Drifting and pulsating throughout a shimmery vapour trail of releases,
Fadeaway Tapes has quietly gained a foothold in the international cassette cosmos. Alongside fellow voyagers
Le Révélateur,
Élément Kuuda and the rosters of
Hobo Cult,
TLWS and
Los Discos Enfantasmes, Fadeaway founders Nick Maturo and Ryan Connoly co-captain Montreal’s ongoing mission of kosmische discovery. Between label flagship
Sundrips, a swath of side projects and likeminded signees, each batch offers a wealth of blissful sounds for third-mind meditation. Nick answered our Qs.
Jesse Locke
Managing Editor
Weird Canada // Texture Magazine
weirdcanada.com // texturemagazine.ca
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Belarisk – Belarisk (excerpts)
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Pierrot Lunaire – Lantern Floating Vessel (excerpts)
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Sundrips – Phased Out (excerpts)
- 1 :: How did you launch your label and why? C.R.E.A.M.?
- Fadeaway started mostly as a means of releasing our own material when nobody else wanted to, but it’s gradually turned into a fun way of working with other artists we appreciate and generally trying to create our own label aesthetic. I still consider myself more of a music guy than a label guy, so sometimes it can feel like a bit of a headache compared to just sitting down and jamming, but I’m very proud of all the work we’ve put into it since we started out.
- 2 :: To date, which of your releases has been: a) the best-seller, b) your favourite and c) the biggest bummer?
- a) Hard to say, I think the batch we put out with 56K, the Thoughts on Air/Trailing split and Tobin’s Spirit Guide sold surprisingly quickly despite it being a larger run than we’d done before at the time.
b) Also hard to pick, but I’d say the Sundrips and Ophivchvs collaboration from 2010 still stands out to me as a beautiful tape in terms of both artwork and this crazy music that totally came out of nowhere.
c) Most of the Sundrips tapes we’ve done on Fadeaway are bummers in one way or another, but I might have to say Basejumping At Cliff Clavin has a particular “bummed” quality that I appreciate.
- 3 :: What sets you apart from other labels? Music, art, liner notes, posters, glossy 8.5” x 11” head-shots?
- I’d say we’re pushing music that’s a little bit different from other labels, although I do think there are some kindred spirits out there. Maybe we’re releasing things that are a little hazier than a lot of other straight up synth labels, although not necessarily in a lo-fi kind of way. I hesitate to use the word Ambient because I feel like that’s a term that’s too easy to just throw around for smooth, meditative music, but I guess there is some sort of a cross-over in to that kind of domain. All in all, it’s hard to pin it down definitively, as it really feels like a genuine extension of Sundrips and of our own tastes and interests, which can be pretty varied. So I guess that’s what makes it special to me.
- 4 :: Future plans? What can grippers look forward to gripping?
- We just put out a new batch right now which includes a new Sundrips tape with a bit of a dreamier sound than usual, as well as a couple of gems from some friends that people will probably make people lose their minds. We have a few things beyond that lined up for Fadeaway in 2012 but nothing set in stone yet. There are also a few more Sundrips releases in the works on other labels, so stay tuned for that.
- 5 :: Kim Mitchell vs. Randy Bachman?
- Tempted to say Randy Bachman out of spite for “Patio Lanterns”, but “Easy To Tame” (especially the video) is so great that it redeems him and then some. He also may be the only rock star to have never gotten laid because he was in a band, which is endearing. So, albeit with a little hesitation, Kim Mitchell.
Fadeaway Tapes Discography (to date)
- FT001
- ::
- Sundrips
- –
- Basejumping At Cliff Clavin
- (Cassette, 2010)
- FT002
- ::
- Sundrips
- –
- Hidden Dimensions
- (Cassette, 2010)
- FT003
- ::
- Sundrips
- –
- Star Master Live
- (3″ CD-R, 2010)
- FT004
- ::
- Video Diaries
- –
- Carryin’ On
- (Cassette, 2010)
- FT005
- ::
- Sundrips
- –
- Diffuse Contours
- (Cassette, 2010)
- FT006
- ::
- Sundrips & Ophivchvs
- –
- Satellites OF The Elders
- (Cassette, 2010)
- FT007
- ::
- Sundrips
- –
- Arrays
- (Cassette, 2010)
- FT008
- ::
- Cloudland Ballrooms & Sundrips
- –
- Split
- (Cassette, 2010)
- FT009
- ::
- Aphid Palisades
- –
- Aphid Palisades
- (Cassette, 2010)
- FT010
- ::
- 56k
- –
- Calls In The Night
- (Cassette, 2010)
- FT011
- ::
- Thoughts On Air / Trailing
- –
- Split
- (Cassette, 2011)
- FT012
- ::
- Tobin’s Spirit Guide
- –
- Homesick
- (Cassette, 2011)
- FT013
- ::
- Belarisk
- –
- Belarisk
- (Cassette, 2011)
- FT014
- ::
- Pierrot Lunaire
- –
- Lantern Floating Vessel
- (Cassette, 2011)
- FT015
- ::
- Sundrips
- –
- Phased Out
- (Cassette, 2011)
- FT016
- ::
- Élément Kudda
- –
- Flight II
- (Cassette, 2011)
- FT017
- ::
- Sundrips
- –
- The Shapes Of THe Corridors
- (Cassette, 2011)
- FT018
- ::
- Event Cloak
- –
- Physical Computing
- (Cassette, 2011)
- FT019
- ::
- Trailing
- –
- Stingray / From the Top Of The Stairs [pt. 1 & 2]
- (Cassette, 2011)
