Rykodisc
Rykodisc Twentieth Anniversary (2004)

Review by: Michael Walls
Date: 4/1/04

In an age where independent record labels can pop up in just about anyone’s basement, and with the technology of music production and distribution at the fingertips of any music geek with a computer, it’s easy to forget the pivotal moment in history when music changed forever. The creation of the compact disc. Or more specifically, the creation of digital recording.

Ryko remembers. Ryko remembers because they were there – twenty years ago – and they seized the moment to become pioneers in the digital music age. Four guys out of Massachusetts who loved music and had a crazy idea, became the first CD-only record label.

One of those guys was Don Rose, who said, “Despite its techie origins, Ryko was never about the hardware...it was the music that mattered. Swear to God.”

Good thing. Because without the music of guys like Frank Zappa, David Bowie and Elvis Costello, Ryko might’ve never gotten off the ground.

Rose says, “Zappa was a digital recording pioneer... He was well-through much of the remastering of his prodigious catalogue by the time we met, but hadn’t released anything yet on CD and was anxious to try it out on a fresh, willing victim.”

Following suit were artists like Bowie, Costello, Yoko Ono, The Replacements, and Nick Drake – and the rest is, well, history.

But Ryko has collected a snapshot of that history in a Twentieth Anniversary, 2-disc release featuring many of those artists from the beginning, as well as those still holding the Ryko flame.

This 36-track (and 36 artist) compilation includes music from: David Bowie, Sugar, Misfits, Morphine, They Might Be Giants, The Replacements, Badfinger, Big Star, Frank Zappa, The Jayhawks, Mission of Burma, Joe Jackson, John Cale, Mickey Hart and much more.

In celebration of their 20th anniversary, Ryko is giving away free copies of this limited edition double-disc compilation. Simply go to their website at http://www.rykodisc.com and submit your email address to be included in the random drawing on April 30, 2004.