XL RECORDINGS

From UK techno to new rap stars and beyond, our Record Label Award- winners have had an exceptional 2025

- By WILL RICHARDS

While perhaps known to most as the label responsible for Adele, The xx and latter-day Radiohead releases, XL Recordings have spent their 2025 releasing the very best in new and innovative UK dance, rap and beyond. It's why we've crowned them with The Record Label Award at the ZYN Rolling Stone UK Awards 2025.

To celebrate their win, we track five essential 2025 releases from the boundary-pushing label.

BLAWAN
SickElixir

Barnsley-born producer Jamie Roberts, aka Blawan, has become a pioneering figure in UK techno over the past 15 years. New album SickElixir sees him continue to veer away from the genre and into a more wide-ranging sound that pulls from each and every corner of dance music. Within this sonic experimentation and commitment to originality is a link to themes of the artist's recovery from drug addiction and subsequent reflections on its impact on his life and career. “It's a tool to pull yourself out of a hole [with],” he told Zane Lowe of making music. “It's done that for me.”

JIM LEGXACY
black british music (2025)

With his debut mixtape (2023's