No-Fi

I'm a fan of underground music, which is largely made up of No-Fi. No-Fi is where people use distorted guitars and synthesizers as well as alarm clocks and circuit bent gameboys to make music.

I remember first stumbling upon ShadowMan while browsing on YouTube. What drew me to him was the fact that he made No-Fi. But you'll see what drew me away soon. His music was pretty simple. I remember one track being two whole minutes of a digital alarm clock beeping. He used a low resolution, black and white image of an open door leading to a dark room to accompany his tracks. He didn't give his real name. But none of that mattered to me. I continued to listen to his music.

Then, one night, while I was sleeping, I heard a loud thump, not unlike a book falling off a shelf, and I woke up. I got kind of freaked out, and I thought it was just me being paranoid, like it always has been when things like this happened. I got out of bed and paced around my apartment for a few minutes to shake it off.

Eventually the silence got lonely and I needed to hear something make sound. I flipped on my television and started experimenting with my old Yamaha keyboard. I don't necessarily know how to play it, but sometimes I'd go over there and start poking at it.

A couple days later, no, the next day, I was listening to a ShadowMan track on YouTube, when I glanced over at the "related videos" section and I noticed a ShadowMan track I hadn't heard before. It was entitled "Restless Night". I looked at the upload date. It read "Jan. 10th, 2012". Today? I remember thinking. Knowing it was new, and that I'd be interested in hearing something new from this guy, I clicked on the video link.

The familiar black and white doorway popped up. The track was a very crude recording of piano keys being played at random with voices in the background that sounded like they came from a TV or a radio. This sounded way too familiar. I hit the replay button and listened to it again. Then it hit me.

This was a recording of me.