EE Tapes - Eriek Van Havere

Eriek Van Havere is one of my all time heroes of the underground, he has been releasing high quality products for years and years. Originally distributing and acquiring unusual bands through the mail art scene. I came into contact with him around 1988 when he kindly put several tracks of mine onto his compilation cassettes. In 1989 he asked me to do a whole tape of my own stuff which he released in 1989. This cassette album was titled 'Extraction' - it is still the best thing I have produced - it never sold as many copies as my later releases like 'You Have The Power', which was distributed by Microsoft but it was written at a time when I was a a 'creative high'.

I was invited by him to perform at a mail art / radio show / art exhibition in 1990 and had the pleasure of his company for a few days. He is a kind man but is convinced he is not an Artist. I'm sorry to inform him that he is an Artist - the attention to detail he takes over his releases is ART.  EE Tapes (Belgium) is one of the best quality independent labels out there. Anyway I like him a lot simply because he likes the work of Clifford T. Ward......

I can recommend visiting his labels webpage it is crammed with audio delights! 

The extract below is taken from my favourite online resource: The Living Archive of Underground Music, written by Don Campau

Did you have a philosophy or a particular sound you were trying to advocate on EE Tapes?

How did you decide on the artists for the first few tapes?

No particular philosophy except maybe promoting the artists whose sounds I liked?

As to compilations I've always worked by personal invitation. “Send me a dark imaginary soundtrack of your inner mind” I used for the long-running Notre-Dame series (13 volumes). Maybe this phrase set the tone for the darker electronic sound? But I did rock releases too, like Viktimized Karcass, Na Und or Dull Schicksal. Most full tapes came by invitation too as far as I can remember.....

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"Extraction" proves conclusively that they are no mere flash in the pan,with 'songs' that sting in the face,& playing that flays the senses raw. I clearly prefer This Window to any other current state of the artmixers that are presently popular. Read More...

This article was scrambled together by This Window

This Window in the top ten!

Great news! This Window's blog has reached number 9 in the Technorati top ten Art blogs.

This Window were active participants in the 1980's ‘Cassette Culture’, ‘DIY’ movement during which time eight solo album releases were produced.

In January 2009 ‘Cassette Culture 1989 – 2009’ was released as a commercial download. This project contained remixes of a series of demo recordings made in 2008 and a section of the live Plac.Art.X set that was streamed over the Internet to Regensburg Germany in August 2007. This release also contains a complete remixed version of 'Extraction' which was originally released in 1989. These remixes were by Jake Bright the bass player from Alms.

Below is a section from a review by Mick Mercer in his journal (November 21st, 2009). His is one of our favorite sites on the web.

"Extraction Part 1’ through to ‘Extraction Part 4’ works out as about thirty five minutes from the ‘Extraction’ album, with everything from scuzzy guitar doldrums, to foul-mouthed American opinion, displaced operatics, Industrial rumblings, orchestral fritters, world musicish musings and waverings, rhythmic sibilance. ‘Hungry Children’ is a weird disquieting flutter, then the gloriously swaggering ‘Where Is My Jesus?’ is real style because this is as good a post-punk slinky noir standout as you’ll find, which then ends up as ‘Jig-Saw Man’, a mutant punk fumble. If you like your music unpredictable but weighty this is for you."

Read more...

Exhibition of Prints, Drawings and Paintings by
Peter Bright
Monday 6th June – Friday 1st July (open 0900 to 1600 Mon. to Fri.)
150 Building, West Buckland School

Old images and ideas revisited and recycled - re-executed in print and paint. A body of work based around "Beauty and the Beast" a classic tale of love, rejection and prejudice, where the beauty is the beast and the beast is the beauty. An allegory, a symbolic representation or a metaphor for my feelings towards ART.

Quote: “Take up a radical position with Peter Bright, who is borderline anarchic in his thinking and equally bold in his art.” Andrea Charters … Continue reading ?

This exhibition will coincide with a printmaking course I will be giving. Read more...

Contact me for more details.

Print on paper of gorilla and church part of the work to be exhibited in the Long Gallery at West Buckland School...Continue reading ?

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  Festival website goes green

  I have just begun to send out invitations to Artist to exhibit at the West Buckland Festival. The site (PeterBright.info) and WestBucklandFestival.co.uk are powered by 100% wind energy. The servers hosting these sites and their associated e-mail are fully eco-friendly!

Matthias Lang - IRRE Tapes

IRRE Tapes (Germany) run by Matthias Lang evolved out of the IRRE Fanzine which he published regularly during the early 1980's covering New Wave, Post Punk and the German Underground. This European cassette label helped to spread the word around the world, supporting the independent, self financed artist, releasing material by the likes of Brume, Maeror Tri, City Of Worms and This Window. His eclectic taste covered the whole range of the DIY, Independent Underground music scene from Experimental Electronica to Guitar Pop.

Below is an extract from an interview on The Living Archive Of Underground Music, which is an archive dedicated to Cassette culture, home taping, tape trading and mail art from the 1980s to the present. The Living Archive Of Underground Music is written and edited by Don Campau. Read more...

Wie hattest Du das Label bekannt gemacht? Durch Magazine, andere Labels, Radio?

How did you spread the word of the tape label? Magazines, other labels, radio?

Tja ob IRRE Tapes je bekannt war? Wenn dann eher durch das unabhängige Netzwerk in der ganzen Welt, damals konnte man auch noch kostengünstig Tapes in andere Länder schicken... die Mehrzahl der Tapes wurde mit Gleichgesinnten in der ganzen Welt getauscht, so richtig kommerziell verkauft wurden die wenigsten - dafür hab ich heute aber auch noch unzählige Kisten alter Tapes die ich im Tausch damals bekommen hatte. Es gab zwar auch kommerziellere Vertriebe, die aber nie wirklich lange z.B. der tolle 235 Laden ich glaube in Bad Honnef. Die hatten auch mit tolle Mailorder-Kataloge, geniale Ideen z.B. gab es da das Tape des Monats das man per Dauerauftrag bekommen konnte......

Well, if IRRE-tapes were really that popular? If so, the independent network all around the world helped to make the label popular...at that time postage for tapes to be sent to other countries was quite cheap...the majority of tapes was swapped with artists all around the world and only a very few were really commercially sold. I still have many boxes full of old tapes that I received by trade. There were also more commercial distributors that never existed so long, like the 235-shop in Bad Honnef. They had great mailorder-catalogues and it was even possible to get there the „tape of the month“ by periodical payment order. 

The Insanely Happy EP – Insane from Belgium

Alain Neffe is probably one of the most influential ‘cassette underground’ people around, his Belgian label Insane released many of the 1980′s heroes of the home taping and mail art scenes. Here is an opportunity to get a collectors edition … Continue reading →

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