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In the last 10 or so years, it’s safe to say that the musical landscape of both the UK and the world has changed completely – the rise of the digital music age, internet journalism and the decline of the traditional record shop amongst many of the game changers since 2000.

However, one constant of the last 10 years has been a record label that has provided me with some of the most wonderful music – both live and recorded – in addition to being genuinely passionate and delightful people doing something they clearly love – Wichita Recordings.

Whilst you may not be familiar with their name, you will undoubtedly be familiar with their truly enviable roster – Bright Eyes, Bloc Party and The Cribs will mostly likely ring bells with most music fans. But Wichita don’t  just boast a amazing selection of bands – no siree – Wichita give a damn.

Their online shop almost always has an impressive sale on amazing music, purchases frequently come with extra goodies – posters, badges, stickers, and the label now offer a free podcast from their website.

But that’s barely scratching the surface – to celebrate their 10^th birthday, the label put out 6 limited edition, super high quality vinyls for Record Store Day – 5 limited edition classic repressings, and a split single from Peggy Sue and First Aid Kit. As well as this, the label put on a week of ‘Wichiten’ gigs from their artists, and each night the first 200 through the door received a goody bag with some of their CDs, a 12” single and lots of lovely pens, stickers and badges.

And Wichita interact – their mailing list provides a great insight into what’s going on their end, as well as a competition where you can win anything from CDs to Merchandise to gig tickets (I myself was fortunate enough to win entry to THE ENTIRE WEEK of Wichiten gigs), as well as a Twitter feed (@WichitaRecs) that is as personal as you can hope for.

The point is, the label doesn’t have to do any of this. They could just sign good enough bands to pay their way and do nothing else. But no, Wichita sign only the bands they truly believe in – Los Campesinos! have suggested they would never have been able to make an album that wasn’t variations on You! Me! Dancing! On a label other than Wichita. It’s easy to see that the artists on the label love it too – Two members of Bloc Party now have their new projects signed to the label, and Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst is also signed to the label.

The long and short of it, is Wichita are the best. I am in the firm belief that without this amazing label, many bands wouldn’t have achieved their full potential, and the musical landscape would be severely depleted. So here’s to Wichita, and many, many more years of their amazing work.

Author

Hannah Walton