Sandwell District was a

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

and multinational collective of

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

DJs and producers that operated between 2002 and 2011. Their sound has been highly influential across the following generation of techno musicians, and has informed a major shift in world techno. By the time the collective announced its "glorious death" in 2012, the American ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' magazine wrote that "Sandwell District's influence on underground techno can hardly be overstated." Sandwell District was established as a record label in 2002 by

Regis Regis or Régis may refer to: People * Regis (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Regis (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) * Regis (musician), full name Karl O'Connor, an English ...

(Karl O'Connor) and Female (Peter Sutton) as an extension of their

Downwards Records Downwards Records is a record label founded by the techno DJs and producers Regis and Female in Birmingham, England in 1993. The label was initially established to release the set of tracks that fellow Birmingham DJ and producer Surgeon had recor ...

label, which had been instrumental in shaping techno's

Birmingham sound The Birmingham sound is a subgenre of techno that emerged in Birmingham, England in the early 1990s. It is most commonly associated with the city's House of God club night, the Downwards Records label, and the local DJs and producers Regis, Surge ...

in the early 1990s. The label was revived in 2004 and from 2005 increasingly incorporated the artistic input of the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

-based

Function Function or functionality may refer to: Computing * Function key, a type of key on computer keyboards * Function model, a structured representation of processes in a system * Function object or functor or functionoid, a concept of object-oriente ...

(David Sumner) and the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

-based Silent Servant (Juan Mendez). Initially releasing records under their own identities, as the label's success grew, it came to be seen increasingly as a collective entity, releasing tracks and albums anonymously partly in revolt against the increasingly celebrity-oriented DJ culture of the time, culminating in its 2010 collective album ''Feed Forward''.

References

{{Authority control Techno music groups Techno record labels