NNA celebrates 10 years with overwhelming box set
7.16.18 by Mike Haley

I played a house show in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, a town south of Allentown, back in 2008 with A Snake In The Garden and Oak, who were on tour together. A Snake In The Garden was a friendly-violent type of project that Mattew Mayer did at the time. Oak was an ultra-chill unit featuring Toby Aronson. The two had just started NNA Tapes and had copies of their first dubs with them, which I quickly gripped. Two splits: Sun Circle / Pregnant Moon (NNA001) and Oak / Pink Desert (NNA003) [picked up NNA002 Duane Pitre – For Loud / For Quiet C30 later I believe]

The tapes looked incredible, with that now infamous folded-circle artwork and hand painted shell labels. It was a definitive “new new age” zone. This was the a peak of hunched-over-on-the-floor-drone and the artists provided quite possible the most relaxed vibes you could hope for. It was like listening to salt lamps melt. NNA followed up that meditative mind drift by releasing one of the best tapes the following year, a split between Caboladies and Oneohtrix Point Never. The split drank a ton more V8 than the catalog up to this point, spiderwebbing NNA’s reach into endless depths.

In 2010 NNA had entered non-stop mode, releasing stacks upon stacks of the most critical sounds and sights. Xiphiidae, Pulse Emitter, Nonhorse, Julia Holter, Hobo Cubes, Driphouse, and an 8 tape box set highlighting the Burlington, VT experimental scene. An EIGHT tape box set! How can they top that you might wonder? I mean, NNA has been a bull in a cassette shop for a decade now. I don’t want to say they are “the best,” because that can’t be quantified, but they are the best. Jason Lescalleet, Astral Social Club, Dog Lady, Golden Retriever. These are the kind of tapes they released, people. Dolphins Into The Future, Drainolith, Quicksails, Max Eilbacher. I could do this. All. Day. Long.

So, while NNA had nothing to prove to you, here we are. At ten years and 100 releases. Here we are with “Centennial.”

What is “Centennial?”

• 66 exclusive tracks from NNA Artists
• 6 cassette format featuring artwork from Robert Beatty
• hand made aluminum boxes by local VT designers Cold Hollow Contracting
• Limited edition of 125 hand-numbered copies
• me, drooling in my beard

The full lineup is as follows…

Sun Circle, Pregnant Moon, Duane Pitre, Pink Desert, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Toby Aronson, Caboladies, Harmonizer, Jeff Astin & Raymond Reitano, Time Life, Nonhorse, Driphouse, Pulse Emitter, Ryan Garbes, Hobo Cubes, Headboggle, WANDA GROUP, Hubble, Ken Seeno, Aguirre, Dog Lady Island, Mike Shiflet, Drainolith, Innercity, Quicksails, Hex Breaker Quintet, Co La, Rale, Lieven Martens Moana, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Ryan Power, Le Révélateur, PHORK, Decimus, Belarisk, Howard Stelzer, Transcendence Orchestra (with Anthony Child & Daniel Bean), Blanche Blanche Blanche, Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier, Jason Lescalleet, Ahnnu, Astral Social Club, Migrations In Rust, Banny Grove, Guerilla Toss, Tredici Bacci, Battle Trance, Sediment Club, Kid Millions & Sarah Bernstein, Wei Zhongle, Olivia Block, Patrick Higgins, Booker Stardrum, Jake Meginsky, AJ Cornell, Nerftoss, Fox/Soper Duo, die Reihe, Max Eilbacher, GRID, Lea Bertucci, and Wren Kitz.

You ready to do this? Preorders are up now with an official release date of 8.17.18.