A new label is kicking off tomorrow with a slate for Record Store Day. RT Industries, the brainchild of Razor & Tie founders Craig Balsam and Cliff Chenfeld, is launching with seven diverse catalogues acquired from Warner Music Group’s divestment program: Black Oak Arkansas, Sheena Easton, Fat Joe, Jesus Jones, Sugar Ray, Trapt, and The Vapors. WMG was required to divest numerous assets to independent labels as a result of its acquisition of Parlophone Label Group. As a result, RT Industries now has worldwide rights to all of those artists’ hit singles and landmark albums over a five-decade span, including three which will appear on Record Store Day.
The label launches tomorrow with the following limited edition releases:
Jesus Jones, Zeroes and Ones (12″ Clear Vinyl)
Rare remixes by Aphex Twin and The Prodigy lead this 25th anniversary clear vinyl edition – in special, numbered artwork – of Jesus Jones’ prediction of the rise of social media. The track “Zeroes + Ones (Instrumental)” is previously unreleased on any format, and this is the first time all other tracks have been repressed on vinyl for 25 years. Limited to 1,000 units.
A1: Zeroes + Ones via Aphex Twin, Reconstruction 1 – 08:01 / A2: Zeroes + Ones via Aphex Twin, Reconstruction 2 – 05:50 // B1: Zeroes + Ones via The Prodigy – 05:43 / B2: Zeroes + Ones via themselves, instrumental – 03:42
Sugar Ray, Fly (7″ Coke Bottle Clear Vinyl)
This special seven-inch has both the Supercat version and Rock Edit of Sugar Ray’s 1997 hit which topped the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart for four weeks. Limited to 2,000 units.
1. Fly (Ft. Supercat) 2. Fly (Rock Edit)
The Vapors, Turning Japanese (7″ Red Vinyl)
The 1980 New Wave hit is pressed on red vinyl for this special seven-inch. Three tracks, total, including “Talk Talk” and a live version of “Here Comes the Judge.” Limited to 1,000 units.
A1: Turning Japanese – 03:42 / A2: Talk Talk – 03:51 // B1: Here Comes The Judge (Live) – 06:32
The new label will be distributed by Warner Music Group’s independent label services division, ADA. “I would describe RT Industries as ‘a startup with a track record’,” remarks Craig Balsam in the RT Industries press release. “We have staff in both New York and London, and our partnership with ADA extends our reach around the world. We have, from Day One, almost 1,000 recorded music copyrights and our objective is not only to maximize their potential across all platforms, but also to position these records and artists accurately in the history books of rock and pop.”
Look for the three above-mentioned releases tomorrow at your local independent retailer’s Record Store Day festivities. Watch this space for information on RTI Industries’ upcoming releases, and visit the label here!
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RT Industries isn’t the only independant label that recently purchased recordings from Warner Music under the divestment sales. Britain’s Cherry Red Music purchased The Atlantic solo recordings of “Yes” founder Chris Squire, The Warner Bros. recordings of “Curved Air”, the WEA recordings of Howard Jones, the RAK recordings of Kim Wilde (her first 3 albums and related singles), and the EMI/Harvest catalogues of “Be Bop Deluxe” & “Barclay James Harvest”. The acquisitions include all of the (still existing) multitracks. Most of them(except some by “Curved Air”) still do exist.