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 Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behi ...

. Chief artists include

Matthew Dear Matthew Dear (born April 4, 1979) is an American electronic music producer and DJ. History Texas-born Dear moved to Michigan as a teenager, where he was inspired by the sound of Detroit Techno. Dear met Sam Valenti IV at a party while attendin ...

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 School of Seven Bells (often stylized as SVIIB) was an American indie rock band from New York City, formed in 2007. It originally consisted of Alejandra Deheza (vocals, guitar), her sister Claudia Deheza (keyboards, vocals) and Benjamin Curtis ...

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 Shigeto (written: , , or ) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese physician *, Japanese linguist *, Japanese sport shooter *, Japanese footballer *, Japanese basketball player *, Japanese economist * ...

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 Underground music is music with practices perceived as outside, or somehow opposed to, mainstream popular music culture. Underground music is intimately tied to popular music culture as a whole, so there are important tensions within underground ...

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

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 Detroit techno is a type of techno music that generally includes the first techno productions by Detroit-based artists during the 1980s and early 1990s. Prominent Detroit techno artists include Juan Atkins, Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, Jeff Mil ...

, led to the label's (and Dear’s) first 12 inch single, "Hands Up For Detroit." Following this, Ghostly enjoyed early success with albums by Mullinix as well as '' Disco Nouveau'', a compilation including artists such as

ADULT. Adult (stylized as ADULT.) is an American band from Detroit, Michigan, formed in 1998 by married couple Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller. The band integrates vocals with drum machines, analog synthesizers and electronic/ punk elements.Copela ...

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 Italo disco (variously capitalized, and sometimes hyphenated as Italo-disco) is a music genre which originated in Italy in the late 1970s and was mainly produced in the early 1980s. Italo disco evolved from the then-current underground dance, p ...

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'' and '' 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''. 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 Daniel Rosenfeld (born 9 May 1989), better known by his stage/online name C418 (pronounced "see four eighteen"), is a German musician, producer and sound engineer, best known as the composer and sound designer for the sandbox video game ''Minec ...

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

home video game console A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. Home consoles are generally less powerful and customizable than ...

was made by Analogue Inc. 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. Adult (stylized as ADULT.) is an American band from Detroit, Michigan, formed in 1998 by married couple Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller. The band integrates vocals with drum machines, analog synthesizers and electronic/ punk elements.Copela ...

* Aeroc *

Beacon A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. A common example is the lighthouse, which draws attention to a fixed point that can be used to navigate around obstacles or into port. More mode ...

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 * Ciel *

* Dauwd *

Fort Romeau Michael Greene, aka Fort Romeau, is an electronic music producer and DJ from the United Kingdom. Background Born in Chester, Greene grew up in Oxfordshire and went on to study Music and Visual Art in Brighton. After graduating he moved to London and ...

* Geotic *

* 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 * Khotin *

Kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...

* 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 el ...

* Mary Lattimore *

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 ...

* 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 Sa ...

Recondite Recondite (born ''Lorenz Brunner'' in Lower Bavaria) is a German musician, techno producer, label owner and sound artist. Biography Brunner grew up in a rural area which is often named as a source of his inspiration. Besides the environment ...

* Sam Valenti IV *

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 * Willits + Sakamoto (Christopher Willits &

Ryuichi Sakamoto is a Japanese composer, pianist, singer, record producer and actor who has pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto inf ...

) *

Xeno & Oaklander Xeno & Oaklander is an American electronic music group formed in 2004, consisting of musicians Sean McBride and Liz Wendelbo. Originating from Brooklyn, the band is considered to be among the cold wave revival scene of the 2000s and 2010s. Histo ...

Formerly signed

* 10:32 *Ben Benjamin * Black Marble *Cepia *

The Chap ''The Chap'' is a British humorous men's lifestyle magazine published quarterly. It was founded in 1999 by Gustav Temple and Vic Darkwood, and is still edited by Temple. The magazine proposes that men everywhere return to a more gentlemanly wa ...

* Charles Manier * 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 *

* Skeletons & The Kings of All Cities * Syntaks *

Twine Twine is a strong Thread (yarn), thread, light String (cord), string or cord composed of two or more thinner strands twisted, and then twisted together (Plying, plied). The strands are plied in the opposite direction to that of their twist, whic ...

* 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