Fourth Dimension Records
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Fourth Dimension Records is a British record label, specialising in international underground music. It was founded by Gary Levermore as an offshoot of his Third Mind label before being taken over by Richard Johnson in 1984. The label was at its most successful in the 90's, releasing music by Simon Wickham-Smith & Richard Youngs, KK Null, The Gerogerigegege, Circle, Thurston Moore and Merzbow, side projects by members of Amp and Skullflower and myriad 7" and 10" singles by experimental artists from the UK, USA, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Japan. Alongside the label, Johnson also ran a mail order service, stocking rare underground releases from around the world.
Shortly before taking over the label, Johnson began editing a fanzine called Grim Humour, initially covering non-mainstream artists such as Big Black, Lydia Lunch and Sonic Youth. These often came with compilations (usually given FD catalogue numbers) with participants including the aforementioned Sonic Youth, Senseless Things, Ausgang and Portion Control. The fanzine ceased in the mid 90's but Johnson has since launched a new title, Adverse Effect, which has been praised by Record Collector and Ptolemaic Terrascope.
Although Fourth Dimension was dormant for some time, it has recently relaunched with further releases from Merzbow and Circle, as well as albums by Johnson's own project Theme, The Fields of Hay and British sound artist Andrew Liles. He has also begun a second label, Lumbarton Trading Company, a joint venture with Hassni Malik. They have issued albums by Experimental Audio Research, Theme , Thighpaulsandra and Michael Gira. They will shortly issue an art print by Nick Mott of Volcano The Bear and have announced future releases by Faust and Current 93.
