Thomas Bey William Bailey: Unofficial Release

[Brad]

http://tbwb.net/unofficial_release.html

The culture of self-released music and sound art is one of the most vital, yet most overlooked, phenomena resulting from the 20th century revolution in communications technology. In this volume, Thomas Bailey surveys a fascinating realm of creative activity and identifies the key individuals and developments responsible for its continued relevance in the present age. From the networked "mail art" of the 1970s, to the home-taping boom, to the establishment of music labels dealing solely in digital sound files, this culture provides valuable insight into the evolution of the "official" art market and the artists who bypass it. Along the way, we are introduced to a world where networks are artworks in themselves, where blank tapes and recordable CDs are fashioned into elaborate art objects, and where relative freedom from creative supervision leads to both colorful innovations and violent aesthetic extremes. 

'Unofficial Release' features material on mail art, cassette culture, industrial music, handmade packaging, releasing addiction, anti-promotion, net-labels, digital file sharing, circumventing censorship, extremist metal, sound poetry, imaginary music, 'outsider' art, tape nostalgia...and much more!

Exclusive long-form interviews are also included with artists such as Frans de Waard, Vittore Baroni, Rod Summers, GX Jupitter-Larsen and others, along with new insights from theorists and artists as varied as 'Gen' Ken Montgomery, The Tapeworm, Alexei Monroe (author of Interrogation Machine and more), Oren Ambarchi, and David Tibet. Also includes front and back cover photography courtesy of Scott Konzelmann / Chop Shop.

[Andrew McIntosh]

That excerpt from the chapter "Release-A-Holics Anonymous; A Few Faces Of Output Addiction" should be read by all.

"...they feel impotent in the face of a more powerful media machine, and all that remains is to crank out as much material as possible in a narrow time frame to prove that they have 'gotten there first.' Being seen as the originator of a sonic idea or entire aesthetic becomes more important than continuing to shape and develop it."