When people talk about Chicago’s history of fiercely independent record labels, they usually bring up Touch and Go, Drag City, and Thrill Jockey. It’s too bad that Kranky Records, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2013, doesn’t come to mind more often, because it certainly belongs in that company—it’s proved just as reliable, creative, and uncompromising as any of those better-known imprints.
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Joel Leoschke and Bruce Adams launched Kranky in 1993 to release Prazision, the debut from Virginia instrumental trio Labradford, who went on to be a cornerstone of the label’s early output. (Adams sold his share of the company in 2005, and now runs the label Flingco Sound System.) Over the years Kranky has often tested the boundaries of rock—you might say it was an early proponent of postrock, if you don’t mind how dumb that word is, but I prefer to simply describe the label as focusing on sonic explorers. Its impressive catalog now contains almost 200 titles, including music by Low, Disappears, Deerhunter, Charalambides, Tim Hecker, and Keith Fullerton Whitman.
Ken Camden, Lethargy & Repercussion Ken Camden is another Chicago transplant, in this case from Pittsburgh. He plays beautifully schizophrenic lead guitar in Implodes, but his solo material, released under his own name, is a different cuppa. I am loath to reference other artists when describing music, but I’ll make an exception here. If you can imagine Robert Fripp teaming up with Cluster circa 1975, you might be getting close to the sound on 2010’s Lethargy & Repercussion.
