Mute Records was never supposed to be a label. In 1978 a London film editor named Daniel Miller recorded two songs on a synthesizer under the name The Normal and needed something to print on the sleeve. Nearly five decades later, Mute has released Depeche Mode, Nick Cave, Erasure, Moby and Goldfrapp, and it remains one of the most important independent labels Britain has produced. What ties the catalogue together is not a genre but an attitude: electronic instruments treated as punk tools, pop songs with something strange underneath, and an owner who backed artists for the long run. These ten records are where to start.
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The Normal: "T.V.O.D." / "Warm Leatherette" (1978)
The single that started everything. Miller recorded both tracks himself and distributed them through Rough Trade's shop under the name Mute Records, a label formed initially just to release this one record. It became a cult hit, which ensured there would be a second release. "Warm Leatherette," a cold, minimal song about car crash fetishism that references J.G. Ballard, has since been covered by Grace Jones, Duran Duran and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. It still sounds like the future arriving a little early.
Get "Warm Leatherette" / "T.V.O.D." on vinyl
Fad Gadget: Fireside Favourites (1980)
Frank Tovey, performing as Fad Gadget, was one of the first artists Mute released after Miller's own records. Released on 7 November 1980, his debut album mixed synthesizers with the sounds of found objects, including drills and electric razors, and set them against bleak, sarcastic lyrics about machinery, consumerism and modern life. It is a key record in the early history of industrial music, and a reminder that Mute was weird before it was successful.
Depeche Mode: Speak & Spell (1981)
Miller approached Depeche Mode in 1980 after seeing them play in London and offered to put out a single. Their debut album, released on 29 October 1981, is bright, bouncy synth pop, built around Vince Clarke's songwriting and the UK top ten hit "Just Can't Get Enough." It reached No. 10 in the UK and was the band's only album with Clarke, who left soon afterward. The band's loyalty to Mute, and the label's rapid growth to cope with their success, would define the next four decades.
Yazoo: Upstairs at Eric's (1982)
After leaving Depeche Mode, Clarke set up at Blackwing Studios and formed Yazoo with the singer Alison Moyet, whose huge bluesy voice turned his precise synth lines into something far warmer. Released on 20 August 1982, the album was preceded by two UK top three singles, "Only You" and "Don't Go," reached No. 2 in the UK and went platinum. In America, where the duo were known as Yaz, a remix of "Situation" topped the Billboard club chart. It was Mute's big commercial breakthrough of 1982.
Get Upstairs at Eric's on vinyl
Wire: The Ideal Copy (1987)
Mute was never only a synth label. Released in April 1987, The Ideal Copy was Wire's first full album after the art punk band's hiatus from 1980 to 1985, and it found them absorbing drum machines and sequencers without losing their angular edge. It only reached No. 87 in the UK, but it shows the kind of long term artist Miller liked to back, and it is a fascinating bridge between post-punk and the electronic music that followed.
Erasure: The Innocents (1988)
Clarke's next partnership, with the singer Andy Bell, became one of the biggest acts Mute ever had. The Innocents, released by Mute in the UK on 18 April 1988 and produced by Stephen Hague, was the first in a string of UK No. 1 albums for the duo and went double platinum at home. It also gave them their breakthrough in the US. Big, joyful and unashamedly pop, it remains their best selling album.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Tender Prey (1988)
At the opposite end of the Mute spectrum sits Nick Cave. Tender Prey, released on 19 September 1988 and produced by Flood, was recorded over four months in London and West Berlin, where the band were based at the time. It opens with "The Mercy Seat," a towering song about a man facing execution, written by Cave and Mick Harvey and later covered by Johnny Cash. Cave has stayed with Mute ever since, and this is the best place to meet him.
Depeche Mode: Violator (1990)
The album that made Depeche Mode one of the biggest bands in the world. Released on 19 March 1990 and produced by the band with Flood, Violator contains "Personal Jesus," "Enjoy the Silence," "Policy of Truth" and "World in My Eyes." It reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 7 on the Billboard 200, and by 2006 it had sold an estimated 7.5 million copies, making it the band's best selling album. "Enjoy the Silence," with its video by Anton Corbijn, won Best British Single at the 1991 Brit Awards.
Moby: Play (1999)
Released by Mute internationally on 17 May 1999, Play blended downtempo electronica with old blues and roots samples, and was recorded in Moby's home studio in Manhattan. Sales were slow at first, but the album topped charts months later, went platinum in more than 20 countries and has sold over 12 million copies worldwide, helped by an unprecedented number of licensing deals for film, television and advertising. Love it or tire of it, every track is familiar.
Goldfrapp: Felt Mountain (2000)
Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory's debut, released on 11 September 2000, is a strange and beautiful record that pulls in 1960s pop, cabaret, folk and electronica, closer to a film soundtrack than anything else on this list. It was a slow burner rather than a hit, but it went gold in the UK and was shortlisted for the 2001 Mercury Prize. It proved that Mute could still find singular voices two decades in.
Keep listening
The full story is collected on the Mute Records entry, which also covers the label's sale to EMI in 2002 and its return to independence in 2010. The label's current roster and releases live at mute.com, and the essential artists keep their own archives at depechemode.com and nickcave.com. For more British electronic music, read our pieces on The Black Dog and Fluke, and if you want to hear Violator on a proper system, our guide to finding a real listening bar will help.
Mute began as one man's excuse to release a single. It became proof that an independent label can outlast almost everyone.
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