Tunes Consumed: the Poutine Silver Platter

There’s something distinctly surreal about oldage recording techniques of the past decades. What came before the 90s was production that relied solely on (physical) tape recording and systems wired entirely in analog fashion. This is now a mainstay to what is most often seen as the ‘indie’ sound. While that’s not to say that indie artists should strive to be lo-fi, rather this quality is still present as a result of low-budget sound engineering (or, even because some producers/studios insist on it, ala Montreal’s very own Hotel 2 Tango).

Like Sam Beam or Jeff Mangum in their basements with their dusty 8-track rigs, shuffling around furniture, throwing up curtains to try and exercise control over the sound - or not even, maybe just recording amongst the mildew-laden concrete walls and hoping for the best. I recall reading in Kim Cooper’s 33 1/3 on Neutral Milk Hotel the way Schneider explained how fuzz coming from the sound was just a side-effect, that it could be removed with some proper filters or equipment. If you listen to any “studio” NMH album you’ll be delighted to find that there is, literally, a wall of fuzz emitting from your speakers. Jeff loved it, he wanted every instrument he could possibly muster up to have that hoarse sound. To him, it was good old times, like 45s (like 1945).

In technical terms, lo-fi has meanings apart from fuzziness, believe it or not. It literally means “lo-fidelity” which, contrasted to “high-fidelity” (or hi-fi) has many flaws: a sound may hum, fuzz, or just generally distort (distortion like a blown bass speaker might sound), and typically has lower frequency response. The band of human hearing peaks at 20kHz so you can expect to miss out on those precious high tones.

For me, lo-fi records have a special time and place. It’s often the case that something so crisp, pristine and precise as a full-out digital recording is just plain distracting and overwhelming. (I can’t, for instance, wake up every morning to the powerhouse that is Battles. These guys know the science of sound, just go to one of their shows and bask in the spaghetti stage of cables & devices, and their studio effort is no exception.) At these times I’d rather prefer the quiet, unobtrusive Sam Beam, or the buzzy horns of Scott Spillane. Even Portishead’s studio efforts, as electronic as they are, sound somehow humble and inviting under these conditions. It’s something you can think clearly on top of, and usually talk over at a normal listening volume.

Without further ado, here’s a playlist to help you through your own times of fidelity:

Tunes Consumed Presents: fuzzy essentials
01. Daniel Johnston - Speeding Motorcycle (1983)
02. Portishead - Pedestal (1994)
03. Woods - Night Creature (2007)
04. Neutral Milk Hotel - Song Against Sex (1996)
05. Band of Horses - Our Swords (2006)
06. Slow Hand Motem - Japanese Lampshades (2004)
07. Iron & Wine - The Rooster Moans (2002)
08. Beck - Fourteen Rivers Fourteen Floods (1994)
Total Time: 26 minutes

You can also download the entire thing as a podcast.

Got a favourite lo-fi artist/track/tid-bit? Let us know in the comments!