[PHYSICS] – Only Forever
2.26.15 by Mike Haley
My 8th grade math teacher was an ex-nun named Mrs. Soccorso. She was the kind Catholic educator with a gnarly patina who was pissed she wasn’t able to still hit kids with their parents being cool with it. My desk was in the front of the class, because I was a piece of shit kid who couldn’t be trusted rows back, and Mrs. Soccorso would use it to set up the overhead projector. It was so trippy. All the lights in the room off, except for the low-watt projector bulb illuminating her leathery face inches away. The froth of saliva that would build up in the corners of her mouth like the head of a beer. Those glasses, halfway off her nose, making the bottom half of her eyes ten times larger than the tops. Looking back, this may have been my first psychedelic experience, and explains why I am horrible at the maths.
Flash forward 20 years later (give or take, I’m horrible at math) and Constellation Tatsu releases an incredible Winter Batch with tapes by 夕方の犬 (Dog in the Evening), Opaline, and [PHYSICS]. Three tapes, each pretty incredible, but I’ll be damned if “Only Forever” by LA’s [PHYSICS] doesn’t prompt a recall of smudged dry erase markers projected over grids in a dark room. It’s vacuum sealed X-Files theme sounds, damp laser tweaks, and stylish cosmic rushes all bringing back the bizarre algebraic trips.
“Only Forever” compiles 13 lucky tracks by [PHYSICS], who’s preceding output can be heard on labels like Digitalis, Deathbomb Arc, and others. There are some mega-curious sounds sloshed around, juxtaposed by drifting ambiance and vintage synth animation. Digital glitter and uncoiling springs hover and waft on a sea of foam that rivals that of Soccorso’s mouth. This must have been what I heard while fixated on those hallucinatory bifoculs all those years ago. At least, it should have been. In reality I was probably singing all of “Dookie” in my head instead of letting these neon gummy worms slink through it. There’s no feet dragging or filler on “Only Forever”. The celestial stew is already boiling on the opening track “Orbital Insertion”, a nearly 5 minute mental massage with sparse phasing and a rolling charm, and doesn’t stop the pleasing flow for the next 40 or 20 or 100 minutes. Who knows how long this tape is? MATH, amirite!?
Pick up the Tatsu’s Winter Batch for the stupid low price of $13 (US PPD) here, or snag this guy alone for $6 (US PPD) here. Maybe you’ll be carried back to a time of clip on ties and unfortunately timed, awkward erections. Maybe something else will happen. Only one way to find out.