Additionally, I haven't actually listened to everything yet, my backlog is insane, I'll get to it, eventually. Also not included here: stuff I happened to miss on accident (which I think there is a few), my own music, TV releases, and these like 20 Middle Eastern tapes that I got from a thrift store recently -- I haven't processed them yet, and honestly doubt most are even on Discogs/RYM (especially considering there's many which look to be home-dubbed). I may or not include these in the next post. I'll also include a bit of info and such, both from databases and my own thoughts. I am using images from databases here, it would take too long to take photos of everything. These may or may not be in any kind of coherent order, but I will sort media types. For RYM genres, (P) equals "primary", (S) equals "secondary".
CASSETTE TAPES:
All of this batch were either purchased online (direct from the labels/artists), or gifted to me.
Title: 大射精 Black Label
Discogs Genres: Breakcore, Gabber, Jungle, Hardcore, J-Core
RYM Genres: (P) Breakcore, Lolicore (S) Hardtek, Lolicore, Darkside
I haven't actually been able to play this yet since my walkman randomly broke and my home decks aren't set up at the moment, but man am I excited to have this, especially since I missed out on its sister release. Ennnn is amazing, insane Japanese lolicore.
Title: Star Leaf
Discogs Genres: Noise, Noisecore, Breakcore, Harsh Noise Wall
RYM Genres: (P) Harsh Noise, Breakcore (S) Harsh Noise Wall, Power Noise
Again, haven't been able to play tapes lately, but so stoked PAWC sent me a copy of this, and it comes in a black velvet bag, really nice! PAWC is an absolute legend in the otaku music community, and is very well deserved, they still have some copies for sale on their Bandcamp, highly recommend checking that out~!
Title: C90 Split
Discogs Genres: Noise
RYM Genres: N/A
This is baffling to me, J.PORT is a seemingly new project of one of the LOLI RIPE members, yes, LOLI RIPE!!!! Despite LOLI RIPE dropping a tape and new music, nobody gave a fuck and it totally flew under the radar, but this is historical. There was some lore with this album too, seems they've actually still been active this whole time (I'm making some assumptions here though), and some background on them in Sweden's underground music scene. Really fascinating history and lore, I hope we get more new material.
Title: dancefloor degrader / dancefloor muthafucka! / mainstream muthafucka!
Discogs Genres: Gabber, Breakcore, Experimental
RYM Genres: (P) Freeform Hardcore, Mashcore, Lolicore (S) Happy Hardcore, Eurodance, Nightcore, Lolicore, Gabber
Awesome re-issue of two absolutely classic releases, especially the astoundingly good dancefloor degrader (I even have a bootleg patch of it I got manufactured on my [still in progress] battle jacket!). Classic lolicore/dancecore goodness, also the actual color of these tapes are beautiful, I love it when care is put into the visual appeal of physicals.
CDs:
This first batch, if I recall correctly, is when schoolbook_depository and TRVSHBXVT both visited me almost exactly one year ago. We went to the Amoeba in SF, and I picked up some CDs whilst there.
Title: +/-
Discogs Genres: Minimal, Experimental, Drone, Ambient, Glitch
RYM Genres: (P) Micromontage, Glitch (S) Drone, Onkyo, Indeterminacy
Not the original, but the 2000 re-issue, either way though, Ryoji Ikeda is an amazing and pioneering figure in the 90s and 00s glitch scene (and they're still active to this day). I'm sure I've heard this album ages ago, but have yet to actually put my copy on. Also, this is one of the rare cases they use red, usually their covers are monochrome or use accents of blue.
Title: True False
Discogs Genres: Sound Collage, Musique Concrète, IDM, Glitch, Noise, Industrial
RYM Genres: (P) Plunderphonics, Sound Collage (S) Spoken Word, Satire, Minimal Wave
I often listen to the sister album, The World Will Decide, more than this one, but True False is great too. Negativland are actually local to me, and are really influential and important in plunderphonics. Their stuff tends to be politically charged and against industries and stuff, with both this and its sister largely calling out the tech industry, invasion of privacy, and so on -- is also quite dystopian as well (as one can tell from the album art). Great stuff, def go check em out if you haven't.
Title: Port Rhombus EP
Discogs Genres: Drum n Bass, Jungle, Experimental
RYM Genres: (P) Drill and Bass, Drum and Bass (S) Jungle, IDM, Jazzstep
Squarepusher really needs no introduction, really excellent artist. This EP is really amazing, and also Lost Frog loves this one too, so it's heavily recommended by two labelheads. Go listen to it if you haven't already, kicks ass.
Title: [OR]
Discogs Genres: Abstract, Minimal
RYM Genres: (P) Experimental, Electronic (S) Sound Collage, Micromontage, Ambient, MIDI Music
Dumb Type is the lesser known group of Ryoji Ikeda that's been active since the 80s. I have some of their other stuff and is all very cool and interesting. I've heard a bit of this album but have yet to play my copy all the way through.
Title: Denim
Discogs Genres: Kayōkyoku, Soft Rock, Ballad, Pop Rock, City Pop
RYM Genres: N/A
Most famous for some hit singles that later got an insane new following, they make a lot of awesome stuff. I bought a decent amount of vinyl of them way before they blew up so they costed next to nothing, was crazy to see those records get marked up by like, 400% -- seems the market has went down a bit since then. Anyways, I haven't listened to this CD yet, but I love her 70s and 80s stuff.
Title: SPEC.
Discogs Genres: Minimal, Glitch, Lowercase
RYM Genres: (P) Glitch, Micromontage (S) Lowercase
Was a bit hesitant to buy this, because I was confusing it with 0/r's 0/r, which I've accidentally bought twice, but happy I got this since I did in fact, not already own a copy of it. I still have to check out more of Taylor Deupree's solo works, but I love Richard Chartier's outputs, and they were my first introduction to lowercase music, really cool stuff.
Title: The Method Volume One: The Streets Of Miami / Freaked Out Mess
Discogs Genres: Breaks, Gabber, Breakcore
RYM Genres: N/A
Although a bit of a Facebook boomer now, Doormouse's importance in the story of American breakcore cannot be understated, they've done a lot of spearheading for the genre since the earliest days. This double-CD is a DJ mix and a re-issue of Freaked Out Mess. Awesome find, and always look through clearance people, you'll find great stuff.
Title: Passage
Discogs Genres: Ambient
RYM Genres: (P) Progressive Electronic (S) New Age, Berlin School, Downtempo, Dream Pop
I absolutely love Ulrich Schnauss, been listening to them for absolute ages, with 2001's Far Away Trains Passing By being one of my favorite albums in middle school, and A Long Way To Fall being one of my favorite downtempo albums, period. I love their collaborative albums too, especially the ones with Mark Peters. Somehow this one slipped past me though, but happy to have picked up a copy.
Second batch, this was a small visit to the Amoeba in Berkeley. I was feeling stressed and just needed to get out of the house, we somehow ended up at the record store so picked some items up.
Title: Untitled (1993)
Discogs Genres: Dark Ambient, Drone, Minimal
RYM Genres: Drone, Musique concrète
Collection of live pieces featuring other artists. Francisco López is from the lowercase and minimal scene who has an insane output, Discogs currently lists 159 albums from them, absolutely insane. If you're into artists like Richard Chartier (featured in this list above), then you'll likely also dig this.
Title: Epsylon
Discogs Genres: Trance, Goa Trance, Drum n Bass
RYM Genres: (P) Trance, Psytrance (S) Progressive Psytrance, Drum and Bass, Progressive Electronic
Legendary goa/psy trance group, amazing quality stuff. I love all of their music, and their whole universe (like Ozric Tentacles absolutely slays). If you're looking for some classic dance music, this is a great place to go.
Title: Veiled Sisters
Discogs Genres: Ambient, Dub
RYM Genres: (P) Tribal Ambient, Ambient Techno (S) Arabic Music, Sound Collage, Ambient Dub, Downtempo, Drone
Major shout out to my Mom for buying me this one, as I really wanted it but was going to pass due to the price. Anyways, I FUCKING LOVE MUSLIMGAUZE. All of their styles are 10/10, and that includes their more melodic style. This is one of my favorite albums by them ever, so happy to finally have a physical copy of it. Seriously, go give this a listen if you haven't.
Title: Zohar
Discogs Genres: Experimental
RYM Genres: (P) Jewish Music (S) Free Improvisation, Lowercase, Tape Music
Collaborative project between John Zorn and Yamantaka/Yamatsuka Eye (Hanatarash, Boredoms). They've worked together many times, but this is an insanely lo-fi and unconventional album from the both of them. Cool stuff though, I dig the experimentation.
Title: わたしだけ？
Discogs Genres: Avantgarde, Experimental
RYM Genres: (P) Free Improvisation (S) Noise, Avant-Folk, Singer-Songwriter
KEIJI HAINO FUCK YES. I absolutely love this guy, but their stuff is so hard to find in record stores (my preferred method of buying music), and usually costs a ton, but man, Keiji Haino is insanely good. Probably one of the most "out there" artists in the classic Japanese noise scene, being heavily influenced by blues, psyche rock, and folk music, they bring a whole entire different bed of sounds to the table. They've been active since the 70s, but this is their debut album from 1981.
This next batch is from my birthday in 2024. We took a trip down to LA for the weekend, so of course I had to go the Amoeba down there. I still prefer the San Francisco one, but this was a lot of fun, and totally would visit again if I ever re-visit the area. I think there's some CDs missing here though, stuff that wasn't on Discogs.
Title: Surround
Discogs Genres: New Age, Ambient
RYM Genres: (P) Ambient, New Age
I love all that classic (and not so classic) Japanese new age stuff, it's all incredibly calming, amazing produced, and I love the old soundfonts. This album/artist is no different, really phenomenal stuff. All of their music is really good, totally check them out.
Title: EX
Discogs Genres: Techno, Minimal, Acid
RYM Genres: (P) Minimal Techno (S) Acid Techno, Dub Techno
I really gotta listen to more Plastikman, especially since I love a lot of the older Richie Hawtin material. Cool techno stuff, and I love that it looks like XBOX or Monster Energy, is cool.
Title: Alright!
Discogs Genres: Breakcore, IDM, Hardcore, Acid, Drum n Bass, Experimental
RYM Genres: (P) Drill and Bass, IDM, Breakcore
Always saw this as their "happy hardcore" album, so I disagree with these genre tags, but whatever. This isn't part of their classic material but is absolutely stellar and I love it. Bogdan is insanely creative and their music is amazing, please listen to them, now. Also some depressing Himeko lore, before I knew of their music the record store had all of their classic material for dirt cheap, I thought the artworks were cool, took note of it, looked it up when I got home, absolutely blew my mind, raced back to the record store, they were all gone already.
Title: Killer Whale Atmospheres
Discogs Genres: Dub Techno, Dark Ambient
RYM Genres: (P) Ambient Dub, Ambient Techno (S) Dub Techno, Tribal Ambient, Nature Recordings, Dark Ambient
RSE is a side project of an artist better known as Prurient and Vatican Shadow. I love all of their music, and the RSE material is consistently a really interesting take on tribal ambient and dub techno. It usually has themes of South American jungles and deforestation and stuff, so whatever caused them to make an album themed on WHALES of all things is beyond me, but it's a good album.
Title: Identification With The Enemy: A Key To The Underworld
Discogs Genres: Rhythmic Noise, Experimental
RYM Genres: (P) Avant-Prog, Avant-Garde Jazz, Experimental Rock (S) Math Rock
Of course this is online now, but this was always an item of massive curiousity for many years for me. I've still yet to give it a full listen, but it's so unconvential and baffling from Nobukazu Takemura -- a rock album, and with a cover art like that? Seriously, it's so weird to me that this exists. Now that said, Nobukazu Takemura is one of my favorite artists ever, I have a ton of their stuff in physical media. Their discography is eclectic, but go dig though it.
Title: Cascade
Discogs Genres: Breakbeat, IDM, Ambient
RYM Genres: (P) Ambient Techno, Ambient, Chillout (S) IDM, Tribal Ambient, Progressive Breaks, Ambient Trance, Psybient
Old electronica that basically defies genre classification, they put out some stellar albums in the 90s (one of which is referenced/sampled in Wake Me Up When Breakcore Ends). I've heard the classic albums, but haven't fully explored all the singles and EPs and stuff yet, still gotta put this one on.
Title: Collapse EP
Discogs Genres: IDM
RYM Genres: (P) IDM (S) Footwork, Drill and Bass, Acid Techno, Ambient Techno, Acid Breaks
Finally after years got a copy of this insanely good EP. I love Aphex Twin, both the old stuff and the new, everything they do is stellar. I really love the Collapse EP, and hearing them explore more modern styles and stuff, and every track is insane, some of my favorite material of "modern AFX". I really hope that we get more material like this one day.
Title: New Energy
Discogs Genres: Ambient, House, Techno, Minimal, IDM, Future Jazz
RYM Genres: (P) Microhouse, Ambient House (S) Downtempo, Folktronica, IDM, Organic House, Post-Dubstep
Another CD I kept meaning to get and never did, finally acquired. Four Tet is one of the artists that initially got me into electronica, all the way back when I was a kid. Their music is insanely good, both the old era and the new era. Always stellar.
Title: Three
Discogs Genres: Deep House, Experimental, Ambient, Downtempo
RYM Genres: (P) Downtempo (S) Microhouse, Ambient, Folktronica
The (at time of writing) newest Four Tet album, absolutely had to pick this up. I've listened to it a few times, great stuff, I especially love the track Skater on this album.
Title: Dostrotime
Discogs Genres: Drum n Bass, IDM, Experimental
RYM Genres: (P) Drill and Bass (S) Breakcore, Acidcore, Contemporary Folk
Yes, also got the new Squarepusher back then too, I listened to it once or twice, but really need to revisit it. I absolutely love Squarepusher, and how they're still quite active after all these years. Absolutely groundbreaking and pioneering artist, always does awesome stuff.
Title: Rivington Não Rio
Discogs Genres: Downtempo, Leftfield
RYM Genres: (P) Glitch Hop, Glitch Pop (S) Experimental Hip Hop
If you're new to them, check out their classic material first, but this stuff is cool too. Prefuse 73 is an iconic glitch-hop artist with a really stellar sound. I haven't played my actual CD of this yet though, and I haven't listened to it in years, so certainly gotta revisit it. Also, marks the end of this section, but I do think I got more CDs, just my versions aren't on Discogs (which is where I'm pulling this information from).
This last CD, not sure when I picked it up, got at a local thriftstore.
Artist: Deep Forest
Album: Deep Forest
Discogs Genres: Tribal, Downtempo, Ambient
RYM Genres: (P) Downtempo (S) New Age, Tribal Ambient, Ambient House, Breakbeat, African Folk Music
For unknown reasons my formatting broke here, anyways, picked this up for like $1, stellar find. This is a classic childhood album for me, one of the things that got me into electronic music at an incredibly young age. Beautiful stuff, highly recommended!
VINYL:
So last Christmas I got a new record player to replace my old one that stopped working. Of course I immediately went to the record store and bought some new records! These were purchased at the Amoeba in Berkeley.
Title: Makahala
Discogs Genres: Experimental
RYM Genres: Hardvapour, Industrial Techno
Normally vaporwave vinyl cost a ton of money, but hardvapour was such an epic failure that I picked this up for like $4. Clear vinyl too, looks cool. I honestly have mixed feelings on the hardvapour genre, but this release is good and was so cheap I couldn't pass it up.
Title: Orangey 21
Discogs Genres: Techno, Acid
RYM Genres: N/A
I love acid techno, and I was hoping to find some stuff like this there, and they had a bunch! They actually had way more than I could buy, but picked up a decent amount. That said, acid techno kind of all blurs together if you didn't just recently listen to it, so not a ton to write about for these entries.
Title: Ain't No Stopping This Remixes
Discogs Genres: Techno
RYM Genres: N/A
Cool stuff, but I listened to these all back to back over half a year ago, so hard to remember details.
Title: Acidextrous / Suspect Package
Discogs Genres: Acid, Techno
RYM Genres: Acid Techno
Geezer is awesome, stellar stuff, go check em out if you enjoy acid techno.
Title: Steel Dragon
Discogs Genres: Techno
RYM Genres: N/A
DJ Cunt's name makes me laugh, great music though.
Title: Module 2
Discogs Genres: IDM, Electro
RYM Genres: (P) IDM, Ambient Techno, Electro (S) Minimal Techno
Bochum Welt is one of my favorite braindance artists to ever do it, absolutely warm and fuzzy music, is amazing. This is the 2024 green vinyl re-issue, but the music itself orginally released in the 90s. Really phenomenal stuff, I can't get enough of this kind of thing.
Title: Double Cup
Discogs Genres: Juke, Footwork, Ghetto House
RYM Genres: (P) Footwork (S) Ghettotech, Trap, Juke
One of the best footwork/juke artists EVER. I absolutely had to get the double LP re-issue on GOLD vinyl, super cool, and so happy to finally have this iconic album on a physical format. RIP DJ Rashad, your music is some of the best.
Title: Asylum Lunaticum
Discogs Genres: Noise, Experimental
RYM Genres: (P) Experimental
Solo-work of Mama Bär, who usually collabs with husband Kommissar Hjuler. As expected, really odd-ball experimental music.
The last batch of this post, a record store trip in San Francisco with TRVSHBXVT, picked up a few records whilst there. Weirdly everything that day that I found was expensive though, so could only get a few, but got some crazy stuff.
Title: わたしだけ？
Discogs Genres: Noise, Avantgarde, Experimental
RYM Genres: (P) Free Improvisation (S) Noise, Avant-Folk, Singer-Songwriter
Yes, this again, I love this album so much that I double-dipped and also picked it up on vinyl. This is a re-issue, but still stellar to have it.
Title: Lady Maid
Discogs Genres: Minimal, Experimental, Ambient, Avantgarde
RYM Genres: (P) Minimal Wave, Minimal Synth (S) Ambient, Dark Ambient, Industrial
Experimental early 80s electronica from Japan. An original copy costs hundreds so this is a re-issue, but is awesome that this even got issued again, really cool stuff. Also, I'm a huge fan of 80s Japanese -wave and synth music, so is cool to own more of it.
Title: アンタラ通信
Discogs Genres: Ambient, Experimental, Vaporwave
RYM Genres: (P) Ambient, Slushwave (S) Mallsoft, New Age, Drone, Dreampunk
AAAAAAA -- such a crazy find, one of the two biggest finds of the day (the last entry will shock you!). Telepath is my all-time favorite vaporwave artist, so I absolutely had to get this, it's on marbled white vinyl too. So psyched still to actually own physical Telepath music.
Title: Spatula Freak
Discogs Genres: IDM, Experimental
RYM Genres: (P) IDM (S) Ambient Techno
THE FIND OF THE DAY FOR SURE. Those who already know me well know this already, but for those who don't, Mu-Ziq is one of my all-time absolutely favorite artists ever. I even did an entire Mu-Ziq only DJ set years ago. Their music is just PERFECT IDM, the ultimate. So this is one of their aliases, and the insane part? This is unopened stock from 1995!!!! It's as old as me and still hasn't even been opened, let alone played, absolutely insane. I haven't had the guts to even open this one yet.
And with that, that's most of what I've picked up over the past like, 13 months? I 100% think some CDs are missing, but that should be most of it (not including the Middle Eastern thriftstore tapes that I mentioned earlier in this post). Anyways, thanks for checking this out/reading, no idea when I'll do another post like this, could be sometime, but stay tuned.
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