Junior Aspirin Records

Junior Aspirin Records is an artist-run independent record label established in London in 2002 by Andy Cooke, Dan Fox, Ashley Marlowe, and Nathaniel Mellors. The label occupies a space between experimental music publishing, contemporary art, and independent cultural production. Rather than presenting a narrowly defined commercial genre, its catalogue brings together artists and projects associated with post-punk, improvised and experimental music, sound art, performance, conceptual practice, and interdisciplinary contemporary art. The label’s releases have included work by its founders and associated projects such as The God in Hackney, Skill 7 Stamina 12, Socrates That Practices Music, Nathaniel Mellors, Dan Fox, Invisible Polytechnic, Advanced Sportswear, and Big Legs. It has also issued recordings by Charlottefield, DJ Scotch Egg, Imitation Electric Piano, Toilet, Jack Too Jack, Sue Tompkins, The Rebel, Emily Wardill, Bob Parks, Same Things, Mysterius Horse, Adventure, and D.J. Lonely + Blodfet. This range indicates a curatorial model based on personal, artistic, and scene-based relationships rather than conventional mainstream genre segmentation. Junior Aspirin’s physical catalogue has used a variety of formats, including 7-inch singles, 12-inch singles, vinyl LPs, compact discs, CD-Rs, lathe-cut records, and specially packaged editions. Digital releases have increasingly accompanied or replaced physical formats. The label’s catalogue includes split releases, compilations, artist albums, EPs, and limited-edition objects. Examples include the Remove Celebrity Centre compilation, releases by The Rebel and The God in Hackney, Skill 7 Stamina 12 recordings, Invisible Polytechnic’s performance of Terry Riley’s In C, and limited Nathaniel Mellors editions with individually drawn or painted sleeves. The label’s activities extend beyond recorded music. Associated artists and bands have performed at institutions and venues including London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, The Kitchen in New York, and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. The label has also been connected with a mini-tour in China, demonstrating an international performance network despite its London base. Between 2008 and 2017, Junior Aspirin Records produced an irregular series of themed podcasts. These programs addressed subjects such as style, success and failure, limbo, political correctness, the medieval humors, melodrama, capitalism and the military-industrial complex, empathy, Christmas, and Brexit. In collaboration with The Serving Library, it later produced Audio Annotations, a related series exploring topics including narrative, taste, materiality, nothingness, community, and sport. The available reference material documents the label’s catalogue and cultural activities but does not establish a current operating status, corporate ownership structure, formal headquarters beyond its London foundation, or an official website address. Junior Aspirin Records is therefore best understood as a historically documented independent imprint whose identity is defined by artist-led curation, unusual release formats, and overlap with contemporary art and experimental cultural production.

Junior Aspirin Records was founded in London in 2002 by Andy Cooke, Dan Fox, Ashley Marlowe, and Nathaniel Mellors. Its artist-run structure placed the label close to the activities of the musicians, performers, visual artists, and writers involved in its releases. The imprint developed a catalogue that did not conform to a single commercial genre, instead combining experimental pop, post-punk, improvised music, performance, sound art, and contemporary-art projects. The early catalogue included releases by Skill 7 Stamina 12, The God in Hackney, Same Things, and The Rebel. Formats varied from split 7-inch records and CD-Rs to compact discs and later digital editions. The label’s release numbering shows a sustained program of small-scale publishing rather than a short-lived single-project imprint. Its catalogue eventually included records by Toilet, Mysterius Horse, Adventure, Bob Parks, Advanced Sportswear, Invisible Polytechnic, Socrates That Practices Music, Big Legs, and others. One of the label’s notable catalogue projects was Remove Celebrity Centre - A Junior Aspirin Records Compilation, which gathered multiple contributors and was reviewed by The Wire in 2007. The label also issued a sequence of releases by The Rebel, including Prawns, Mouthwatering Claustrophobic Changes (M.C.C.), The Incredible Hulk, and The Race Against Time Hots Up. Skill 7 Stamina 12 appeared in several formats, including albums, split releases, and a collaboration with Socrates That Practices Music. Junior Aspirin Records’ publishing approach frequently treated the record as an art object. Examples include God in Hackney’s triangular lathe-cut 8-inch record, Advanced Sportswear’s album packaged with an insert in a zip-lock bag, and Nathaniel Mellors’s limited 7-inch Life Becomes a Promo, whose copies used unique drawn or painted sleeves. This emphasis on material variation distinguished the imprint from a conventional service label focused only on standardized audio distribution. The label’s cultural activities also included live presentation. Associated acts appeared at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, The Kitchen in New York, and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. A mini-tour in China further connected the label’s artists with international audiences. From 2008 to 2017, the label produced an irregular series of themed podcasts. Their subjects ranged across aesthetics, politics, social concepts, emotional life, and popular culture, including style, success and failure, limbo, political correctness, the four medieval humors, melodrama, capitalism and the military-industrial complex, empathy, Christmas, and Brexit. In collaboration with The Serving Library, the label also produced Audio Annotations, which examined ideas such as narrative, taste, materiality, nothingness, community, and sport. Later documented releases include digital and physical work by Dan Fox, The God in Hackney, Big Legs, and Nathaniel Mellors. In 2022, Mellors’s Life Becomes a Promo was issued as a limited 7-inch and digital single. In 2023, The God in Hackney released Heaven & Black Water/In This Room and The World in Air Quotes through the imprint. The available sources do not establish whether Junior Aspirin Records remains actively operating today, nor do they identify a formal corporate parent or current executive structure.

• 2023

  The God in Hackney releases further recordings

  [1]Junior Aspirin Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  The imprint documents new work through a 7-inch single and the album The World in Air Quotes.

• 2022

  Nathaniel Mellors releases Life Becomes a Promo

  [1]Junior Aspirin Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  The label issues a limited 7-inch edition with unique drawn or painted sleeves, accompanied by a digital single.

• 2017

  Initial themed podcast period concludes

  [1]Junior Aspirin Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  The documented run of the label’s original themed podcast series reaches 2017.

• 2008

  Themed podcast series begins

  [1]Junior Aspirin Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  Junior Aspirin Records begins producing an irregular series of themed podcasts, continuing through 2017.

• 2007

  Compilation release receives music-press coverage

  [1]Junior Aspirin Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  Remove Celebrity Centre - A Junior Aspirin Records Compilation is released and reviewed by The Wire.

• 2002

  Junior Aspirin Records is founded in London

  [1]Junior Aspirin Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  Andy Cooke, Dan Fox, Ashley Marlowe, and Nathaniel Mellors establish the artist-run independent label.

Artist-run independent label focused on experimental music, interdisciplinary practice, limited physical editions, and projects connecting recorded sound with contemporary art.

• Compilation album · 2007

  Remove Celebrity Centre - A Junior Aspirin Records Compilation

  A multi-artist compilation representing the label’s experimental and interdisciplinary catalogue. It brings together contributors associated with Junior Aspirin Records and illustrates the imprint’s preference for artist-led, non-mainstream programming.

• Experimental music recordings

  Skill 7 Stamina 12 catalogue

  A recurring strand of the catalogue including split 7-inch releases, the Robotics With Strings CD and digital album, Skill 7 Stamina Dead, and a split 12-inch with Socrates That Practices Music and Toilet.

• Independent music recordings

  The Rebel catalogue

  The label has released several works by The Rebel, including Prawns, Mouthwatering Claustrophobic Changes (M.C.C.), The Incredible Hulk, and The Race Against Time Hots Up, across vinyl and digital formats.

• Experimental music recordings

  The God in Hackney catalogue

  The God in Hackney’s releases range from a CD-R and a triangular lathe-cut 8-inch record to vinyl albums and singles, including Cave Moderne, Small Country Eclipse, Heaven & Black Water/In This Room, and The World in Air Quotes.

• Contemporary and experimental music

  Invisible Polytechnic perform Terry Riley's IN C

  A recording of Invisible Polytechnic performing Terry Riley’s minimalist composition In C, released as a vinyl and digital edition and reflecting the label’s connection to conceptual and contemporary-art practice.

• Limited single · 2022

  Life Becomes a Promo

  A Nathaniel Mellors release issued in 2022 as a limited 7-inch record with unique drawn or painted sleeves, accompanied by a digital single.

• Podcast and audio series

  Audio Annotations

  A series produced with The Serving Library that uses recorded discussion and annotation to explore topics including narrative, taste, materiality, nothingness, community, and sport.

1. 1Junior Aspirin Recordsen.wikipedia.org