Tag Archives: hal mcgee

Hal McGee – October 2025 Report (HalTapes)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

October 2025 Report
was recorded October 1st through 31st 2025
in Gainesville, Florida
with four Sony ICD PX-470 stereo digital dictaphones
dictaphone assemblage audio folk art
with spoken words by Hal
co-starring Stanley
rain, kazoo, frog clicker, circuit bent Casio SK-1, various harmonicas,
stewed tomatoes canjo, cigar box diddley bow,crows, aircraft, two string (then one string) pink dumpster guitar, transparent plastic ukulele, in ostrich tuning, smoke alarm signal, emergency vehicles, my mom’s dog Bailey, KQ Unotone iPhone and iPad synth, Stylophone CPM DS-2 analog synthesizer, SUPERFREQ built by Ryan Stanley, miscellaneous sounds and conversations from Apartment Music 58, wooden train whistle, sounds from Mark McGee’s 2025 Halloween Extravaganza, Finley McGee’s second birthday, conversations with neighbors, gaseous emissions from my asshole
— the voices of Dylan Houser, Trevor Luke, Alex Smith, Mark McGee, Finley McGee, JoAn McGee, and Kyle McGee
— thanks to Rafael González, who contributed numerous dictaphone recordings of him speaking, singing, playing the trumpet, Casio SK-1, crickets, and sounds from his daily life.

my beloved two string pink dumpster guitar has finally attained its true potential and destiny! it is now a one string pink dumpster guitar, and is now perfect. it always had one string too many! the “bass” string broke during my performance at Apartment Music 58.

Arvo Zylo & Hal McGee – The Bubblegum Variations (HalTapes)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

The Bubblegum Variations consists of more than 350 recordings by Arvo Zylo and Hal McGee mixed together in a chance process assemblage.

Arvo Zylo’s notes for The Bubblegum Variations:
— Hal McGee has been recording experimental music and noise since 1981. Arvo Zylo was born in 1981, and has been active since the year 2000. For this project, Arvo initially intended to contribute solely walkie talkie recordings of himself from 2014 and 2015; “Image streaming” in a free association, dream-like style. This audio has largely not been listened to by Arvo since shortly after it was recorded.
— That single creative spark gave way to other ideas, which included harmonium & toy pipe organ (thanks to Jason Lazer), and also stems from rare, long out of print tapes, unreleased recordings sometimes dating back to 2001, various field recordings, and occasional attempts at singing. Some of the recordings included a Yamaha RM1x Sequencer, a Casio SK-1 knock off called an “SS330”, some elements of the Korg Elektribe series, two Line6 Delay Pedals, A haunted BOSS Micro BR handheld recorder, a USB handheld recorder, a coronet, a belt sander, a sampler, a smart phone, and a laptop. Thanks Hal for your friendship!

Hal McGee’s notes for The Bubblegum Variations:
— I was quite happy in mid-May 2025 when Arvo proposed that we do a collaboration. I immediately started making recordings with two Sony ICD PX-470 stereo digital dictaphones, of sounds from my daily life, diaristic entries, my dog Stanley, my brother Mark McGee, circuit bent Casio SK-1, Stylophone CPM DS-2 analog synthesizer, KQ Unotone iPhone synth, Haltoid noise box, miscellaneous sounds from Apartment Music 54, and my friends Ben Keselowsky, Josh Tippery, and Alex Smith. I read aloud two texts by Lenny Pearlman.

Home-brewed CD-Rs of The Bubblegum Variations are available for sale and trade from Hal McGee — haltapes@gmail.com

Dylan Houser and Hal McGee – Stipulations Without Frontiers (HalTapes)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description: Dylan Houser and Hal McGee recorded the sounds of Stipulations Without Frontiers from January 1-23, 2025 with Sony ICD PX-470 stereo digital dictaphones in Lakeland and Gainesville, Florida. On January 27th we created a dictaphone assemblage by playing our 274 recordings on four PX-470s in random/shuffle mode, and we recorded the mix directly into Audacity with no post production.

Dylan Houser: voice (demonic or otherwise), percussion, HiChord pocket synthesizer, door harp, wind chimes, oversized Christmas bell, blowing bubbles in a beverage with a straw, celebrity impersonations, automobiles passing by, foot steps, sprinklers, the air, fm radio, shortwave radio, not needing AI, button pressing, NOINPUTMIXER app, Koala app, TikTok samples, running water, unidentified clanging, pocket shuffling, and various assorted outdoor field recordings (and some indoor, too)

Hal McGee: sounds of my daily life, spoken words, my dog Stanley, neighbors and family, sending postal mail, conversations with Charles Rice Goff III and a former co-worker and Trevor Luke, crows and whippoorwills, Yamaha ReFace CS synth, airplanes and helicopters, Steinway baby grand piano, Yamaha Reface YC mini-organ, two string pink dumpster guitar, medical staff and hospital sounds, flowing water, circuit bent Casio SK-1, leaf blowers and garbage trucks, transparent plastic ukulele, Casio VA-10, Casio VL-Tone.

This album is dedicated to the immortal memories of Harold McGee (June 13, 1936-January 9, 2025) and Chef Jakether Black-Houser (ca. 2014-January 28, 2025).  

Hal McGee – Microcassette Mischief (HalTapes)

Posted by John Lithium on

a2176574006_10

Label Description: four microcassette collages
recorded mostly in August 2024
with a Sony M-570V Microcassette-corder
pillow diaries and text cut-ups
voices of family members, my dog Stanley
Trevor Luke, and other friends
including sounds of appliances
and other sounds of my daily life
sounds of Squared Wave on August 14, 2024
including my entire performance at that show