Notching up 15 years is an impressive feat for any record label, but for San Francisco’s acclaimed OM Records, the milestone is especially sweet. As label founder and head honcho DJ Fluid explains, the imprint’s formula for success remains the same now as it did back in the early 1990s, and the best is yet to come.

“What can I say; it’s been a loooong road!” Fluid AKA Christopher Smith, laughs down the line from his studio in San Francisco. “I’m really happy that I’ve had this experience and that we’ve had the success we’ve had and that we’ve been able to work with a lot of really cool people [and] I think that we’re not really changing anything about that style. We’re going to continue working with a really diverse range of artists and keep doing what we do.”

Any electronic music fan worth his or her salt would, or certainly should, have at least one OM 12”, album or compilation in their collection. From the ever-dependable OM Lounge, OM Miami and San Francisco Sessions series through to original artist albums by the likes of Fred Everything and Samantha James and Mark Farina’s world-famous and genre-defining Mushroom Jazz series, OM has consistently dished up the goods in smashing style while other labels have fallen by the wayside or shut up shop for good.

Therein lies OM’s real appeal though, for it has never sought to be known as a mere ‘house label’. Through it’s own OM Hip Hop sub label, OM has further broadened its fan base through adventurous releases by the likes of J Boogie’s Dubtronic Science, People Under The Stairs, Strange Fruit Project and Zeph & Azeem. As Fluid explains, variety is the spice of life and OM has always approached its A&R with that in mind.

“The definition of what a label is and what it’s going to be is changing so we’re definitely changing our business model to work with that,” he says. “We put out hip hop records, we put out house, we put all different kinds of electronic music from soul to funk and [we’ll] continue to do that.”

The list of artists who have released or struck up long-time relationships with the label is impressive to say the least. Chuck Love, Kaskade, Mark Farina, Johnny Fiasco, Miguel Migs, DJ Sneak and songbirds Collette and Samantha James have all released successful cuts on the label. The OM family continues to sign and release the most forward-facing, quality music out there, the next example of which is Groove Armada’s forthcoming Black Light album, to be release in North America by the OM crew in the coming months.

For now though, it’s all about toasting 15 years at the top and OM 15, the label’s double disc anniversary compilation, is getting everyone in the spirit. As Fluid explains, the aim was to put together something other than the standard retrospective release.

“We reached out to all the artists that we work with and then a tonne of new artist and we just took all the material we really liked and put it together,” he says. “That was the process, to create a whole suite of new material and to see where it leads.”

Emerging upstart Pezzner shares glory with the likes of Spirit Catcher, Fish Go Deep and Germany’s Lovebirds on disc one, while the second disc is a more eclectic selection of tracks from luminaries like Charles Webster, Atjazz, Greenskeepers’ James Curd and Mike Monday. In short, it’s brilliant stuff and a fitting summary of where the label is heading, which is towards a more creative collective of designers, artists and producers rather than a record label first and foremost.

“The way that OM is set up now is that us working with artists doesn’t necessarily mean we have to sign an album from them,” he explains when asked about the imprint’s relationship with Nottingham’s Crazy P. “Do a remix, play a couple of our parties, cool. Let’s have a good time and not take anything too seriously.”

OM 15: 15 Years of OM Records is out now in Australia through Stomp.