What is it?
Welcome to the Background Frequencies Series. This is a special series of lathe cut singles featuring home recorded sounds packaged in homemade sleeves. All the bands featured on these records have recorded tracks at home on everything from computers to 4 track cassette recorders (with a couple of live tracks thrown in) but share a common goal of producing original and interesting music. Mostly instrumental, the music includes drone, noise, electronic, ambient, field recordings and a range of other sound generating gadgets.

All the packaging will feature a lino print design hand printed on each numbered sleeve with a wrap around of tracing paper with the track details and the name of each release. Where possible, materials used in these sleeves are recycled (either made from recycled material or purchased from Reverse Garbage - a Marrickville Council run outlet selling post manufacturing 'waste'). To check out some photos of the sleeve making process, check out the photos section of the steady cam site.

These singles will be extremely limited and are more an experiment in aesthetic then commercial ambition so we hope you approach them a little differently than your average music purchase.

Lathe cut singles are individually cut from polycarbonate plastic. It is a similar material to that used for CD manufacture. The material is a little softer than traditional vinyl so the records tend to have a little more crackle to them. Our experience is that it isn't enough to detract from the music itself. Lathe cut singles have plenty of fans the world over and one of the best resources for those looking to find out more is Dan Vallor's website. There is even a discussion group so check it out.

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The singles are all AUD$12.00 including postage anywhere in Australia. There has been a small price increase due to an increase in the cost of a couple of components, sorry. For overseas shoppers, please add AUD$4.00. Order and pay direct via the paypal buttons below each release.
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A meeting of two vastly different yet strangely similar improvisers with the Sydney six piece Castings are paired up with Melbourne duo ii.

Castings can be beautiful and brutal. Distorted and processed instruments (guitars, keyboards, harmonicas), samplers, field recordings, vocals and drums all combine to create some amazing pieces with live sets a single semi-improvised performance. No two live shows are the same with the band often adapting their sound and set up to suit the performance space. Their track "no puppets, no dice" is just a glimpse of the collective's potential.

ii - two little letters - which kind of look like two people.
together, they improvise and sometimes plan their way through
fluttering ambience, lumbering strum-outs, icy blips and cheerful
plink-alongs. having formed in outer eastern melbourne, ii are now based in various regions of the suburban fringe.

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AUD$12.00 inc. postage

Please add an extra AUD$4.00
for overseas airmail

Two likeminded Melbourne bands who appear on record together at last after sharing stages over the last few years.

Because of Ghosts are fast becoming one of the most revered experimental outfits in Melbourne. Dynamic and dramtic, the band rearrange the standard guitar, bass and drums structure with loops, samples and occasional glockspiel to create melancholic, and often explosive, soundscapes.

I want a hovercraft is a duo of seth rees, a renowned melbourne producer and experimental guitarist (check out Seth's excellent Amplifier Machine who released a split CD with A-Mo a year or so ago on Land & Sea), and sara-jane wentzki, who as princess one point five released an impressive debut solo album early in 2005. As I want a hovercraft, the pair produce beautifully hypnotic pieces of hushed acoustic guitar strumming with crackling electronic drones and pulses as evident in their two contributions, "diffuse" and "indulgence".

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AUD$12.00 inc. postage

Please add an extra AUD$4.00
for overseas airmail

Two different approaches to music but both sharing a common aesthetic of hushed tones and whisper quiet melody.

Prettyboy Crossover have a series of albums, eps and 12"s to their names and here they show two sides of their personality, a quiet drone and electronic textures.

Winterville taken a more rustic approach with guitars and bass creating a sparse, minimalist drone that builds to a gently swaying, pulsing finale before fading away once more.

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National Park are like this: a mystery, loose, first single (Great Western - Earworm Records) ten minutes long and recorded on a tape deck, folky, warm, a bit like the Velvet Underground, lonesome, appear on the Domino Geographic Records compilation "You don't need arkness to do what you think is right". Secret Songs originally called Secret Music until a chance meeting on the streets of Glasgow with Stephen revealed The Pastels had a song by the same name. Oh well.

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SOLD OUT

Minmae have contributed to over a dozen releases including 7-inches, CDs, EPs and compilations. Pursuing a noisy type of garage drone, the band have etched away at the lo-fi indie scene and created their own unique niche. The dreamer, a certain friend and the unknown woman is a slow burning drone built around a backwards drum loop, shimmering guitar fuzz  and the occasional hum and buzz.

Seaworthy have recently released their debut album, it's humbling when two saints meet, and Just an afteroon builds on the guitar and piano instrumentals that are scattered through that album, exploring a bleak, beautiful melancholy.