Hefty Records is an independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois (USA). Founded in 1995 by John Hughes III (aka Slicker), the label has established itself as a home for innovative electronica. The labels releases range in genres and include include post-rock, IDM, down-tempo, jazz, and hip-hop. The concept of an independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of one of the major record labels, which are generally defined to be the handful of media corporations which have recently dominated the recorded music industry in the West. ... Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ... State nickname: Land of Lincoln, The Prairie State Other U.S. States Capital Springfield Largest city Chicago Governor Rod Blagojevich Official languages English Area 149,998 km² (25th)  - Land 143,968 km²  - Water 6,030 km² (4. ... Electronica is a rather ambiguous term that covers a wide range of electronic or electronic-influenced music. ... The term post-rock was coined by Simon Reynolds in issue 123 of The Wire (May 1994) to describe a sort of music using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as facilitators of timbres and textures rather than riffs and powerchords. ... IDM, short for intelligent dance music, is an electronic music genre which began as a style of techno in the early 1990s and moved on to include the textures and sound manipulation methods of Musique concrète and early, true industrial bands such as Coil and Nurse With Wound. ... Downtempo is a laid-back electronic music style intended more for listening and socializing than dancing, though some releases are danceable in their own right. ... Jazz is a musical art form characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms, and improvisation. ... Hip hop is a cultural movement that began among urban African Americans, and Hispanics in New York City in the early 1970s, and has since spread around the world. ...

Notable artists

• Euphone
• L'altra
• Phil Ranelin
• Savath and Savalas
• Samadha Trio
• Slicker
• Telefon Tel Aviv

Telefon Tel Aviv is a New Orleans-based electronic music group (relocated to Chicago in 2001) primarily known for their work in the intelligent dance music genre. ...

External links

[Official site]