Lo-fi music

Lo-fi (from the term "low fidelity") is lower quality of sound recordings than the usual standard for modern music. The qualities of lo-fi are usually achieved by either degrading the quality of the recorded audio, or using certain equipment. Through the use of these degradative techniques, artifacts are created as a byproduct of the recording process itself that may be used in conjunction with the musical aspects of the recording in a similar way that musique concrète may juxtapose traditional musical sound and "concrete" sound. Recent uses of the phrase have led to it becoming a genre, although it still remains as an aesthetic in music recording practice. The aesthetic of lo-fi music often contrasts that of mainstream pop by being somewhat flawed but at the same time embracing those flaws, giving low-fi a more honest and unpretentious feeling. Many lo-fi artists use inexpensive cassette tape recorders or low-quality commercial digital recorders to achieve the desired sound. The term was adopted by WFMU DJ William Berger who dedicated a weekly half hour segment of his program to home recorded music throughout late 1986 under the name Lo-Fi.

Origins

Lo-fi's roots can be dated as far back as a set of live cylinder recordings created in 1900–04 by Lionel Mapleson from a catwalk 40 ft (12 m) above the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. The sound quality of these "Mapleson Cylinders" is very poor (more so since they are one-of-a-kind artifacts that have been further worn down by being played over the last century); the aesthetic quality, though, partakes in the electric, authentic feeling of an unedited event being captured in real time. In the same historical period, commercial field recordings of folk music had begun to be created in many nations of the world, recorded catch-as-catch-can by early record producers such as Fred Gaisberg of HMV. The descriptor "lo-fi" would be misused in this case, however, since the recordists used the best available equipment of the era in order to capture and reproduce the sound as faithfully as possible - which is in fact inconsistent with the contemporary concept of lo-fi music. However, since the technology used in these recordings were relatively crude though advanced at the time, the resulting recordings would be considered equally crude - or "low-fidelity" - by more modern standards.

In a later era, Buddy Holly recorded some songs in a converted garage. Some posthumous Hank Williams demos were also overdubbed for commercial release. In the 1960s and 70s visual artist Jean Dubuffet would also record improvisational pieces of spoken word and vocal and instrumental compositions to magnetic tape regardless of skill or technical quality.

The Beach Boys' albums Smiley Smile (1967), Wild Honey (1967), and Friends (1968) were a trilogy of lo-fi albums recorded mostly in Brian Wilson's makeshift home studio. Former Pink Floyd singer Syd Barrett's album The Madcap Laughs has been regarded by former colleagues as truly the first lo-fi album, or at least a key predecessor. Frank Zappa, acting as producer for ''Trout Mask Replica'' by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, recorded several of the tracks on that album using a cassette recorder, and one track was recorded over the telephone. Bob Dylan decided in 1975 to officially release a set of The Basement Tapes, first recorded as music publisher demos in 1967, and the first lo-fi pop music milestone was reached. The music was really not originally intended for general release. The recordings, made on a consumer-quality Ampex quarter-track machine with two microphones set up for "dual mono", made a virtue of their flaws; with their asides, laughter, and unselfconscious looseness, they defined the authenticity of the lo-fi experience. As a historical matter, in the years between the production and the official release, the popularity of these particular recordings also created the first market for pop bootleg records, which as a listening experience came to include seemingly every scrap of certain rock artists' off-the-cuff and unreleased work, including home recordings in addition to rough versions of songs. A seminal early example of this was the 1976 home-made debut album Phonography by pioneer DIY popster R. Stevie Moore. Also, famed songwriter Lou Reed produced a version of the self-titled 3rd album by his band, The Velvet Underground. Its lo-fi, cramped sound became known as the "closet mix". It was highly influential to up-and-coming indie lo-fi groups. JW Farquhar's home-recorded 1973 album The Formal Female was also considered as an early forerunner to lo-fi records.

Lo-fi recordings became more commonly heard in the late seventies to early eighties with many electronic acts. In Monte A. Melnick's biographical book, On the Road with the Ramones, Thomas Erdelyi considers the band's first record to be a "great lo-fi album". Suicide's debut album is a large collection of lo-fi classics, which Bruce Springsteen took inspiration from on his 1982 lo-fi album Nebraska. Other classic lo-fi's to appear around this time include Throbbing Gristle's "United", Thomas Leer's "Private Plane", The Normal's "TVOD/Warm Leatherette" single, and The Human League's "Being Boiled". Another UK classic lo-fi band is the Young Marble Giants.

1980s onwards

Pavement singer/guitarist and lo-fi music innovator Steve Malkmus

As a term to describe a musical genre, lo-fi is mainly associated with recordings from the 1980s onwards, when cassette technology such as Tascam's four-track Portastudio became widely available. Prime early exponents included Daniel Johnston, New Zealand band the Tall Dwarfs, who recorded on Chris Knox's 4-track and released on Flying Nun Records, The Bilders (period 1978-81), who recorded in a bedroom, Beat Happening and the Olympia, Washington label K Records. In the early-mid-1990s (1991–1999), lo-fi found a wider audience with the success of such acts as Aphex Twin, Beck, Blur, Enrico Curreri, Sebadoh, Guided by Voices, Smog, Spookey Ruben, Mercury Rev, Sparklehorse, Spare Snare, Pavement, Modest Mouse, Neutral Milk Hotel, Operation Ivy, Rooney (UK band), Liz Phair, Will Oldham, Yo La Tengo, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Ween, David Kilgour and later (1999–2003) The Microphones, Elliott Smith, The Apples in Stereo, Dr. Dog, The Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Beulah, Of Montreal, Mike Rifone, Sufjan Stevens, Joanna Newsom, Iron & Wine, Tame Impala, The Shins and Boards of Canada.

Often lo-fi artists will record on old or poor recording equipment, ostensibly out of financial necessity but also due to the aural associations such technologies have. The growth in lo-fi coincided with the growth of extreme slickness and polish associated with the multitrack pop recording techniques of the 1980s. Lo-fi can therefore been seen as a counterculture movement, though exponents rarely identify themselves with any political persuasion.

Many artists associated with the lo-fi movement, such as Bill Callahan, Bob Log III, Spare Snare or Weird Paul Petroskey, have frequently rejected the use of finer recording equipment, trying to keep their sound raw instead, whereas others such as Guided by Voices, Clutch, and The Mountain Goats slowly moved to using professional studios.

The black metal genre embraced the lo-fi idea during the late 1980s and early 1990s as it strived to distance itself from pop music. Most bands recorded their albums on extremely low budgets, using four-track recorders and any other equipment they could use. The greatest example is the Darkthrone album Transilvanian Hunger, though almost all of their albums have an intentionally "lo-fi" sound quality. The band started as a clean, well produced technical death metal band before evolving their style and almost singlehandedly producing the low quality production style that would become common place in the black metal scene. Varg Vikernes of black metal band Burzum was also known to purposely use extremely lo-fi recording techniques on his albums. On the album Filosofem, Varg was said to have intentionally asked a local store for the cheapest microphone they had, and they sold him a headset, which he used to record vocals on the album. For guitar he was said to have used a distortion pedal to drive a stereo receiver, which made the extremely fuzzy, buzzing guitar tone found on the album. Despite the interplay between the two genres, the term "raw" is generally preferred to "lo-fi" in black metal circles.

File:Recife Lo-fi.jpg

Recife Lo-fi Collection: new lo-fi artists and bands from Brazil

Currently, there is a growing scene of lo-fi bands in the United States and Canada. Notable bands and solo artists include Two Gallants, Bark Bark Disco, Chaoticum, Wavves, No Age, Times New Viking, Dum Dum Girls, Rogue Wave, Best Coast, Ty Segall, Kurt Vile, Sleep Good, Gonjasufi, Ghosts of Pasha, Vivian Girls, Señora Lola, The Scarfs, Former Ghosts, Teen Suicide, Zola Jesus, Sweet Valley Slumber Party, Lake, Emily Reo and Glass Graves.There is also an even newer trend of lo-fi goth bands, which incorporate influence from noise music, deathrock, new wave, and hardcore punk; this scene grew out of an influx of ex-deathrock revivalists into the indie music scene.

In Brazil a tropical lo-fi scene has emerged since 2010 in major newspapers including many artists and bands through the Recife Lo-fi Collection organized by the musician and producer Zeca Viana. In this recording we can find different rhythms like Samba, Bossa Nova and MPB mixed with psychedelia. Recife is a city located in northeastern Brazil known for its tropical beaches, popular music and carnival.

Digital lo-fi

Lo-fi music can also refer to low fidelity music created with low end synths, 8-bit computers, and circuit bending.

See also

• Cassette culture
• Indie rock
• List of lo-fi bands
• High fidelity
• No-fi
• DIY culture
• Low bit

External links

• Allmusic entry for lo-fi
• Lo-Fi: In Search of an Honest Aesthetic by Jonathan Maier
• Lo-Fi music group at last.fm
• GetLoFi.com
• Low Fidelity Living - Free Online Lo-Fi/Noise Compilation
• Lo-fi on Avant-Avant
• Recife Lo-fi Collection