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'Orchid Tapes is a online + cassette tape-based record label founded in Toronto (now based in Brooklyn) and run by Warren Hildebrand and Brian Vu, two friends with an shared interest in the creation and curation of music and artwork that breaks free of the established norm, disregards trends, reflects the dedication of it’s creator and provokes a strong emotional resonance within whoever experiences it.
'The overall goal of Orchid Tapes is to share and explore music that reflects these ideals with those who are willing and able to listen, and also to unite and expose like-minded artists from all over the world under a collective-style label. Many of the other early bands signed to the label met Hildebrand through MySpace. According to Hildebrand, "It felt good meeting a group of other sad weirdos that recorded music from home that I felt like I genuinely connected with, even through something as seemingly alienating as the Internet."
'Orchid Tapes was first founded in 2010 by Hildebrand, while he was attending an art university in Toronto, Ontario. He had first started putting the idea for a label together in 2009, and had picked the name Orchid Tapes partly after a song by the band Deerhunter, called "Tape Hiss Orchid." According to Hildebrand, "I was really inspired by all the little cassette labels that were popping up on different blogs around that time. It seemed like a really cheap and easy way to get music out into the world beyond just the proliferation of mp3s."
'He founded Orchid Tapes while living in his apartment in downtown Toronto and working on the debut album of his solo project, Foxes in Fiction. Hildebrand had started Foxes in Fiction in April 2005 while still in high school, and began to take the project more seriously in 2008, while inspired by artists such as Brian Eno and Atlas Sound.
'For most of the label's lifespan, Hildebrand would dub each cassette tape on his stereo tape deck, a several-day process he was still using after the 20th release. Finally in the fall of 2013, he purchased a cassette duplicator for the label. According to No Fear of Pop in 2013, "Orchid Tapes embodies the D.I.Y. aesthetic that has implanted itself on the internet. Digital downloads are always free and cassette prices are reasonable, and the quality of music is so good that it entices intrigued listeners to search through the rest of the catalog."'-- collaged
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Further
Orchid Tapes
Orchid Tapes blog
Orchid Tapes @ Bandcamp
Orchid Tapes @ Facebook
Orchid Tapes @ SoundCloud
'Briefly Touching: An Orchid Tapes compendium'
'Top 10 Orchid Tapes songs you can download for free'
Warren Hildebrand interviewed @ Interview Magazine
'MONDAY MIX: ORCHID TAPES'
'Label Spotlight: Brooklyn's Orchid Tapes'
Orchid Tapes @ The Vinyl Collective Forum
Foxes in Fiction site
Orchid Tapes @ Instagram
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Gallery
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Some OT artists
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Foxes in Fiction
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'Foxes in Fiction is Warren Hildebrand, an experimental pop and ambient musician based out of New York (formerly Toronto) who has been recording different genres of music in various locations under this name since the age of 15. After the sudden death of his 16-year-old brother, Warren found peace through music, and so he became inspired to take on a new musical direction. Foxes in Fiction has a way of creating music that is not only beautiful but therapeutic. Foxes in Fiction create soundscapes to comfort and heal, experimenting with elements of pop, compositional looping effects and ambient sound waves. In times of distress, listen to any of Warren Hildebrand’s material and you will surely clear away some of the cloudiness that once clogged your vision.'-- collaged
'Bathurst'
'Static Cults'
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Elvis Depressedly
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'For the better part of the last five years, South Carolina's Mat Cothran has plied his trade under the name Coma Cinema. Over four albums under that Joy Division-referencing moniker, Cothran has explored the limits of moody, downtrodden songwriting. For Cothran, it's just as important to be able to laugh into the void. That much is evident even in the name of his onetime side project, Elvis Depressedly. Though his work under the Depressedly banner is largely simpler and shorter than his album-length statements as Coma Cinema, these full-band efforts have illustrated the full breadth and depth of his songwriting repertoire.'-- Interview Magazine
'Goner Mickey yr a fuck up'
'Weird Honey'
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Ricky Eat Acid
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'Ricky Eat Acid is Sam Ray, a Maryland-based musician who has his hand in a few other projects and was booked to open a late-February New York City show by R&B aesthetes Rhye; wonderfully (and tellingly), a recent mix Ray made for The Fader consists mostly of scruffy, heart-on-sleeve indie guitar pop from bands like Go Sailor, Joanna Gruesome, and Rocketship. Though it takes his new album Three Love Songs until the eighth of 12 songs to reach its dying-real pinnacle—the LP title is a slight misnomer—how it gets there is a patient journey across nuanced, digital-meets-organic soundscapes, fraught with gnawing heartache and wistful reminiscence.'-- Pitchfork
'I can hear the heart breaking as one'
live @ Shea Stadium
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Infinity Crush
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'The duo Infinity Crush is comprised of friends Caroline White and Dan Cordero; the two have a reputation of releasing seriously sad lo-fi songs. And by seriously sad, I really, really do mean heartbreaking in the most vulnerable way possible. White's voice is a patient coo but with lyrics like “lock the door and eat me out” there’s a sort of inherent sexual recoil present throughout. No matter how sincerely White might have meant these tracks, they’re so bare that any sincerity is obliterated in sparsity, resulting in five disorienting and haunting tracks that bely their less than ten minute running time in emotional weight. These sound like demos, no doubt, but they’re rewarding far beyond their fidelity and track closing clicks.'-- collaged
'Paper Dreams'
live @ 8908
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arrange
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'Arrange, a.k.a. Malcom Lacey’s bedroom pop project, paints elegant sonic landscapes with broad strokes of grey skies and flickering highway lights. However, these words sound cheap when you listen to the richness that Lacey is able to conjure. He contrasts the instrumentals with distinctly un-dreamy and direct vocal work, plainly singing about the typical indie pop subjects without ever becoming overwrought. It’s actually pretty masterful. On tracks like “Home,” with its perfectly placed triumphant horns, he even manages to create the same lofty chamber pop sounds that Justin Vernon did on Bon Iver’s self-titled. Highly recommended.'-- collaged
'Dream'
'Medicine Man'
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Euphoria Again
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'Produced by Mat Cochran of Elvis Depressedly and Coma Cinema fame, Euphoria Again is a sturdy and spirited collection of songs that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with any of the brilliant works that already make-up his back catalogue. It’s a shadowy and often gloomy trip, but also one that is both dependable and enlightening. You might not find any answers here but you’ll find a hell of a lot to love – and it would be rather unwise to ask for much more than that, don’t you think?'-- GoldFlakePaint
'Change'
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Home Alone
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'I was in a band called Stacey Adams before Home Alone. The music was totally different, less pop and more grime, I guess. It was fun playing music in a band, my first live shows were played in that band and it taught me a lot. One thing that drove me nuts was recording. I didn’t know anything about recording and had no resources. I eventually started stockpiling gear and learning how to produce music. That was around the same time that I realized I really love creating by myself. I spent a year recording Teddybears & Weed and the entire process opened my eyes to the world of software, MIDI controllers, synths, sampler, and drum machines. They got my back and help me fulfill my musical vision.'-- Home Alone
'Wishful Sinking'
'Blunts' live @ Shea Stadium
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R.L. Kelly
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'This project started to get all the sad, deranged, fucked up feelings outside of me. I was letting it rot inside me and I couldn’t take it anymore. I never have had any real confidence in making music on my own, so I haven’t really done it. I love collaborating though, and have been fortunate to do it with my best friends. I guess I needed something different. I didn’t want to even release this stuff it’s just so personal and I can’t listen to it because it makes me sad all over, the rotting just comes back. If I can get it out and if other people dig it then, damn, heck ya. All my friends inspired/inspire me to turn the ugliness inside of me into something else.'-- R.L. Kelly
'Life's a Bummer'
'Everything's Cool'
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Coma Cinema
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'All of Coma Cinema’s stuff is recorded on a shoestring budget. Around age 15, Cothran started recording simple guitar songs on a Dictaphone recorder and eventually graduated to late-‘90s digital equipment. But he continues to work exclusively in his now-empty childhood home—a space in the woodsy loneliness of the nearby Glendale—where he plans to record forever. “It’s in the middle of this super scary old mill town—there used to be a mill there but it burned down. I grew up hearing crazy stories about that place. My grandparents used to tell me there were demons there and stuff,” he says. “Even if I move to Nebraska or something, I’d probably come back to record there. It’s sort of become the official studio.”'-- Paste
'Satan Made a Mansion'
'Her Sinking Sun'
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HAPPY TRENDY
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'Die Young, the third release by HAPPY TRENDY (Dylan Khotin-Foote, of Kumon Plaza fame) represents a huge growth in the sonic pallet and pop understanding that Khotin-Foote has already demonstrated through his previous releases. Gone are the lo-fi signifiers that initially drew comparisons to other toy-synthpop musicians like Casiotone for The Painfully Alone. In their place stands a lineup of songs that retain the warmth and intimacy that HAPPY TRENDY is known for but also with the benefit of more complex structures, a wider range of sounds, and sharper production than on anything Khotin-Foote has released through any of his projects.'-- Orchid Tapes
'January 6'
'Spirit Week'
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Alex G
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'It’s a very good time to be an Alex G. fan (or an Alex G.) right now. The Temple English major may be young, but he’s got a firm, if lofty, five-or-so year plan laid out ahead of him. Alex G. the recording name of 21-year old Havertown native Alexander Gianascoli, has been serving up the emotionally rich, lyrically mature, and sonically lush since 2010. It's striking just how much he does himself, even under the DIY label. Or more accurately, how good it sounds considering. This is truly bedroom pop, his bunk bed barely feet away from his makeshift studio.His recording set-up is essentially his desk and a dinky microphone hooked up to his MacBook . Much of his recording is a multi-"studio" affair, scrambling around the neighborhood to record each Garageband track. "I’ll record my guitar here, then go to my girlfriend’s house — they have a drum kit in the basement and a keyboard — and I’ll record some stuff there and finish up from [my house]. I just go to where the instruments are."'-- phillymag.com
'Dust'
'after ur gone'
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Interview
from No Fear of Pop
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When and where did the idea of Orchid Tapes first begin and how did it evolve into becoming an actual label?
Warren Hildebrand: Orchid Tapes was first conceptualized in late 2009 right after I moved out for the first time and into a small apartment in downtown Toronto, I had already released a few tapes as Foxes in Fiction while living at my Mom’s house in the suburbs but I hadn’t put them out under any kind of name or anything. In February 2010 I released Swung from The Branches and it was kind of the official kick-off for Orchid Tapes existing. For the first few chapters of it’s life it really felt more like a pet project than an actual legitimate label, it took bringing Brian Vu onboard with the label and getting to know some really talented musician friends to really bring it into it’s current incarnation.
How has OT changed in growth since the first few releases?
WH: Orchid Tapes today is almost completely different than when it was when I first started it. In the beginning I didn’t really know too many musicians who had much interest in releasing things on a brand new label (this was right after Arcade Sound Ltd. had been revealed to be a scam label so there was an understandable amount of apprehension hanging around a lot of people that I associated with). Also, a lot of the early releases I did were really amazing, but I don’t think there was much of the sense of cohesion or togetherness that defines the label these days. I would basically just say ‘yes’ to anyone who asked to do a release, and got turned down by 95% of the people I would ask to put out a tape.
Even just in terms of resources, there’s a lot more available to now; for the first 20 releases I would dub every single cassette tape on my stereo tape deck, which would literally take days and days to finish. It wasn’t until last fall that I got a proper cassette duplicator. Also, since moving to New York it’s become a lot easier to get things like blank tapes, j-cards and other goodies that we use to put our packages together. And there’s two of us now, which is great!
How have you found most of the artists you release on OT? Internet relationships, shows, through friends?
WH: Most of the releases we’ve done have been the product of internet relationships. Thankfully we’ve all met and hung out in real life a bunch of times now but I had become internet friends with people like Mat (Elvis Depressedly / Coma Cinema), Rachel (RL Kelly) and Dylan (HAPPY TRENDY) long before we ever made any plans for them to release music on Orchid Tapes, but that’s been a really nice thing, and it’s made doing releases a lot more fun and easy going since everything’s discussed and arranged just as a friends. I also met Tom of Home Alone after he started dating my best friend Amanda, and I met Dan of Four Visions, who we’re working on a release for right now, at a show we both played in Brooklyn.
Having seen two out of the three OT showcases, it has been so impressive to witness how cohesive and moving they have been, especially to the community here in Brooklyn. Were the showcases relatively easy to organize?
WH: Aw thanks! Honestly, we had no idea how the first one was going to turn out and it was a total shock to see that many people show up and have there be such feeling of positivity. It’s all really thanks to all the bands and musicians who travelled from so far away to come and play, and to the fans who travelled just as equal amounts of distances to come and see us do our thing. There was a lot of organization that went into planning each one, but it definitely wasn’t as much as I thought it would be; we’ve been really lucky with the spaces and organizers that we’ve worked with who’ve helped to make everything a lot easier for us.
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Compilation
'“Can you see it’s bloom?” It’s a mindful foundation for Orchid Tapes’ Boring Ecstasy compilation to begin with a question, one oh so relevant to both the Springtime currently taking root and the nature of its internalized conversation. Over the last four years, beyond nurturing a family of musicians to bring the world a stream of life affirming sounds, label organizers Warren Hildebrand and Brian Vu have developed a universe in which the personalities of their contributors and appreciators can exist within. Less business more friendship, Orchid Tapes has created a social economy of genuine interaction and a love for alternative forms of communication. To ask of the label is to ask of ourselves, and that’s a startlingly beautiful relationship absent in much of today’s music landscape.
'Beginning with Warren’s own Swung From the Branches and present throughout the entire Orchid catalogue, there is a total sincerity that extends itself as a loving embrace. For every R.L. Kelly, Ricky Eat Acid or Happy Trendy release there is a diasporic community of bodies and feelings waiting to share a life. For every Home Alone or Arrange track to surface online there are a handful of hobbyist songwriters inspired to share their own homespun recordings. Alone, any of these tape deck treasures could have slipped into the uniform depths of Bandcamp but through the loving vehicle that Orchid Tapes has always been and ever grows into we Orchidians bear our tapes, teas, and handwritten thank you notes as badges in support of an honest and independent music distribution process. There is no mystification in a transparent partnership, and in 2014 that’s exactly what we need.'-- NFoP
Tracks
1. Ricky Eat Acid - Can You See It's Bloom 02:46
2. Alex G - Cards 02:37
3. R.L. Kelly - Everything's Cool 02:23
4. The Sweater I Gave You - Nobody's Baby 01:57
5. Four Visions - Hazy Past 04:15
6. Home Alone - Catching Hours 03:41
7. Julia Brown - Without You 02:39
8. Infinity Crush - Spoiled 02:28
9. Elvis Depressedly - N.M.S.S. (Amy's Demo Tape) 02:21
10. HAPPY TRENDY - Spirit Week 02:25
11. Yohuna - Badges 03:49
12. Foxes in Fiction - Rearrange 03:21
13. Euphoria Again - Change 02:14
14. MEISHI SMILE - Sincerity 03:42
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p.s. Hey. Just a brief preamble to say that I'm really happy to launch this post today because not only is Orchid Tapes a fantastic label, but its co-mastermind and the guy behind the wonderful music project Foxes in Fiction, Warren Hildebrand, used to be a regular commenter here some years back before his label and FiF blew up, and it's always really heartening to me when someone from around here does so deservedly great. ** Keaton, Hey. That saying 'te gay' or sometimes 'teh gay' is so weird to me. I wonder how that came about. Scenes have a way of getting old pretty much always, whatever their ...bent? Okay, mum's the word about your (censored). Archaic language is kind of making a literary comeback amongst the newest and brightest. So I say nail that. ** Kier, Hi, K! Holy wow, those Melt Banana drawings are crazy great! The band should license them for t-shirts, record covers, patches, merch in general. Super deep bow to you, maestro. Everyone, Kier, a most incredible artist if there ever was one, has made some stunning drawings of the great band Melt Banana, and, if I were into requirements, I would use that power to force your finger on to this connective link. And, while you were at that, I'd further employ my dictatorial powers to hook you up with two more Kier drawings that are superb and not Melt Banana related and located here and here. Really beautiful, pal! Cool that the session was a good one, and, yeah, a tough one since I guess that's part of the turf of a good one, right? You have a great morning or whenever too. Bunches of love! ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, David. Right, 'Scream and Scream Again' is terrific. Yeah, minor, major, those terms are so short-sighted. Michael Gothard does deserve a DC's Day, you're right. Huh. I'll go see if I can find enough of his stuff to make it work, thank you. And, yes, as you can imagine, I'm over the moon excited that Malick has finally finished his legendary film. Wow. ** Lee, Howdy, Lee. Oh, your thesis, right, that makes sense. Dude, if you're happy and excited about it, I mean, say no more. I trust your instincts, and your mega-talent is a long-since established fact. Okay, I'll get on trying to find and read that Frances Yates book in some form as soon as this afternoon. You rule. ** Sypha, I'm pretty sure that the reason I recognized that Dean illustration is because it was on some Yes album that some Yes-loving fellow teenaged friend had on show back in the day. Cool, I hope that 'might' re: posting your poems someday becomes a 'must'. ** Bill, Hi, B. Relaxing is good. I can sort of remember what that felt like. Dude, use some of that relaxation to go to Tivoli Gardens and ride The Flying Trunk. It's a stellar manifestation of that sort of theme park ride, and it was kind of the inspirational nugget behind Zac's and my in-progress Scandinavia book. I'll go look at Robert Henke's site and find those videos, cool, thank you! ** _Black_Acrylic, Friday is a mere hop, skip, and a jump away. Maybe even sans the 'skip'. Very cool. ** Steevee, Hi. Mm, I guess I find all the auditioning exhausting mentally 'cos of the concentration involved, but it's kind of a joy too to get to interact with strangers in an organized way. We haven't had them simulate sex, and we've only had some of them get naked briefly. Three scenes in our film require actual onscreen real sex, and we're not going to make them enact that until the shooting. We're just seeking reassurance and confidence that they will and can do it. Glad that you have another audition day scheduled. Wow, curious to hear about that one-man Serge Daney show. Never heard of that before. What a curious project. Even in France, it's hard to imagine that being more than a limited audience kind of attraction. Anyway, yeah, very interested to hear your report. ** Misanthrope, Maryland is famous for that? It must be the East Coast version of LA's famous 'devil winds', and, man, they are the devil. That is a most peculiar thing you did in the middle of the night there, yes. Drive fucking carefully, man. Not that that near incident was your fault, obviously. Well, let's just say the timing on your visit could hardly be worse on my end. Nonetheless, at the moment, and this could easily change, Zac and I have intensive rehearsals with the actors on the 26th and 27th. On the 29th, we have to set up the scene/shooting, i.e. put in the decor, arrange the lighting, and so on. Then we shoot the scene on the 30th and 31st. So, the window is a very narrow one. But hold on just a little, if you can, because the exact schedule is clarifying quickly. ** Will C., Hey, Will! It seems like people I know in the States who have admirable brains and tastes talk more about TV these days than, well, about movies and even maybe more than about music. It's strange and interesting from afar. There's no corresponding TV revolution in France, unless you count all the American shows 'of quality' that are hogging the schedules here now. Yeah, sad about Giger. In an accidentally fall, no less. Ugh. Great day to you! ** Rewritedept, Hi. Your working on writing and, of course, on blog days is really good news. I was thinking more that you're my David Brenner, no? Cute animal pictures and things on Facebook freak me out. I know it's just some weird prejudice on my part, but when people put cute animal stuff into the FB the feed, it's kind of like a super-lightweight, benign version of them announcing they're Republicans or something. Which is way too harshly put. My day was good, heavily film-oriented, as usual. Just figuring things out and trying to figure things out, organizing stuff, etc., etc. It was good. Today seems to be a relatively day-off maybe, and I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet. Hope your today is beautiful. ** les mots dans le nom, Hi. I completely understand about your reasons for needing to buckle down with your work and studies. I feel nothing but respect and total understanding about that, for sure. I do read your emails, they're just innocent victims of my seeming inability to write emails back to people except in cases of emergency. Thank you so much for the gifts you're going to send. That's very, very sweet of you! Okay, I won't open a way for you to comment via hospitality. I'm not sure how not to do that, though, ha ha. Very best wishes and respect and affection to you, my friend. ** Schlix, Hi, Uli! I haven't seen Melt Banana live in a relatively long time. But, as I've mentioned before, when I did, it was the loudest or at least the most painfully, damagingly loud gig I've ever seen, I think. Not that I didn't love it. I think, sadly, I need my hearing at the moment, so I'll keep my experiences of their current tour confined to iPhone youtube uploads. You quit your job, cool! Well, that sounds like a weird thing to say, but I do think it's very cool. No clear plan for the future is very good, or it can be. Great, pal! ** That's that. Do investigate Orchid Tapes and its roster and all that good stuff today, if you will. I really don't think you'll be sorry if you do. In any case, see you tomorrow.