Gee Weaver – Merchant Ivory
9.9.15 by Jacob DeRaadt

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Gee Weaver is a self-described “knob-twiddler” from Pasadena, CA, who runs the Colossal Tapes record label. I hear very little knob twisting going on for the duration of this cassette’s 20-minute span.

Initial fragments of pop calls to mind the work of Joseph Hammer, albeit with more digital reverb in the mix and less organic tape decompression. Admittedly, I’m a huge fan of this genre (pop music nostalgic remix?). The treatment of snippets of information is masterfully orchestrated in some passages, like a room full of vintage radios and televisions’ signals interrupting one another, witnessed by a solitary geriatric in a decrepit rest home.

“Passage 2” delves into some sumptuous organic field recordings treated to the digital equivalent of demagnetizing techniques reminiscent of Knækkede Stemmer’s recent release on Alien Passengers. There is a melodic drone element underlying many of these pieces that separates it from being strictly Hammer-worship, and I’d still rather hear someone ripping off Hammer’s aesthetic rather than another HNW or new age keyboard wanker making a concept record that holds no water in regards to the contents of the release. There’s a mood of warm hopefulness permeating the atmosphere of this release. The sounds of childlike conversation and water dripping bring up themes of nostalgia yet again.

This release is a concise statement with a consistent processing approach, making it a refreshing audio document to compliment the waning days of summer, allowing us to remember the summers of our youth.