/The Invaluble Internet Archive /
The internet archive is where I spent many nights in college collecting miscellaneous gigabytes of data that I'd thought might come in handy one day. . . well, at least I thought so back then. Other then finding some fun ISO's to use with DOSBox, I ended up just filling hard drives with junk data; sprawled out in a never-ending maze of folders thanks to my poor organisational skills. But my time spent there wasn't compleatly waisted as I found it to be an invaluable resource for obscure mixtapes, discography and track collections, and netlabels. I have to point out that although you can find almost ANYTHING on there, the community audio collections are only as organised as the uploader who compiled the collection in the first place. Some audio collections are neatly stashed all in one place, and others you have to make yourself by scanning through thousands of user uploads and saving them into a favourites folder. I've gathered a small list of some of my favourite electronic music collections from the black hole that is the internet archive. Some of them are fairly recent, some have been long standing collections that users still contribute to today.
Entity is a free net label with a nice collection of abstract glitch/idm releases spanning the 2000's. Like that maxmsp generated drill and bass from the mid 2000's? Well here are 87 albums (most of which aren't on BC) from that golden era of euclidean rhythms at 250BPM. "Entity supports artists from around the world that stand out in their own unique style(s), and that know how to blend artistic expression with technical originality."
BGY-THT90 has everything you need to take you back to the bustling Belgium clubs of the 1990's. Mainly, a daunting collection of thousands (yes thousands) of mixtapes ripped from clubs such as Cherry Moon, Atmoz, Extreme, etc, etc, etc. You may find an old mix from one of your favourite old school DJs. You may discover hours of cheesy music to study to when the "Lofi beats to study to" Girl on youtube isn't cutting the mustard. There's probably something for everyone. . . Maybe not actually as 90's cheese is an acquired taste. But hey, if it's your thing, why not have MORE mixes from Cherrymoon Trax! https://archive.org/details/cherrymoon
A personal favourite of mine added to the lovely information pool that is the archive during last year's lockdown. User HORRORCORE (who consistently uploads great audio collections which you all should check out) dropped this lovely, compleate collection of Trancemaster compilations ranging from its first releases back before the grate sub-genre schism of the mid 90's, to it's final 2012 comp.
Noise Heads look no further, for this list is mandatory homework for the hunters of the obscure. The Noise-Arch Archive has been collecting and compiling most of the noise tapes that make it's way onto the internet archive for quite some years now. "This collection is a compilation of underground/independently-released cassette tapes from the days when the audio cassette was the standard method of music sharing... generally the mid-eighties through early-nineties. The material represented includes tape experimentation, industrial, avant-garde, indy, rock, diy, subvertainment and auto-hypnotic materials. Much of this material defies category, and has therefore not been given one."
User 45minutes has been my GOTO for anything abstract over the past few months. I could almost give up my day job, friends, wife, life, etc. . . just listening to what they upload. Anything from BandCamp releases buried in the algorithm, abstract late 20th century compositions that would make Jean Claude Risset cry tears of joy, someone's long forgotten Goldsmiths audio composition project. . . It's endless and worth checking out.