RRRecords
RRRecords (based in Lowell, Massachusetts) is a used record shop and one of the largest record labels specifically targeting noise music. RRR has released recordings by some of the most famous noise artists including: Emil Beaulieau, Merzbow, Masonna, Nurse With Wound, Sutcliffe Jügend, Wolf Eyes, as well as many, many others. RRR is owned and operated by Ron Lessard, better known as RRRon or by his stage name Emil Beaulieau.
RRRecords is extremely well known for their "Recycled Music" releases - recordings released on commercially available cassette tapes which have been recycled with new music, but still include the original insert or printing on the cassette. RRR Recycled tapes are labeled with a simple strip of adhesive tape along the spine of the insert with the artist's name hand-written upon it. Part of the charm of the recycled releases is that each tape is unique, and that, in some cases, the original audio is still partly audible. RRRecords has released numerous recycled tapes by internationally known artists as well as small artists who had never released anything previously. The extremely low cost of reproducing the recordings onto cassettes, cheaply available at any record store, most likely accounts for this range of releases.
The store also holds shows occasionally; most are noise related. The store has a small two-speaker PA and one table on which artists set up their equipment. Artists who have played there include Prurient, Pedestrian Deposit, Oscillating Innards, Ichorous, Immaculate:Grotesque, Hive Mind, Sickness, Wapstan, The Vomit Arsonist, Burn Ward, Realicide, and countless others.
Lessard's Xeroxed copies of a mail order list added to underground 'zines circulating in the mid-to-late '80s had a profound effect on the commercial aspects of noise, and created an international interest in the music through their minimalistic black and white advertisements featuring "big-name" noise artists and newspaper clippings, cut-up pictures, etc.
As a label, RRR has a very prolific discography (though much of the music was co-released with Nurse With Wound's label, United Dairies), some of which is included below.
Partial RRR Discography (in no particular order)
- Recycled Music cassettes from most established noise artists.
- Emil Beaulieau/Zipper Spy/K.K. Null - Japan 2000
- Merzbow - Pornoise 1KG (5 cassette box-set)
- Can't - New Secret
- Jason Lescalleet - Electronic Music
- Boy Dirt Car - Winter
- Hanatarash - Hanatarash 3
- Burning Star Core - Let's Play Wild Like Wildcats Do
- Skullflower - Obsidian Shaking Codex
- Human Is Filth - Destroys Emil Beaulieau CD
- Sickness - Fuck Your Punk Rock
- Ichorous - Lifender
- Merzbow - Batztoutai With Memorial Gadgets
- Karlheinz - Fucking
- Chop Shop - "Steel Plate"
- Blackhouse - "Holy War"
- P16.D4 - "Three Projects"
- K2 & Macronympha - "Biometrics"
- Anenzephalia - "Fragments of Demise"
- Violent Onsen Geisha - "The Midnight Gambler"
- Emil Beaulieau - "That Velvet Touch"
- Ramleh - "We Created It, Let's Take it Over 1-3"
- Sudden Infant - "Solothurn"
- Small Cruel Party & Chop Shop - "Split"
- various artists - New England (5 LP box-set with hand-made cover art)
- Master Slave Relationship - This Lubricious Love