An anti-record is a musical

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

record which has been treated (melted, drilled, painted, etc.) so that it becomes a

noise Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference arise ...

record. While this term was first used by Laylah Records on conventional vinyl releases by

Current 93 Current 93 are an English experimental music group, working since the early 1980s in folk-based musical forms. The band was founded in 1982 by David Tibet, who has been Current 93's only constant member. Background Tibet has been the only const ...

, Nurse with Wound, and others, Ron Lessard of

RRRecords RRRecords is a record label and used and new record shop based in Lowell, Massachusetts. RRRecords was the first American record label to publish underground "noise music" in the early 1980s, and published the first American vinyl by Merzbow, Maso ...

applied the term to a series of physically altered records released by RRR in 1988. Anti-records can also be records featuring strange configurations or pressing, such as extra or unusually sized holes,

locked groove The overwhelming majority of records manufactured have been of certain sizes (7, 10, or 12 inches), playback speeds (33, 45, or 78 RPM), and appearance (round black discs). However, since the commercial adoption of the gramophone record (ca ...

s, and parallel grooves. One notable noise anti-record was ''

Pagan Muzak ''Pagan Muzak'' is a landmark industrial-noise 7" vinyl released by NON Non, non or NON can refer to: * ''Non'', a negatory word in French, Italian and Latin People *Non (given name) *Non Boonjumnong (born 1982), Thai amateur boxer * Rena N� ...

'', created by noise artist

Boyd Rice Boyd Blake Rice (born December 16, 1956) is an American experimental sound/noise musician using the name of NON since the mid-1970s, archivist, actor, photographer, author, member of the ''Partridge Family Temple'' religious group, co-founder of ...

, which contained locked grooves as well as multiple center holes. RRRecords also published a record containing 500 locked grooves by various artists.

External links

A Brief history of Conceptual and Anti-Records. A video of an Anti-Record.
Audio storage {{Sound-tech-stub