Ncompass Records

Ncompass Records is a pioneering independent British record label:, founded near Brighton in 1996, notable for signing/releasing some of the most exciting artists in indie and pop music.
Founded by Richard Rogers whilst Head of International A&R at Warner/Chappell Music, the label was an outlet for underground artists to release newly recorded material who were highly regarded yet not commercial enough for the mainstream music labels.
The Great Lawnmower Conspiracy
The first Ncompass release was the extremely eclectic compilation album The Great Lawnmower Conspiracy that featured various artists from the south of England. Included were acts as diverse as Jumbo (indie:), Microcosm (prog rock:) and Exhale! with their electronica: sound. The album cover portrayed an exploding cartoon sheep whose image on the reverse showed the same sheep in sunglasses lying on a deckchair listening to a Walkman with a pint of beer in hand. This became the Ncompass logo. Rogers commented in a B-Zine online magazine interview in 2005 that a follow up album The Unforgettable Perambulator Experience would be released in 2017.
Bill Pritchard
One artist on the album Bill Pritchard, was a respected if occasionally eccentric singer songwriter previously signed to PIAS and Island Music and regarded as a genius of some prowess in many quarters. Pritchard signed to the label and Richard Rogers put him immediately into a recording studio where the album Happiness And Other Crimes was assembled under the guidance of Rogers. The album is genuinely regarded as a timeless masterpiece and received great accolades from London Newspaper, The Evening Standard including album of the year in 1998. One single was released from the album titled Every Loser In London a dig at orange juice drinking Time Out reading yuppies living in the capital of England.
First Ever Download Album Release
Rogers had been a pioneer of digital downloading after meeting with Cerberus Digital Download founder Ricky Adar in Denmark Street, London in 1995 whilst still at Warner/Chappell Music. Despite what would now be described as antiquated technology at Cerberus, Rogers was convinced enough that downloading would be the way forward in the music industry to release Happiness And Other Crimes as a digital download album release in 1996 release months ahead of its physical release on CD after agreement with Adar.
This release was the first time in the world that an album would be released as a download on the internet before its physical release and in an interview in 2007 with former Maltese Eurovision Song Contest Contestant Lynn Chircop on her Maltese TV show Education 22, Rogers stated that he was attempting to contact Adar but without luck to acquire evidence of this feat to enter into the Guinness Book of World Records.
Scottish act The Indian Givers formerly at Virgin Records were next up in signing to the label and recorded the laid back stripped down Night Of No Surprises album produced by their singer/songwriter Nigel Sleaford.
Also signed to the label were artists such as the Brothers Peel playing their quirky take on They Might Be Giants and Sean Withinshaw with his gospel/country style of music.
David Bowie
The David Bowie album Diamond Gods - Interpretations Of Bowie was next up on the label, a collaboration between Rogers and Charles Kennedy at Invisible Hands Music. Both Rogers and Kennedy were executive producers on this album and managed to lure artists such as Hazel O'Connor, Blondie, Brix Smith (The Fall), Icehouse and Bellatrix to contribute to the album. The album sold superbly however Recognition their joint distribution company folded into receivership and both labels were not paid their due royalties despite the album’s success.
Darshan
In 2001 Ncompass signed up former original Steps artist Angel who had changed her name to Darshan and began recording a barrage of tracks with different songwriters and producers for the album Popocatepetl including Helene Muddiman (Emma Bunton/Spice Girls), Tim Palmer (Duran Duran, Bon Jovi) and Steve Hillier (Dubstar, Mark Owen - Take That).
There were three videos made for the tracks on the album including one that ended up on the cutting room floor from a shoot with two Seattle based production crew filmed on location at the historic Avebury site in the South West of England. Cameraman Mark Dunster from Washington described the video as "very strange, Darshan was running around in a wedding dress in the UK winter in February with temperatures around freezing with numbing sleet and winds gusting at up to 60 miles an hour in a foot of mud whilst hugging ancient rocks." The shoot had to be stopped after worries that Darshan had hypothermia after turning blue and being unable to talk.
The other two Darshan videos were for the single Hush which was produced and directed by award winning film maker Darren Chan in Southern Ireland and How Many Mistakes Can One Woman Make, a ballad that saw the video shot on location in Hertfordshire. This song was later translated and recorded in the German language.
Silverscope Music & Current Activities
Rogers set up a new label Silverscope Records in partnership with an Irish investor in 2003 and Ncompass relied more on its publishing arm rather than on its recorded musical output. The majority of the artists on Ncompass transferred over to Silverscope and saw acts such Rob Reynolds, The Indian Givers and Darshan all contribute four tracks to the Shallow Vessels album release in 2003, the first on the new sister label. However, Ncompass was kept for more specialist and novelty releases and has since released the album All Things Brighton Beautiful an album of songs recorded by Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club Supporters.
A new Darshan single release Go Get ‘Em Girl also appeared on the label as both a physical release and as a download in 2006 and became a radio hit. Previously unreleased Bill Pritchard material also saw the light of day on the label in 2009 and Rogers stated on the inlay of this release that forty or so other Bill Pritchard tracks could be released on the Ncompass label in future.

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