Ghostly International is an American

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

founded in 1999 by Samuel Valenti IV and currently headquartered in Brooklyn, New York City. Chief artists include Matthew Dear,

Dabrye Tadd Mullinix or Dabrye is an American musician from Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, also known by the aliases James T. Cotton and SK-1. During his adolescent years, he grew up in Troy, MI. His ''Winking Makes a Face'' was the first album r ...

(a.k.a. Tadd Mullinix),

Com Truise Seth Haley, known by his stage name Com Truise, is an American electronic musician. His stage name is a spoonerism of the name of American actor Tom Cruise. Biography Prior to 2010, Com Truise had released music under the pseudonyms Sarin Sunday ...

, Tycho,

Gold Panda Derwin Schlecker (born Derwin Dicker, 1980), professionally known as Gold Panda, is an English electronic record producer and songwriter. Early life Derwin Schlecker was born as Derwin Dicker in 1980 in Peckham, London and was raised in Chelmsf ...

, School of Seven Bells,

Mux Mool Mux Mool (born Brian Lindgren) is an American electronic musician, producer, and visual artist affiliated with the labels Moodgadget, Ghostly International, and Super Best Records. He has been featured on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, and is a m ...

, and Shigeto.

History

Ghostly International was founded in

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...

by Sam Valenti IV in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

.Ghostly International: The Q&A
The Journal of Murketing He grew up in suburban

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, where, having become a fan of underground music culture, he would sneak into hip-hop clubs by carrying records for his Detroit DJ hero Houseshoes. Valenti later became a DJ himself, taking the name DJ SpaceGhost;They spin by night: The rise of Ann Arbor indie label Ghostly International
Detroit Metro Times this theme is echoed by the name and logo of Ghostly International. Valenti met Matthew Dear at a house party that Valenti attended during his first week at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in Ann Arbor. Their shared affection for

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

, particularly the sound of Detroit techno, led to the label's (and Dear’s) first

12 inch single The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...

, "Hands Up For Detroit." Following this, Ghostly enjoyed early success with albums by Mullinix as well as ''

Disco Nouveau ''Disco Nouveau'' is the first compilation album of Ann Arbor, Michigan record label Ghostly International. Released in 2002, the album served as a modern update of Giorgio Moroder's famed Italo disco sound of the 1970s and 1980s and includes co ...

'', a compilation including artists such as ADULT.,

Solvent A solvent (s) (from the Latin '' solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas, or a supercritical fluid. Water is a solvent for ...

Legowelt Legowelt (real name Danny Wolfers) is a Dutch composer, electronic musician and visual artist, whose music spawns a varying range of sub-genres. Life Danny Wolfers was born in The Hague, The Netherlands and grew up in the coastal neighbourh ...

, Daniel Wang and

DMX Krew DMX Krew is the recording name of the musician Edward Upton. Upton's other aliases include 101 Force, Asylum Seekers, Bass Potato, Chester Louis III, Computor Rockers, David Michael Cross, Ed DMX, EDMX, House of Brakes, Michael Knight, and Viet ...

, inspired by the Italo disco movement of the 1970s and 1980s. The label has since widened its focus to include groups such as Skeletons & The Girl-Faced Boys and Mobius Band, whose rock-based sound meshes with the label's eccentric leanings. Also known for forward-thinking package design by the likes of Will Calcutt and Deanne Cheuk, as well as the Boy, Cat, and Bird logos of Michael Segal, Ghostly International aims to be a complete aesthetic experience. Ghostly International followed up ''Disco Nouveau'' with two more successful

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

s featuring its artists: ''

Idol Tryouts ''Idol Tryouts'' is the second various artists compilation album released by Michigan-based label Ghostly International. Unlike the label's previous sampler '' Disco Nouveau'', ''Idol Tryouts'' contains music solely from artists signed to Ghostly ...

'' and ''

Idol Tryouts 2 ''Idol Tryouts 2'' is a various artists compilation album released by Ann Arbor, Michigan-based record label Ghostly International. It is the label's third compilation overall and the second in their ''Idol Tryouts'' series. ''Idol Tryouts 2'' ...

''. Ghostly International also runs a companion label, Spectral Sound, dedicated to more dancefloor-oriented music coming from some of the same artists on Ghostly (such as James T. Cotton, another moniker of Tadd Mullinix, aka

). Ghostly International and

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

released a compilation album known as ''

Ghostly Swim ''Ghostly Swim'' is a free digital download album released in 2008 by Adult Swim and Ghostly International (through Williams Street Records). The track listing contains songs arranged and recorded in an unusual avant-garde style of pop, rock and ...

'',''Ghostly Swim'' compilation
, Adult Swim available on Adult Swim's website for free. It was released with a bonus track on January 27, 2009 as a limited edition CD. A sequel to Ghostly Swim, ''

Ghostly Swim 2 ''Ghostly Swim 2'' is a free Music download, digital download album released digitally in late 2014 by Adult Swim and Ghostly International (through Williams Street Records) and a CD version was released by Ghostly in April 2015. The track listing ...

'', was released digitally on December 23, 2014, and on CD on April 28, 2015. The label has also been involved in the soundtracks for video games. In 2014, Ghostly released a compilation album of new and previously recorded work by Ghostly artists to act as the soundtrack to the video game ''

Hohokum ''Hohokum'' is a 2014 art video game developed by Honeyslug and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita, and by Annapurna Interactive for Microsoft Windows. The player controls a snakelike ...

''. A year later, the first soundtrack to critically acclaimed videogame ''

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before being ...

'' by German musician C418 was released by Ghostly as a vinyl LP on August 21, 2015, four years after its original digital release by C418. In 2018 a limited edition version of the

Super Nt The Analogue Super Nt is an FPGA-based home video game console designed and manufactured by Analogue, Inc., It is designed to be compatible with games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Features Hardware and software The Super Nt uses ...

home video game console was made by

Analogue Inc. Analogue, Inc. is an American company that designs, develops, and sells video game hardware. Its hardware products include the Analogue Pocket, Analogue Mega Sg, Analogue Super Nt, Analogue Nt mini, and Analogue NT, Analogue Nt. History Analogue ...

and Ghostly International.

Spectral Sound

Spectral Sound is a record label that was originally an offshoot of Ghostly International, but has since gained similar notoriety thanks to successful records by Matthew Dear and other techno producers. The label began in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

to fulfill the more dancefloor-oriented interests of founder Samuel Valenti IV, and early singles included artists like Kenneth Graham, Osborne and James T. Cotton (aka

). Spectral’s first full-length was ''Leave Luck to Heaven'' by Matthew Dear in 2003, which proved to be a seminal fusion of pop and

minimal techno Minimal techno is a subgenre of techno music. It is characterized by a stripped-down aesthetic that exploits the use of repetition and understated development. Minimal techno is thought to have been originally developed in the early 1990s by Detro ...

. Primarily propelled by 12" singles, Spectral has broadened its initial American focus to include international producers like Hakan Lidbo and Mike Shannon, and has been likened to contemporaries

Kompakt Kompakt (Labelcode: LC 12012) is a Cologne-based electronic music independent record label and vinyl/CD distributor, owned by Wolfgang Voigt, Michael Mayer (musician), Michael Mayer and Jürgen Paape. They specialize in microhouse and minimal t ...

and

Perlon Perlon is an electronic music record label founded in 1997 in Frankfurt, Germany, now based in Berlin, and run by Thomas Franzmann aka Zip and Markus Nikolai. It is a minimal techno and tech house label which has been characterised as one of t ...

List of artists

* Adult. * Aeroc * Beacon *

Choir of Young Believers Choir of Young Believers was the musical project of singer, writer and guitarist Jannis Noya Makrigiannis from Copenhagen, Denmark. The band, which consisted of Makrigiannis along with a rotating cast of supporting players, has had multiple No 1 ...

Christopher Willits Christopher Willits (born April 8, 1978) is a San Francisco-based guitarist, electronic music composer and producer, visual artist and scholar. His music is electroacoustic in nature, in that both analogue and digital sounds are meshed into one ...

* Ciel *

* C418 *

* Dauwd * Fort Romeau *

Geotic Will Wiesenfeld (born April 16, 1989), better known by his stage name Baths, is an American electronic musician. He was born in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles and was raised in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. He currently resides in Culver ...

* Heathered Pearls *

HTRK HTRK (formerly Hate Rock Trio) is an Australian band formed in 2003. The band is currently a duo of vocalist Jonnine Standish and guitarist Nigel Yang; bassist Sean Stewart was a member until his death in 2010. The band's debut album was produ ...

Jacaszek Michał Jacaszek (born 1972) is a Polish electroacoustic musician, often credited on albums simply as Jacaszek. Discography ;Studio albums * (2004) ''Lo Fi Stories'' * (2005) ''Lem Konzept'' * (2005) ''Sequel'' * (2006) ''Kompleta'' * (2008) ' ...

Kate Simko Kate Simko is an American composer, electronic music producer and founder of her ensemble London Electronic Orchestra. Simko has scored various feature-length films, including "The Atom Smashers" (Ghostly International), "We Believe in Dinosau ...

* Khotin * Kiln * Lord RAJA *

Lusine Lusine, formerly L'Usine, L'Usine ICL, and Lusine ICL, is the stage name of Jeff McIlwain, an ambient/ IDM musician. A native Texan, McIlwain now resides in Seattle. In 1998, he attended California Institute of the Arts to study 20th century ele ...

Mary Lattimore Mary Lattimore (born 1980) is an American classically trained harpist based in Los Angeles, California. In addition to her solo work and collaborations with fellow Philadelphia musician Jeff Zeigler, she has performed with prominent indie musici ...

Matrixxman Matrixxman, otherwise known as Charles M. Duff, is an American electronic musician ''Electronic Musician'' is a monthly magazine published by Future US featuring articles on synthesizers, music production and electronic musicians. History a ...

* Matthew Dear * Michna *Moderna *

* Nautiluss * Pale Sketcher *

Phantogram Phantogram may refer to: *Phantogram (band) *Phantogram (optical illusion) Phantograms, also known as Phantaglyphs, Op-Ups, free-standing anaglyphs, levitated images, and book anaglyphs, are a form of optical illusion. Phantograms use perspectiv ...

Psymun Simon Christensen, better known by his stage name Psymun, is an American record producer based in Minnesota. He was a member of Thestand4rd alongside Allan Kingdom, Bobby Raps, and Corbin. Early life and education Christensen graduated from Sai ...

* Recondite * Sam Valenti IV * Shigeto *

The Sight Below The Sight Below is an American ambient techno/ shoegaze act from Seattle, Washington. Its main member is the American post-minimalist composer Rafael Anton Irisarri. Sam Valenti IV signed The Sight Below to his Ghostly International imprint in ...

* Tadd Mullinix *

Tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, which is also referred to as the Northern Tropic, is the most northerly circle of latitude on Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward ...

Ultraísta Ultraísta is an English-American experimental rock trio, formed in 2008. The band consists of Atoms for Peace (band), Atoms for Peace members Nigel Godrich and Joey Waronker, alongside Laura Bettinson. Ultraísta (album), The band's self-titl ...

* Willits + Sakamoto (Christopher Willits & Ryuichi Sakamoto) * Xeno & Oaklander

Formerly signed

* 10:32 *Ben Benjamin *

Black Marble Black Marble is an American music project formed in 2011 in Brooklyn, New York. It is led by electronic musician Chris Stewart and formerly featured Ty Kube of Team Robespierre. History Black Marble began in March 2011, officially releasing th ...

*Cepia * The Chap *

Charles Manier Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...

* Clark Warner *Daniel Wang *Deastro *Dykehouse * Grand Valley State New Music Ensemble * JDSY * Jeffery Sfire *

Kill Memory Crash Kill Memory Crash is an Electronic band from Chicago, Illinois. They originally formed around 1998 as a duo (Alex SanFaçon and Adam Sieczka), and made an almost self-imposed exile from the music industry due to their indifferences to the popular ...

Loscil Loscil is the electronic/ ambient music project of Scott Morgan from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Morgan launched the project in Vancouver in 1998 while a member of the multimedia collective Multiplex, which curated audiovisual events at a ...

*Midwest Product *PostPrior *

Mike Servito Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and documenta ...

* Mobius Band *

North Valley Subconscious Orchestra North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

* School of Seven Bells * Skeletons & The Kings of All Cities * Syntaks * Twine * Tycho

References

External links

Official site

''Metro Times'' article

Ghostly Apparitions - An Exploration of Michael Cina's Album Artwork for Ghostly International

Ghostly International moves to Tech Brewery, inks new deals
{{Authority control American independent record labels Techno record labels Music of Ann Arbor, Michigan Record labels based in Michigan Record labels established in 1999 Companies based in Ann Arbor, Michigan 1999 establishments in Michigan