Kranky (record label)

Kranky
Founded1993 (1993)
FounderBruce Adams
Joel Leoschke
Genre
Country of originUnited States
LocationChicago
Official websitekranky.net Edit this at Wikidata

Kranky (stylized as kranky) is an American independent record label based in Chicago.[1] It was founded in 1993 by Joel Leoschke and Bruce Adams, who both had backgrounds in the music industry. The label releases experimental music, such as ambient and post-rock.

History and operation

Kranky was founded in the spring of 1993 by Joel Leoschke and Bruce Adams in Chicago.[2] They created Kranky with the intent of releasing Prazision LP by Labradford, which was the first release of the label.[3] Adams first moved to Chicago from Ann Arbor in 1987. In Chicago, he worked at Kaleidoscope, a music distributor in Des Plaines; Touch & Go Records, after quitting work at Kaleidoscope in a year of working for it; and Cargo Music Distribution, which he started working for in the spring of 1991.[4] Adams and Leoschke were still working for Cargo when forming Kranky.[1] The label's second release was This Is Not a Dream in 1995, a compilation album by Dadamah.[1] In 2006, Adams left Kranky and founded label Flingco Sound. In 2005, Brian Foote joined Kranky to co-operate it.[1][5]

Kranky releases ambient, drone, post-rock, techno, and Krautrock music from musicians and bands such as Stars of the Lid, Loscil, Tim Hecker, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor.[6][5] According to Resident Advisor, "[Kranky] let[s] artists do whatever they want without interfering", and that Kranky rarely runs advertisements.[6]

Artists

Current

Former

References

  1. ^ a b c d Masters, Marc (January 11, 2009). "Kranky". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 6, 2025.
  2. ^ "KRANKY". Remix. Vol. 7, no. 6. June 2005. p. 18. ISSN 1532-1347.
  3. ^ Margasak, Peter (September 12, 2013). "Kranky's 20 uncompromising years". Chicago Reader. Retrieved September 6, 2025.
  4. ^ Adams, Bruce (2022). "Hey Chicago". You're with Stupid: kranky, Chicago, and the Reinvention of Indie Music. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. pp. 1–8. doi:10.7560/321201. ISBN 978-1-4773-2616-9. LCCN 2021060197.
  5. ^ a b Masters, Marc (November 15, 2018). "Kranky Celebrates 25 Years of Independence—and Patient Listening". Bandcamp Daily. Retrieved September 6, 2025.
  6. ^ a b Ryce, Andrew (October 30, 2018). "Label of the month: Kranky". Resident Advisor. Retrieved September 6, 2025.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.