5.6.19 by Ryan Masteller
We’ve all been baffled at one time or another, and I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, bafflement can often lead to understanding with the right line of questioning. On the other hand, if you can’t snap out of it, bafflement can be quite frustrating. It’s all in your approach.
Tingo Tongo Tapes baffles me. Not in the bad way, because whenever their tapes appear in my mailbox, I’m at least always intrigued, even if that intrigue peters out once I listen to them (which, truthfully, barely ever happens, but it has). They baffle me because I can’t pin ’em down. The LA/Oakland label is always uncovering strange and unusual sonic artifacts, pressing them to tape, then somehow selling them via email and … Facebook I guess? Events, record shows? Listen, just email them (tingotongotapes at gmail). I’m sure they’re fine.
So here’s me, baffled and intrigued, ready to dig in to three zany new platters. [Ed: Aren’t “platters” records?] Join me. Or don’t. You may have something important to do.
LAZER BLADE – ALL VENICE ALL THE TIME
Not even gonna lie – Taserface was the first thing I thought of when I saw “LASER BLADE,” but this isn’t about the MCU, this is about smashing the smashing-through “The Wall,” taking Floyd down a notch, rending every physical barrier with a mythical energy weapon. (Love the cover, LASER BLADE.) Since this is the West Coast, we can’t begin to talk about the shreddy hardcore punk on “All Venice All the Time” without mentioning SST, the paragon of early American hardcore and clearly the antecedent to LASER BLADE’s antics. Over six short tunes, the band’s pummeling riffage and shouted mantras kick up so much dust that you’ll be looking all over your body for boot prints from the fictional pit you just exited from. But you won’t find any, because this is only a tape… [Cue “Twilight Zone” music.]
PINK ABDUCTION RAY – WARP CANAL
“Dubstep, eh? I dunno … isn’t that whole scene a bit … iffy?” I don’t know what to tell you. I’m feeling pretty good about it actually, and I don’t even really know how one defines “dubstep.” I guess this is as close as anybody’s gotten, and it’s pretty spot on in some ways. Pink Abduction Ray certainly has the in-your-face electronic bludgeoning down, and the BPMs are pretty high on “Warp Canal.” It’ll certainly make you move in jerky, uncontrollable motions, and the constant battering over the two long sides of this C45 allow no respite, except when you get up off the floor from your prone position to flip the tape over. “Warp Canal” is nothing if not a visceral experience, and the electronic faceblasts hit with such intensity that you’ll be combing your body for actual shrapnel. But you won’t find any, because it’s all digital, and this is only a tape… [Cue “Twilight Zone” music.]
SCARED OF SPIDERS – MANGELOID EP
Sure, why not split the difference with “Mageloid EP” by Scared of Spiders? Smash LASER FACE’s hardcore right up into Pink Abduction Ray’s electronic grill, et voilà! “Mangeloid EP.” Another quick burst (only thirteen minutes, this one) of EQ abuse, this one bringing back that “digital hardcore” epithet that Alec Empire popularized [Ed: Word choice? Check reference.] all those years ago. Fast, sadistic, primal, “Mangeloid” is a runaway truck aimed at your unsuspecting eardrums. It probably wouldn’t stop but for the fadeout applied to several tracks, and even then it’s like a violent takeover, like somebody other than Scared of Spiders grabbed the knob and turned it down. A roommate perhaps. Maybe a disgruntled cassette podcast host.