RRRecords
RRRecords (based in Lowell, Massachusetts) is a used record shop and is also one of the largest record labels specifically targeting noise styles of music. RRR has put out releases by some of the most famous noise artists including: Emil Beaulieau, Merzbow, Masonna, Nurse With Wound, Wolf Eyes, as well as many, many others. RRR is run by Ron Lessard, better known by the 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 have the original insert or printing on the cassette. RRR Recycled tapes are labeled with a simple strip of blank tape (of the sticky kind) along the spine of the insert with the artist's name 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. There have been numerous recycled tapes released by RRRecords, with everyone from internationally known artists down to small artists who had never had a release before. This is certainly due to the extremely low cost of reproducing the recordings onto cassettes which are cheaply available to the record store.
The store also holds shows once in a while, though most of the shows are completely 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, Burn Ward, and Realicide; however, the list of artists who have played at the legendary shop is tireless.
Ron's label's biggest accomplishment, however, most likely lies in his Xeroxed copies of a mail order list he would add to underground 'zines circulating in the mid-to-late '80s. This distribution had a profound effect on the commercial aspects of noise, and got many people from around the world into noise when they saw his minimalistic photocopied advertisements in black and white with interesting "big-name" noise artists plastered all over and combined with newspaper clippings, cut-up pictures, etc.
On the label side of things, RRR has a very prolific discography (though a lot of the music was co-released through Nurse With Wound's label, United Dairies), some of which you can see below
Partial RRR Discography (in no particular order)
- Recycled Music cassettes from most established noise artists.
- Nurse With Wound/Current 93 - Nylon Coverin' Body Smotherin'
- Emil Beaulieau/Zipper Spy/K.K. Null - Japan 2000
- Asmus Tietchens - Formen Letzter Hausmusik
- Operating Theatre - Rapid Eye Movements
- Merzbow - Pornoise 1KG (5 cassette box-set)
- Skrol - Insomnia Dei
- Can't - New Secret
- Jason Lescalleet - Electronic Music
- Boy Dirt Car - Winter
- Hanatarash - Hanatarash 3
- Pedestrian Deposit/Prurient - Red Head
- Burning Star Core - Let's Play Wild Like Wildcats Do
- Skullflower - Obsidian Shaking Codex
- Sickness - Fuck Your Punk Rock
- Ichorous - Lifender
- Merzbow - Batztoutai With Memorial Gadgets
- Karlheinz - Fucking