Among the label's earliest successes were Will Oldham under his working name of Palace and its variant modifiers (Palace Songs, Palace Music and Palace Brothers), Smog and Royal Trux - artists who all released epochal, highly praised albums that earned the label a unique position and reputation in a UK that was musically fixated on the monolithic good times of Britpop. In a move that typified the label's unique sense of resilience, Domino also released titles by wayward and experimental domestic acts such as Hood, Flying Saucer Attack and The Third Eye Foundation that, together with their signing of The Pastels, ensured Domino celebrated a very British sense of regionalism and, at times, eccentricity.

In 1997, Domino released Pavement's landmark commercial breakthrough Brighten The Corners which was followed a year later by Elliott Smith's Either/Or and in 1999 the debut album by Will Oldham as Bonnie “Prince” Billy, I See A Darkness: a series of albums that confirmed the label's reputation as the preeminent European home of American music. Bell's desire to work with British bands as innovative and singular as his American artists reached fruition in the late 90s with the signings of Four Tet, Clinic, James Yorkston and The Kills.

All were acts with a distinct identity that established Domino as a label interested in creativity rather than any particular sound or style. Towards the end of its first decade, the label became synonymous with this new set of artists who provided a catalogue for Domino's.