Inside ‘Lost Coast,’ a Journey Through California’s Visionary Music Underground

Zully Adler of Goaty Tapes compiles intimate, otherworldly tracks recorded far outside the mainstream

In Northern California, the most beguiling tapes aren’t found at record stores. You chase them through yard sales, flea markets, and the fog. Lost Coast: Some Visionary Music From California is a new compilation assembled by Zully Adler, founder of Goaty Tapes and House Rules. Issued on LP, it documents a hidden strain of personal, often homemade spiritual music recorded across the state between the 1970s and 1990s.

Sourced from private collections, estate sales in Eureka, and near the Humboldt County Airport, the songs on Lost Coast reflect a quiet regional counterculture rooted in solitude, experimentation, and metaphysical exploration. One track came from a mescaline dealer in Humboldt who was selling a few old tapes at a yard sale. Others were originally composed for yoga classes, ceramics studios, or no audience at all.

Founded in 2007 when Adler was still a teenager, Goaty Tapes has built a catalog that feels both eclectic and oddly cohesive: home-recorded transmissions, outsider experiments, bedroom compositions that hum with purpose. Though the label has its roots in the noise and lo-fi scenes, its reach is wide: early releases from circuit-fried weirdos like Providence’s Russian Tsarlag and the Savage Young Taterbug sit alongside works by conceptualists like Noa Kurzweil, M. Sage, and the sound collage project Grand Veymont.

Read more from Mr. Roberts’ interview with Zully at In Sheep’s Clothing