Boltfish Records has been a favourite of ours at AngryApe for the last couple of years, thanks to some excellent (although criminally overlooked) releases by some great unknowns.

Boltfish describe themselves as "a music label specialising in electronic and organic sounds. This includes idm, glitch, and electronica."

They are also one of the few labels who are a non-profit group, specialising in highly collectible limited runs of CDs and CD-Rs - mostly housed inside some great packaging.

We caught up with label co-founder Murray Fisher, who also happens to make music himself under the alias of MINT!

When did you launch Boltfish and how did the label form?

We started Boltfish in January 2004, and it really formed because we both felt that we had something to contribute, both with our own music, and also for up and coming artists. We'd been frustrated with the often slow or non-existent responses from some labels we'd dealt with, so our initial idea was to respond to every demo we received. We also saw a gap between traditional label and netlabel, and though we could bridge that.

Your releases to date have been strictly electronic, are there plans to venture into other genres at all?

Well, some of our artists have introduced acoustic instrumentation to their releases (Richard Houghten, Statskcartsa and others) and we're not averse to more artists of this ilk, but we also feel there's still such a wide palette to be achieved from electronic music it makes a good core offering.

Do you give your artists total artistic freedom or do you have a say in what makes their releases?

The artists obviously make the tracks, and to that extent they're welcome to create what they wish, but ultimately I suppose we have the editor's say on which tracks remain on a release.

With all our artists we communicate regularly, so it's more of a dialogue, and we only release a final product that the artist is happy with as well. We try to develop our artists, and we like to think we've chosen artists who are capable of growing and developing their styles, so to some extent the process takes care of itself!

Is packaging important to you as a lot of your releases have beautful artwork, ranging from 3" CDs to the recent hand-made box for Milieu's Remodelled album?

Yes, both CHEjU and I enjoy the packaging element of the process. We both have graphic design skills, and I work as a professional designer on top of running Boltfish, so we take turns designing the artwork for each release, sometimes with input from the artist too!

For our compilation releases we wanted to make sure that the Digipaks were something special, and the recent Milieu release was born out of a suggestion from the artist, which CHEjU then turned into the unique and limited presentation that sold out before release date!

What have been your personal favourite Boltfish releases so far?

Ooh, that's a tricky one.. It's like choosing a favourite child! Heh. If pushed though, I'd certainly mention our two compilations (Region Zero and Mercury Scales) since they don't just contain some cracking tracks that offer a good introduction to Boltfish, but they're also beautifully packaged in Digipaks, and we're still proud of the quality of them both.

Aside from those releases I'd probably have to say either Polestar's 'Camplex' or Richard Houghten's 'Slow Poke'. The former was just perfect when we received it, and was a no-brainer for release. The latter was a slight departure in style for Boltfish at the time, but had everything that pushes my musical buttons.

What releases do you have coming up?

We've got some real corkers on the way actually. We'll be seeing more in the next release from Mise en Scene. Also releases from BTB and 'ENV(itre)' as well as new artists 'Preston', 'Amorph' and 'Soutien Gorge' - not necessarily in that order though.

What are the highs and lows of running a label?

Hmm, well, the highs come in terms of good reviews, the releases themselves, gigs, learning more all the time and of course when we get positive comments from customers and other musicians. The lows are much fewer really - perhaps just the ever expanding workload and some of the paperwork.

Do you have any advice for someone considering starting their own label?

I suppose I'd say that it's always worth trying to run things with another person or people who are also passionate about what you're all doing. It means that when one of you is getting bogged down with it all, the others can pick up the slack. Also, don't imagine you'll get rich by running a label. You'll be on a high road to nothing if you do it for anything but passionate reasons!

Which other labels do you like?

There are so many labels, so a list of friendly labels we like would be: Rednetic, Neo Ouija, Expanding, October Man, Static Caravan, the Smallfish label, U-Cover, Audiobulb.

What's been on the Boltfish stereo lately?

Ha... That varies wildly from day to day. Oblong's "Indicator" (Expanding) is a personal fave at the mo'. Also I picked up a promo for Future Loop Foundation's forthcoming "Memories from a Fading Room" which I'm enjoying working to, as well as a little Jon Hopkins and some Nathan Fake.

And I find Ulrich Schnauss, Helios and Secede on my regular playlist alongside a smattering of hip hop, classical, jazz and old chill out. You'd probably have to look at my Last.FM listening figures to get a proper overview!