| Profile: | Wasp Factory Recordings was set up in 1999 when Lee Chaos, having experience of both the horrors that can come from selling your soul to an established record company and also the disinterest from the mainstream music media towards bands with self published releases, said "Sod it" and formed Wasp Factory to release the second album by The Chaos Engine, "Obstinate".
The name of the label is taken from the acclaimed debut novel by author of macabre literature Ian Banks, who, in addition to granting full approval for use of the name, now counts himself amongst the band's many fans.
Having emerged unscathed from the birthing pains, and with the album successfully released, it soon became apparent that Wasp Factory was in a position to go beyond being The Chaos Engine house label and offered its services to many kindred spirits in the UK electronica, industrial and alternative scene - a scene notably devoid of any major label interest and where the few labels within the scene seem generally content to churn out insipid carbon copies of last decade's sounds with the occasional ham-fisted attempt at incorporating more modern electronic/dance elements. The label began signing up artists who impressed them through their music, their live shows and general attitude towards life. Many of these were soon ensconced in the label's own Parental Advisory Studios working on their debut albums.
Four years on, the label's catalogue is distributed internationally, with many of the artists building up an impressive live reputation on foreign shores, and the label was winners of the UK's prestigious Young Music Professionals Award 2003.
There is no easily pigeonhole into which Wasp Factory's artists can be crammed. They are all defined to one degree or another as sitting in the many grey areas where alternative rock meets contemporary electronica. They all have their own sound and vision setting them apart from genre cliches and they all have proven track records in the live arena. Many of the artists frequently collaborate with each other, both in the studio and for live performances.
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