Testimonial from Music Writer, Musician, and Grimalkin Supporter Taylor Ruckle

“The first time I got a press email from Grimalkin Records in the summer of 2019, I had already been writing about music for three or four years, but I’d never encountered anything like this label. I’d cut my teeth at my college’s alternative paper before starting an independent blog after graduation–I was hooked on the thrill of discovering new music and meeting new people through it. But even though I was lucky enough to make some friends and build a handful of professional contacts, the landscape of online music often felt cliquish, exclusive, and unsympathetic to outsiders. Grimalkin was the polar opposite.

Here was a passionate, principled, not-for-profit label that was never too cool to take a chance on really experimental music. Here was a label that cared more about supporting radical creativity than about gearing all releases to the same old format (they didn’t even require their artists to put music on streaming services). Synthia Slimes, Kate Can Wait, Spartan Jet-Plex, Cardinality, Woven-In, Quinton Barnes, Jason Jamal, and Eli Owens are just some of the artists I was introduced to through Grimalkin. None of them sound like each other, most of them don’t sound like anything you’ll hear on another indie label, and with maybe one or two exceptions, none of them are acts I would have heard of if not for Grimalkin Records.

That’s not even to mention the causes and charities I’ve found through Grimalkin releases, or the other labels (shout out Quiet Year) and artist collectives (shout out Loop Sessions) in their orbit. Plenty of record labels can claim to curate a brand, but it’s a rare thing to have built this kind of community–the kind that reminds me why I started writing about music in the first place. Also, one time I ordered a tape from Grimalkin, and it came with a little clear plastic octopus, which now lives on my work desk so I can fidget with it. I owe them for that too!” -Taylor Ruckle

Taylor Ruckle is a Northern Virginia-based blogger and freelance music writer whose work has appeared in Post-Trash, FLOOD Magazine, Vinyl Me Please, and elsewhere. He also releases music as a solo artist under the name Two Old Cat.