Eriek Van Havere is one of my all time heroes of the underground, he has been releasing high quality products for years and years. Originally distributing and acquiring unusual bands through the mail art scene. I came into contact with him around 1988 when he kindly put several tracks of mine onto his compilation cassettes. In 1989 he asked me to do a whole tape of my own stuff which he released in 1989. This cassette album was titled ‘Extraction’ – it is still the best thing I have produced – it never sold as many copies as my later releases like ‘You Have The Power’, which was distributed by Microsoft but it was written at a time when I was a a ‘creative high’.

I was invited by him to perform at a mail art / radio show / art exhibition in 1990 and had the pleasure of his company for a few days. He is a kind man but is convinced he is not an Artist. I’m sorry to inform him that he is an Artist – the attention to detail he takes over his releases is ART.  EE Tapes (Belgium) is one of the best quality independent labels out there. Anyway I like him a lot simply because he likes the work of Clifford T. Ward……

I can recommend visiting his labels webpage it is crammed with audio delights! 

The extract below is taken from my favourite online resource: The Living Archive of Underground Music, written by Don Campau

No particular philosophy except maybe promoting the artists whose sounds I liked?

As to compilations I’ve always worked by personal invitation. “Send me a dark imaginary soundtrack of your inner mind” I used for the long-running Notre-Dame series (13 volumes). Maybe this phrase set the tone for the darker electronic sound? But I did rock releases too, like Viktimized Karcass, Na Und or Dull Schicksal. Most full tapes came by invitation too as far as I can remember…..

“Extraction” proves conclusively that they are no mere flash in the pan,with ‘songs’ that sting in the face,& playing that flays the senses raw. I clearly prefer This Window to any other current state of the artmixers that are presently popular. Read More…

IRRE Tapes (Germany) run by Matthias Lang evolved out of the IRRE Fanzine which he published regularly during the early 1980’s covering New Wave, Post Punk and the German Underground. This European cassette label helped to spread the word around the world, supporting the independent, self financed artist, releasing material by the likes of Brume, Maeror Tri, City Of Worms and This Window. His eclectic taste covered the whole range of the DIY, Independent Underground music scene from Experimental Electronica to Guitar Pop.

Below is an extract from an interview on The Living Archive Of Underground Music, which is an archive dedicated to Cassette culture, home taping, tape trading and mail art from the 1980s to the present. The Living Archive Of Underground Music is written and edited by Don Campau. Read more…

How did you spread the word of the tape label? Magazines, other labels, radio?

Well, if IRRE-tapes were really that popular? If so, the independent network all around the world helped to make the label popular…at that time postage for tapes to be sent to other countries was quite cheap…the majority of tapes was swapped with artists all around the world and only a very few were really commercially sold. I still have many boxes full of old tapes that I received by trade. There were also more commercial distributors that never existed so long, like the 235-shop in Bad Honnef. They had great mailorder-catalogues and it was even possible to get there the „tape of the month“ by periodical payment order.