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a letter to my friends

by Hal McGee

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Rotting Floors
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H. Harmon
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Rafael González
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1.
a letter to my friends, part 1 30:42
2.
a letter to my friends, part 2 34:01

about

Dear friends, from April 14th through May 22nd, 2023 I recorded the sounds of my daily life in Gainesville, Florida, USA with four Sony ICD PX-470 stereo digital dictaphones that I carried with me in my pocket wherever I went. You will hear 444 recordings from various times and spaces during that 39 day period randomly shuffled together in four simultaneous layers. You will hear me talking, my dog Stanley, my co-workers, some but not all family members (Dad and Mom and their dog Bailey, and my brother), Trevor Luke, neighbors, the postal delivery lady. Also, I played these instruments: circuit bent Casio SK-1, two string pink dumpster guitar, transparent plastic ukulele, KQ Unotone iPhone synth, red Casio CT-S200 tablehooter with a handle. You will also hear my brother, Mark McGee, play percussion. Additional audio recordings by K.R. Seward and Gerardo Colin.
I like to call this style of music or organized sound by the name "dictaphone assemblage audio folk art"!
Thanks to RRRafael Speedy Gonzálezszszsz and Leslie Singerrrrr for ideas and inspirations.

I encourage you to do other things while you listen, such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, household chores, answering mail, working on your visual art, riding the bus or subway, taking a walk, etc.

Plus if you feel like playing along and mixing in your own sounds, please by all means do so!

Please note that I have a potty mouth and that this album is peppered liberally with spicy language that is not suitable for job and family settings, and that I talk about some stuff that might make some people uncomfortable or just plain wonder WTF.
It’s my brain and my life that I am sharing with you!

Mail stuff to me! - send postcards, letters, tapes, CDs, records, collages, mail art, rubber stamp art, zines, chapbooks, gadgets, comix, drawings, stickers, poetry, paintings, etc and I will mail to you a homebrewed CDR of my homemade audio art in trade
Hal McGee
4230 SW 20th Lane
Apt. F
Gainesville, FL 32607
USA

Make homemade music great again.
Make mail art great again.
Make friendship great again.
Make internationalism great again.

I have been making my own homemade audio art since 1981 and I have postal-mailed literally thousands of my recordings since then. I feel an affinity for and kinship with the Mail Art community, and I feel strongly that the underground DIY music scene and Mail Art are interrelated. Both share the same roots, ideals and inspirations. Independence, Community, Cooperation and Internationalism.

credits

released May 23, 2023

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