A sleepy, nomadic netlabel, est. 2001 in an apartment in Los Angeles, CA.

RER began as a home recording collective, paired with a primitive website for posting demos. Current location: Houston, TX.

File under: DIY, Crap Art, lo-fi, anti-folk, post-punk, minimal synth, mysterious pseudonyms.

A Few Of Our Releases…

Water Features: Suburban Temples

March 13, 2018

Tune in to the only official Night Vision Forever x Reverse Engine / South By Southwest brand activation. Read more

gunctrl: Obituary Cocktail

July 14, 2017

A second chapter of rushed madness from Houston’s favorite reunited mattresscore power duo. Read more

The Blessed Cassettes: Errors and Omissions

July 14, 2016

Wild lo-fi, garage, post-punk and synth pop radar blips from The Blessed Cassettes (formerly known as The Litter) of Houston, TX. Read more

The Strangelet Disasters: Morbid Fascination

December 1, 2015

Seven new recordings from Houston’s own shambolic lo-fi provocateurs, plus a reissue of their explosively nervous debut single. Read more

An Abridged History…

Reverse Engine began in 2000 as a collective focused on home recording and super 8 filmmaking. The project morphed into a record label releasing limited edition CD-Rs by 2001. RER embraced Creative Commons licensing with a switch to the netlabel format in 2006.

In 2009, I found a dusty mini-DV tape with an unfinished Reverse Engine documentary from 2001, “Home Recorders’ Hypnosis League”. I’ve added it here for posterity.

— Dave MH, February 25, 2015.

Browse our complete catalogue…