Groucho Says, "Duck, you sucker!"
FOUNDATION REVIEWS

Last Updated: October 3
(structural only, don't get too excited)

Inca Eyeball
'official' website


Click the link above to shop Migidum/Bligablum Distribution,
featuring the Ceramic Hobs CD Straight Outta Rampton!

Labels

Chondritic Sound
PACrec
Hanson
Hospital
Productions
P-Tapes
Snip-Snip
Troniks
Since 1972
Humbug
Warm Freedom of Tongue
Sublime Frequencies
American Tapes
Spite
Wordsound
Kissy Records
Memoirs of an Aesthete
The Smack Shire
Banned Production

Individual Artists
(not by label)

Ashtray Navigations
Control
Crawlspace
Ceramic Hobs
AMK
Hive Mind
Prurient
Borbetomagus
Funkadelic
Mort Sahl
Iancu Dumitrescu/
Ana-Maria Avram
Sudden Infant
Crawl Unit/
Joe Colley
Bunnybrains
Cock E.S.P.
Smell & Quim
Swell Maps
The Hanatarash
Throbbing Gristle
Head Of Femur
Wolf Eyes
Emil Beaulieau
tac
Thinking
Fellers Union
Local 282
Fleetwood Mac
To Live and Shave In L.A.
The Firesign Theatre

 

What it's all about...

This is a page of reviews not only about records, but also record labels. As we inch closer to an age where everything is owned by two people, underground record labels are getting more interesting (and smaller). Freed from the need to satisfy all of the people all of the time (or even more than 100 people at a time in some cases), labels are starting to really reflect the personalities and musical tastes and ideas of their founders, freed from conforming to one style of music or one target audience. I think that's pretty cool. It's not just punk labels or noise labels anymore, it's Blake labels and Eddie labels and Howie labels and Ben labels and Daniel labels.

Click on any of the links below to check out my fave acquisitons from each, as well as a few words about the taste and smell of each umbrella organization. Yes, very in progress. Below this are sections for some of my favorite artists. These will take a little longer, in the interest of making each individual page stylistically appropriate to the artist involved.

Those that would like to send me demos for review (particularly stuff from these labels!) are encouraged to do so, but should know that it might be a little while before I get things going, at least until this page develops a rhythm of its own. You should probably email me before sending anything, just to make sure.

Points To Ponder:

Label owner background:
Many of these people are friends of mine, and have told me (or say in their label literature) why they wanted to dump thousand of dollars into a money-losing venture. Look out for interviews with many of these people in the weeks to come. Maybe if we ask nicely, they'll tell us some of the pitfalls to avoid, should you or I want to try this at home.

Years in existence:
New kid on the block, or grumpy old man?

Prolificity:
Some labels spew out great product so fast, they make you briefly consider taking a second job, while others will have a new 7" in your hands once every other solstice. One approach is not necessarily better than the other.

Migidum Count:
A subjective barometer of a label's derangement PH. Both weirdness of the bands on the label and the weirdness of selection of roster affects the final Migidum Count. A label like Load Records very consistently releases bands you wouldn't take home to mother (or leave out for her to see). tUMULt tends to release less bizarre acts, but the individual choices of artists (black metal to country to prog ridicliosa) boggles the mind with its inner logic. dual pLOVER scores high on both scales, since their records are both brain floggingly odd and completely all over two or three different maps. And before you ask, yes, I was the person in the back rooting FOR the Pritchett scale in Dead Poets Society.

Contact Info:
Includes mail address and website/email.

Available Here?:
I also run a small business called Migidum/Bligablum Distribution. Many of these records being reviewed are also for sale from me. Clicking on a "YES!" link will take you to the item's corresponding order page. Give in to your grown-up tastes.

UPDATES

April 11: 20-some-odd new reviews:

1. Ceramic Hobs: Straight Outta Rampton (Pumf) (SOON)
2. Blunt Instrument: Wrack n’ Roll (Pumf)
3. Howl In The Typewriter: Grand Theft Audio (Pumf) (SOON)
4. Barbara Dwyer: The Amazing Ron Brewer, Donkey-Man (Pumf)
5. Baz/Edith Bunker’s Demonized Vomit Insurance - Split LP (Nauscopy) (SOON)
6. V/A - Video Games Of the Twelfth Century (Nauscopy) (SOON)
7. Hermit - Moskva 3" CDR (Gameboy) (SOON)
8. V/A - SOUN 7" (Gameboy)
9. Kapotte Muziek - Live CDR (Gameboy)
10. Sudden Infant - Sudden Infant’s Turntable Cookbook CDR (Gameboy)
11. CD Player Virgins - Frozen Friends cs (Animal Disguise)
12. Das Torpedos - Descendre (Animal Disguise)
13. Hair Police - Movies Live ’01 - ’02 (Animal Disguise)
14. Nerve Net Noise - Meteor Circuit (Intransitive)
15. Thurson Jenkins and Professor O’Ignance - The Toothless One Speaketh (2FMP)
16. Oh No, The Modulator - Semi-Formalizer (Liquid Death/Hello Pussy)
17. Mammal - Fog Walkers (Scratch N' Sniff Entertainment)
18. Viki - Perfect Strangers 7" (Scratch N' Sniff Entertainment)
19. Joezef K - Nuclear War (Uranium City Recordings)
20. Volvox - Bad Earth (dual pLOVER) (SOON)
21. Bunnybrains - Show Me The Bunny (Menlo Park/related)
22. Bunnybrains - Sin Gulls (Menlo Park)
23. Cock E.S.P - Cock Street U.S.A. (E.F. Tapes)
24. Howie Stelzer/Jason Talbot - Recent Work (RRRecords)
25. Emil Beaulieau - Emil has a Relapse (RRRecords)
26. Snake Charmer - Booji Throbber 3" CDR (Crippled Intellect Productions)
27. Hair Police - Mortuary Servants 7" (Gods of Tundra)
28. Currituck County 12" (Death Rattle Of The West)
29. MC Tracheotomy - With Love From Tahiti (Bulb) (SOON)
30. Dribbins & Hightower - Live At Carlos Murphy’s Happy Hour (Scratch N' Sniff Entertainment)
31. Zartan - Sidekicks (SunShip)

March 2: 27 new reviews:

NEXT UPDATE: MAY 1 (30 reviews)

Last updated April 11, 2003
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