Shifty Disco is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 independent record label

Independent record label

An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...

 based in Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

The label was started by local enthusiasts in January 1997 and their early releases were often featured by John Peel

John Peel

John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...

 on his BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

 show. Shifty Disco has released recordings by artists such as Beulah

Beulah (band)

Beulah was an indie rock band from San Francisco, California, often associated with The Elephant 6 Recording Company.-Early Years: 1996-1998:...

, Mark Gardener

Mark Gardener

Mark Stephen Gardener is an English rock musician, and former singer and guitarist with the shoegazing band, Ride.-Ride:...

, Unbelievable Truth

Unbelievable Truth

Unbelievable Truth were a British rock band, led by Andy Yorke, with Nigel Powell, Jason Moulster and Jim Crosskey. Their sound has been described as "slow, melancholy, country-tinged ballads, wrapped in a soft blanket of acoustic guitars and minor chords"....

, and Young Knives.

One of Shifty Disco's early, defining initiatives was the Shifty Disco Singles Club which released a new single every month to subscribers. A compilation of all the Singles Club releases was put out in 2002: 0-60 In Five Years - The Complete Shifty Disco Singles Club Collection.