TRIBAL America

About

House label founded in 1991 by Rob Di Stefano that pioneered the darker, progressive house sounds that were popular in New York clubs in the 1990s. Di Stefano was a manager in I.R.S. Records' New York City office when he founded the label as Tribe Records (4)) but renamed it to TRIBAL to avoid confusion with another label called Tribe. TRIBAL handled US distribution of UK-based Guerilla Records, founded by I.R.S. artist William Orbit and his manager Dick O'Dell. A UK subsidiary, TRIBAL United Kingdom, was opened in December 1993 to release and market the label in Europe and was managed by Richard Breeden. Though not an official outpost of the label, TRIBAL Portugal was one of Di Stefano's many efforts to promote the Portuguese House music scene after his first visit to the country in 1994 and the connections he made with Rui Da Silva, DJ Vibe and António Cunha. I.R.S. West Coast sales rep Mark Davenport joined Di Stefano in 1993 to form the core team behind TRIBAL. The famous logo was created by Di Stefano with assistance from Marts Andrups. Graphic designer Steven Newman arrived at Tribal in 1993 when he was signed to the label as Ofunwa. When I.R.S.'s owner EMI closed I.R.S. in mid-1996, Di Stefano and Davenport reformed TRIBAL as Twisted America Records.