Blast First

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Blast First is a sublabel of one-time indie label Mute Records, founded in approximately 1985.

The label was founded by Paul Smith to give U.K. release to albums by Sonic Youth, a U.S. band with which he was then working closely. It went on to specialise in music at the more extreme end of the spectrum, and featured more hardcore rock bands than the master label of its synth pop-oriented parent company. Before Mute Records was sold to the EMI group, Blast First fitted into the company’s profile, which included labels such as the Fine Line and the Grey Area.

The label released a range of alternative music from The Butthole Surfers and Labradford through Suicide and Sonic Youth to The William Fairey Band’s Acid Brass collection. The latter, a departure for a label noted for its guitar based rock bands, was a covers album of tunes such as A Guy Called Gerald’s “Voodoo Ray” and 808 State’s “Pacific,” all replayed by a brass band. Blast First also organised the highly influential Disobey experimental club nights, with Russell Haswell and Bruce Gilbert (aka DJ Beekeeper) of the punk band Wire.

After the sale of Mute to EMI, Paul Smith released a number of records on a new independent sublabel, Blast First Petite. Records on this label were insufficiently commercial to be released through Mute’s deal with EMI Distribution.
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