It all started with a compilation. “People thought I was crazy for making one, because nobody listens to compilations,” Jewel said in an interview. But 2007’s After Dark was a remarkable collection that, while featuring work by six distinct artists, played like a single album. Its pitch-perfect evocation of dark ‘80s romance gave the V/A the aura of a lost classic while remaining fully fresh. It hit like a bolt, stitching together the sleaziness of electroclash and the glamor of disco (then at the peak of its edit-fueled revival) with a touch of garage rock rawness. It was perfect.

One of the compilation’s strategic coups was its liberal incorporation of covers. Glass Candy’s rendition of Belle Epoque’s “Miss Broadway” was a standout, hewing reasonably close to the original and, in many ways, improving on it. Singer Ida No’s raspy delivery brings a welcome roughness, and she convincingly conjures the danger of late ‘70s proto punk is its glam-dance cross pollination phase. Mirage’s remix of Indeep’s iconic “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life” adds some nice flourishes to the original, but functions as more a tribute to the cult classic than a truly new take (although the harmonic tweak in the chorus really does slap). Another Glass Candy cover, of Kraftwerk’s “Computer Love,” is a valiant effort, though it offers no substantive updates to the original (a contender for one of the greatest songs ever written, in this writer’s opinion).

It was Chromatics’ “Running Up That Hill” that made the biggest splash. Though not featured on After Dark, it followed closely on the compilation’s heels and, in the end, stole the show. The band had started as a Seattle post punk unit, with no affiliation to Jewel or Glass Candy (then touring as Glass Candy and the Shattered Theater, a riveting and sometimes scary rock trio). Somewhere along the way, they coalesced and, under Jewel’s direction, underwent a dramatic rebrand. Chromatics reimagined themselves as icy, mercurial and dreamlike pop stars, fronted by the willowy Ruth Radelet. Long before Stranger Things made Kate Bush a TikTok star, Chromatics was channeling her most enduring hit into a haunting masterpiece.

That cover was released on the 2007 album Night Drive. Soon after, Jewel and the group were approached to work on a film with a strikingly similar title – Drive. The taut crime thriller payed direct homage to moody, minimalist heist favorites like Thief, and featured a pair of IDIB needle drops: Chromatics’ “Tick of the Clock” and Desire’s “Under Your Spell.” Where After Dark felt like the coolest mixtape ever, these tracks showed the Jewel and the crew working with more authority than ever, extending beyond proof-of-concept into a mature stride.

Desire has become one of the label’s most consistent artists, and singer/front person Megan Louise now helps Jewel run the label. It’s evolved into a cottage industry unto itself. Louise said she listens to “every single demo. When someone sends me a demo, I don’t know what they look like, and I don’t look at their Instagram. I don’t care. I click, and within five seconds I know.” They’ve taken chances on artists whose work really could only find a home on IDIB: JOON’s weirdo post-punk, the diaristic, cinematic landscapes of Farah, the subtle modernizations of MOTHERMARY. All are on the lineup, alongside Orion, fellow traveler Black Marble (who releases on Sacred Bones) and DJ Justine D, whose Motherfucker parties were landmark gatherings during the earliest years of IDIB.

It’s hard to remember a world where the overt italo disco and synthy OST-isms of the label felt surprising. The retro palette they’ve drilled into has experienced a renaissance in the last ten years, with modern pop shamelessly dredging the ‘80s and everything from the aforementioned Stranger Things to boutique horror and arthouse star vehicles directly nodding to many of the sources that IDIB tapped into first. What’s not hard to remember is why the label made such an impression from day one, and has continued to captivate audiences since then. The music is great, often punching above its weight with a confident swagger and ingenious economy. Grab a release at random from their sprawling back catalog, and it’s probably quite good. Grab one of the certified classics, and it bangs as hard as the day it came out. The early covers didn’t just turn heads – they set a standard. IDIB’s true success is in the way they’ve risen to the occasion and made good on the promise implicit in their first transmissions. We look forward to hosting this outstanding group of artists on May 31st.