| BLIGHT. Records | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | 2012 |
| Founder | Benjamin Schurr |
| Genre | experimental pop music, electronic music |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Location | Washington, DC |
| Official website | http://www.blightrecords.org |
BLIGHT. Records is an independent record label based in Washington, DC.
Founded in 2012 by Benjamin Schurr, [1] BLIGHT. Records has released works by artists with influences ranging from experimental pop to electronic and industrial. [2] [3] [4]
The label has garnered attention for its "embrace of experimentalism" [5] and a tendency to "shift away from genre-specific releases and toward a melting pot of musical and visual ideas." [2] Washington City Paper describes the label as "a creative collective where like-minded musicians move fluidly between each other’s projects," even as such projects retain their own distinct identities. [6]
Electronic elements are explored throughout a number of the label's releases. [7] [8] [9] Examinations of identity, politics, gender and sexuality can also be found frequently across albums. [10] [11] [12] [13]
BLIGHT. Records primarily utilizes the cassette tape format for its releases. [1]
The following is a list of artists with works released on BLIGHT. Records:
The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens and his team at the Dutch company Philips in 1963, Compact Cassettes come in two forms, either containing content as a prerecorded cassette (Musicassette), or as a fully recordable "blank" cassette. Both forms have two sides and are reversible by the user. Although other tape cassette formats have also existed—for example the Microcassette—the generic term cassette tape is normally used to refer to the Compact Cassette because of its ubiquity.
Queercore is a cultural/social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of the punk subculture and a music genre that comes from punk rock. It is distinguished by its discontent with society in general, and specifically society's disapproval of the LGBT community. Queercore expresses itself in a DIY style through magazines, music, writing and film.
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records collected in a bound book resembling a photo album; this format evolved after 1948 into single vinyl long-playing (LP) records played at 33+1⁄3 rpm.
This Heat were an English experimental rock band, formed in early 1976 in Camberwell, London by multi-instrumentalists Charles Bullen, Charles Hayward and Gareth Williams.
Chris Brokaw is an American musician, best known for his work with the bands Come and Codeine.
Merzbox is a box set compilation by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. It consists of 50 CDs spanning Merzbow's career from 1979 to 1997. 30 discs are taken from long out of print releases, while 20 are composed mainly of unreleased material. The box also contains two CD-ROMs, six CD-sized round cards, six round stickers, a poster, a black long-sleeve T-shirt, a medallion, and the Merzbook, all packaged together in a "fetish" black rubber box. It is limited to 1000 numbered copies. A Merzbox Sampler was released in 1997.
Fucked Up is a Canadian hardcore punk band from Toronto, Ontario, formed in 2001. The band consists of guitarists Mike Haliechuk and Josh Zucker, bassist Sandy Miranda, lead vocalist Damian Abraham and drummer Jonah Falco. From 2007 to 2021, the band also included guitarist and vocalist Ben Cook.
Ready Records was a small but influential independent record label based out of Toronto, Canada that signed a number of new wave and indie rock bands from the early to mid-1980s. Focusing primarily on local Toronto-area talent, it released 7" and 12" singles, LPs, and cassettes. Founded in 1979 by Angus MacKay and Andy Crosbie, the label existed between 1979 and 1985, when it folded.
Colbie Marie Caillat is an American singer-songwriter. She rose to fame through social networking website Myspace. At that time, she was the number one unsigned artist of her genre.
Howard Stelzer is a composer of electronic music, whose work is made primarily from sounds generated by cassette tapes and tape players. From 1997 until 2012, he ran the independent record label Intransitive Recordings.
The Goslings were an American drone rock and noise rock band from Florida, United States, with releases on labels such as Not Not Fun Records, Crucial Blast Records, and Archive Recordings. The core members of the band are Leslie Soren (vocals) and Max Soren (guitar) with a rotating roster of drummers which have included Brendan Grubb, Adel Souto, Rick Smith, Paul Leroy and Steve Carrera. The Goslings' sound is often characterized as "lo-fi," noisy, and heavy but also beautiful and psychedelic. The group self-records all of their own albums on cassette tape or reel-to-reel tape, are somewhat reclusive and do not tour. They have had a number of releases since forming in 2002 but their signature album to date is considered to be Grandeur of Hair.
Dirge was a French band formed in 1994. From the industrial metal genre that exploded in the first part of the 90s, the band slowly evolved toward a more atmospheric and progressive form of metal, related to post-metal bands such as Neurosis, Isis, and Cult of Luna.
Burger Records was an American independent record label and record store in Fullerton, California, United States. The label was founded in 2007 by Sean Bohrman and Lee Rickard, members of the power pop band Thee Makeout Party. The record/video store, co-owned by Bohrman and Brian Flores, was opened in 2009. The label ceased operations in July 2020, following sexual assault allegations leveled at many of their artists and staff members.
Marcio Alvarado, better known by his stage name Alvin Risk, is an American electronic music producer, singer and DJ from Washington, D.C., United States. He has released music on Owsla, Dim Mak, and Ministry of Sound. He has also released under the label Memory LTD. Risk is the brother of Painted Face, singer and producer Allie Alvarado. Alvin Risk was on the radio show DVDASA on January 15, 2014.
Marcus Amaker is the first poet laureate of Charleston, South Carolina. In 2021, he was named an Academy of American Poets Fellow. He has 10 published books. His poetry has been recognized by The Kennedy Center, Washington National Opera, The Portland Opera, Button Poetry, NPR, Washington Post, PBS Newshour, TEDx, Huffington Post, Charleston Magazine, Post and Courier, Charleston City Paper, Charleston Art Mag, Charleston Regional Business Journal, North Dakota Quarterly, South Carolina Public Radio, and more
C86 is a cassette compilation released by the British music magazine NME in 1986, featuring new bands licensed from British independent record labels of the time. As a term, C86 quickly evolved into shorthand for a guitar-based music genre characterized by jangling guitars and melodic power pop song structures, although other musical styles were represented on the tape. In its time, it became a pejorative term for its associations with so-called "shambling" and underachievement. The C86 scene is now recognized as a pivotal moment for independent music in the UK, as was recognized in the subtitle of the compilation's 2006 CD issue: CD86: 48 Tracks from the Birth of Indie Pop. 2014 saw the original compilation reissued in a 3CD expanded edition from Cherry Red Records; the 2014 box-set came with an 11,500-word book of sleevenotes by one of the tape's original curators, former NME journalist Neil Taylor.
Ian Cruickshank was an English electric and acoustic guitarist most associated with the blues-rock and gypsy jazz genres, also well known in the U.K. as an educator, author and columnist, record producer and record label owner, festival organiser and promoter of artists in the gypsy jazz world. He achieved some success in the 1960s in the Keef Hartley Band playing electric guitar under the pseudonym Spit James before becoming enamoured of the gypsy jazz style originated by Django Reinhardt in the 1930s and devoting almost all of his energies to educating, performing and promoting activities in this area up till his death in 2017. He published several influential books on gypsy jazz, was producer and music co-ordinator for the TV Documentary Django Legacy, was the owner of the Fret Records record label, and organised the UK Gypsy Jazz Guitar Festival annually from 1997 to 2000.
Pendu Sound Recordings was an independent record label used by aTelecine, Chelsea Wolfe, Azar Swan, Mater Suspiria Vision, White Ring, Talibam!, Von Haze, and others.
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PTP, also known as Purple Tape Pedigree, is an American artist collective and independent record label based in New York City. PTP has been called "New York’s experimental incubator", and the collective has released recordings named among the best in new experimental, hip hop, metal, avant-garde, and electronic music. Pitchfork noted that "PTP's mission seems to be to annihilate genre boundaries and revel in the brilliant debris", and VICE has called PTP "home to some of the most boundary pushing music being made".