Crammed Discs is an independent record label whose output blends world music, rock, pop, and electronica. Based in Brussels, Belgium, Crammed was founded in 1980 by Marc Hollander of Aksak Maboul and has since released around 400 albums and 300 singles, working with artists from all over the world (from Western Europe and the US to the Balkans and North & Central Africa, from South America to the Middle East and Japan).
Crammed Discs is run by Marc Hollander (A&R) with Hanna Gorjaczkowska (artist development, marketing, distribution & art direction) and Vincent Kenis (producer, director of the Congotronics Series).
Marc Hollander and Crammed Discs received the WOMEX award in 2004 at the World Music Expo international music trade fair, for being "one of the seminal players on the world music field".[1] However, the label has always systematically worked with electronic music, indie pop and rock artists, and "doesn't see itself as a world music label: it just happens to enjoy working with artists from around the world, some of whom sing in languages other than English" (as stated in the label's manifesto).[2] Crammed has been described as "one of the most boldly eclectic independent labels around" (Pitchfork),[3] as "innovative and groundbreaking"[4] and "visionary",[5] a.o. for steadily avoiding to confine its roster "to one, potentially homogeneous category" and encouraging artists with plural identities to create new forms of music.[6]
In 2011, Crammed Discs celebrated its 30th anniversary by setting up the Congotronics vs Rockers project, a "superband" including ten Congolese and ten indie rock musicians (including members of Konono No1, Deerhoof, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Kasai Allstars, Skeletons, Juana Molina and Vincent Kenis), who collaborated to create a common repertoire and performed at 15 major festivals and venues in ten countries.[7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
From 2008 to 2014, the following artists have joined the Crammed Discs roster: Chicago band Allá, indie pop act Lonely Drifter Karen (from Vienna and Barcelona), London-based Moroccan electronic artist U-cef, Congolese band Staff Benda Bilili, musician/composer/producer Mocky, Belgian band Hoquets, Belgo-Congolese rapper Baloji, Belgian-Colombian band La Chiva Gantiva, French-American artist Maïa Vidal, US bands Skeletons & Megafaun, South African/Dutch band SKIP&DIE, Belgian band Amatorski, Lebanese singer Yasmine Hamdan, Argentinian artist Juana Molina and Ghanaian/Swiss band OY.
The label's latest signings (2016-2023) are Parisian electronic music collective Acid Arab, Portuguese singer & musician Lula Pena, young French-Welsh band Fauna Twin, French experimental pop band Aquaserge, Matias Aguayo & The Desdemonas, the new rock band founded by the German-Chilean electronic music producer, Berlin-based Spanish experimental musician Don The Tiger, French-Chilean band Nova Materia, Lagos/London project Ekiti Sound, Ugandan/British band Nihiloxica, Californian musician Scott Gilmore, renowned producer Pascal Gabriel and his new Stubbleman project, and Palestinian techno duet Zenobia.
Because of the diversity of the label's output since its early days in the 1980s, its founders chose to create several sub-labels.[12] This policy was discarded during the latter part of the 1990s, because Crammed felt that genre-blending had finally become acceptable.[13]
Crammed also had several specialized and one-artist sub-labels:
Currently the only subsiding Crammed Discs imprints are Congotronics and Made To Measure. Congotronoics is not a sub-label per se, but a collection of releases by Congolese bands who play their own respective styles of electrified traditional music (such as Konono No1 and Kasai Allstars).[21] The series is curated and produced by Vincent Kenis.As for the Made To Measure composers' series, it is being discreetly revived since 2013 (after having remained inactive for 18 years), as 6 new volumes have recently come out.
1980
Un Peu de l'Âme des Bandits, with Chris Cutler and Fred Frith (LP 1980, CD reissue in 1995, vinyl reissue in 2018)
1981
Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine (originally out in 1977, released on Crammed in 1981, CD reissue in 2003, vinyl reissue in 2015)
Minimal Compact (mini-album, 1981, reissued on CD as part of One+One By One)
Band Apart (mini-album)
Greatest Hits
1982
Les Tueurs de la Lune de Miel
Lunga Notte (mini-album)
The World On My Plates
1983
One By One (1983, reissued on CD as part of One+One By One)
Marseille
1984
Deadly Weapons
Regrets Eternels (1984, re-released in 2003 as part of Secret Love - Compiled Electropop Works)
1985
Mr Manager
Sedimental Journey
Holy Wars
Raging Souls
Half Mute (originally out on Ralph Records in 1980, reissued on Crammed in 1985)
Géographies
Fatal Reverie (1985, re-released in 2003 as part of Secret Love - Compiled Electropop Works)
Rapture In Baghdad, feat. Adrian Sherwood
1986
In Search of a Decent Haircut
Desire (originally out on Ralph Records in 1981, re-issued on Crammed in 1986)
Ship of Fools
A Walk In The Woods
Stranger Than Paradise (original soundtrack from the Jim Jarmusch film)
Ere Mela Mela (originally released 1975-76, released on Crammed Discs in 1986, and re-issued as part of the Ethiopiques series in 2000)
Reivax au Bongo
1987
The Figure One Cuts
You
Lowlands Flight
Music For Commercials
Down By Law (original soundtrack from the Jim Jarmusch film)
The Truth Is Hard To Swallow
Suite en Sous-Sol/Time To Lose/Short Stories (originally out in 1982 and 1983, re-issued on Crammed in 1987)
1988
White Out Conditions
Nebka
Pinheads on the Move
1989
Live
Guilty
Cold Tears
Tone Poems
1990
Birds Of Passage
Géologies
La fiancée aux yeux de bois
East On Fire
The Top Of His Head
Le cri du lézard
Arrows
Divine, soundtrack for a Maurice Béjart ballet (1982, reissued on Crammed in 1990)
1991
Entre l'étoile et le carré
Toleki Bango (Miles Ahead)
Musique des Tziganes de Roumanie
Domino One
Loonychip Classics
Fishing Le Kiss
Nekonotopia Nekonomania
Zap Mama (retitled Adventures In Afropea for the US release, 1991)
Sahara Blue feat. John Cale, Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Sylvian...
1992
Shimmering Warm and Bright
Les Snuls, bien entendu
1993
Water Dragon
Self-Portrait Jumping
Solve et Coagula
Le Parfum du Raki
Granite & Sand
1994
2 l'Amour
Sabsylma
Cannibale
Honourable Brigands, Magic Horses & Evil Eye
1995
Wrong
Les dieux sont fâchés/The Gods Are Angry
Surreal Sheep
1996
The Man In The Shadow
Remixed Sheep
Mashreq Classics
1997
The Ghost Sonata (1991, reissued on Crammed in 1997)
L'Orient est rouge
Alien Rainbow
Dissected
The Arc Of Blueness
Esoteric Red
1998
Dumbala Dumba
First Class Ticket To Telos
The Unbearable Lightness Of Auto-Repeating
Internal Clock
Revisited Classics
I Don't Like Music, a collection of remixes
Faces & Phases (2CD)
1999
I Don't Like Music 2, a collection of remixes
Spears Into Hooks
Outro Lado
Pillar Of Salt
2000
Tanto Tempo
Simply
The Hill
Les Petits Chefs
Madman of God
2001
Band of Gypsies
The Other Side of Outro Lado
Samba Rock
Goingmobile
Brasilidade
Tanto Tempo Remixes
2002
Alone at my Wedding
Tales of High Fever
Escape To Where
2003
Cibelle
Natural
Compiled Electronic Landscapes
One Down, One Up (2CD)
2004
Bebel Gilberto
Cabin In The Sky
Seismic Riffs (DVD)
Mahala Rai Banda
Beleza! Beleza!! Beleza!!!
Uma Batida Diferente
Congotronics
Returning Wheel (3-CD box set, including new remixes and rarities)
2005
Rive Gauche Rio
Bebel Gilberto Remixed
Res Inexplicata Volans feat. Cibelle, Seu Jorge etc.
Aparelhagem
Whaa!
About A Girl EP (CD/DVD dualdisc)
The Continuing Adventures Of... (DVD+CD)
2006
Trafico
The Shine Of Dried Electric Leaves
Bardo Hotel Soundtrack
The Ballad of Den The Men
2007
Vapour Trails
77o7 TM (The 30th Anniversary Box) (3CD+1DVD)
Momento
Maskarada
Psychoscout
Nu Med
Camping Shaabi
Live At Couleur Cafe
2008
The Ravished Bride
1 Real
Nu-Made (CD+DVD)
Halalwood
2009
Ao Vivo (DVD+CD)
Planet Paprika
Sonido Amazonico!
Cheer Me, Perverts
2010
Fall Of Spring
Blue Eyed Black Boy
Las Venus Resort Palace Hotel
Pesebre
Alternative Takes on Congotronics feat. Deerhoof, Andrew Bird, Juana Molina, Micachu, Glenn Kotche & more (2CD)
Heretofore
2011
People
Belgotronics
Unearthed, previously-unreleased music and videos (CD+DVD)
Megafaun
The Last Werewolf
Pelao
God Is My Bike
Kinshasa Succursale
2012
Wait For Me
Poles
Give
Bongo Hotheads
Canibalismo
Bouger Le Monde
Riots In The Jungle
2013
TBC (+ Same Stars We Shared)
Spaces
Alter
Ya Nass
2014
Vivo
No Problem Saloon
from clay to figures
Pink Narcissus
Beware The Fetish
Segundo (re-issue - originally out in 2000)
Tres Cosas (re-issue - originally out in 2002)
Son (re-issue - originally out in 2006)
Un día (re-issue - originally out in 2008)
Amansara
It Is Time For You To Return
2015
Of Lovers, Gamblers and Parachute Skirts
Hombre de piedra
Cosmic Serpents
Dangerous Orbits
The Best of Soapkills
You're The Waves
The Vinyl Box (retrospective, 10-LP boxed set)
2016
Konono N°1 meets Batida
Musique de France
Guerre EP
The Hydra EP
2017
Archivo Pittoresco
Laisse ça être
Passé composé futur conditionnel
Al Jamilat
Around Félicité
Halo
Un día (vinyl release)
Music For Commercials (vinyl reissue)
Noir et Blanc (vinyl reissue)
2018
Un peu de l'âme des bandits (vinyl reissue)
Déjà-vous?
Jamilat Reprise
It Comes
Matanzas
2019
Two Roomed Motel
Abeg No Vex
Mountains And Plains
Band Apart (vinyl reissue)
Support Alien Invasion
Forfun EP
Adventures in Afropea (vinyl reissue)
Kinshasa 1978 (Originals & Reconstructions) - feat. Konono No.1, Sankayi, Martin Meissonnier
2020
Doctor Fluorescent (feat. Scott Gilmore & Eddie Ruscha)
Figures
Halak, Halak
Kaloli
Abeg No Vex Remixes vol.1 (digital EP)
The Blackbird Tapes (digital EP)
Live At Home (digital EP)
2021
Black Ants Always Fly Together...
Xpujil
The Possibility of a New Work for Aquaserge
Redrawn Figures 1 and Redrawn Figures 2
2022
El Hombre Invisible
Where's The One?
Fictions (Made To Measure Vol.47) feat. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Mary Lattimore etc
Neon Colonialismo
2023
Trois
Une aventure de VV (songspiel)
Jojoni
Drum Money
Source of Denial
2024
Curves and Bends, Things Veer
Le fin de l'économie
Crammed Samplers
Awards
Nominations
Maïa Vidal (2012)