Labels

Animal Disguise	Chondritic Sound	Troniks/PACrec	Hanson
Hospital Productions	P-Tapes	Crippled Intellect Productions	Intransitive
Snip-Snip	Cipher Productions	Tochnit Aleph	Since 1972
tUMULt	Pumf	Menlo Park	Ground Fault
Dark Beloved Cloud	Load	SunShip	Humbug
Uranium City Records	Slippy Town	Warm Freedom of Tongue	Sublime Frequencies
Gods of Tundra	Bloodlust!	2FMP	Spite
E.F. Tapes	Gameboy Records	Wordsound	Scratch n' Sniff Entertainment
RRRecords	Liquid Death/Hello Pussy Records	Death Rattle Of The West	Public Eyesore
Nauscopy	Kissy Records	oTo/Fencing Flatworm	Bulb
Memoirs of an Aesthete	The Smack Shire	dual pLOVER	Banned Production

Individual Artists
(not by label)

Ashtray Navigations	Control	Crawlspace	Ceramic Hobs
AMK	Hive Mind	Prurient	Borbetomagus
Onomatopoeia	Zone Nord	Iancu Dumitrescu/ Ana-Maria Avram	Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock/ Schimpfluch
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.	Inca Eyeball

 

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.