Impact Test – Kill Kill Kill [LP] (1992, RRRecords, Damned Ship Works)

Formed in Wisconsin by Darren Brown during a period of inactivity for Boy Dirt Car, Impact Test provided another outlet for the industrial experiments associated with the American underground scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Karl J. Paloucek, also involved with Boy Dirt Car, joined Brown in the project, carrying a connection to the group’s earlier work into a different musical setting.

 
Released in 1992, 'Kill Kill Kill' appeared through RRRecords and Damned Ship Works, two independent imprints connected with the experimental underground. Based in Lowell, Massachusetts, RRRecords was run by Ron Lessard and had built a substantial catalogue of noise, industrial and experimental music since the 1980s, including releases by American underground artists and Japanese noise musicians. Its catalogue frequently explored the boundaries between conventional records and more unconventional sound experiments. 

 
Damned Ship Works provided a further independent outlet for the LP, placing Impact Test within the small-label network that sustained industrial and experimental music outside the mainstream record industry. The collaboration between the two imprints reflects the distribution networks through which obscure American projects circulated their work during this period, with releases often reaching listeners through specialist shops, mail-order catalogues and connections between underground musicians. 

 

 

Label: RRRecords – RRR 083, Damned Ship Works – DS 08, RRRecords – R R R #83 

Format: Vinyl, LP 

Country: US 

Released: 1992 

Style: Abstract, Industrial, Experimental 

 

Tracklist: 

A1 She Wears The Name Of God 

A2 Kisses For Blows 

A3 Devil's Rope 

A4 Darkest Afternoon 

A5 This Will KILL That 

B1 The Zone 

B2 Waiting Is As Waiting Does 

B3 Industria 

B4 Wise Shall Be The Bearers Of Light 

 

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Illusion Of Safety – More Altitude Than Attitude: IOS At 14,000 Feet [Cass] (1988, We Never Sleep)

Released in 1988, 'More Altitude Than Attitude: IOS At 14,000 Feet' captures Illusion Of Safety at a point where the project was already moving beyond the boundaries of the underground industrial scene. Issued on cassette by We Never Sleep Records, the release reflects the late-eighties DIY cassette culture, when experimental artists relied on small independent labels and tape trading networks to circulate music that was often too adventurous for conventional record companies. The format suited the project's raw, exploratory nature perfectly, allowing unusual sound experiments to reach a dedicated international audience. 

Illusion Of Safety began in 1983 as the brainchild of Daniel Burke, who has remained the project's central creative force while occasionally working with a rotating cast of collaborators. Rather than settling into a single genre, Burke has always embraced a broad palette of sounds, blending ambient textures, industrial noise, electro-acoustic composition, improvisation, sound collage and power electronics. His recordings frequently shift direction without warning, moving from delicate atmospheres to abrasive sonic assaults, creating music that challenges expectations while rewarding careful listening. 

By the time 'More Altitude Than Attitude: IOS At 14,000 Feet' appeared, Illusion Of Safety had already developed a distinctive approach built around manipulated recordings, electronics, found sounds and unconventional sound sources. Burke's interest in balancing beauty with chaos gives the cassette an unpredictable character, where fractured ambience, harsh noise and subtle melodic fragments coexist in constantly evolving soundscapes. Even in its earliest recordings, the project displayed the fascination with perception, memory and psychological space that would become a defining feature of later releases. 

We Never Sleep Records was one of many independent labels that helped sustain the experimental cassette underground during the 1980s. Operating outside the mainstream, the label specialized in adventurous and often difficult music, providing a home for artists working in industrial, experimental electronics and avant-garde sound. Releases like this one illustrate how important these small labels were in fostering a global network of listeners and musicians long before the internet made underground music so easily accessible.

 
Over the following decades, Illusion Of Safety continued to evolve while remaining remarkably prolific, releasing dozens of recordings through respected experimental labels and performing extensively across North America and Europe. Looking back, 'More Altitude Than Attitude: IOS At 14,000 Feet' stands as an early document of Daniel Burke's restless creative vision, preserving the fearless spirit that has kept Illusion Of Safety one of the most consistently inventive names in experimental electronic music.

 

 

Label: We Never Sleep – WNS 007 

Format: Cassette, C60 

Country: US 

Released: 1988 

Style: Industrial, Ambient, Dark Ambient 

 

Tracklist: 

A1 Power-Accident 

A2 Dark Current 

A3 Fleshbinge 

A4 Live Temple Set 

A5 The Architects Office 

B1 Untitled 

B2 Devices 

B3 Fade N Cry 

B4 Deadgirl And The Man (Version) 

B5 Toneline 5 

B6 Discipline 

 

Notes: 

Live Sound Colorado: 

+ 7-7-88, All Seasons Painting, Colorado Springs 

+ 7-8-88, The Grove, Denver 

+ 7-9-88, Penney Lane, Boulder 

+ 7-10-88, KGNU, Boulder 

 

"Discipline" is a Throbbing Gristle cover. 

 

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Fetus Productions – Fetalmania [12''] (1983, Flying Nun Records)

Released in 1983 on Flying Nun Records, 'Fetalmania' by Fetus Productions remains one of the more unconventional releases associated with New Zealand's independent music explosion of the early 1980s. Although Flying Nun would later become closely linked with the shimmering guitars and introspective songwriting of the Dunedin Sound, its early catalogue was remarkably eclectic. Experimental electronics, post-punk, performance art influences and outsider creativity all found a home on the label, and Fetus Productions fitted perfectly within that open-minded environment. 

Fetus Productions was conceived as a conceptual project rather than a traditional group. The original line-up featured Jed Town, Sarah Fort and Mike Brookfield, each bringing different creative interests into the mix. Brookfield became known for his striking and often disturbing medical illustrations, imagery that complemented the project's fascination with the unsettling and the unconventional. Away from recording, he also ran Virus, an alternative clothing outlet that became part of New Zealand's underground culture from the mid-1980s through to 2001. Jed Town later moved to London, where he earned respect within electronic music circles as producer, composer and DJ Jed Eye before eventually returning to New Zealand to compose music for local television. 

'Fetalmania' captured a period when artistic experimentation was flourishing across independent scenes worldwide. Built around synthesizers, drum machines, stark rhythms and detached vocal performances, the record explored themes of anxiety, alienation and fractured identities. Its six tracks, including "I Am A Criminal", "Utter Frustration" and "Desert Lands", reflected an approach that drew as much from conceptual art and industrial textures as it did from post-punk. Recorded at Groovex with engineer Phil Punch, the release stood apart from many of its contemporaries while sharing the same adventurous spirit that defined the era. 

Flying Nun Records, founded by Roger Shepherd in Christchurch in 1981, played a crucial role in documenting and supporting local artists working outside the mainstream. The label's willingness to embrace originality allowed vastly different acts to coexist within its catalogue. While Flying Nun is often celebrated for launching influential guitar groups, records such as 'Fetalmania' demonstrate how broad its vision really was during those formative years. 

Today, 'Fetalmania' remains a fascinating example of the more experimental side of New Zealand's independent music history. Its combination of conceptual ambition, electronic experimentation and underground aesthetics offers a glimpse into a scene where creative freedom often mattered more than commercial considerations. For anyone exploring the deeper corners of the Flying Nun catalogue, this release reveals a different facet of the label's legacy and the restless imagination that shaped New Zealand's alternative culture during the early 1980s. 

 

Label: Flying Nun Records – F.PRO 999 

Format: Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, EP 

Country: New Zealand 

Released: Mar 1983 

Style: Experimental, Post-Punk, Darkwave, Industrial 

 

Tracklist: 

A1 I Am A Criminal 

A2 Utter Frustration 

A3 Desert Lands 

B1 Fetus Productions 

B2 State To Be In 

B3 What's Going On 

 

Other versions: 

'Fetalmania' (12", 45 RPM, Mini-Album) - Normal [NORMAL 14] (Germany, 1985) 

 

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Doof – Exist [10"] (1982, Namedrop Records)

The 10" 'Exist' by Doof landed in 1981–82 as one of those wonderfully baffling records that seemed to exist completely outside the normal music industry. Built around the partnership of Paul Platypus and Philip Johnson, the record came out on the tiny Namedrop Records imprint and immediately carved out a place in the strange corner where post-punk, cassette culture, dadaist humour and bedroom experimentation all collided. The music drifts between half-formed pop ideas, tape manipulation, spoken passages and lo-fi fragments that sound as though they were captured in a living room with whatever equipment happened to be available. That roughness is part of its appeal, giving Exist the feeling of a private document accidentally released to the public. 

 
Doof emerged from the fertile UK DIY underground of the early 1980s, a scene where homemade cassettes, self-published fanzines and tiny independent labels mattered far more than commercial success. Philip Johnson had already been active in cassette culture and experimental circles, while Paul Platypus was involved with several interconnected projects that floated around the anarcho-punk and DIY network. Together they created something that felt less like a conventional band and more like an ongoing art project, full of surreal ideas and deliberately skewed approaches to songwriting. Their work has often been described as dreamlike and disorienting, with tracks unfolding according to their own strange logic rather than any obvious structure. 

 
Namedrop Records was just as unconventional as the music it released. Run by Johnson and Platypus, the label became home to a small circle of like-minded artists including Doof, Philip Johnson's solo recordings, Cold War and later Twelve Cubic Feet. The catalogue was tiny, but it captured a particular moment in British underground culture when people were pressing records in small quantities simply because they felt compelled to document what they were doing. The label's releases shared a handmade quality and a willingness to ignore the boundaries separating punk, experimental music and outsider pop.

 
What makes 'Exist' so fascinating decades later is how completely it reflects that environment. It doesn't sound polished, fashionable or calculated. Instead, it captures a period when independent music could still be genuinely unpredictable, when a pair of friends could assemble a collection of odd sounds, package it with a booklet and put it out into the world with no concern for commercial expectations. Records like this became cult favourites precisely because they felt so personal and uncompromising. For collectors of early DIY post-punk and cassette-culture oddities, 'Exist' remains one of the more intriguing artifacts to emerge from that scene.

 

 

Label: Namedrop Records – NR1 

Format: Vinyl, 10", 33 ⅓ RPM 

Country: UK 

Released: Feb 1982 

Style: New Wave, Punk, Experimental, Noise, Post-Punk, Sound Collage, Industrial 

 

Tracklist: 

A1 (Treat Me Like) The Man I Am 3:45 

A2 Brighton, Pt. 1 2:45 

A3 Nine Years Old 6:30 

B1 Brighton, Pt. 2 2:27 

B2 On It In It 5:30 

B3 (Treat Me Like) The Man I Am 5:02 

 

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Comando Bruno & Avant-Dernières Pensées – Muestras Sin Valor [LP] (1986, Discos Esplendor Geometrico)

'Muestras Sin Valor' arrived in 1986 as a strange and fascinating collaboration between Rafael Flores operating as Comando Bruno and Avant-Dernières Pensées, landing right in the middle of Spain’s flourishing cassette and industrial underground. Released by Discos Esplendor Geométrico, the album felt perfectly at home among the label’s early catalog, which was already building a reputation for pushing abrasive electronics, tape manipulation, industrial collage and all kinds of sonic mischief far outside the boundaries of conventional rock or synth music. The label had been launched by members of Esplendor Geométrico during a period when Spain's independent experimental scene was growing through tiny pressings, mail-order networks and cassette exchanges that connected artists from Madrid, Barcelona and beyond with the wider European underground. 

The record itself moves like a collection of fractured transmissions coming from different rooms of the same abandoned building. There are bursts of harsh electronic noise, odd samples, mechanical rhythms and sudden interruptions that create a tense and unsettling atmosphere. Some sections seem deliberately provocative, almost testing the listener's patience with distorted sounds and chaotic collisions, while others drift into unexpectedly gentle territory. That contrast gives the album its peculiar character. Just when things feel overwhelming, a warmer passage appears, with drifting synthesizers and small melodic details that soften the edges before everything slips back into hypnotic ambient spaces and rough industrial textures.

 
Rafael Flores had already been developing a highly personal approach through Comando Bruno, blending field recordings, musique concrète techniques, surreal humor and experimental collage. His work never sat comfortably inside any single genre, and 'Muestras Sin Valor' captures that freedom perfectly. Rather than following a clear structure, the album unfolds as a sequence of sonic events, fragments and moods that constantly mutate. The presence of Avant-Dernières Pensées adds another layer of mystery, bringing an even more abstract and dreamlike quality to parts of the record.

 
Looking back, 'Muestras Sin Valor' feels like a snapshot of a particularly adventurous moment in Spanish underground culture. While many industrial releases of the era leaned heavily into aggression and machine rhythms, this LP wandered into stranger territory, mixing confrontation with moments of almost psychedelic calm. It never sounds polished or concerned with accessibility, which is exactly why it continues to attract listeners interested in the outer edges of experimental music. More than a straightforward industrial album, it comes across as an audio scrapbook filled with bizarre ideas, uneasy atmospheres and unexpected beauty hidden beneath layers of noise. 

 

Label: Discos Esplendor Geometrico – EG - 004, Discos Esplendor Geometrico – EG-004 

Format: Vinyl, LP 

Country: Spain 

Released: 1986 

Style: Experimental, Industrial, Musique Concrète

 

Tracklist: 

A1 Intro. La Verdad 

A2 Hermeneutica Dura 

A3 Landler 

A4 Helix (Febrer 1929) 

B1 Agresion Sensorial 

B2 Orpheu 2-Le Sang D'Un Poete 

B3 Pequeña Paz 

 

Other Versions: 

'Muestras Sin Valor' (Cassette, Album) Grand Mal Edicions (Spain, 1986). Mail-Audio project recorded in 1984–85. Andújar/Barcelona. It includes more tracks than the LP 

 

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Various – Darker Skratcher [LP] (1980, Los Angeles Free Music Society)

 

'Darker Skratcher' is one of those records that feels like a time capsule from a very particular underground moment in Los Angeles. Released in 1980, it captures the anything-goes spirit of the Los Angeles Free Music Society, a loose network of artists and musicians active since the early 70s who treated sound as a playground rather than a craft to perfect. 

Rather than sounding like a carefully sequenced album, the record plays more like a window into a scattered, hyper-creative scene. It jumps between primitive electronics, fractured punk, tape experiments and offbeat spoken pieces. Tracks such as “Cleanliness and Order” by Boyd Rice and Daniel Miller lean into minimal synth territory, while contributions from Jad Fair, Human Hands or Airway drift between playful pop fragments and total abstraction. The flow is unpredictable, almost like tuning into a collage of parallel broadcasts. 

Many of the contributors came straight out of the LAFMS orbit, where projects like Le Forte Four, Foundation Boo or The Doo-Dooettes functioned as fluid identities rather than fixed bands. People moved freely between names and ideas, recording whatever they felt like without worrying about technical skill or genre boundaries. That openness gives the record its charm, moving from catchy lo-fi moments to completely unhinged experiments without warning. 

There are also a few connections to scenes that would become more visible later on. 45 Grave appear here in an early form that still leans toward punk, and Dennis Duck would later be part of the The Dream Syndicate. Monitor links the record to the broader art-punk and performance scene tied to zines and mail-art culture, where boundaries between music, visual art and concept pieces were pretty much nonexistent.

 
The LAFMS “label” operated far outside traditional industry structures. Releases were often pressed in small quantities, packaged in a DIY way and circulated through personal networks rather than formal distribution. It was less about building a catalog and more about documenting activity as it happened, even if that documentation felt rough or incomplete. That approach ended up influencing later underground movements, especially cassette culture and noise scenes.

 
What comes through strongest on 'Darker Skratcher' is that sense of a community creating its own rules in real time. It’s chaotic, uneven, occasionally funny, sometimes surprisingly catchy, and deeply rooted in a pre-digital era where experimentation thrived in small, self-made circles. 

 

Label: Los Angeles Free Music Society – LAFMS#12 

Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation 

Country: US 

Released: 1980 

Style: Industrial, Punk, Experimental, Art Punk, Post-Punk, Experimental Rock, Minimal Wave, Netherlands

 

Tracklist: 

A1 Boyd Rice & Daniel Miller – Cleanliness And Order 2:45 

A2 Jad Fair – XXOO 0:30 

A3 Vetza – Stale Puppy-Dog Tails 1:30 

A4 The Rick Potts Band – Platform Swimfins 3:00 

A5 Monitor – Guardian 2:05 

A6 Doodooettes – Pork Had Better Behave 2:05 

A7 45 Grave – Riboflavin-Flavored, Non-Carbonated, Polyunsaturated Blood 2:37 

A8 NON – NON-Watusi 

B1 Foundation Boo – Nap 2:10 

B2 Airway – Perpendicular Thrust 3:45 

B3 Dennis Duck – Davey The Worm 3:00 

B4 Le Forte Four – The Lowest Form Of Music 3:08 

B5 Human Hands – I Got Mad 3:00 

B6 Bpeople – The Other Thing 2:38 

 

Other Versions: 

'Darker Skratcher' (LP, Compilation) - Frizz Bee (LAFMS #12) (Netherlands,1980)

 

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Vehikel & Gefäss (& Ventilator) – Make ‘Em Pay (!): Homemade Napalm = Gasolin Or Fuel Oil + Nondetergent Soap (Bar, Flakes Or Powder) / Make Gasolin, Oil Or A (1:1) Mixture Bubble And Add The Soap (1:1) [7''] (1990, Schimpfluch)

 

That release with the absurdly long title -'Make ‘Em Pay (!): Homemade Napalm = Gasolin Or Fuel Oil + Nondetergent Soap…'- is peak late-80s/early-90s Swiss noise culture: confrontational, cryptic, and deliberately uncomfortable in both concept and presentation. It came out in 1990 as a tiny 7-inch on the Schimpfluch label, pressed in a run of around 300 copies, which already tells you the deal: this wasn’t meant to circulate widely, it was more like an artifact passed between people already deep in that underground network. The recordings themselves were captured live in Zürich in March 1990, not in a studio, which lines up with the whole ethos -documenting actions rather than polishing “tracks.” 

The project behind it, Vehikel & Gefäss (& Ventilator), was basically a collision of three key figures from that scene: Rudolf Eb.er, Joke Lanz, and Marc Zeier. These weren’t just musicians in the usual sense. Eb.er, especially, was operating in a zone that mixed ritual, performance art, and sound as a kind of psychological intervention -less “songs,” more like controlled breakdowns or confrontations staged through audio. Lanz, through his Sudden Infant work, brought in that hyper-physical, almost violent approach to sound collage and turntable abuse, while Zeier added another layer from the same experimental network. 

That title isn’t a joke or edgy decoration either -it reflects a broader tendency in the scene to pull in imagery of destruction, bodily processes, and taboo subjects. The whole Schimpfluch orbit thrived on pushing listeners into uneasy territory, blurring lines between sound art, endurance performance, and what you might call anti-entertainment. The collective itself started in Zürich in 1987 as more than just a label: it was an umbrella for actions, radio broadcasts, collaborations, and a kind of shared philosophy built around extremity and critique of “safe” culture. 

Within that context, this single feels less like a standalone release and more like a snapshot of a moment -one of those live “actions” frozen onto vinyl. The A/B sides are just dated fragments (like “90-03-23”), which reinforces that idea: you’re hearing documentation, not compositions in the traditional sense.

 
Zooming out, this sits right in that early wave of European noise and musique concrète hybrids that rejected both rock structure and academic electronic music polish. It shares DNA with stuff like early tape-collage scenes, industrial extremes, and performance art happenings where the boundary between artist and audience could get pretty thin. Schimpfluch releases in general -often in tiny editions with bizarre packaging- feel more like conceptual objects than records, and this one fits that pattern perfectly. So yeah, not an easy listen, not even trying to be one. More like a document from a scene that wanted to test how far sound -and the people listening to it- could be pushed. 

 

Label: Schimpfluch – SH 16, Schimpfluch – sh 16 

Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Limited Edition 

Country: Switzerland 

Released: 1990 

Style: Noise, Experimental, Industrial 

 

Tracklist: 

A Live-Akcion 90-03-23 5:13 

B Live-Akcion 90-03-21 4:22 

 

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Mortification To The Flesh – Live - Studio [Cass] (1987, Sound Of Pig)

If you’re digging through the late-80s cassette underground, this is one of those weird, half-forgotten gems that perfectly captures how DIY things really were back then. 

First off, the tape came out on Sound of Pig, which already tells you a lot about what you’re getting into. This wasn’t a traditional record label -it was part of the global cassette culture network, putting out hundreds of releases during the mid-to-late ’80s, mostly in the experimental, industrial, and noise realms. These tapes weren’t sitting in record shops; they were traded through the mail, passed between fans, and discovered through fanzines. 

Mortification To The Flesh itself was essentially the first proper release from the project (often linked to the German act Bogart), and it’s exactly what the title promises: a hybrid of live and studio recordings. Part of the material was recorded in a studio setting, while the rest was captured live at the V2 Organisation in the Netherlands, giving the tape this split personality. One moment things feel relatively controlled, and the next it sounds like everything could fall apart at any second -in a good way.

 
Listening to it now, the vibe is unmistakably late-80s underground. It sits somewhere between industrial, experimental sound collage, and early noise, but it’s less about fitting into a genre and more about atmosphere. The recordings are lo-fi, the structures are loose, and there’s a strong sense that what you’re hearing wasn’t meant to be perfected. It’s raw, sometimes chaotic, and very much rooted in the moment it was recorded. 

That “live-studio” mix makes it even more interesting, because you can actually hear the contrast between the two environments. The studio parts feel slightly more contained, while the live recordings bring in unpredictability and a bit of tension, like the performance could veer off track at any point. That push and pull is a big part of what gives the tape its character. 

Context-wise, this release sits right in the middle of the cassette trading era, when underground artists were building international connections without the internet. Labels like Sound of Pig acted as hubs, distributing small-run tapes to a global network of listeners who were actively searching for the strange and the obscure. A release like this wasn’t just music -it was a signal that you were tapped into that world. 

Interestingly, this wasn’t a one-off. The project followed it up with 'Le Trésor Maudit' in 1988, which feels like a more developed continuation, making this cassette come across as a kind of raw starting point rather than a fully formed statement. 

 

 

Label: Sound Of Pig – SOP 85 

Format: Cassette, C60 

Country: US 

Released: 1987 

Style: Industrial 

 

Tracklist: 

Studio 

A1 Intro 1:34 

A2 Faust 6:03 

A3 Poursuite 3:53 

A4 Alles Lüge 6:41 

A5 Irdische Ergötzlichkeiten 6:05 

A6 Wege-Schrei 6:08 

Live 

B1 V2, s'Hertogenbosch 11:11 

B2 Arratta, Moers 13:49 

 

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Broken Paws – Broken Paws [Cass] (1986, Broken Paw Music)

The 'Broken Paws' cassette from 1986 is one of those fascinating artifacts from Canada’s underground home-taping era that seems to hover just outside mainstream documentation. Released as a self-titled tape, Broken Paws emerged from Calgary, Alberta at a time when independent musicians were embracing cassette culture as an affordable and creatively liberating format. Rather than pursuing traditional label routes, artists in this scene often recorded, duplicated, and distributed their music themselves, resulting in small runs that have since become rare collector’s pieces.

 
Behind the project was Richard Reynols, who used Broken Paws as a personal outlet for experimentation. The cassette captures the spirit of mid-1980s DIY electronic music: minimal synth textures, drum machine rhythms, and analog synth explorations woven together with a distinctly homemade aesthetic. There’s a rawness to the production that reflects both the limitations and the charm of home recording technology at the time. Unconventional touches -such as the inclusion of clarinet or even music box sounds- add a layer of unpredictability that makes the tape feel exploratory rather than polished. 

Clocking in at over an hour, the cassette follows the generous runtime typical of the format. Tracks such as “It’s All Made Sound,” “Slander,” “Closed Eyes,” and “Street Life” suggest a mixture of introspective mood pieces and rhythm-driven synth sketches. Like many releases from the cassette underground, official documentation is scarce.

 

 

Label: Broken Paw Music – bP1 

Format: Cassette, Limited Edition 

Country: Canada 

Released: 1986 

Style: Minimal, Experimental, Minimal Wave, Industrial, Post-Punk 

 

Tracklist: 

A1 It's All Made Sound 5:16 

A2 Sleeping In Surveilance 1:12 

A3 The Drive 3:31 

A4 Closed Eyes 4:05 

A5 My Sins 5:03 

A6 Movement One 1:42 

A7 Slander 5:05 

A8 So Frail Your Wings 3:25 

B1 Street Life 4:28 

B2 Watch 6:12 

B3 A Rising Soul 3:00 

B4 Water 3:15 

B5 Transition 3:52 

B6 Demensions From The Crib 3:54 

B7 Making Films 4:30 

B8 Red Sky (Short Version) 1:58 

 

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Solenoid – Norey Games [Cass] (1982, Not On Label)

Solenoid's 'Norey Games' from 1982 is one of those incredibly obscure artifacts that sits right at the heart of early DIY cassette culture. It isn’t a video game or a soundtrack tied to one -despite the name- but a privately released cassette by the Dutch experimental group Solenoid, who were active for a short time around 1981–1982 in Harderwijk, the Netherlands. 

 
Solenoid operated firmly in the underground. Their music leaned toward experimental pop, no wave, and early industrial sounds, mixing live instruments like guitar, bass, organ, and rhythm boxes with tape experiments and noise manipulation. This was very much in line with the early ’80s home-taping scene, where bands recorded cheaply, released tiny runs, and circulated music hand to hand rather than through labels.

 

'Norey Games' itself wasn’t a commercial release at all. The cassette was handed out at a private party in the summer of 1982 and was never intended for wider distribution. The recordings are mostly taken from live performances, mixed with lo-fi tape experiments and sound collages. Because of that, it plays more like a snapshot of a moment than a polished album -raw, uneven, and very much of its time. 

 
For decades, the tape wasn’t available online and existed only as a rumor among collectors and fans of obscure cassette culture. There’s no confirmed tracklist, no catalog number, and no official documentation beyond a few niche archival blogs that later mentioned it. That scarcity is part of what makes it interesting today: it’s a genuine example of how experimental music circulated outside the mainstream before the internet. 

 
Overall, 'Norey Games' is less about “songs” and more about atmosphere and context. It captures a brief moment in the early ’80s underground, when bands like Solenoid were experimenting freely, releasing music for friends and local scenes, and leaving behind tiny, hard-to-trace traces that only resurfaced decades later. 

 

 

Label: Not On Label (Solenoid Self-released) – none 

Format: Cassette, Album, C60 

Country: Netherlands 

Released: 1982 

Style: Industrial, New Wave, Experimental, Experimental Rock, Post-Punk

 

Tracklist: 

This Side 

A1 Alice Ou La Dernière Fugue 4:19 

A2 Absurd 4:30 

A3 Silex Hippopola 3:26 

A4 Dead Bodys 3:44 

A5 Den Beinen 3:08 

A6 Aliens 3:07 

A7 So Wie Es Ist 2:54 

A8 Gib Mir Das Licht 3:49 

The Other Side 

B1 Pop Art 2:58 

B2 Gorey Games 4:27 

B3 Ecoutez 3:30 

B4 The Idea 3:20 

B5 All Rights Reserved 3:47 

B6 T.L. Licht 3:35 

B7 Alkaloide 1:55 

B8 S.W. 4:18 

B9 Spoiling 2:19 

 

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Orfeon Gagarin – Halibut-Vaporub [Cass] (1990, Toracic Tapes)

Orfeón Gagarin is the experimental music project of Miguel A. Ruiz, a Spanish electronic musician who has been active since the early 1980s. He’s closely linked to Spain’s underground cassette scene and is known for releasing music through small DIY labels and his own imprint, Toracic Tapes. His sound moves between experimental electronics, industrial, noise, and abstract atmospheres, often rough, lo-fi, and intentionally strange. 

 
Over the years, Ruiz has worked under several different aliases, with Orfeón Gagarin being just one of many outlets for his ideas. This project in particular reflects his interest in unconventional structures, surreal titles, and a very hands-on, tape-culture approach to making and releasing music. 

 
'Halibut-Vaporub' is a cassette release from 1990, originally put out by the Tragic Figures label. Like much of Orfeón Gagarin’s work from that period, it was designed for the cassette format and fits perfectly into the late-80s and early-90s experimental underground. 

 
The music on 'Halibut-Vaporub' leans toward industrial and experimental electronics, with abstract textures, odd rhythms, and a raw, homemade feel. The track titles are playful and surreal, matching the offbeat character of the sounds themselves. Over time, the release has become something of a cult favorite. 

 
Overall, 'Halibut-Vaporub' works as a snapshot of Orfeón Gagarin’s early style and of a moment when underground electronic music was driven by curiosity, experimentation, and DIY spirit rather than polish or mainstream appeal. 

 

 

Label: Toracic Tapes – none 

Format: Cassette, Album, C46 

Country: Spain 

Released: 1990 

Style: Industrial, Experimental, Minimal Synth 

 

Tracklist: 

A1 Halibut-Vaporub 2:15 

A2 Theory Of Raw Fish 1:35 

A3 Take Your Shotgun! 2:20 

A4 Life Under Your Seat 2:53 

A5 Un Improbable Omnibús 2:08 

A6 El Rencor De Un Viticultor 1:33 

A7 Procreation Dance 1:42 

A8 The Nameless Mussel 1:30 

A9 Un Malvado Hipocampo 1:40 

A10 Napalm Nap 3:17 

B1 Song Of The Glittering Sons 1:27 

B2 Ultimo Ritual En Nihombashi 1:55 

B3 El Error De Un Apicultor 2:12 

B4 La Premonición De Ismael 2:00 

B5 Perseguido Por El Vudú 3:08 

B6 Hípica Y Vida Birmana 0:50 

B7 Survol Du Pole Nord 3:01 

B8 El Címbalo Presuroso 1:50 

B9 Yo, Piscicultor 2:20 

 

Other Versions: 

'Halibut-Vaporub' (Cassette, Album, C46) Tragic Figures [TFT017] (Portugal, 1990)

 

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I, Braineater – Artist Poet Thief [LP] (1985, More)

 

I, Braineater is basically the creative universe of Jim Cummins, a Vancouver artist who never really separated music from painting, comics, performance, or general chaos. The project started in the late ’70s, originally under the name Braineater, and it slowly evolved into the more personal “I, Braineater” identity as Cummins’s whole artistic persona took center stage. Over the years the sound shifted a lot -early stuff leaned into raw punk, but by the mid-’80s the music had morphed into an odd blend of new wave, art-rock, electronics, and post-punk attitudes. Nothing about the project was ever straightforward; it was as much about the overall aesthetic as it was about the songs. 

 
The album 'Artist, Poet, Thief' came out in 1985, pressed privately as an LP. Compared to the earlier, scrappier records, this one feels more like a “band” album -tighter rhythms, more structured songs, and a clearer sense of direction. Even so, it still sounds like an art project that just happens to be a rock record. The music pulls from a bunch of places: post-punk moods, a bit of gothic atmosphere, flashes of punk energy, occasional psychedelic touches, and some catchy new-wave-style hooks. Side one leans into the more melodic material, while side two gets a bit rougher and more energetic. 

 
The record’s tracklist includes songs like “Edge,” “Canada,” “Wrong World,” and “1980 More” on the first side, and “Funtime,” “Comeon,” “Sacred Cow,” “I Am,” and “7Teen” on the second. It’s the kind of album where each track feels like it was created inside its own peculiar headspace, but the whole thing hangs together because of Cummins’s distinct voice and art-punk instincts. 

 
Culturally, 'Artist, Poet, Thief' sits in a really interesting spot. Vancouver’s underground scene in the early and mid ’80s was full of crossover between punk bands, artists, weirdos, filmmakers, and people who didn’t fit neatly anywhere, and I, Braineater embodied that mix perfectly. This record captures the moment when the project was moving beyond pure punk but still holding onto its DIY strangeness. Because of that -and because the releases were small and the band never aimed for mainstream exposure-the album ended up becoming a cult collectible over the years. 

 
It’s one of those records that feels like a snapshot of a particular corner of the underground: experimental, theatrical, messy, charming, and totally unconcerned with commercial expectations. If you’re into oddball art-rock or punk-adjacent music that lives in its own world, it’s a fascinating listen.

 

 

Label: More – none 

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album 

Country: Canada 

Released: 1985 

Style: New Wave, Abstract, Industrial, Experimental 

 

Tracklist: 

A1 Edge 1:29 

A2 Canada 2:21 

A3 Wrong World 3:44 

A4 1980 More 3:54 

B1 Funtime 1:24 

B2 Comeon 1:43 

B3 Sacred Cow 3:02 

B4 I Am 3:06 

B5 7teen 2:34 

 

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Fats Comet – Rockchester [12''] (1987, World Records)

 

Fats Comet was a British/American industrial hip hop group formed by Adrian Sherwood, Keith LeBlanc, Skip McDonald and Doug Wimbish. British music producer Adrian Sherwood first met American percussionist Keith LeBlanc in 1984 while working on a remix for the reggae group Akabu. They were joined by guitarist Skip McDonald and bassist Doug Wimbish in London. Fats Comet was originally conceived to be a studio-only project. A change in musical direction led the members to focus their attention on another project called Tackhead, which aimed at having a less commercial sound compared to Fats Comet. Although they never released a full-length album, the group's final single, 'Rockchester', was a modest success in the UK. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA] 

 

Label: World Records – WR006 

Format: Vinyl, 12", Single 

Country: UK 

Released: Jan 1987 

Style: Industrial, Funk 

 

Tracklist: 

A Rockchester 6:16 

B O.K. Bye! 5:18 

 

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BDN / Brighter Death Now – Temp Tations [Cass] (1989, Börft Records)

Brighter Death Now is the artist name under which Roger Karmanik (b. 1965 as Roger Karlsson), the founder of the Swedish record label Cold Meat Industry, releases death industrial, power electronics and dark ambient music. Whereas early Brighter Death Now recordings tended to be largely instrumental and atmospherically oriented, present-day releases often feature screamed vocals, distorted beyond comprehension. 

 

Throughout its history, Karmanik has kept his music's thematic elements focused on such topics as child molestation, sadism, and psychosis. 'The Great Death' trilogy and 'May All Be Dead' have become rare collectors items, and are sought after by many Brighter Death Now fans. Roger Karmanik has been active under other names such as Lille Roger (Swedish for Little Roger) and Bomb The Daynursery. 

 

In 2009, Karmanik remixed the short films of Jason LaRay Keener as projection for live shows. Karmanik closed down Cold Meat Industries around the beginning of 2014 as he expressed that he was suffering mentally and physically from the stress of running the label. By the end of 2014, Karmanik had fully immersed himself within the shroud of Brighter Death Now and announced the creation of his new label Familjegraven whose sole purpose is to release his own projects, including rarities, reissues, and new recordings. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA] 

 

Label: Börft Records – BÖRFT 13, Börft Records – börft 013 

Format: Cassette, Album, Limited Edition, Numbered, C60 

Country: Sweden 

Released: 1989 

Style: Industrial, Death Industrial 

 

Tracklist: 

A1 Now 

A2 Demands & Commands 

A3 Trained 

A4 Signality 

A5 The Housewives 

B1 Luci-A-Fer 

B2 Overaged Seduction 

B3 Bloodsex & Murder 

B4 Blood On The Sheets 

B5 Death Continues 

 

Notes: 

Limited to 50 handnumbered copies. 

 

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Acces 22 – War!! [12''] (1990, Megabeat Records)

 

Access 22 was a Spanish Techno project from Valencia formed by DJ and sound technician Fran Lenaers, DJ and producer Vicente "Gani" Manero, and musician Julio Nexus (Julio Pastor), that recorded under other aliases such as Ground Zone, Interfront, Invisible 2, Megabeat, Nexus, Robotics, Spook, The Impossibles, The Lords Of The New Beat, The Ora:cle, The Sun Corporation and Tyrell Corporation.

 

 

Label: Megabeat Records – MEGABEAT DURO 1 

Format: Vinyl, 12", 33 ⅓ RPM, 45 RPM, Mini-Album 

Country: Spain 

Released: 1990 

Style: EBM, Industrial, Electro, Techno, Makina

 

Tracklist:

A1 War!! 4:45 

B1 Ducted 5:10 

B2 Trust Me 4:04 

B3 Sex Floor 4:31 

B4 1-Ex 3:33 

B5 Up 2 U 2:06 

 

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