XL Recordings

Getting Started in XL Recordings

Top XL Recordings Albums

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Top Tracks from XL Recordings

About XL Recordings

When XL started, back in the heady Acid House days of 1989, they specialised in the gritty, street-orientated, D.I.Y. rave sounds that were coming from London's suburbs. Alongside other independents like Shut Up And Dance and Suburban Bass, XL helped shape a sound that was equally influenced by American urban music and European electronic sounds. Their noisy, abrasive records were shunned by all media and had a fuck you aesthetic reminiscent of punk.

XL were sufficiently taken with a Detroit duo called The White Stripes to license their first 3 LPs; when they then delivered their fourth LP, the number one multi-platinum Elephant, they became perhaps the most original and important new rock group in the world. Then Dylan Mills found XL, an East London teenager who called himself Dizzee Rascal. His perceptive lyrics and groundbreaking production made his Mercury Prize winning album Boy In Da Corner every bit as uncompromising, uncouth and innovative as The Prodigy's early work. Like The Prodigy, Dizzee rose from the street, via pirate radio and raves, to critical acclaim and mainstream success; and with their respective homes of Bow, E3 and Braintree, Essex they grew up only a few miles apart.