Essential Ink Label Services Deals With Arts&Crafts, Dine Alone and Helmet

9th July 2010:- Fresh from the release of Feeder’s much-anticipated new album Renegades – out last week on the band’s own Big Teeth Music – the leading indie marketing and distribution company has announced a bold new wave of North American label signings, firmly establishing their place in the new vanguard of label services providers.Canadian independents Arts&Crafts and Dine Alone are among the latest signings to Essential’s growing roster of labels relying on the London based company for distribution and marketing services.Arts&Crafts, whose arrangement with Essential covers distribution and services across Europe, is the home to established artists including Jason Collett and new signings Dan Mangan and Zeus. Collett’s Rat A Tat Tat, his fourth album for the label, will be released in September alongside Zeus’s debut Say Us. Mangan recently played an inspired set at Glastonbury’s John Peel stage; his album Nice Nice Very Nice will see its European release in October.Dine Alone has signed a services and distribution deal with Essential covering the UK and Ireland. They have just released the latest album from Hot Hot Heat, and the band will be touring the UK later in the year. New Canadian bands Parlovr and Wooden Sky will be releasing new recordings on the label though Essential in the near future. Parlovr generated considerable buzz at SXSW this year and on their recent French tour. From Dine Alone Essential will also be acquiring catalogue from Moneen and Attack In Black.A services deal for Europe has also been inked with the management of alternative metalers Helmet, who will be releasing albums on the Work Song Incorporated label.Earlier this week...The company inked a Europe-wide services deal with leading US independent label Vagrant. The first project under the new agreement is indie-pop/rock Broken Social Scene collaborators Stars whose album The Five Ghosts was released across Europe on 21st June. The band, who were previously signed to City Slang (Co-operative) for Europe, have already received heavy rotation across Germany for lead single “Fixed”, with a slew of forthcoming press coverage supporting the UK build.The deal sees Essential pick up catalogue from the Hold Steady, Alkaline Trio, Get Up Kids as well as international new releases for Vagrant.This side of the pond, a new worldwide services deal between Essential and Cheap Thrills will see Essential release singles and albums from among others Fake Blood, the producer behind the underground club classic “Mars”, and house pioneers Hervé, Jack Beats and Reset!.Essential will release Fake Blood’s forthcoming single “I Think I Like It” on 8th August on Cheap Thrills. Already a top-ten hit in Belgium following its inclusion on the Fix Your Accent EP in 2009, expectations are high for a repeat its earlier chart performance, and the track has already been selected as Scott Mill’s record of the week (5th July – 11th July). Fake Blood’s debut album will be released in February 2011, with debut albums by Hervé and Jack Beats following in the spring.A separate services deal inked directly with Fake Blood will see Essential release singles every month from August on Fake Blood’s own label, Blood Music. Dedicated to nurturing new DJ talent, the releases will all include Fake Blood edits, and some of the top dance names including the likes of Diplo.Next up, the long-awaited first album from Peter Hook’s Freebass project, It’s a Beautiful Life, after rumours dating from as far back as 2005, is finally to see a wide-scale release, following a worldwide services agreement just signed between Essential and Hook’s Hacienda Records label.Featuring Hook (New Order/Joy Division), Andy Rourke (The Smiths) and Gary “Mani” Mountfield (Stone Roses/Primal Scream) all on bass, the album and debut EP Two Worlds Collide will be given a full physical and digital release across the world later this year. The services deal will see further albums released by Essential on the Hacienda label, details tba.The company is also readying up a two major single releases for urban producer DaVinChe. The next two singles for the fast-rising producer, already known for his work with Kano and Tinchy Stryder, will feature vocals from two internationally renowned pop singers. The singles are slated for September and October release on DaVinChe’s own Dirty Canvas label, which is funded by Shamrock Partners. Essential will follow the singles with the worldwide Autumn release of the classically trained composer’s debut album Open Minded.Summing up Essential-Music’s business model, the company’s founder Mike Chadwick said, “It’s an exciting time for us, our model certainly fits the current climate within the industry and being able to offer a range of services from sales and distribution through to full project management means we are exceedingly well placed to progress in the future.”About EssentialEssential Music & Marketing has been redefining the roles of distributor and record label since its inception in 2003 by Mike Chadwick, former MD Vital Distribution and Martin Goldschmidt, owner of Cooking Vinyl Records.Founded to offer all-in-one marketing and distribution services to select North American independent labels seeking to release across the UK and Europe, Essential now also work with self-releasing artists and independent labels from across the UK and beyond.Services include physical and digital sales and distribution and a burgeoning package of product management activities ranging from overall strategy, targeting featured artists and sourcing remixes through to recruitment of 3rd party specialists and digital marketing.Labels and artists with service deals with Essential include Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, Noisia, Zinc, Cheap Thrills, New West, Vagrant Records, Ed Harcourt.Labels distributed by Essential include Cooking Vinyl, Stones Throw, Surrender All, Big Teeth, Fat Possum, R&S.Essential is part of the Cooking Vinyl group, which comprises of Cooking Vinyl Records, Essential Music & Marketing and Cooking Vinyl Music Publishing, which is run by Paul Kinder, a former director at Chrysalis.www.essential-music.com