Music For Intention & Growth: A Purpose-Driven Sound Series
4.21.16 by Mike Nigro

This Record Store Day, I didn’t go to any record stores, in fact, I didn’t even buy any records. Instead, I went to Ace Hotel in Herald Square for some free tapes.

As far as promotional giveaways go, Moog Music’s “Music for Intention and Growth” series is about as down to earth as can be. The synth manufacturer looped in their local Asheville, NC cassette label Twin Springs Tapes to help coordinate the project, and worked with some real live contemporary synth heroes to make sure the jams were tight. Good on ‘em.

First up is Tabs Out subscription series alumna TALsounds: “Natal Host” centers itself around dark, sequenced riffs, which provide an unsettling foundation for Natalie Chami’s vocal layers and synth leads to wrap themselves around. Constantly shifting shapes, crossfading, and even occasionally going for some hard knife-to-tape edits, “Natal Host” is a restless listen that provides plenty of rhythmic nooks and crannies for your ears to get stuck in.

Kyle Landstra’s contribution, “Variables of Resolve”, incorporates lush polyphony into Moog’s mono world. Both sides start with patiently applied base layers that slowly build into skyscrapers of spiraling arpeggios, laser beams, and masterfully dialed-in steel drum tones. Landstra gets damn near stopping time with this one, and when the deck clicks you’ll wonder how long you’ve been staring at the patterns in your floorboards.

The most restrained of the three, Inner Travels’ “Blue Light” does more with less. There’s impressive use of stringed instrument sounds on the A Side, which pluck, strum, and bend their way through Parts I-III, utilizing a healthy dose of reverb to show off all their shimmering overtones. But it’s Part IV that really takes the cake in my opinion, where stargazing music box melodies weave in and out of slow ‘n low bass phrases to create a masterpiece of minimalist synthesis.

It’s clear that some real thought and care went into making the “Music for Intention and Growth” tapes legit releases on all accounts and not just slapdash freebies. Each of the artists brought their musical A-game, Logan Kelley knocked the art and design out of the park, and Moog did a great job of working with and contributing to their local cassette and synth scenes.

The “Music for Intention and Growth” tapes are available in Moog Mother-32 synthesizer boxes while supplies last, or maybe behind the counter of your local Ace Hotel or Asheville, NC record store.