As it hits its 13th year, shifting out of childhood into awkward teenageyears,the Diagonallabel releases a multi-faceted family portrait more than three years in the making, comprising a compilation of new and unreleased tracks from across its roster, with some of its most influential collaborators brought along to the party across a 4×12″ collection. The set is bound together by 4 x elastic, coloured “H” bands and is designed by Guy Featherstone, Diagonal’s chief design tour de force.
The artists included represent a cross section of the label’s multigenerational family, from father figures like Regis, who originally inspired Powell to launch the label, Russell Haswell, Autechre, Jim O’ Rourke, Wolfgang Tillmans and SOTE to newer additions to the roster in the shape of Kae Tempest and Dale Cornish.
Immediate label family and mainstays also feature: gloopy synth patterns from punk daughter, Viviankrist, shimmering pulses of ambient sound from little brother, Not Waving and a psyche rock magnum opus from wayward cousin, Blood Music.
Within this release and its accompanying publications, events and ephemera is a capsule not just of the label’s history but its energies: the places it travelled; the people it met; the jokes it told; the people who lent the support to get it off the ground and the ones who bring its revitalised energy now.
