2006 labels

1 (-) Boy Better Know
2 (1) Matinee Recordings
3 (11) Fortuna Pop!
4 (9) Maximum Minimum
5 (-) Cherryade
6 (RE) Kemet Entertainment
7 (27) Cluster
8 (-) Razorblade
9 (-) Earache
10 (3) Century Media

11 (-) Peaceville
12 (RE) Attack
=13 (29) Boot
=13 (5) Domino
15 (-) Magic Marker
16 (-) MFTC
=17 (-) Adamantium
=17 (-) Wah Wah
19 (-) 555
=20 (42) Hydraulix
=20 (-) Track And Field

22 (14) Zebra Traffic
23 (-) Columbia
24 (-) JSH
25 (-) Chemikal Underground
=26 (30) 4x4
=26 (-) Ruff Sqwad
28 (-) Long Lost Cousin
29 (RE) 691 Influential
30 (-) Wrath

31 (-) Kitchen Records
32 (17) Son
33 (-) Only Lovers Left Alive
34 (-) Calculated Risk Products
=35 (-) Thee S.P.C.
=35 (12) Metal Blade
37 (-) Barryland
38 (8) V2
39 (-) Hotheadzpromotions
40 (-) Beer And Rap

41 (13) Superconductor
42 (-) Linear
43 (-) Apex
=44 (-) Sit Tight
=44 (-) Lethal Bizzle Records
46 (2) Powertools
47 (-) Static Caravan
=48 (-) Dumpvalve
=48 (41) Dcypha
=50 (-) Transistor
=50 (-) Merge

=52 (-) Fake Product
=52 (-) Eu Entertainment
54 (35) Elefant
55 (-) Baked Goods
=56 (-) 7even Entertainment
=56 (-) In Grind We Trust
=58 (-) Never Healed
=58 (-) Merciless
60 (RE) Lowlife
61 (-) Siesta
62 (-) Marquis Cha-Cha

Again, see last year's placings in brackets. Boy Better Know took over the crown, largely thanks to the institution of a formal top 50 "best albums" list in which its albums and mixtapes secured 8 entries (including three alone from label founder JME). Matinee were still a long way clear of the others in second. Fortuna Pop!, Kemet Entertainment and Earache each secured four total entries in the singles and / or albums top 50s: Cluster was the only other label to achieve three. This year also saw the continued rapid growth of the unattributed white label: if we'd treated all of these as a single, perhaps shadowy separate entity, they would have been top 3.

Old friends reunion: Kemet, Attack, 691 Influential and Lowlife, who all disappeared between the 2004 and 2005 lists, all returned. While in the ilwttisott corporate suite, it was our turn to welcome the evil overlords from Columbia Records of all people.

And the large number of equal placings starting to emerge reflects largely the fact that we gave albums and singles equivalent weighting: a label with a single that was no. 27 with a bullet could happily snuggle up to one that had hit that same dizzy peak in the albums chart...