No-Fi

No-Fi is a term used to describe music or media created outside conventional technical standards.

The name

Where "Hi-fi" and "Lo-fi" are short for "High Fidelity" and "Low Fidelity", respectively, "No-fi" is a play-on-words intended to be interpreted as meaning "No Fidelity".

The sound

No-Fi is an extraordinarily diverse aesthetic, covering many mediums other than just music, though the music holds a central role in the foundation, definition and formation of the genre. It has been suggested that No-Fi music is: on the edge of losing control or collapsing into non-music, nihilistic to the standards of acceptable composition, bastardizing, mocking of convention, unclean, containing "natural" noises and various sonic artifacts, such as natural reverb and echoes, distortion, tape-hiss and/or feedback, lack of sound-picture clarity, improvisation suggesting the lack of a separate "truth" behind the origins of a piece, and the use of noise as an "instrument" (Similar to Noise artists).

Though according themselves other stylistic titles the bands Slicing Grandpa, Eric's Trip, Bone Awl, Nailed Down, Sonic Youth's early work, much of Darkthrone's work (particularly Transilvanian Hunger and F.O.A.D.), and the more "raw" forms of punk especially the crust punk scene would exemplify some or all of No-Fi's aesthetic.

History

Though existing beforehand in underground music culture, and used by several bands and artists to describe their work, the term was popularized by No-Fi "Magazine" in the mid-nineties. Originating from compulsory lo-fi recordings as said earlier due to the quality of the equipment used at the time.

See also

• Circuit bending
• Experimental musical instrument
• Noise (music)

External links

• No Fidelity, a website with bands, art and other No Fi material
• No-Fi "Magazine"
• No Fidelity Culture, a No-fi and Lo-fi blog.