sgsr_035

low fidelity sonic assaults against mankind (dream.factory.editions.01) was the thirty fifth catalogue release.

it is available in digital format only.

“a word of advice: this recording is comprised primarily of sonic distortions aimed to cause pain, shock, and anger in the listening audience. the choices made by the composer are primarily random, but intentionally so. this cassette is a document of sounds and is not intended to elicit a positive reaction. the main goal is to provoke thought, or rather a reaction against music that pleases on a superficial and meaningless level. to offer the listener any less would be insulting. while you may find this recording monotonous and hostile, please keep this in mind…the frustration and aggression of the challenge inherent in surmounting technical difficulties was the supreme content of the composition. this recording is literally the sound of the lowest technology pushed to it’s limits.” - tyler newman, 02.12.96 [from the original cassette interior card] 

tough talk from a twenty year old. but the line about “the lowest technology pushed to it’s limits” is accurate. these pieces were recorded during the winter of 96, in my bedroom in the new hampshire woods, under the influence of bad weed, lots of throbbing gristle, and other early experimental bands. most of my equipment was in another location, during the writing sessions that became the first battery cage album (product), so the tracks recorded here were done with whatever was left onhand. namely, a couple of toy synthesizers and samplers, broken cassette and reel to reel tape decks, a few handheld microphones, primitive delay and reverb units, a junk drum kit, even a broken pump organ that i powered by using a circular office fan to blow through it’s reeds. most of the audible distortion is just an artifact of clipping various inputs and saturating tape. everything recorded here was performed live to a two track home stereo cassette deck, with no overdubs. it’s about as close to the definition of low fidelity as you could get. 

i spent some time this year uncrating a box of old cassette tapes and found some interesting things recorded twenty years or more ago. this recording has been cleaned up and mastered, but only lightly edited for time or to remove unintended artifacts. for me, it’s an interesting document of things i created within very extreme technological limitations. there’s a continuity of sound, despite the variety between individual tracks, that i find very appealing, so i decided to package these together and release them for the first time, under the title "dream.factory.editions".