Extreme Music

"Expand your aural and sensory experiences with Extreme Music. An exploration of tomorrow's sounds (and silences) today."--

Michael Tau was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. As a teenager, he was introduced to bizarre and adventurous music via the after-hours CBC radio program, Brave New Waves, which he recorded onto cassette to listen to the next day. In university, he attended noise shows in lofts in Montreal's quasi-industrial districts, to the detriment of his hearing. He has since written for numerous underground music publications and has authored several music zines. When he isn't listening to the Merzbow boxset, he works as a physician.

SECTION I: EXTREME SCENESI.1 LOUD ............................................................................................15I.1.1 The Loudness War.............................................................15I.1.2 Noise Music.......................................................................18I.1.3 Harsh Noise Wall..............................................................22I.2 QUIET ............................................................................................33I.2.1 Drone..................................................................................34I.2.2 New Age Music.................................................................34I.2.3 Ambient..............................................................................37I.2.4 Homemade Drone............................................................39I.2.5 Lowercase..........................................................................40I.2.6 Onkyô................................................................................44I.3 VULGAR..........................................................................................47I.3.1 Blood and Guts.................................................................47I.3.2 Pornogrind.........................................................................54I.4 FAST ............................................................................................61I.4.1 Speedcore..........................................................................62I.4.2 Splittercore........................................................................69I.4.3 Extratone...........................................................................71I.4.4 Flashcore............................................................................73I.5 FOUND...........................................................................................77SECTION II: EXTREME DURATIONSII.1 LONG ............................................................................................97II.2 SHORT ...........................................................................................111SECTION III: EXTREME RECORDSIII.1 LATHE-CUT....................................................................................127III.2 LARGE .......................................................................................... 131III.3 SMALL ..........................................................................................135III.4 SHAPES.........................................................................................141III.4.1 Places...............................................................................142III.4.2 Sawblades.......................................................................143III.4.3 Beyond.............................................................................146III.5 PICTURES......................................................................................149III.5.1 Picture Disc Prehistory...................................................149III.5.2 Vogue Records................................................................150III.5.3 Red Raven Records’ Zoetrope Discs............................. 151III.5.4 Picture Discs in the Rock Era..........................................152III.6 ADULTERATED .............................................................................159III.7 NON-VINYL .................................................................................165III.7.1 Records That Melt...........................................................165III.7.2 Project Dark.....................................................................168III.7.3 Other Unusual Materials................................................ 171SECTION IV: TECHNOLOGICAL QUIRKSIV.1 CHIPTUNE ....................................................................................177IV.2 LOBIT ..........................................................................................183IV.3 FLOPPIES ..................................................................................... 191IV.3.1 Early Floppy History....................................................... 191IV.3.2 Floppies as Subculture....................................................193IV.4 MICROCASSETTES .......................................................................199IV.4.1 Microcassettor.................................................................199IV.4.2 One-Touch Recordings....................................................200IV.4.3 dirgefunk’s microcassettes............................................201IV.4.4 Dictaphonia......................................................................202IV.4.5 Dictafawn.........................................................................203IV.4.6 Lavender Sweep.............................................................204IV.5 8-TRACKS .....................................................................................207IV.5.1 Malcolm Tent’s 8-Track Obsession................................208IV.5.2 8-Tracks in the Nineties.................................................. 210IV.5.3 The 21st Century............................................................. 210IV.6 CYLINDERS................................................................................... 215IV.7 NON-TRADITIONAL FORMATS................................................... 219IV.7.1 USB & SD.......................................................................... 219IV.7.2 Self-Reliant Formats........................................................220SECTION V: EXTREME PACKAGINGV.1 ELABORATE..................................................................................227V.1.1 History of Elaborate Packaging....................................228V.1.2 American Tapes...............................................................229V.1.3 MSBR Records.................................................................233V.1.4 Toxic Industries / Very Toxic.........................................235V.1.5 Others...............................................................................239V.2 DISGUSTING ...............................................................................243V.2.1 Disgusting Accoutrements .............................................247V.2.2 Packs................................................................................247V.2.3 Body Fluids......................................................................248V.2.4 Perishables......................................................................252V.2.5 A Final Anecdote.............................................................255SECTION VI: RECORDINGS?VI.1 SILENT ..........................................................................................261VI.1.1 Silent Pioneers.................................................................261VI.1.2 Silent Recordings.............................................................263VI.2 DAMAGED ...................................................................................273VI.3 UNPLAYABLE ...............................................................................281VI.3.1 Anti-Records & Underground Music.............................283VI.3.2 RRRecords’ Anti-Records................................................284VI.3.3 The Haters........................................................................286VI.3.4 Major Ego Produkt Objekts & Aktions.........................289VI.3.5 One-Off Anti-Records in the Nineties............................292VI.3.6 Anti-Recordings in Other Formats.................................295VI.3.7 Contemporary Anti-Recordings: NONE Records,Michael Ridge, and Auris Apothecary.........................298VI.3.9 Anti-Recordings: Tying It All Together..........................304SECTION VII: THE DIGITAL AGEVII.1 WAVES.......................................................................................... 313VII.1.1 Mallsoft............................................................................ 313VII.1.2 Broken Transmission.......................................................321VII.1.3 Late Night Lo-Fi...............................................................324VII.2 RINGTONES.................................................................................327VII.3 BLACK MIDI ................................................................................331VII.4 OUTSIDERS...................................................................................333VII.4.1 R.A.E.D.............................................................................333VII.4.2 Viper.................................................................................335VII.4.3 Farrah Abraham.............................................................336VII.4.4 Al Walser.........................................................................337VII.4.5 Chief Kooffreh.................................................................338VII.4.6 Fallen Vengeance............................................................338VII.4.7 Girls With Attitude..........................................................339VII.4.8 Ornaments of Agony......................................................340VII.4.9 Hekaloth Records............................................................340VII.4.10 Tonetta.............................................................................341