Great "Lo-Fi" Productions?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Interested to hear opinions. Some quick personal faves being:

The Breeders' "Shocker In Gloomtown" From Bubblegum To Sky: "Hello Hello Hi" Guided By Voices: "I Am A Scientist" and/or "As We Go Up, We Go Down" Aislers Set: "Friends Of The Heroes" Sebadoh: "Narrow Stories"

― Chris R., Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The Trashmen - "Surfin' Bird". The Kingsmen - "Louie Louie". The Axemen - "Three Virgins". Crude - "Inner City Guitar Perspectives". Supercharger "Goes Way Out". Any Dead Moon album. The Mummies - "Never Been Caught". Early Rolling Stones singles. Most anything w/ Billy Childish in or near it. (I'm defining lo-fi the same way as you seem to be, as stuff where the roughness of the sound is as integral as any particular component of said sound to the total effect. 'cause in the '90s the term kind of seemed to get co-opted to mean...I don't even know, "quirky" or something.)

― duane, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I cd go on all day w/ this if I wtd...i won't...but I remembered I hadn't even mentioned Mike Rep or Jim Sheperd - & I shoulda, 'cause they be KINGS OF FI-LOW. And, Brother JT, not really the Original Sins stuff but anything else. And the Holy Grail = the And Band/Perfect Strangers e.p., you can have my copy if you kill me 1st. That Nux Vomica single too. OK I said I'd stop & I will.

― duane, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

n.z. free noise almost everything I've heard

― francesco, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Francesco you oughta be here right now if you like that kind of stuff. The CM ENSEMBLE from Christchurch are gonna play here, I don't know if you know who that is but if you like that stuff I bet you would like em.

― duane, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Electric Eels "Agitated". Swell Maps "Let's Build a Car". ANYTHING by the fantastically underrated and visionary Walking Seeds. Roky Erickson 'Never Fade Away'. Skip Spence 'Oar'. Suicide '23 Minutes over Brussels'.Iggy 'Metallic K.O.'. Sonics 'Psycho'.Pussy Galore 'Groovy Hate Fuck'.Scorpions 'Tokyo Tapes'

― dave q, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

By Coastal Cafe, Eric's Trip - Love Tara, Henry's Dress

― jel, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Obligatory mention of Dead C here - 'Trapdoor Fucking Exit' lower than lo-fi.

― Andrew L, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

yeah dave Q some totally "duh of course" ones there, Yeah & what about all Fall records between 1979 & 1982 (Very early Fall is NOT "lo-fi", it has CLOSE MIKED DRUMS)

― duane, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I bet Mark E owns the collected works of Hasil Adkins and the Legendary Stardust Cowboy as well.

― dave q, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Genesis "Trespass", "Foxtrot", and especially "Nursery Cryme". Van der Graaf Generator "H to He Who am the Only One" & "Pawn Hearts"

― Norman Fay, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

five years ahead of my time - zachary thaks

― fritz, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Peter Laughner's "Take The Guitarplayer..."
Guided by Voices' "Motor Away"
Sebadoh's "Licence To Confuse"
This Kind of Punishment's "Beard of Bees"
Smog's "Tired Tape Machine"

― nathalie, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Damn, someone already got to the Dead C and the Fall...;)

How's about Can? Most of the early stuff was recorded to two-track (as is my understand), and the depth and clarity they got from that (funny how they started sucking when they moved into the 24 track studio) certainly makes it "good."

Oh, and Edison cylinders.

― Jess, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I almost forgot the Faust Tapes as well.

― Jess, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Daniel Johnston recording on a cheap Radio Shack cassette recorder with a built-in condenser mike. They Might Be Giants recording on an Edison wax cylinder (wasn't it?). Moby Grape's 78 rpm song with Rudy Vallee (?). Elvis recording in a pay-to- record booth (Vinyl? Acetate?) Michelle Shocked recording on a reporter's borrowed Walkman. The Residents apparently recording much of their early stuff on an answering machine's microcassette.

― X. Y. Zedd, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

this kind of punishment's 'in the same room' as well.

― keith, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

June Carter Cash

― anthony, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ulver: Nattens Madrigal

― Kodanshi, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

pretty much anything on Sun Ra's "Singles" comp

Half Japanese's "Our Solar System" LP

all of Dymaxion's singles

― mike j, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

One of the great lo-fi bands is Doorag. Scratchy in the same ludicrous, infectious way The Fire Engines used to be. I was listening to Doorag when I 'invented' Analog Baroque. No relation, by any chance, are they, Duane?

― Momus, Saturday, 4 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Momus - no actual "relation", no. They're aces tho!
I use that as a email address 'cause my sister hung it on me as a nickname when we 1st got into that band, she'd never heard the word before & didn't know what it meant.

― duane, Sunday, 5 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

...hey fritz, "5 Years Ahead..." is by the Third Bardo, not Zachary Thaks, no?

― duane, Sunday, 5 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yep - Third Bardo originally performed "Five Years Ahead Of My Time".

― Kodanshi, Sunday, 5 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Early Burzum, Bathory, Mayhem, Venom, and any Australian black metal

― dave q, Sunday, 5 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

mixing up my pebbles, sorry...zachary thaks was responsible for the equally no-fi "bad girl".

― fritz, Sunday, 5 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

not very original I'm afraid - Velvet's 'White Light/White Heat' and Soft Machine's '2'

― philT, Sunday, 5 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sly & the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On--best album ever made, sounds like MUD.

― M. Matos, Monday, 6 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Shouldn't Doorag = "he" and not "they?" Last I saw (opening for Ween) it was just one guy with a guitar, a motorcycle helment, and a drum machine.

― Nitsuh, Monday, 6 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

jandek's first, _welcome to the house_. sensational's _loaded with power_. sun ra's _atlantis_. the aforemention dead c's _trapdoor fucking exit_. ashtray navigations _four raga moods_. sternklang I (recorded on a boombox). bathory _under the sign of the black mark_. venom _welcome to hell_. almost anything by clayton noone of nz (armpit/cja/morepork).

― your null fame, Monday, 6 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nitsuh - Doo Rag used to be 2 guys, maybe 1 of them quit.
Hey yeah - Jandek! He deserves mention for his classic lo-fi record covers ( just odd casual snapshots blown up to 12"x12"), as much as for his music.
No-one mentioned the Gibson Bros yet, or Guitar Wolf, or LX Chilton's "Like Flies On Sherbet"/"Bangkok" period, or the Oblivians, or those trademarks of quality Blackjack, Siltbreeze, Goner, In The Red, Bulb, Crypt, Bag Of Hammers, Stomach Ache...OK now someone has.

― duane, Monday, 6 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Both volumes of Fushitsusha's "Double Live" and High Rise "II" probably qualify (though I'm not sure if those bands are just too loud for our earthly recording devices). Dadamah "This is not a Dream". Alastair Galbraith "Morse" and "Talisman". Amon Duul "Psychedelic Underground." Smog "Forgotten Foundation". Parson Sound. Luxurious Bags 3rd album is great but i totally can't recall the title.

― jason kirsch, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Exile on Main Street

― Justin, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Lee Perry's 'Blackboard Jungle'. THe 5th symphony of lo-fi or some hyperbole crit talk like that.

― Omar, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ha!!! You lot think all the overproduced stuf is actually "lo- fi"?!?!?! Gahhh!!!

You lot want real lo-fi?!?! Try this and this...

Mind you, some of best "lo-fi" recordings I've ever heard have been some of the mid-90s gabber tunes, particularly DJ Skull's "Abduction EXP"- sounds like being trapped in Marshall Amp speaker cone while someone turns the volume up to 12... :)

Old Fart!!!!!

― Old Fart!!!!, Friday, 10 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hmmm... Problem with links there!!! I meant to say: "this and this" of course...

― Old Fart!!!!, Friday, 10 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.