About ITFAIS

Thomas Statnick and Elod “E” Horvath founded ITFAIS Records in Lafayette, Indiana in 1996. The independent label started as an outlet for Tom’s “DJ Stax” mix tapes, and E’s “Simplex” persona, and eventually the two formed anamorphic. Anamorphic was E and occasional collaborators creating base sounds and rhythms with a variety of analog/digital synths and home-made kit and recording parts onto multitrack tape. Tom and E would mix and cut between these simultaneously running tracks while adding effects and other live sounds from spoken word recordings and radios to create a 2-track master. This technique was used in the production of anamorphic.1, You’re in deep space with a hostile alien and it really sucks, Remused, and Nostromo.

Bass in Your Face Studio is the private project studio used for the tracking, mixing, and mastering of all ITFAIS Records releases. Sound quality was always a top consideration and the studio features high quality components and wiring. Another feature of the studio was a high quality DJ mixing setup along with a live PA system for monitoring. After starting in a bedroom of Tom’s house in Lafayette, Indiana, the studio was later moved to New York City but eventually shutdown in 2010.

In 2015, the studio was rebuilt in North Carolina featuring a SoundCraft Ghost 24×8 console, an Apogee Symphony Digital Audio Workstation interface, and new outboard gear for tracking, and mastering in the analog domain.  The studio also has DAT and DTRS multitrack digital tape capabilities along with 1/2″ MCI mastering reel-to-reel and cassette analog tape machines.

In 2020, a Neve 8424 replaced the Soundcraft Ghost.  3 Universal Audio x16’s replaced the Apogee interface.  Monitors were upgraded to Genelec 8351B’s.   Two 500-series racks and modules were added, as were upgrades to outboard compressors, EQs, and effects units.  Manley tube mastering EQ and compressors were added.  Moog One, Oberheim OBMx, SOMA, and modular Doepfer, Verbos, Erica, and MakeNoise synths were added.

ITFAIS is an acronym and stands for “Its The Future And It Sucks”.  The name was inspired by electronica that Tom and E were listening to in the early to mid 1990’s that was fresh sounding but dystopian such as Microstoria, Oval, Coil, and releases off of labels such as Ash International and Manifold.

Other websites affiliated with the ITFAIS empire are:

  • ITFAIS WX – Weather and Photovoltaic Solar System monitoring from the new studio location in the mountains of North Carolina.
  • ITFAIS ADS-B — Feeding FlightAware real-time aircraft flight data covering 5 states from Northwest North Carolina.
  • ITFAIS KiwiSDR — Public access KiwiSDR receiver covering 0-30 MHz