Not Quite Archaic

Not Quite Archaic is an American independent experimental electronica label, established by Jesse DeRosa and operated as a sub-division on his main imprint, Baked Tapes. NQA started around 2017 as a "micro-label arm" of Jesse D's home studio, the First Church of Synthesis, located 15 miles from Brooklyn on the border of Nassau County, New York. Not Quite Archaic invites visiting artists and composers to work in the 16-channel main room, equipped with Buchla 200 system, vintage synths and outboard gear and 8-track authoring, wire recording, reel-to-reel mixdown, VHS digitization and a cassette duplication facility. NQA releases are produced in limited editions, varying from 7 to 30 copies, on lathe cuts. They are individually cut by hand in real-time on a 70-year-old lathe. The label also published two cassette tapes and a one-sided LP pressing. One of the releases by Jesse's project The Fairy Godmothers reuses the existing NQA-002 number and does not appear in the label's official catalog. All downloads at the label's Bandcamp are intentionally priced "high," at $1,000 or more, so listeners "will support the artist directly." Two cassette releases in the Synth Tidings series are also re-released and available at regular prices from the Crank Satori label and at Crazy Doberman's Bandcamp.