Balkan Records Company
Founded in Berwyn (Chicago), USA, in 1945 by Ivan John Krilcich and Louie Hlad, the label specialised in releasing music by musicians of Slavic and specifically Balkan origin although more oriented towards musical styles popular in those regions rather than folk music per se, i.e. more polka than throat singing. Many of their records featured an in-house orchestra known as Dave Zupkovich Balkan Records Orchestra (that also toured under this name) and the label was incredibly prolific in and around 1950 when literally hundreds of 78's were cut, but seems to have disappeared in the mid fifties, but apparently Mr. Krilcich continued in the record business with his Balkan Record Distribution Company. A label called Balkan Records appropriately enough specialises in re-releasing cassettes and CD's with material taken from old recordings by this label.
BASF Records
A label run by giant German chemical company BASF, but they had started financing recordings of classical music in the 1930's primarily as a showcase for their open reel tape and started making stereo recordings in the early 1940's. Functioned as a small to mid sized record label from the 50's mostly putting out classical and jazz records but some popular music as well, these were noted at the time for their recording quality. The label was discontinued around 1976 or so more it appears out of lack of interest within the mother company than due to financial matters but appears to have made a brief comeback in the 1980's to release material from their pre-50's archives on CD's. Sadly missed.
Boulevard Records
British "exploitation" label that was active from the late 60's into the mid 70's, most of the performances are so bad that it makes Pickwick and Europa at their worst seem wholesome by comparison, and the covers are so bad that they can be used as conclusive proof that 70's really was the decade of evil, more info on the label to be found here.
Carlton Records
USA based label that issued mostly easy listening records in the late 50's and early 60's, but also some spoken word etc. Label had a reputation as a hi-fi label in it's day and indeed the sound quality is above average, but then again the term "hi-fi label" had different connotations back then than it does now. Sub labels included Guaranteed and you can find more info on the label and a discography here.
CD Memphis
Launched in 2000 with much fanfare and press coverage, the CD Memphis label along with a studio complex and related activities collectively known as Cadre Entertainment was started by veteran musician and producer Norbert Putnam in association with local businessman Tommy Peters, and appropriately enough located in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. It had the rather odd business plan of selling locally produced R&B music directly to Europeans via the Internet, their website went down in 2001, a bad sign for a Internet based label, the recording studio is now another company by the name of Memphis Records, they claim to be a record label as well but they have no catalogue.
Claritiy Recordings
Small audiophile label based in San Francisco in California, USA. Specialised in minimalist 2 microphone recordings of acoustic jazz and classical music, contact lost in 2001, we would appreciate if anyone out there has more info.
DCC Compact Classics
Reissue and audiophile label formed in the mid 80's I believe, published reissues on 180 gr. high quality vinyl and 24k gold plated CD's but in the latter years it increasingly concentrated on issuing compilations at mid price. Went bankrupt in late 2001 after the CEO of the company, one Mr. Marshall Blonstein (ex-Island, now with Audio Fidelity Records), invested company funds heavily in a non related venture that went titsup, a buyer claimed to be taking over the remains of the company in early 2002 but nothing has been heard from them since.
Edison Records
You can find a short introduction to the Edison label here, there also exists a company called American Sound Archives that is dedicated to re-issuing Edison recordings.
Gennett Records Company
A independent label based in Richmond, Indiana, USA. It was founded in 1916 as an offshoot of the Starr Piano Co. piano and phonograph manufacturer and was originally known as Starr Records but was forced to change their name to Gennett Records in 1918 when they fond that dealers that also sold pianos from manufactures that were in competition with Starr where unwilling to stock anything with that name on, later the company also released under sub-labels such as Champion. The Gennett catalogue has got lot of interest lately due to their releases of some early Jazz masterpieces such as piano solos by Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton and it was the original label for the Wolverine Orchestra but that band included the great Bix Beiderbecke, due to this and that fact that this was the first USA label to issue Jazz records in any quantity it's often referred to as a Jazz label, but in actuality that style of music only a minor part of their output with the company simply recorded anything that they thought would sell and that included speeches and all kinds of folk and popular music of the day. Gennett was one first USA based company to start recording electrically in the mid 20's but the ravages of the great depression hit the company hard and they stopped issuing records in 1934 although the record division continued pressing records for third parties and the production team continued making sound effects records until the late 40's at the least, but these where not sold to consumers. The Champion label and catalogue was sold to Decca (USA) and although attempts where made in the 1940's to revive the label they turned out to be short lived.
Largo Records
German classical label based in Köln (Colonge) that was founded by Uwe Buschkötter of UBM Records fame in 1984. Interesting repertoire, originally mostly 18'th and 19'th century works by little known composers but later when bigger labels started to thread down that path the company refocused on unfamiliar or seldom heard 20'th century music by composers such as Markevitch, Zemlinski, Toovey and Wahren. The website of the company went down in 2002 and their CD's have been disappearing from stores, I did write to Mr. Buschkötter's other company (who handle the recording & publication rights for the Largo catalogue) for further info but did not get an answer, their catalogue will be sadly missed.
Pope Music
Audiophile label founded in 1994 by Gene Pope and Alan Leftwich, based in Saddle River, New Jersey, USA. Concentrated on making classical recordings using mostly Russian artist on one hand and on the other recordings of American singer/songwriters. Recordings were made with a pair of DPA omni's, custom mic amps and straight onto tape without mixing in a typical minimalist audiophile label fashion, and most of their disks were available either as straight aluminium or with a gold coating. Went out of business in 2000 for reasons unknown.