A
football-obsessed,
Brighton-based record label, normally credited with the '
invention' of
Big Beat. Home to several major acts, most famously
Fatboy Slim, but also the
Lo Fidelity Allstars,
Bentley Rhythm Ace, and
Space Raiders. It was formed in 1995 by
Damian Harris (aka
Midfield General), originally as an off-shoot of the
Loaded record label. He wanted to release music which 'sought a balance between amusement and innovation'. And, throughout the 90's, he undoubtedly did.
The first ever Skint release was 'Santa Cruz', which was also the first ever record released by Fatboy Slim (at least, under that name...). Fatboy Slim's meteoric rise to success certainly helped Skint, who made a lot of money, enabling them to sign up and promote lots of other, arguably more interesting, acts. It also led to the biggest problem with Skint: the 'Big Beat' label. Inevitably, the trend fell out of favour with Britain's fashion police once several of the acts had achieved mainstream success, and Skint faced a few problems in remaining original and cutting-edge. As Harris says, people misunderstood Big Beat and thought it was just about 'making Chemical Brothers rip-offs and everyone drinking lager and sniffing amyl nitrate'.
Which, now that you come to think about it, is exactly what it was all about....
Either way, they're still producing some very good records, and slowly moving away from their earlier sound.
Skint's huge success has led to, among other things, a deal with Sony in 1998 (allowing Sony a minority share of the label, and allowing Skint to keep hold of international acts such as Fatboy Slim, the Lo-Fi's and others), their own club-night in Brighton, the Big Beat Boutique, a series of compilation records, and their own subsidiary record label, Under 5's, for some of their more obscure releases.
Acts with singles releases on Skint records
Skint albums