THE ATLANTIC MANOR: LO-FI / DIY

Please visit album gallery for further information.

Lo-fi is an aesthetic in music production which uses low fidelity recording practices. Its use is sometimes due to the artist's financial limitations but is often a deliberate rejection of so called main stream music. Many lo-fi artists use inexpensive cassette tape recorders. The term was adopted by WFMU DJ William Berger who dedicated a half hour segment of his program to home recorded music throughout the late '80s under the name Lo-fi.
As a term to describe a musical genre, lo-fi is mainly associated with recordings from the 1980s onwards, when cassette technology such as Tascam's four-track Portastudio became widely available. Prime early exponents included Daniel Johnston, New Zealand bands such as the Tall Dwarfs, who recorded on Chris Knox's 4-track and released on Flying Nun Records, and Beat Happening and the Olympia, Washington label K Records. In the early-mid 1990s, Lo-fi found a wider audience with the success of such acts as The Apples in Stereo, Beck, Sebadoh, Guided By Voices, Pavement, Modest Mouse, Liz Phair, Will Oldham, Yo La Tengo, Ween, David Kilgour (musician) and (later) Elliott Smith.

Often lo-fi artists will record on old or poor recording equipment, ostensibly out of financial necessity but also due to the unique aural association such technologies have with "authenticity", an association created in listeners by exposure to years of demo, bootleg, and field recordings, as well as to older pop studio recordings produced more simply. The growth in lo-fi coincided with the growth of extreme slickness and polish associated with the multitrack pop recording techniques of the 1980s.

Many artists associated with the lo-fi movement, such as Bill Callahan, or Bob Log III, have frequently rejected the use of finer recording equipment, trying to keep their sound raw instead, whereas others such as Guided by Voices and The Mountain Goats slowly moved to using professional studios.

Cassette culture refers to the trading of home-made audio cassettes, usually of rock or alternative music. The culture was in part an offshoot of the mail art movement of the 1970s and 1980s. In both the United States and the United Kingdom, it owed a lot to the DIY ethic of punk. In the UK cassette culture was at its peak in what is known as the post-punk period, 1978–1984; in the US, activity extended through the late 80s and into the 90s. It was largely postal-based (though there were a few retail outlets, such as Rough Trade in the UK) with the artists selling or more likely exchanging music on compact audio cassettes via a loose network of other artists and fanzine readers.

Several factors made the "cassette" boom occur. Obviously the recording format of the cassette tape was important. More significant, however, was the fact that bands did not need to go into expensive recording studios any longer. Multi-track recording equipment was becoming affordable, portable and of fairly high quality during the early 1980s. One could purchase a "four track" cassette recorder and get a reasonable sound at home. Therefore, due to inexpensive (or less expensive) recording and the ease of duplicating tape there was an increase of recording artists. Add to this the fact that college radio was coming into its own. For many years there were non-commercial college radio stations but now they had a new found freedom in format. With the influx of new music from sources other than the major record companies - and the quasi-major medium of college radio to lend support - the audio boom was on.

In the UK Cassette Culture was championed by marginal musicians and performers such as Storm Bugs, the insane picnic, Instant Automatons, Stripey Zebras, What is Oil?, The APF Brigade, Blyth Power, The Peace & Freedom Band, Academy 23, Cleaners From Venus, Chumbawamba, 5ive Ximes of Dust and many of the purveyors of Industrial music, e.g. Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, and Clock DVA . Artists self-releasing would often copy their music in exchange for "a blank tape plus self-addressed envelope". But there also existed many small 'tape labels' such as Snatch Tapes, Falling A Records, Datenverarbeitung (in Germany), Deleted Records, Face Like a Smacked Arse, Fuck Off Records, Man's Hate (which distributed the International Sound Communication compilation series), New Crimes Tapes, Rasquap Products, Sterile Records and Third Mind Records that operated in opposition to the capitalistic aim of maximizing profit. There was great diversity amongst such labels, some were entirely 'bedroom based', utilising new home tape copying technologies (see below) whilst others were more organised, functioning in a similar way to more established record labels. Some also did vinyl releases, or later developed into vinyl labels. Many compilation albums were released, presenting samples of work from various artists. It was not uncommon for artists who had a vinyl contract to release on cassette compilations, or to continue to do cassette-only album releases (of live recordings, work-in-progress material, etc.) after they had started releasing records.

Cassette culture received something of a mainstream boost when acknowledged by the major music press. Both the New Musical Express (NME) and Sounds, the main weekly music papers of the time in the UK, launched their own 'cassette culture' features, in which new releases would be briefly reviewed and ordering information given. In the U.S. magazines such as Op Magazine, Factsheet Five and Unsound rose to fill the void.

Although larger operators made use of commercial copying services, anybody who had access to copying equipment (such as the portable tape to tape cassette players that first became common around the early 1980s) could release a tape, and publicise it in the network of fanzines and newsletters that existed around this scene. Therefore cassette culture was an ideal and very democratic method for making available music that was never likely to have mainstream appeal. Arguably, such freedom led to a large output of poor quality and self-indulgent material in the name of 'artistic creativity'. On the other hand, many found in cassette-culture music that was more imaginative, challenging, beautiful, and groundbreaking than output released on vinyl.

In the United States, Cassette Culture was associated with DIY sound collage and punk music and blossomed across the country on cassette labels like Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine, Swinging Axe, E.F. Tapes, Happiest Tapes on Earth and Sound of Pig (which released over 300 titles), Portland's label From the Wheelchair to the Pulpit, and in Olympia, Washington on labels like K Records and brown interiour music. Artists such as Zan Hoffman, Minoy, The Haters, Dino DiMuro, Don Campau, Tom Furgas, Ken Clinger, Cock ESP, Ordinary Boys, Ray Carmen, and hundreds of others recorded numerous albums available only on cassette throughout the late 80s and well into the 90s.

A notable pioneer of cassette culture and 'outsider' music in the United States is R. Stevie Moore, who, through the 'R. Stevie Moore Cassette Club', has been releasing DIY, home-recorded music steadily since the 1970s. Moore lives in New Jersey and continues to make many releases in the cassette-only format.

The packaging of cassette releases, whilst sometimes amateurish, was also an aspect of the format in which a high degree of creativity and originality could be found. For the most part packaging relied on traditional plastic shells with a photocopied "J-card" insert, but some labels made more of an effort. The Chocolate Monk-released album "Anusol" by the A Band, for instance, came packaged with a "suppository" unique to each copy - one of which was a used condom wrapped in tissue. BWCD released a cassette by Japanese noise artist Aube that came tied to a blue plastic ashtray shaped like a fish. EEtapes of Belgium release of This Window's (UK) "Extraction 2" was packaged with an X-ray of a broken limb in 1995.

Though in the mid-'90s cassette culture seemed to decline with the appearance of new technologies and methods of distribution such as the Internet, MP3 files, file sharing, and CD-Rs, in recent years it has once again seen a revival, with the rise of tape labels like American Tapes, Obsolete Audio Formats, Heresee, From the Wheelchair to the Pulpit, Woodsmoke, Object Tapes, Brown Interiour Music, Fuck It Tapes!, Retirement Records, and Lost Sound Tapes.

An exhibition was held at Printed Matter in New York City devoted to current American cassette culture entitled "Leaderless: Underground Cassette Culture Now" (May 12 -26th 2007)

Tape based forum websites have sprung up recently for devoted tape fans, most notibly http://www.tapeheads.net/ which support the small resurgence in analog tape based media.

In hindsight, the 1980’s seems to have been a decade flavored by both its prosperity and a sort of unintended decadence. So when the 1990’s opened with a mild recession, that "excess" of the 1980’s received a thorough backlash at the hands of a resurgent cultural and political movement. These were the environmentalists, who gained new life and tried to change the face of American culture away from the escalating use of the 1980’s and back to the cry of conservation. Also during this period of change and transition, the digital revolution invaded many levels of the culture, including the popularization of the now ubiquitous compact disc in place of vinyl records and cassettes.

That transition from analog to digital recording and playback technology brought about a change in the sound, or the aesthetic, if you will, of most popular music. Increasingly drum-machines, sophisticated synthesizers and samplers, and MIDI began to replace human performers. However this transition was not as rough and controversial as the change in tide from spending to thrift. In fact, this digital musical revolution went quite smoothly--and the pop, country, hip-hop, and other musicians of the day enjoyed more success than ever. At the same time this digital recording and reproduction technology made recording sound cleaner and crisper than ever before. To the general public, these changes went either unnoticed or embraced.

But to some discerning musicians and audiophiles, this trend was disturbing. Smaller artists were being lost to an elite oligarchy of record labels and well-known studio musicians. ‘Real’ musicians were being replaced with digital instruments played by computers, and even the sound of music was becoming cold...antiseptic. This was music taken too far by technology, just as the prosperity of the 1980’s was taken too far by its decadence.

Therefore just as a social reaction sprang forth in the form of environmentalism, a musical reaction sprang forth as well, although with much less fanfare. Dozens of individual artists around the globe created this little revolution by shunning studios, big record labels, and digital instruments altogether. In fact, they recorded only from their own home--their own living room, garage or basement. This music falls within the umbrella of "lo-fi," a reaction to the excessively "hi-fi" music of the 1980’s and 90’s, a reaction to the dishonest aesthetic of big budget recording artists, controlled by marketers and increasingly narrow niches of popular music.

During the early 1990’s these lo-fi musician--for they are truly musicians, and not mere recording artists--were noticed in their individual locales, and small labels began to recognize them and publish their music, most often on cassette, although sometimes on vinyl records and even occasionally on CD. The music of these early lo-fi releases stands as creative and unassailable as any new and innovative movement in the history of music.

Labels such as Shrimper, Sing Eunuchs!, Rotten Windmill, Cactus Gum, and countless others have now become legends in their respective locales, and the subject of many ardent fans’ devotion. And at the twilight of the 1990’s, these labels and their lo-fi musicians are as active and creative as ever. Their existence and success stands as a tribute to their musical value and cultural legitimacy. For so many fans, including myself, this music is more real, more creative, more worthwhile...in so many ways simply better and more honest than all the music pervading the commercial culture.

To myself and other musical adventurers like me, lo-fi is an answer to the search for an honest aesthetic. But a simple essay can never fully convey that. An hour spent listening to the Mountain Goats, or Wio, or Simon Joyner, or Alistair Galbraith, or Franklin Bruno, or Emil Snizek, or Refrigerator, or the Bingo Trappers, or Wckr Spgt, or Party of One, or Neener, or Lou Barlow, or any of dozens or hundreds of musicians in this genre (I have only named some of my favorites) will convey my meaning better than any page of words.

Bringing back the song as the heart of the musical endeavor...bringing the listener into the musician’s very living room...that emotive, story-telling personal connection...that often-experimental, uninhibited, and sometimes spontaneous flash of genius...that transcendence of the culture of greed and shallowness...that is lo-fi. That is lo-fi music....lo-fi, an honest aesthetic.

I taught myself to play guitar. It's incredibly easy when you understand the science of it. The skinny strings play the high sounds, and the fat strings play the low sounds. If you put your finger on the string farther out by the tuning end it makes a lower sound. If you want to play fast, move your hand fast and if you want to play slower move your hand slower. That's all there is to it. You can learn the names of notes and how to make chords that other people use, but that's pretty limiting. Even if you took a few years and learned all the chords you'd still have a limited number of options. If you ignore the chords your options are infinite and you can master guitar playing in one day.
Traditionally, guitars have a fat string on the top and they get skinnier and skinnier as they go down. But the thing to remember is it's your guitar and you can put whatever you want on it. I like to put six different sized strings on it because that gives the most variety, but my brother used to put all of the same thickness on so he wouldn't have so much to worry about. What ever string he hit had to be the right one because they were all the same.
Tuning the guitar is kind of a ridiculous notion. If you have to wind the tuning pegs to just a certain place, that implies that every other place would be wrong. But that's absurd. How could it be wrong? It's your guitar and you're the one playing it. It's completely up to you to decide how it should sound. In fact I don't tune by the sound at all. I wind the strings until they're all about the same tightness. I highly recommend electric guitars for a couple of reasons. First of all they don't depend on body resonating for the sound so it doesn't matter if you paint them. As also, if you put all the knobs on your amplifier on 10 you can get a much higher reaction to effort ratio with an electric guitar than you can with an acoustic. Just a tiny tap on the strings can rattle your windows, and when you slam the strings, with your amp on 10, you can strip the paint off the walls.
The first guitar I bought was a Silvertone. Later I bought a Fender Telecaster, but it really doesn't matter what kind you buy as long as the tuning pegs are on the end of the neck where they belong. A few years back someone came out with a guitar that tunes at the other end. I've never tried one. I guess they sound alright but they look ridiculous and I imagine you'd feel pretty foolish holding one. That would affect your playing. The idea isn't to feel foolish. The idea is to put a pick in one hand and a guitar in the other and with a tiny movement rule the world.

All that matters is that you care. Write, record and release your own music. Make the world a better place.

101 Cassette Labels
By Ceci Moss



In the 1980s, cassette labels played a vital role in the distribution of underground music, most notably in the noise, industrial, and punk scenes of the time. Easy and relatively inexpensive to produce, cassettes became a common format for the circulation of music lacking popular appeal. Although the majors produced cassettes as well, many of the producers of these underground labels saw their DIY business model as a stance against the greed of the mainstream music industry. Connections made through distribution and information sharing among the artists and musicians in these circles helped to establish a network for those involved.

In the age of GarageBand, Myspace, and file sharing, it may come as a surprise to some that cassette labels are still very much in operation. Tapes now function as a basic form of patronage between musicians and their audience; since a physical format is no longer necessary to send or receive music, these objects become a gesture of support. Tapes act to make tangible the connection between a creator and their listeners, and the attentive and often handmade packaging speaks to this exchange. One instance of this relationship is revealed in the description provided for the Gilgongo Records “Singular Set” series, a run of cassette releases recorded directly onto the tape by the musician in an edition of one. Gilgongo’s James Fella explains that for the project, “…the emphasis is on reaching out and sharing something specific with one other person, that an unrepeated portion of time and creation was individually cut and passed on to one other person to hold onto as their own.”

Cassettes also yield a grainy, degraded sound quality, an aspect that has its own appeal. The draw to this sound can be read as a type of nostalgia, Paul Hegarty in “The Hallucinatory Life of Tape” writes:

Within the dying of media comes the passing or slow dying of individual units – tapes, records, cylinders, cartridges – all of which decay, and in so doing, seem to take on characteristics of having lived. Once digital media arrive as ‘other’, as cyborg sound, the analogue seems to breathe, however rasping the sound. Nostalgia and melancholy imbue formats in general and individual items with pneuma (the essential lifeforce or breath of everything in the universe, according to the Stoics).

Thus, the interest in cassette releases today can, in part, be understood as a response to the proliferation of digital media. Within the realm of experimental music, where the sonic and aesthetic attributes of technological decay hold a particular importance and history, one could argue that the current emphasis on cassette releases extends from this lineage, now only heightened by the influence and expanse of digital media. (Perhaps for this reason many of the labels below would fall under the “experimental” or “noise” category.)

In an effort to provide a snapshot of this active community, I’ve decided to compile a list of 101 contemporary cassette labels as a resource.

For the list of labels click link.

http://www.rhizome.org/editorial/2868