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Partisan Records

Partisan Records is an independent record label with offices in London, Berlin, and Los Angeles, as well as in New York City, where the company was co-founded in 2007 by Tim Putnam and Ian Wheeler. The label, initially run out of Putnam’s South Brooklyn apartment, relocated in 2009 to Williamsburg.

Miscellaneous

Holy Sons (‘Decline Of The West’) was the first release on the label, and early success followed shortly thereafter with the signing of the band Deer Tick (‘War Elephant’).

In 2008, while working as the Night Manager for The Knitting Factory venue at their Leonard St. location in Manhattan, Putnam was approached by Knitting Factory Entertainment CEO Morgan Margolis to form a strategic partnership with Partisan. Together, they reissued the Fela Kuti catalogue and revived their label, Knitting Factory Records, which also includes Grammy Award-nominated members of the Kuti family, Femi Kuti and Seun Kuti.

Partisan has since cultivated a wide variety of genres, prioritizing an artist-friendly philosophy, and achieving international acclaim. In 2019 they earned their first-ever Grammy nomination for ‘Deran’ by Bombino followed by three more nominations between 2020 and 2023, for ‘A Hero’s Death’ by Fontaines D.C., ‘Song For Our Daughter’ by Laura Marling, and 'I Inside The Old Year Dying' by PJ Harvey. In 2020, they achieved a #1 UK album for ‘Ultra Mono’ by IDLES, followed up by further #1 UK albums for Fontaines D.C.'s 'Skinty Fia' and IDLES's 'TANGK'. They also won their first Mercury Prize in 2023 for Ezra Collective's 'Where I'm Meant To Be.'

Music Week’s International Woman of The Year award went to Partisan's Managing Director, Zena White in 2019.

Putnam now serves as President of Partisan, and Wheeler manages The Talkhouse, which he founded in 2015 and shares an office with Partisan.

Today, Partisan also releases music on behalf of sister labels Knitting Factory Records, section1, and Desert Daze Sound, all of which operate under strategic partnerships with Partisan.