Tape Of The Month: January 2014
1.27.14 by Mike Haley

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Artist: ((Husband Material))
Title: Go Ahead And Start The Family Without Me
Length: C34
Label: Patient Sounds
Edition: 100
Dubbed: Home

You guys, it’s 2014! We did it, you guys. It’s a fresh start. A clean slate. Together we will quit smoking, get that Red Hot Chili Peppers tattoo we keep going on about, and finally learn the difference between a Vulcan and a Romulan. This is OUR year! Okay, we probably wont get around to any of that, but a new year does mean that the smoke of year-end lists, and the accompanying bellyaching about those lists, has cleared. The Buzzfeedian dystopia put to rest for the next, what, ten months or so? Now is the time for baby steps towards the next inescapable round of the Best Of Wars, our first shot fired being the January Tape of the Month by ((Husband Material)).

I know absolutely zero about ((Husband Material)) and what previous output may or may not exist. All I have to go on is an amusing Twitter account and this 34 minute cassette released late this month by Patient Sounds. From what I gather there seems to be a schtick going on that is family-man themed.

inside

Sort of a King Of The Hill, straight shootin’, “just give me a steak, nothing on it, nothing on the side” kind of scenario. An age where every fella worked a shitty 9-5 with a foreman breathing down their neck, dressed like Billy Joel from the cover of Glass Houses for special occasions, and like the guys on the inside of this Jcard for family vacations to the Grand Canyon.

The motif starts with the ((HM)) name and continues on into track titles like “Financially Stable (A Career-Oriented Gentleman)”, “The Size of the Rock That She Deserves”, and “A Job That Pays”. It doesn’t bleed into the sounds created whatsoever. The opener, “Financially Stable” busts in with some muddy vibrations, like a layer from an alternate take of the Doctor Who theme song, transferred off of poorly stored 1/4″ tape that’s been sitting in a church basement for the past 50-some years. The swampy sci-fi vibe eventually mingles with murky bedroom hip hop beats, the two walking along, hand in clammy hand, while distortion slowly creeps in and takes over the party. That’s followed up by a three minute and 7 second glistening cycle of catchy-meets-weird beats, like a quick dose of Flying Lotus, titled “My Bloody Laventine”, and a minute and a half high-pitched drone rasp called “Honeymoon Blues”. Those juxtapositions are the basic raw deal with “Go Ahead And Start The Family Without Me”. A dim effervescence cold chillin’ in a cloud of experimentation, sampling, and occasionally resampling on other tracks. Basically ((Husband Material)) is like DJ Screw, but with drank made up of unfiltered Soda Stream water and children’s cough medicine. Maybe some Smarties ground up in the mix. The percentage of sounds created – sounds gripped from the universe is unknown to me. For example, the liner notes make mentions like “Demons did synth work on song 9”. Does that mean released work by the Nate Young / Steve Kenney duo was snagged off of Napster and thrown through the Chopped & Screwed-O-Matic? Does someone else go by that moniker and produced original synth work for song 9? That is between ((Husband Material)) and its God. I’m not too worried about it right now.

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I already touched on the inside image of uncle Bert and Frank in their summer gear, so let’s move on to the outside shot. A photo of the girls graduating, and good for them. We didn’t think they would make it through four years of high school, especially Crystal after the frog incident last year, but I’ll be damned if they didn’t do it. Ray-Anne and Margo plan on going to nursing school. Crystal says she going to live in the basement for one more year and then move out west, but who’s holding their breath on that one, right? The pink shell of the cassette has labels affixed to both sides of the palm trees from the other two pictures cropped off on the sides of the cover.

All in all ((Husband Material)) brings a weird one that knows it’s weird, but doesn’t rely on the weirdness to hold the jams up. It’s part of Patient Sounds’ January Bundle, oddly enough released in the month of January. You can snag a copy for $6, or if you’re smart shopper, as part of a excellent bundle deal along with cassettes by Angelo Harmsworth, Dura, Derek Rogers, Former Selves, and label operator M.Sage for 23 bones. Click here to do either one.