Freerange Records turns 30 this year, and rather than marking it with a single compilation the label is stretching the celebration across a series. Volume One landed on 29 May 2026 as the opening instalment of a five-EP run that will total 30 tracks from 30 artists, with a vinyl boxset waiting at the end. For a label that has spent three decades on independent underground house, the slow rollout fits the house style better than one big drop ever would.
Who started Freerange, and why does 30 years matter?
Freerange was founded in 1996 by Tom Roberts and Jamie Odell, the latter better known as Jimpster, who has been the label's creative anchor ever since. Thirty unbroken years is rare in dance music, where most imprints burn bright and fold inside a decade. Freerange has instead become one of the more durable names in deep house, voted Best British Label by DJ Mag back in 2007 and still releasing now.
The anniversary campaign sits alongside Jimpster's own recent Bassic Rollers EP, part of the same birthday period, so the label is using the milestone to put its founder and its roster in the same frame.
Who is on Volume One?
The first EP runs six tracks and deliberately mixes eras. Josh Wink contributes NGF, sitting next to Ralph Session's Everything (featuring Brandon Markell Holmes), Philippa's Mixed Messages, Palm Skin Productions' Shark Drunk, Nacho Marco's The Flying Fox and Lovebirds' Janet Nice. The label has described the wider series as a handpicked cross-section of the Freerange continuum, pairing artists who shaped the sound with newer voices pushing it on.
Thirty tracks, thirty artists, five EPs, one boxset: Freerange is treating its birthday as a season, not a single release.
Volume One is out on limited 12-inch vinyl with a box to house the full set, and as a digital album, so collectors can commit to the whole run from the start.
Why structure it as five EPs instead of one compilation?
It is a smart play for a vinyl-first label. Spacing the music across five releases keeps Freerange in front of DJs and buyers for months rather than a single week, gives each batch of artists its own moment, and turns the eventual boxset into the payoff for people who bought in early. A 30-track anniversary comp dropped in one go would be admired and then filed away. Drip-fed over a season, it stays a talking point.
