One of the founders of LUCKYME® has paid their way into the United airport lounge B2 in Heathrow Terminal 2 and is sat in a far corner alone. The bar back here is playing very quiet Tiwa Savage which is totally fine with me. This isn’t normally my scene but the flight is going to be five hours late and I need somewhere quiet to work. Kučka and Lunice both sent me folders of new music and I have to change the copyline on a Seiho record. The flight delay means we launch this Advent series four hours after I land in LA.  First thing on my to-do list is write this blurb. I read back all the prior introductions and I don’t know if I should be embarrassed but I don’t really have a big *mission* this year. I’m feeling very un-punk right now. Reading back it feels like there’s been this hanging existential threat over the music or the art but the temperature feels decidedly more mild at present. This year we put out phenomenal records from Omega Sapien, Kučka, Cid Rim, Doss, Cameron Morse & Bloodz Boi, Jacques Greene & Skee Mask, Nathan Micay, Baauer, Eli Keszler & Duendita and Nosaj Thing. Hud Mo came back with a vengeance on Warp and Rustie just played live in Glasgow at Numbers. It feels like things are pretty fucking good right now.

In July we let our 15 year anniversary slide by like it was nothing because a lot of these other labels really be going hogwild celebrating the fact their parents paid their rent for the last decade. I’m not sure we all need to observe the anniversary of Fact Mags sixteenth best 12” of 2012 but whatever floats your boat. What I’ve been thinking about lately is legacy looks after itself as long as you just don’t quit. And there are three ways not to quit: ¹do it yourself, make a business and make interesting music  ²play the game, sign a deal and make pop  ³grow up with money. If you notice someone’s been around a long time it can be a fun game to ask yourself which category they belong to. Something about the fact lots of that generation of artists still freuently drop music is making me think all my own worry over the years in these blurbs was just because we’re sold disruption and volatility in the attention economy. But maybe things aren’t so bad. For the cover art of Advent this year we asked the incredible Paul Peng to create a large illustration that summed up the mood of the world opening up post-pandemic: this nervous, frenetic energy on the streets with people baring knives, ultimately forced to move around structures that always existed. In contrast the LUCKYME® logo is solid, cutting through the noise of the image. In the real world this label has already worked to create a space where things needn’t be so stressful. It gives artists the time they need to make a great record. It gives the team who work at the label a constant, varied flow of art and campaigns to work on. As the label solidifies itself, our ambition naturally grows. We’ve got very little to prove anymore. And if we’re faithful to the art and not wanting to repeat ourselves, I can see that some of our artists are chosing to make bigger and weirder records that want to stretch out into the world. We already have a few of those ready to run, alongside an exciting roster of new names debuting on LUCKYME® in 2023. We can’t wait to get started. Okay they are boarding through gate thirty three I got to go. Hope you enjoy the comp. Tell people about it. Love from LUCKYME®