Kranky was founded in the spring of 1993 by Joel Leoschke and Bruce Adams in Chicago. They created Kranky with the intent of releasing
Prazision LP by
Labradford, which was the first release of the label. 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. Adams and Leoschke were still working for Cargo when forming Kranky. According to
Resident Advisor, "[Kranky] let[s] artists do whatever they want without interfering", and that Kranky rarely runs advertisements. ==Artists==