contact Hal McGee

Hal McGee has been creating his own homemade experimental electronic music since 1981. He was heavily involved in the early days of the homemade music Cassette Culture movement in the 1980s, and was one of the movement's original and prime motivators, organizers, and promoters.

McGee and Debbie Jaffe operated the Cause And Effect cassette distribution service and label in the 80s and they sold and distributed 5,000 cassettes in three years. He released cassettes by Merzbow, Nurse With Wound, Haters, Borbetomagus, Controlled Bleeding, Robert Rich, DDAA, Blackhouse, Pacific 231, Human Flesh, F/i, If Bwana, Algebra Suicide, Jabon, Psyclones, Monochrome Bleu, Vox Populi!, and Master/Slave Relationship. He also produced several notable compilationson the label.

In the mid 1980s McGee recorded numerous works as a member of Viscera, solo as Dog As Master, and in collaboration with If, Bwana and Jabon.

In the late 1980s and early 90s McGee published Electronic Cottage Magazine, operated the Electronic Cottage label, and collaborated extensively with Mental Anguish, NOMUZIC, and David Prescott, as well as produced three compilations.

In the mid to late 1990s Hal McGee released dozens of cassettes of homemade experimental music solo and in collaboration with Jeph Jerman, Brian Noring (EHI), Big City Orchestra, David Wright, L.G. Mair, Emil Hagstrom (Cock ESP), Keith Nicolay, Charles Rice Goff III, Bret Hart, Homogenized Terrestrials, and If, Bwana. He produced the Tape Heads Cassette Compilation Project, which consisted of eight 90-minute volumes.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s Hal McGee turned his attention to the production of homemade recordable compact disc releases. During this time he collaborated heavily with Brian Noring of the F.D.R. Tapes, in person and via mail collaboration, plus several new collaborations with long-time partner Chris Phinney. During this time McGee recorded several albums of cassette tape collage works, most notably Wired For Sound, Maps Of Nowhere, and the My Intellectual Property trilogy.

In the mid 2000s he collaborated with Dave Fuglewicz, Don Campau, Rick Franecki, Charles Goff, Bret Hart, Homogenized Terrestrials, Noring, and Albert Casais.

In 2003-04 Hal McGee produced the five-volume Quotidian Assemblages compilation project, and later, two volumes of a multi-collaborative compilation nature, Collage Mania.

In 2005 McGee recorded and released a 2-hour video film called The Secret Life Of Hal McGee.

In 2005 McGee took his first steps toward distributing his music online by joining the Tapegerm Collective, which is a collaborative loop-based community.

In 2006, with the encouragement of Andrew Chadwick and Christopher Miller, McGee began performing live for the first time since 1987, and he became involved in Florida's burgeoning, highly active Noise and experimental music scene. Since then he has performed more than 100 times in various settings, locations, and situations, including numerous collaborations. During this time he assisted Andrew Chadwick with operating the Action Research series of Noise shows in and around Gainesville, Florida.

 

Hal McGee has been a member of, has produced/curated, or has been involved in: Viscera, Dog As Master, If Bwana/Dog As Master, Dog As Master/Jabon, Phinney/McGee, Noring/McGee, Charles Rice Goff III and Hal McGee, Dave Fuglewicz and Hal McGee, The Analog Synthesizer Ensemble, Free Space, Action Sound Painting Orchestra, Action Research, Dictaphonia Microcassette Compilation Project, Automatic Confessional Answering Machine Project, Apartment Music, Laboratory Music, International Email Audio Art Project, Quotidian Assemblages Compilation Project, Tape Heads Cassette Compilation Project, Electronic Cottage Magazine, HALzine, Deep Trench, Giant Monsters, much much more!