Crippled Intellect Productions (C.I.P.) is a record label for experimental music based in Chicago, Illinois, and run by the sound artist Blake Edwards. Edwards performs and records under the name Vertonen, and is a member of Anatomy of Habit, Startless, Burrow, and sseepage. The label is known for discovering and supporting artists who are relatively unknown, or who are just starting in their careers. It also publishes work by the artists who inspired Edwards, such as Z'EV, The Hafler Trio, and Crawl Unit.
C.I.P. began in 1988 as a chapbook press in order to self-publish art and poetry by Blake Edwards. Seven chapbook titles were produced between 1988 and 1991. Editions were kept very small, and never went above 40. In December 1996, The publication side of C.I.P. was revived as Incremental Press (with crippled intellect press as an imprint) with the purchase of an ISBN and the publication of loquedeeshes, by Sherman Johnson.
In the Fall of 1992, C.I.P. began publishing 7" records by Blake Edwards' solo project, Vertonen. The first releases still had ties to poetry, with spoken words and small booklets of text inserted into the sleeves.
In 1998, C.I.P. published its first CDs, taking a major step away from the label's initial self-publishing focus. Marked by a high production quality and professional look, C.I.P. reissued on CD a rare cassette by uns, an alter ego of the percussionist Z'EV, with an accompanying booklet containing extensive liner notes by the artist. This was followed by a CD titled "Everyone Gets What They Deserve" by Crawl Unit, as the sound artist Joe Colley was then known. With the label now firmly established, C.I.P. began taking risks by producing new titles by artists from deep underground, including a musique concrete group from Connecticut called Brutum Fulmen, Nuisance Beacon, and a long-lived yet under-documented artist from San Francisco, Skozey Fetisch.
The label did continue to publish work by Edwards, who received grants from the City of Chicago Arts Council. These albums including Edwards' strongest work to date: Return of the Interrobang (a title which suggests his interest in language); the drone album Orchid Collider (with cover art by Jason Talbot); and a live album called Stations.
SPK were an Australian industrial music and noise music group formed in 1978. They were fronted by mainstay member, Graeme Revell on keyboards and percussion. In 1980 the group travelled to the United Kingdom where they issued their debut album, Information Overload Unit. In 1983 Sinan Leong joined on lead vocals. The group disbanded in 1988. Two years later Revell and Leong relocated to the United States, where Revell works as a Hollywood film score composer. According to Australian rock music historian Ian McFarlane, SPK were "at the forefront of the local post-punk, electronic/experimental movement of the late 1970s ... [their] music progressed from discordant, industrial-strength metal noise to sophisticated and restrained dance-rock with strange attributes".
Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released rock, funk, R&B, doo wop, soul music, blues, pop, rock and roll, and jazz records. In the United States, it is operated through Republic Records; in the United Kingdom and Japan, it is distributed by EMI Records.
Laura Sandra MacFarlane is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and audio engineer. Since 1996 she is the founding mainstay of the Australian indie rock band, ninetynine. MacFarlane also performs solo and has been in other bands, including as an early drummer and singer with United States rock group, Sleater-Kinney (1994–96).
Charalambides is an avant garde musical group originally from Houston, Texas, United States and lately of Austin, Texas. Formed in 1991 by Tom Carter, Christina Carter and Kyle Silfer, they have followed in the footsteps of other Texas psychedelic music artists such as the 13th Floor Elevators, and Red Crayola. Later members include Jason Bill and Heather Leigh Murray, but the band has long considered itself primarily a duo between Tom and Christina Carter.
Wolf Eyes is an American experimental music group from Detroit, Michigan, formed in 1996 by Nate Young. Currently a duo, Wolf Eyes are a prominent act within contemporary noise music. They have collaborated with a variety of artists from different countries and art forms.
Hergest Ridge is the second studio album by English musician and songwriter Mike Oldfield, released on 2 September 1974 by Virgin Records. The unexpected commercial and critical success of his debut album, Tubular Bells (1973), affected Oldfield, who decided against touring and avoided the press with his newfound fame. Instead, he retreated to Hergest Ridge on the England–Wales border and wrote the follow-up, which he recorded in 1974 at The Manor in Oxfordshire, with Tom Newman returning as co-producer. Similar to Oldfield's first, the album is a single composition split into two parts covering different moods and musical styles.
Z'EV was an American poet, percussionist, and sound artist. After studying various world music traditions at CalArts, he began creating his own percussion sounds out of industrial materials for a variety of record labels. He is regarded as a pioneer of industrial music.
Maurizio Bianchi is an Italian pioneer of industrial music, originating from Milan.
Gravenhurst was the musical pseudonym of the English singer-songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist and journalist Nicholas John Talbot. Talbot, from Bristol, England, signed to Warp Records. He died aged 37. His cause of death is undisclosed.
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, also known very briefly as the Lorries, are an English rock band formed in Leeds in early 1981 by guitarist and songwriter Chris Reed, vocalist Mark Sweeney, bassist Steve Smith and drummer Mick Brown. After breaking up in 1991, the band reformed in 2003 and have released 5 studio albums over the course of their career.
Jadwin B. Fair is an American singer, guitarist, graphic artist, and founding member of lo-fi alternative rock group Half Japanese.
Jack Rose was an American guitarist originally from Virginia and later based in Philadelphia. Rose is best known for his solo acoustic guitar work. He was also a member of the noise/drone band Pelt.
The Freeze is an American punk rock band from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, United States, formed by a group of teenagers in 1978. They released the first single, "I Hate Tourists" in 1980 and contributed eight songs, including the title track to the 1982 hardcore punk compilation This Is Boston, Not L.A.
Black Widow Records is an Italian record label founded in Genoa in 1990 and taking its name from the British progressive rock band Black Widow. It was originally a rarities shop focusing on collectable records and reissues. After a few years they began to release records, at first concentrating on reissuing rare records but then began to release new albums by contemporary bands.
Document Records is an independent record label, founded in Austria and now based in Scotland, that specializes in reissuing vintage blues and jazz. The company has been recognised by The Blues Foundation, being honoured with a Keeping the Blues Alive Award in 2018. Document Records is the only UK-based recipient of the award.
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.
Andrew Liles is a British sound artist and multi-instrumentalist. He has a vast output of recordings that he has released since the mid-1980s, covering a variety of styles as experimental music, dark ambient music, progressive rock and hints of hard rock.
The Stingrays are a British new wave band, which was originally formed in 1977 in Bristol, England, by Welsh musician Russ Mainwaring and Dean Sidney and are still gigging today.. They have experienced various line up changes over the years, but have included: Russ Mainwaring, Bill Stair, Chris Bostock, Sean McLuskey and Paul Johnson.
Jon Mueller is an American percussionist and composer, active in experimental and rock disciplines.