Dakota Suite, Savoy Grand , Willard Grant Conspiracy ), Boheme rock ( BigBang , The Great Crusades,), swampy ElectroBluesNoise ( Hugo Race & The True Spirit ) and indie rock ( Lampshade , Mount Washington , Seachange ) have spanned the label's stylistic field ever since. Glitterhouse Records was the first German indie label to cover all domestic and non-European export markets with exclusive deals on its own.

today

To date, Glitterhouse has around 800 publications. The mail order catalog, which includes around 1,300 titles, is published once a month. Glitterhouse has a total of 10 permanent employees and several annual interns.

The three-day Orange Blossom Special Open Air Festival has been held annually in the garden of the company headquarters since 1997 . Around 1,800 visitors and around 20 bands create a family atmosphere that is deliberately in contrast to heavily commercialized large events. In 2010 the former partnership was converted into a GmbH & Co. KG .

Rembert Stiewe about Glitterhouse: “Of course, Glitterhouse is more than the sum of its parts. A concept without a rigid concept. The main actors are the artists, the plot is their work. "

On August 1, 2018, Indigo took over the rights of the label and the Glitterhouse mail order as the majority shareholder of the newly founded Glitterhouse Records GmbH .

Bands

  • The walkabouts

  • Woven hand

  • Caroline Keating

Current artists

Former artist

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The label's program on Indigo's website
  2. ↑ Torsten Wegener: Music industry: Indigo acquires Beverunger Glitterhouse label Neue Westfälische on September 27, 2017

Coordinates: 51 ° 40 ′ 18.1 ″  N , 9 ° 22 ′ 56.2 ″  E