KVR Audio

Neon Breath · Post by **Neon Breath** » Mon Feb 13, 2017 7:48 pm

Hi folks

(Hope I’m writing this in the right section. If not, @mods don’t hesitate to move it to another place)

I’m looking for some electronic experimental labels that release abstract, minimal, beatless & non-beat oriented music. Labels oriented into sound experimentation and other glitchy weirdness & bizarreness. Again, nothing beat oriented please.

Do you guys have any suggestions to give me to I can digging?

Thanks!

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Mon Feb 13, 2017 7:56 pm

Alt.Vinyl release some interesting stuff.

SODDI · Post by **SODDI** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 9:18 am

Beta Lactam Ring

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 10:07 am

Are you looking for music, or a place to send material to? I've found that the various facebook experimental groups are gold for getting me to the bandcamp pages of interesting artists and labels. I don't bother with traditional labels like Beta Lactam Ring any more for experimental stuff. I don't really understand the appeal of such labels, I have WAY too many records that I've purchased without listening to first that I don't ever want to hear again. I'm glad those days are gone for the most part. If you aren't on Bandcamp, I'm pretty much not interested.

I'm not much into glitch though, more ambient, drone, and experimental techno.

fmr · Post by **fmr** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 10:23 am

If you like Classical Electronic Art Music, there is the Wergo Computer mUsic Currents series. I found at least 13 titles listed at Disgo GS, but they are way more. Look here: https://www.discogs.com/Various-Compute ... se/3293451

EDIT: This series is a sub series of another bigger one: Digital Music Digital: https://www.discogs.com/label/240048-Di ... ic-Digital or https://en.schott-music.com/wergo/progr ... tal-music/

There is also the CD collection "Cultures Électroniques" which includes the prize winners of the annual contest of electronic music organized by the GMEB/IMEB (now extinct also, unfortunately):
https://www.discogs.com/label/132925-Mn ... m%C3%A9dia

This collection is no longer being released, so, it will be hard to find, I guess.

Neon Breath · Post by **Neon Breath** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 3:26 pm

ghettosynth wrote:Are you looking for music, or a place to send material to? I've found that the various facebook experimental groups are gold for getting me to the bandcamp pages of interesting artists and labels. I don't bother with traditional labels like Beta Lactam Ring any more for experimental stuff. I don't really understand the appeal of such labels, I have WAY too many records that I've purchased without listening to first that I don't ever want to hear again. I'm glad those days are gone for the most part. If you aren't on Bandcamp, I'm pretty much not interested.

I'm not much into glitch though, more ambient, drone, and experimental techno.

Actually, both! For listening and submitting. I have this experimental ultra-minimalist project that I’d like to eventually associate to a label.

I’m in the same boat as you man! I usually don’t bother for ‘traditional’ labels like you mentioned, except a few ones like LINE for example, that I still keep checking. No Bandcamp, usually a no go for me too unless the material is very top quality. One thing I still don’t understand is labels (and there are still a lot!) not offering digital downloads. I understand the idea of still offering physical format but not having the download option? Wow.Out of the way right away for me, I stopped collecting dust on CD's in 2003.

Anyway, do you have any recommendations?

Muied Lumens · Post by **Muied Lumens** » Wed Feb 15, 2017 12:33 am

https://www.auralfilms.com/ - Ambient mostly, but not entirely - also some experimental stuff. Soundtracks for movies that don't exist.

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Wed Feb 15, 2017 1:12 am

Neon Breath wrote:
ghettosynth wrote:Are you looking for music, or a place to send material to? I've found that the various facebook experimental groups are gold for getting me to the bandcamp pages of interesting artists and labels. I don't bother with traditional labels like Beta Lactam Ring any more for experimental stuff. I don't really understand the appeal of such labels, I have WAY too many records that I've purchased without listening to first that I don't ever want to hear again. I'm glad those days are gone for the most part. If you aren't on Bandcamp, I'm pretty much not interested.

I'm not much into glitch though, more ambient, drone, and experimental techno.
Actually, both! For listening and submitting. I have this experimental ultra-minimalist project that I’d like to eventually associate to a label.

I’m in the same boat as you man! I usually don’t bother for ‘traditional’ labels like you mentioned, except a few ones like LINE for example, that I still keep checking. No Bandcamp, usually a no go for me too unless the material is very top quality. One thing I still don’t understand is labels (and there are still a lot!) not offering digital downloads. I understand the idea of still offering physical format but not having the download option? Wow.Out of the way right away for me, I stopped collecting dust on CD's in 2003.

Anyway, do you have any recommendations?

No, because, well, I'm not sure how to resolve this idea of quality when it comes to experimental stuff, in some sense, it's largely taste. I pretty much look for stuff that I find inspiring, I'm not sure what objective measures one can apply to works that, by definition, are not intended to conform to any particular set of rules or constraints that normally apply to a genre.

Interestingly, I do still buy some CDs. I purchased one recently from a Bandcamp artist because I really liked the work an the cover artwork was interesting in its own right. I have yet to actually play the CD, that's not why I bought it, I wanted to support the artist and read the liner notes and look at the cover while I listened to the work. The liner notes weren't available online, so there you go.

I'll say this, there's a LOT of stuff on Bandcamp that I don't like, but I'm loathe to call it "low quality." Maybe that's what I like? I can tell you that I found some of the stuff at the aforementioned label to be tiresome and the one or two artists that were on Bandcamp were not what I would call "good." Ergo, I'm very reluctant to buy experimental music in the traditional way. I listen to your work in its entirety first, and then if I want it on regular rotation in my bandcamp collection, I buy it. There's so much stuff on Bandcamp and it is so diverse, that I really don't care about anything else. In fact, I don't really enjoy the work of most more well known artists on Bandcamp as much as I like the obscure stuff.

To give you a point of reference, I like a lot of the stuff from Unexplained Sounds, which is sort of a "netlabel", I think, don't quote me on that. There seem to be a lot of people doing experimental compillations that in some sense act like labels, but without any revenue sharing for the artists. I really have no idea what Unexplained Sounds is doing. I'm so past caring whether anyone listens to my stuff, I'm happy that I've found a "prolific phase" and I don't have the time to waste thinking about helping other people make money with my music. I've contributed to a couple of such comps (not on Unexplained Sounds), but it's mostly just to help friends out.

At any rate, here's their Bandcamp page.

https://unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/

mgiambro · Post by **mgiambro** » Wed Feb 15, 2017 6:46 pm

If you like ambient/idm there's http://www.kahvi.org/. Some excellent releases there.

Here's a few I recommend:

http://www.kahvi.org/releases.php?release_number=265
http://www.kahvi.org/releases.php?release_number=205
http://www.kahvi.org/releases.php?release_number=301
http://www.kahvi.org/releases.php?release_number=190

As for somewhere to release your music, I know the guy who runs the label is always looking for new material to release, so if you're stuff fits in I'm sure he'd be happy to hear from you .. as long as you don't mind releasing your music for free.

markwindisch · Post by **markwindisch** » Wed Feb 15, 2017 7:57 pm

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Hi!

I can suggest my small label too, Floppy Kick

We are releasing on 3.5" diskettes, with download codes of course.
http://floppykick.tk (http://floppykick.tk)
or
http://facebook.com/FloppyKick
Discogs entry of the label: https://www.discogs.com/label/563484-Floppy-Kick (https://www.discogs.com/label/563484-Floppy-Kick)

Neon Breath · Post by **Neon Breath** » Wed Feb 15, 2017 9:26 pm

markwindisch wrote:Hi!

I can suggest my small label too, Floppy Kick
We are releasing on 3.5" diskettes, with download codes of course.
http://floppykick.tk
or
http://facebook.com/FloppyKick
Discogs entry of the label: https://www.discogs.com/label/563484-Floppy-Kick

Floppy disk? Is this a joke? Who can nowadays read floppy disks on their computer? Mine doesn't even have DVD player anymore

Neon Breath · Post by **Neon Breath** » Wed Feb 15, 2017 9:29 pm

markwindisch wrote:Hi!

I can suggest my small label too, Floppy Kick
We are releasing on 3.5" diskettes, with download codes of course.
http://floppykick.tk
or
http://facebook.com/FloppyKick
Discogs entry of the label: https://www.discogs.com/label/563484-Floppy-Kick

Floppy disks? Who can nowadays read floppy disks on their computer? Mine doesn't even have DVD player anymore

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Thu Feb 16, 2017 12:06 am

Neon Breath wrote:
markwindisch wrote:Hi!

I can suggest my small label too, Floppy Kick
We are releasing on 3.5" diskettes, with download codes of course.
http://floppykick.tk
or
http://facebook.com/FloppyKick
Discogs entry of the label: https://www.discogs.com/label/563484-Floppy-Kick

Floppy disk? Is this a joke? Who can nowadays read floppy disks on their computer? Mine doesn't even have DVD player anymore

I think that he's serious. I wish him well, but, who pays money for this?

For me, and this is just my opinion, and I even like some kinds of noise, the whole cassette label thing is nostalgic pointlessness and a red flag for music that I probably won't like. Even if there are exceptions, I don't care, because I can only consume so much and there is already far more than I'm willing to consume available digitally.

It seems to sell though, so there's that.

foosnark · Post by **foosnark** » Thu Feb 16, 2017 4:10 pm

ghettosynth wrote:I'm not sure how to resolve this idea of quality when it comes to experimental stuff, in some sense, it's largely taste. I pretty much look for stuff that I find inspiring, I'm not sure what objective measures one can apply to works that, by definition, are not intended to conform to any particular set of rules or constraints that normally apply to a genre.

I think the subjective "do I like this?" is the only measure that really works. Which makes one think "quality" in music/art is just a measurement of conformity to a standard, and it deserves to be questioned and beaten up a little.

Sometimes when making experimental music it feels lazy because I'm not spending a lot of time trying to refine everything. I'll explore alternate possibilities of some aspects of the sound, but I'm aware that some avenues go unexplored. When making (e.g.) a house track you work to get every single part "just right." But in experimental music there's just whatever discipline is determining the composition (e.g. "I'm not going to EQ this part no matter what because I want it to be true to its actual sound") plus aesthetic instincts.

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Thu Feb 16, 2017 5:51 pm

foosnark wrote:
ghettosynth wrote:I'm not sure how to resolve this idea of quality when it comes to experimental stuff, in some sense, it's largely taste. I pretty much look for stuff that I find inspiring, I'm not sure what objective measures one can apply to works that, by definition, are not intended to conform to any particular set of rules or constraints that normally apply to a genre.
I think the subjective "do I like this?" is the only measure that really works. Which makes one think "quality" in music/art is just a measurement of conformity to a standard, and it deserves to be questioned and beaten up a little.

Sometimes when making experimental music it feels lazy because I'm not spending a lot of time trying to refine everything. I'll explore alternate possibilities of some aspects of the sound, but I'm aware that some avenues go unexplored. When making (e.g.) a house track you work to get every single part "just right." But in experimental music there's just whatever discipline is determining the composition (e.g. "I'm not going to EQ this part no matter what because I want it to be true to its actual sound") plus aesthetic instincts.

Yeah, I feel you on the "feels lazy" thing. On the flip side though, it's also freeing. I'm actually getting music done these days and it's music that "I" like and listen to. My "tracks", such as they are, however, can take days, or, minutes.

When I work on house or techno I seem to finish much less. I get bored with getting it to conform to expectations and just don't bother finishing.

Looking for experimental / abstract labels