Sandwell District was established as a record label in 2002 by Regis (Karl O\'Connor) and Female (Peter Sutton) as an extension of their Downwards Records label, which had been instrumental in shaping techno\'s Birmingham sound in the early 1990s. The label was revived in 2004 and from 2005 increasingly incorporated the artistic input of the New York City-based Function (David Sumner) and the Los Angeles-based Silent Servant (Juan Mendez). Initially releasing records under their own identities, as the label\'s success grew, it came to be seen increasingly as a collective entity, releasing tracks and albums anonymously partly in revolt against the increasingly celebrity-oriented DJ culture of the time, culminating in its 2010 collective album Feed Forward.[