(((O))) : Hidden Currents – Tartarus Records

By Sander van den Driesche

Tartarus Records

(((o))): First of all, how long has Tartarus Records been around for now?

I started Tartarus Records in May, 2012. I didn’t have any release planned, or any money so it was just a name and an idea. Nihill’s Woestenij (TAR001) was released a few months later in August that same year.

 

(((o))): Where did the idea to start your own label come from?
A few years ago I discovered there were still a lot of bands putting out demos and EPs out on cassette. I'm talking specifically about countries like Germany, the UK and the US. From old school standards it seemed bands that affiliated themselves with raw punk DIY ethics still preferred dubbing tapes to burning CDRs. I got interested in the old medium and how the underground kept reanimating the cassette, be it re-dubbed from used or completely new ones pro-duplicated.
In my search of cassette labels and self-released cassettes by artists, I found a couple of labels who took the packaging to a completely new level. The first one I saw was Nerdcore Records, whose mission it seemed was to make the packaging pure eye candy by combining original packaging and different kind of printing and pressing methods. After that I found Auris Apothecary who really took the term packaging to a whole new level on its own and gave the cassette a new meaning all the same. I'm talking about packaging tapes in colored condoms, bricks etc. I'm naming but a few but these where a few outputs that really inspired me to take the steps of starting my own tape label.

 

(((o))): You’re a cassette only label. Why are you focussing on cassettes only?

Cassettes are a doomed medium. It’s everything old we like to forget and make faster and turn into digital. I like to see the cassette as a cultural middle finger pointed at the mass majority that forgets what it takes to produce and release something yourself. Nowadays a lot of musicians tend to stay away from physical releases and keep it digital. I myself would like to see the cassette as a DIY effort that gives you not only a physical copy of your music, but also a highly limited small piece of art to remind you of purchase. So let me make this perfectly clear: I think 8 out of 10 people that buy my tapes have no cassette player but like the packaging, or the idea he or she is getting a cassette with their download.

 

(((o))): A lot more labels seem to be putting out releases on cassettes these days, so they seem to be making a comeback; or do you think they were never really gone and they’re just getting more attention again?
I myself think it’s pretty cool. Not that I would buy a tape from a bigger label, (like the new Carcass). I think those bigger labels release tapes so they can give people the idea they’re still “underground”. Nonetheless I think it’s great that the rise of the tapes make them think about it and eventually even making the step releasing a tape.

 

(((o))): I have spoken to people before who started laughing when I mention that I bought a release on cassette. I suppose you get this quite a lot as well? People seem to think the cassette belongs in a museum nowadays or something...

If I had a dime every time someone asked me “Does it come with a tape deck?” then I'd have plenty of euros by now. But seriously, sure you get some strange looks from people when you tell them you're a 100% cassette label. Luckily I'm surrounded by quite a few creative people which makes it easier to let people understand the actual vision behind your thoughts. There are always people that will never understand it. Too bad for them I guess.

 

(((o))): A lot of your releases are re-releases after the band or other labels have released them on digital format of CD/vinyl before. How do you get the artists involved in your label? Do you contact them yourself or do they contact you?

I know. I wish there would be more cassette only releases, like I did with the first two releases I did (the Nihill release and Bismuth’s The Eternal Marshes), but to ask that from bands is a lot, especially if they want to release something with a somewhat bigger pressing than the a hundred tapes I make. I don’t like it, but then again I know my target group is small so who cares? The bands contact me or I contact them. There are many requests and I try to listen to everything that comes in but usually I contact the bands myself.

 

(((o))): Is it difficult to get permission from other labels to re-release something on cassette on your label?
Sometimes it can be hard, yes. A few times the band has already signed to a label that put out a CD and are afraid they’re losing sales because of me releasing a cassette. So it could happen that the label demands a percentage of the tapes for licensing or just simply forbid it. Luckily for me, this only happened a couple of times. Usually labels are okay with it and don’t see it like afore mentioned. I guess that’s one of the perks of working with underground bands and labels that get run by music lovers other than people trying to make money off you.

 

(((o))): Would you ever consider opening other doors, such as releasing on vinyl or CD?
I’d maybe try vinyl one day, but for now I’m still content with releasing tapes.

 

(((o))): You seem to release a variety of black metal, death metal, doom, sludge, noise rock. Do you release any genre you can, or are you really specific to the various metal subgenres?
I release what I like. So it’s mostly the darker and heavier side of music. Even though the doom ratio is biggest within Tartarus I’d like to think I could release any kind of genre which appeals to me. I wouldn’t like to see Tartarus as a label that focuses on one genre, but rather a kind of melting pot of bands I think people should listen to. Be it doom, sludge, noise, folk or whatsoever.

 

(((o))): How many releases have you put out so far?
When I started with this interview I just released my thirteenth release (Transatlantic Rat’s Atom / Birdeye). Now I’m about to release my fifteenth and sixteenth (Spider Kitten and Toner Low III). So that’s effectively sixteen tapes in one year.

 

(((o))): I assume you’re proud of each release, but are there any particular ones you really proud of, or which mean a little but more to you?
Without favouring a release for another, I could definitely say that Nihill’s Woestenij is probably the most important release for me. It was the first tape I did, and it literally opened a lot of doors for me.  If it wouldn’t be for them contacting me to release a tape I would not have made such a great debut as a label. Aside from that I’m proud of every tape I did so far.

 

(((o))): Twenty years ago when I was playing in bands releasing demos on cassettes was like the golden standard. Nowadays bands just put out a digital recording on their Bandcamp page and that’s it. It’s not the same thing really and most beginning bands don’t even bother getting their demo or release on CD anymore. What do you think this does to the underground music scene?

I guess there are mainly two kinds of music lovers: those who want to download and those who want something physical. When I grew up your band was nothing until you released something physical, like a cassette or a CD. Nowadays bands tend to release a lot of digital stuff. I guess that’s fine. I think some bands don’t really need a physical release because they have target group that wouldn’t buy it in the first place. For most bands traffic and amount of plays and generating exposure is more important.

With Tartarus that’s the exact reason I release small runs of fifty or a hundred. I know a lot of people think buying cassettes is stupid, so I make a hundred tapes for those few who actually want something in their hands. For those fifty to a hundred people I love making an effort on doing a good job on the packaging.

 

(((o))): What is so special about cassettes? I suppose one thing is the fact that you kind of need to listen to the whole release as you can’t skip to the next track as easily as with a CD or digital release. Also, how does the sound compare to the other media out there you think?
Cassettes are a doomed media of the western civilisation. In today’s life you can go to an electronics store and not buy a tape deck anymore. In a few countries, (where they use our old cars as taxis) the tape is still a common thing. Tape culture stayed alive thanks to punk and hardcore bands that recycled tapes to put their demos on. Then those bands that had little more cash could afford to pro duplicate tapes. What I’m trying to say is that I see the cassette culture as a huge middle finger directed at the music industry of today. Tapes have never been outdated. They’ve just been put in the corner with a dunce hat on their head. People that still choose packaging and artwork over a digital release buy tapes. I think it’s pretty special that all over the world people still buy enough tapes to keep the plants that produce the shells alive.

As far as the sound quality of the tape goes, I’m not saying the sound is better, but for me it does have a nostalgic sound. The low hiss in the background remind me when I had my Walkman on most of the day when I was a kid. It should also be noted that tapes are fairly cheap to produce. That means there’s more money to invest in the packaging, like good quality paper, screen-printed parts, boxes, pouches and adding extra stuff like patches, buttons, spaceships etc. 

 

What are your plans for the rest of this year? Have you got some exciting releases in the planning?
From now on I’m releasing two tapes per month. I have a lot of releases planned and I want to start 2014 clean so I have more time to put in bigger projects. I’m currently starting two co-releases. One is the Ommadon I – IV boxset in co-release with Witches on Fire Records. The other is the upcoming album of War Wolf, on which I will be working together with Dry Cough Records. I’m really looking forward on both of these.

Upcoming releases:
(TAR016) Herder - s/t (Aug/Sept)

(TAR017) Herder - Horror Vacui (Aug/Sept)

(TAR018) Verbum Verus - Melkiresha (Sept/Oct)

(TAR019) Lord Mantis - Pervertor (Sept/Oct)

(TAR020) War Wolf - Crushing The Ways Of The Old (Oct/Nov)

(TAR021) Grinding Halt - Discography II (Oct/Nov)

 

(((o))): Thanks a lot for your time Richard. I think you’re doing a great job with Tartarus Records and I hope you’ll keep on doing what you do! Is there anything you would like to add for our readers?

There are a lot of great cassette labels around, but there are some I want to point out  which people definitely need to check out: Breathe Plastic, Cosmic Tomb, Dry Cough Records, Witches on Fire Records,  Opaqus Records and Lighten Up Sounds. These labels have a great passion for tapes and sincerely love what they do.


 

All our reviews of Tartarus Records material can be found here

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By Dan Salter

Gizeh Records | Website

Location | Manchester, UK

Notable artists | A-Sun Amissa, Aidan Baker, Fieldhead, Glissando

Richard Knox of Glissando and A-Sun Amissa (amongst others) tells us about his musical work and the relationship between that and his role in charge of Gizeh Records...

(((o))): Glissando's ‘With Our Arms Wide Open We March towards the Burning Sea’ was one of the first things we reviewed on E&D way back in 2008. Why did it take so long to record a follow up? Has it taken this long to write it or have you been focused elsewhere?

There are a number of reasons really. At the time of recording that record Elly and I were going through a breakup and the energy it took out of both of us took a long time to recover from. At the end of it we were just relieved to get the album finished and released and at that point we never even thought there would be another record. We needed some time apart but we also had to tour the album as well so that whole year was really tough on the both of us, trying to deal with our personal problems and fixing ourselves while still ploughing our hearts into this music we had created together wasn’t an easy thing to do.

 

After that we took some time off and made some distance between ourselves and after a while the hunger started to return again but it was incredibly tentative. I’d already begun writing and putting some ideas together for new projects, just to satisfy my desire to write and tour as much as anything else. Myself, Frederic D. Oberland and Angela Chan began working on what would become ‘The Rustle of the Stars’ and that unfurled into something much bigger than we anticipated. Angela and I also started A-Sun Amissa just after that so Glissando was very much on the back-burner at this time. Elly and I were still exchanging some ideas and songs were developing slowly across the four years, we had a bunch of music we were trying to perfect and there was no pressure to achieve anything other than we knew these new songs were strong and better than the first record.

 

In the middle of last year we found out Elly was pregnant so that forced our hand and we sat down to discuss what we wanted to do with what we had so far and decided to try and finish the record. I had a few months spare between touring so we plunged head first into trying to get the thing done. I think we surprised ourselves as to how quickly we could actually work when we needed to and I’m really happy we did.

 

(((o))): ‘The World without Us’ is a beautiful record, but suffused with a distinct melancholy. What's the story behind the record? Where has that melancholy been drawn from?

Much of the story is in the answer to the previous question. We certainly pushed ourselves to discover some truths and emotions we’d buried a long time ago and there’s no doubt that comes through in the record. We also tried to make the album a progression from the first one in terms of some of the themes and atmospheres in there as some of the songs were written years ago and also made it onto ‘With Our Arms..’

 

(((o))): There seems to be a lot of crossover in personnel between Glissando, A-Sun Amissa & The Rustle of the Stars. How do you manage these distinct musical projects? When you have a musical idea how do you decide which band to use it for?

That’s a very good question. The personnel comes down to the simple fact that I love working with these people, they are wonderful musicians and personalities and we have a very strong understanding between us when it comes to knowing what each of us wants and needs. It’s very rare that I write specific parts and ask people to play them, I would much rather present the music to someone and have them find their own way with it. I know that when I’m working with these guys that 99% of the time they are going to bring ideas that I like, we know what makes each other tick.

 

With regard to musical ideas, answering is a tricky beast. Sometimes you know straight away when you have written something which project it suits best but normally I will sit down and write with a particular project in mind depending on what needs the most attention.

 

(((o))): A-Sun Amissa is a more drone influenced, soundscape focused (is that even a word?) affair than the more 'traditional' (relatively) song styles of Glissando. Do you approach writing for A-Sun Amissa in a different way?

The way we write for A-Sun Amissa is probably my most comfortable way to do things. It certainly comes a bit more naturally than the other projects but therein lays the challenge. A lot of drone-based music is extremely easy, lazy and boring and the amount of records being released that have no character or definition is amazing. I have no interest in churning out easy music for the sake of it, we are constantly pushing to find new ideas and sounds with this project, to keep the atmosphere but find the melodies that suit the base we are working from. It’s much freer as well which means when we play the pieces live we can improvise and change things to suit how we feel on the night or doctor the music to suit the venue which is something we discovered more and more on the recent tour we just did.

 

(((o))): The releases of the Glissando & A-Sun Amissa albums have come very close together, being as you are in both bands AND run the label how has that been? How do you manage your time between them & have time to do anything else?

Well, it’s not easy, that’s for sure. We finished the Glissando record in the Summer and then I spent some time working on the ‘Silent Bells’ tour, which was a series of label nights we put together in November alongside a tour for ‘The Rustle of the Stars’. In amongst that I had a few ideas for some new A-Sun Amissa material which Owen and myself spent a few days working on before I went on tour. When I returned I went back to what we had recorded and started to think about where to go with it and talked with Angela and Gareth Davis (who plays bass clarinet on the record) about some ideas, it came together pretty quickly after that. Running Gizeh is a full time job these days so finding a creative balance between that and writing/touring is quite difficult but it’s not a bad life, that’s for sure!

 

(((o))): Gizeh Records has been going for five years or so now, how has the landscape for independent labels changed in that time?

It’s actually quite hard to find a definitive answer to that mainly because as we’ve gotten older and stronger and wiser the music industry has been slowly collapsing in on itself. If we had been at the point we are now with Gizeh five years ago, we would be selling considerably more records than we are now. When you are building something from the ground with no financial backing and no one to tell you where you are going wrong it takes time and patience and a lot of will power to see that thing through. Gizeh is a completely DIY label and as such we are constantly discovering new ideas or ways to work or ways we can improve, be more productive etc. It’s a constant motion and there’s no denying that selling records is becoming harder. The key is to find a way to sustain what we are doing, by continuing to improve, be open to ideas, be more resourceful but keep the ideals we have and the quality we have.

 

So many labels are folding now and it’s not hard to see why. Sometimes you have to look at a release and think - ok, there’s no way we can justify spending that much money as it’s only realistically going to sell ‘x’ amount of copies. Of course it’s extremely hard to predict sales but I guess that’s an art form in itself that we are still working on. A big change I see is the amount of music that is being released, there is so much now. The internet has opened up a way for people to reach an audience and of course release music for free or in a non-physical manner. I have nothing against this but the problem is that it’s now an impossible fight to get noticed amongst the millions of people operating in this way, be it getting press or via social media - it’s a constant and tiring onslaught of music and information which is very easy to get lost in.

 

I also feel that’s there’s a balance to be found in the new developments that are being thrust upon the music industry. For instance, streaming seems to be becoming the absolute normal thing for releases these days, I’m certainly not against that - but only if we can make it work to our artists’ benefit. Soundcloud is a good invention and is very artist friendly. We use it lot but on the flipside something like Spotify I find completely evil and unsustainable. If this is the future in terms of revenue for artists and labels we are all completely fucked. We purposefully do not release our music to Spotify - maybe we are missing some new listeners in doing that but there has to be a stand against this model because in the end who is making money from it? Nobody; Spotify are haemorrhaging money and the royalties are nothing more than a sick joke.

 

(((o))): Leeds seems to be musically very vibrant at the moment. How much has being based there influenced your development both as a label and as a musician?

Honestly, I don’t think it’s made any difference. In fact I’m upping sticks to Manchester next week! Leeds has been my home my whole life but it feels like it’s time for a change of scenery and time find some new energies and influences. I have a wonderful group of people I’m close with in Leeds but I’ve never felt like Gizeh or the musical projects have ever been part of any scene, we have always been very much on the edge of things, people know who we are but for better or worse we generally just do our own thing.

 

(((o))): There's a very strong sense of collaboration & community between the Gizeh bands. Are there any more combinations you've yet to try out & things we should be looking out for?

I’m extremely happy with what we have managed to achieve with the artists we work with. It’s always been my goal to create something much bigger than just a label and that thing is continuing to grow. The collaborations seem to find themselves in a way, I feel like we have quite a few kindred spirits between us and it’s always throwing up new ideas and new directions. Meeting new artists, working with them and getting to know them personally is still a huge excitement for me so I’m sure there will be some interesting things happening in the future.

 

(((o))): You've had a busy start to 2013 with those 2 releases. What have you got coming up for the rest of the year?

We have a soundtrack to a film by Jayne Amara Ross (of Farewell Poetry) called ‘The Freemartin Calf’ coming out in June. There’s a new The Rustle of the Stars album in the works which we need to focus on in the coming months and a few other ideas in the pipeline too.

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