Antilles

US label Label Code: LC 6176 / LC 06176 . To further expand their U.S. operation and categorically organize the music they release in America, Island Records established its own parent organization and holdings company, Antilles Communications Ltd. The Antilles label was launched in August 1975 in the U.S. and early 1976 in Canada. Antilles was first and foremost a subsidiary that explored Progressive Rock, Jazz, Disco, and other more experimental forms of music. Antilles Communications changed its name to Island Entertainment Group in 1980 but wasn't made known to the public -- on label copy and promotional literature -- until 1987. In the mid eighties, Antilles was a division of Island Trading Co.. By that same time, the Antilles label refocused its efforts on experimental Jazz and was renamed Antilles New Directions until 1989 when PolyGram purchased the rest of Island's open share, prompting Island to revert the imprint back to the proper Antilles name and accordingly focus the label strictly on the Jazz genre. By around 1995, Antilles was shuffled over to the Verve division of PolyGram Classics & Jazz, and was dissolved upon the merger of PolyGram and MCA that created the Universal Music Group in January 1999. Antilles was the first Island label to issue Marianne Faithfull's "Broken English" single and was also one of the key labels that released the early music of Kid Creole & The Coconuts.