Vizual Records was founded in 2008 by Joshua Iz as a platform to release quality music. Our releases span many styles: from downtempo to reggae to house to techno and everything in between. We see music as a force for good in the world.
Our strategy is simple: we release music we like when we feel like it. That may sound arrogant but it really is at the heart of what we do. We don’t have a release schedule and rarely play by the rules — our distributors can attest to that. Sometimes we release six projects a year, sometimes two.
While the label is the primary outlet for Joshua Iz, we feature not only established musical compatriots like Derrick Carter, Chris Nazuka, Aiby & The Noise, Chez Damier, and Rubba J, as well as up-and-coming new talent from Chicago and beyond.
We draw our inspiration from our local Chicago scene along with the global electronic music community and the label is a way to give back to that community in whatever small way we can.
In many ways, Vizual Records is an experiment to see if we can actually fully control the means of production and distribution of our music. We thought it was possible with the advent of digital music and the technologies available to us in 2008. As technologies have evolved, we've been able to experiment with new ways to reach our audience and deliver our music to them without anyone else taking a cut.
We'll never be able to compete with Spotify or even Bandcamp; getting people to even visit a small site like ours is hard without multi-million dollar marketing budgets. Yet, we stand firm in our belief that independent labels serve an important role in the music industry and we want to give audiences a chance to own their music and buy it directly from us.
About vizualrecords.com
The vizualrecords.com site has continually progressed along with the web since its first incarnation in 2009. From 2009–2018 the site was built on WordPress focused on presenting the Vizual Catalog for sale and download as well as showcasing the artists who create music for Vizual.
From 2018–2025 the site was headless using WordPress as the CMS and a React front end.
In 2025 the site was rebuilt from the ground up using Astro, React, and Tailwind CSS. We added many new features: format selection, dynamic audio waveforms, user accounts, discounts, and much more. This new site is super fast and responsive and we're really happy with it.
We hope you have a great experience on vizualrecords.com but if for some reason something isn’t working right, or even if it is, let us know on the Contact page.
Thank your for supporting Vizual Records.
Made with ❤️ in Tower Lakes, IL, USA.