Label Profile
Gameboy Records
Columbus, Ohio
Profiled by Joe Panzner
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From its birthplace in Pittsburgh dorm room to its current headquarters in a Columbus bedroom, Mike Shiflet’s Gameboy Records stands as a model of the new noise community’s fiercely D.I.Y. ethos, inspired in equal measure by the late 90s hardcore scene as by Asmus Tietchens or Derek Bailey’s early Incus albums. Founded in 1998 – under the unofficial motto, “Who else would even want to release this?” – Gameboy initially functioned as an outlet for releases by Shiflet and Aaron Hibbs’ noise-cum-performance-art duo Noumena (think: guitars/tapes/contact mics/blood/nudity/etc.) and slowly gathered enough momentum to release a stream of cassettes and split 7”s from its new associates in the noise community. The label took a more serious turn in 2000 with Shiflet’s relocation to Columbus, where Gameboy’s releases became an even mix of professionally printed high-end CDs and LPs delivered with top-notch artwork and handmade CDRs and cassette transmissions with roughly-Xeroxed covers. The label continues to tread the line between higher-profile “pro label” status and the underground home-taping circuit; says Shiflet, “It’s highly unlikely we will ever fully commit to one or the other – if that makes us too big or small for certain scenes, then so be it.”

Since Hibbs’ departure from label operations, Gameboy is the sole endeavor of Shiflet – “solo artist, graphic designer, member of Noumena, funny guy, music lover, young man of 23 years.” Although Gameboy’s scope has expanded to include higher-profile international noisemakers – such as the Scandinavian laptoppper Lasse Marhaug and recent Wire Aktionist-article-target Sudden Infant – it remains an in-house operation to the letter. Shiflet still spends hours in front of his Macintosh laptop, conducts label affairs from inside the offices of his employers, frequents various copy centers (“but never Kinko’s – they charge twice as much for little more than their name”), and maintains an adamant adherence to the label’s emphasis on the sort of gritty eclecticism absent in the more visible realms of experimental music. “I don't deny that there are an insane number of labels out there,” says Shiflet, “but I think we have a pretty unique perspective. Since the label is all pretty much based on my taste, which is pretty broad, there is always an element of surprise in what we do. We're much harder to pin down than a lot of labels. Sounds from halfway around the globe or three miles down the street.”

The newest Gameboy releases include the highly anticipated SOUN seven-inch – a brutal and occasionally hilarious pile-up of one hundred noise artists (“Haters, Merzbow, Reynols, Matmos, Alan Licht, Birchville Cat Motel, and 93 others”) packed onto one hectic side of a single. Also available is a new 3” CD from Hermit, a “punk, punk, punk” blast of chaos recorded in Russia and littered with “electronics, vocals, and insanity,” and a highly recommended live recording of the recycled sound experimenters Kapotte Muziek (the flipside of Frans de Waard’s Goem project) performing a beautiful minimal set “so great that the Columbus crowd demanded an encore.”

Label Roster:
Mike Shiflet, Noumena, Cock ESP, Lasse Marhaug, Brutum Fulmen, Sudden Infant, John Wiese, Bob Marinelli, David Reed, Jason Talbot, Ashtray Navigations, Petushka Chontos, Bastard Noise, Guilty Connector, Wrong. Phroq, Dan Bodah, Crank Sturgeon, Season of Discontent, Jake Brail.

Seven Essential Releases:
Lasse Marhaug/Brutum Fulmen: Tender Wreckage LP
Ashtray Navigations: Last Kiss Amatuer Frequencies 7"
V/A: SOUN one-sided 7" compilation
Sudden Infant: S.I.'s Turntable Cookbook CDR
Jason Talbot: Getting in the Way of Progress CD
Noumena: Regression Now for the Future CD
Reynols/Miguel Tomasin: Ormas Vitas 3" CDR (sold out)

Website: Gameboy Records

Address:
Gameboy Records
PO Box 12132
Columbus, OH 43212-0132

Email: mshiflet@hotmail.com