Conformity Cult

Caregiver & Empty Banks (Split) Cassette Cover        It's been a minute since I posted and I wanted to give an update on what I've been up to lately.         The label I have been working on, Atrocious Records , will be having its first release, a split with myself, as Caregiver, and Empty Banks. It is a near 60 minute Harsh Noise split with almost 30 minutes from each artist and will be coming out on a limited release cassette tape, all hand made by me, on February 20th. Limited to 27 tapes. The release will also be available on bandcamp.   The Conformity Boxes         When I started making my noise boxes my original intent was to build a cigar box guitar and my imagination ran wild. I still have never made a CBG, maybe I will someday. But the noise boxes are really fun to play around with. They have not really served much purpose for me musically (yet) but they are a lot of fun to make and make great atmos...

      This is kinda like an announcement to an announcement. In 2021 I will be launching Atrocious Records. This is in a way a life long passion project of mine. I originally started the label back in 2007, but quickly began overworking myself with to many releases. The plan this time around is to keep things a little more under control. I am giving myself a few months lead time to both prepare first releases and future releases after that. My initial plan is to release my own music, with no restrictions.      While the full roll out isn't expected until February 2021, the website has already been launched ( www.atrociousrecords.com ) and there you can find a sign up for the mailing list. Everyone that signs up will be among the first to know about the official launch!     Excited for the future. Now its time to get started on making some noise!

1. Search for bulk cassette buys at garage sales, online and at thrift stores. When buying tapes individually try to look for tapes that have screws. 2. Rewind and di sassemble your cassettes. Save all the screws, wheels (check for metal brackets), and plastic side pieces. You also want to save the felt pads if they are in good condition, some are old and covered in crap. I like to keep all of these pieces in separate containers for easy future access.  3. Cut the tape at the leader. Save these pieces still attached to the wheel. You can quickly attach these to new pieces of cassette tape later on.  4. Clean the cassette shells completely, you can use a magic eraser sponge to easily remove writing on the shells. I like to wash the shells inside and out with hot water and soap before drying them or stacking them to dry. 5. (Optional) Paint the shells! If you do this you will want to tape off the clear windows on the tapes; if painting a clear tape I recommend taping a small win...

Tips for thrifting cassette tapes for reuse: 1. Check that the old shells have screws , cases glued together are more of a hassle than they are worth; You can still tear them apart and save the wheels, felt strips and cut out the leader tape for later use but you most likely will break the shell taking them apart.  Stickers on tapes tend to peal and need to be cleaned off with something like goo gone 2. Avoid stickers on the cassette cases and the cassettes themselves, especially paper based stickers like price tags from stores like VOA. Tapes with sticker labels take allot of extra time to clean and are only worth it if them have type ii tape in them. Sooo always...  3. Check the tape Type . Most cassettes you find are going to be normal bias type i tapes but from time to time you will find pre-recorded cassettes with chrome type ii tape in them. The easiest way to tell them apart is to look at the color of the audio tape itself. Brown being type i and black indicating type ...

Some on the shells I painted recently           A little over a year ago, while in the midst of watching videos about circuit bending, I remember seeing the famous Amulets video about making tape loops and my focus started to shift. My thrift store runs and garage sale weekends were starting to including me looking for tape players. I started looking for bulk tape buys on eBay and one day came across a box of about 50 cassettes that came in 2 packs for $20. From there I started messing around with loops a little bit, but was never fully happy with my results for the amount of time and effort put in so the loop making started to fade out. Some tapes from my original eBay purchase      Flash forward to today and something has fully reignited my interest in cassette tapes and loops. I’ve had some recording ideas but I've also had allot of ideas on recycling old cassettes into brand new works, more than loops. Not as in using old recorded tape, ...

     I have neglected this blog lately, just like all the others I have tried to start before it. I’m not trying to fool anyone and say “I’m going to be a daily blogger” because fuck that. Being forced to do things that were fun stop being fuck very quick. I m still working in my boxes and I still want to document them better. I just feel like every time I say “going to do ____ soon” the blank never gets finished. 🤷🏻‍♂️ at least I don’t have followers to be letting down at this point.

     Just wanted to make a quick update so that I still keep myself somewhat accountable to this blog. Over the last few weeks and months I have continued to work on Conformity Boxes and I swear there will one day be both demo videos and some sample packs from them! I have also been working on repairing and customizing some guitars and basses. I feel like I often struggle to complete the things I start, but I am really trying to push myself more. Beyond music I am planning to start making some videos about music, movies and games. Updates will be posted here as soon as they are available!