Basic House

Basic House is the production alias of Stephen Bishop, founder of the lo-fi electronica label Opal Tapes and lead vocalist in sludge-doom outfit Drunk in Hell. After immersing himself in the noise and D.I.Y. cassette scene as a collector, the Teesside, U.K.-based artist took to producing himself with his first release, the 2012 cassette Cryptid Binaries, appearing on the Newcastle-based label Washy Tapes. As a member of the Newcastle scene at the time, Bishop's sound developed from harsh, industrial D.I.Y. to include moments of broken house and techno. His next release came a few months later on his own Opal Tapes label — which had already released cassettes by the likes of Huerco S. and 1991 — and saw him continuing with his broken down mix of house and techno. The cassette, Ambrosias, Vol.1, rounded out 2012 for Bishop, a year which had seen his own work and the work of his label become a firm fixture within the D.I.Y. cassette and broken electronics scenes. 2013 saw Bishop focus on his label — with Opal Tapes releasing over 20-odd releases in just one year — while also maintaining his own productions. The split release Mirror & Gate, Vol. 1, with fellow noisenik Prostitutes appeared first, followed by Caim in Bird Form on Digitalis Recordings. Toward the end of 2013, Bishop released Oats, his first fully formed album for Helm's experimental label Alter.