Paralycyst / Sun Rad – split
2.23.17 by Bobby Power

Property Materials is a Boston-based label that releases split tapes by Sun Rad, which is also manned by a co-founder of the label itself. Since debuting November 2015, the imprint has released four splits, each featuring Sun Rad to foil both local and long-distance counterparts (from Salem, MA to Oakland, CA). But Sun Rad’s take on enthusiastic and neon yet experimental dance music proves to be more dynamic than one might expect.

The label’s album description suggests that the tape is: “dance music for those who stayed up late and partied in the basement.” Luckily, both sides bring a genuine sense of makeshift but efficient DIY show at any house, gallery, or backroom.

Paralycyst doesn’t appear to have much of a public presence. Researching the project only shows that it’s run by “a musician from Oakland, CA.” Here, the four Paralycyst tracks would strike a deep chord with any fan of Container, Cube, or any other modern techno-industrialist. But rather than just another in the crowded techno(ise), the sounds maintain their own sense of frayed rigidity. “Altercation” starts off a rote and unassuming drum beat clicking its way through some blown out speaker. Soon enough, waves tighten and loosen in bizarre patterns. The mechanized beat slurs in and out of focus while utilitarian melodies play themselves out. “No Rave” is a blast of 8-bit precision and acid-like pulses. “Peripheral” and “Filth” to the opening track’s bleak, pummeling monotony, cycling through an endless loop of noise. It’s a shame to see Paralycyst hasn’t released anything since this tape last summer.

Where Paralycyst goes deep into the darkest corners of a basement noise show, Sun Rad brings the modest crowd in together to close the night out moving around a bit. “Endless Midnight” makes no bones about it, launching into a jarring and hypnotic run of stabbing 90s acid. It’s similar to LFO but modernized in the vein of Kanding Ray or Andy Stott. “Heaven Knows” plays a bit more with negative space, following a bare beat in oddly vacant space. As the track builds up, a fluorescent shape appears and takes over. “Content Mirage” is the happy medium between the two, mixing unabashed hallmarks of dance music (synthetic hand claps, percussion, and sighs) and perfectly closing things out.

Sadly, the tape edition of 50 copies is sold out at the source, but you can grab a digital copy via Bandcamp.

New Batch – Constellation Tatsu
2.15.17 by Bobby Power

Oakland imprint Constellation Tatsu has been a reliable source of drifting experimentation sourced from all over the globe. Often dropping in batches of three, each set of new sounds uncovers a dizzying array of epiphanies. The label’s latest batch doesn’t mess with the tried and true formula, bringing new sounds from Forest Walker, Ana & Ina, and SODA lite.

First up, Forest Christenson is perhaps best known as one half of Seabat, a duo with composer/synthesist John Also Bennet (Forma). But Christenson has also been involved with a number of sporadic experimental projects, such as Harsh Yoga and Arid Hunter, among others. Now, Christenson steps into his own solo light as Forest Walker with UV Sea, which also turns out to be one of the more confounding and promising debuts out there.

Throughout the tape’s four tracks–two short, two long– the LA-based producer effortlessly culls serene washes of sound that speak not only to Constellation Tatsu’s aesthetic but also Walker’s unique sense of ambient music. With photography and design by John Also Bennett, the final physical product is an elegant blur of imagery and sound.

Opener “Desert Lighthouse” opens with a vaguely Steve Reich-ian cycle of pulsing sounds, perfectly setting the stage for the ensuing aural bliss. Over time, the track shifts in and out of focus, dialing in a beautifully distant piano melody and sifting sheets of static and texture. It almost resembles Tim Hecker without the flurry of frayed noise and overpowering tones. “Amendment of Fundamental Axioms” retreats into negative space, examining modest suggestions of chordal color and intermittent feedback. “Saved Video of a Postcard” veers deeper into more symphonic realms, establishing the low-key dread and peripheral grace of Johann Johannson. Closer “Realtime Lapse” offers the most patient and truly immersive piece here. The 12+ minutes of slowed and slurred drones are pure emotional melancholy, meditating on a theme of sullen hopefulness.

On Dockweiler Beach marks the return of Ana & Ina, the obscured ambient project helmed by writer Ashley Hoffman and visual artist Ian James. Here again, as with the duo’s fantastic Analogue cassette on Complicated Dance Steps from 2011, Hoffman is credited with “thoughts” while James provided “emotions.” The unassuming mystique and loosely explained process leaves quite a bit up to interpretation, making repeat listens all the more addicting.

The A-side “Come In” is a half-hour drift of inviting electronics that slowly morph into various smooth shapes of sound. There’s no narrative whatsoever, leaving all reference points, timestamps, or cues obsolete and amping up the riveting display. B-side “Come Around” floats in a celestial murk of weightless tones and shimmering textures, similar to Pulse Emitter or Windy & Carl. The track’s second half evolves into a disembodied careen of meandering glee.

Finally, Alex Last returns after SODA lite’s exquisite Liquid Earth tape on Illuminated Paths with In Eco, an imagined travelogue to pseudo-sythetic lands. Field recordings seemingly captured from dreams or other fabricated sources intersect with naturalistic backdrops to create seven humid scenes of vaguely picturesque and wholly captivating allure. On tracks “Habitat,” “In Eco,” and “Galatea Point,” reality becomes subjective, perfectly cleansing the palette for the ambiguous ambiance of “Senses,” “Aurai,” and “Lagoon.” The brief but potent closer “Oceania” wraps things up in an air of stranded ambivalence. You might be marooned, but you wouldn’t rather be anywhere else in the world.

New Batch – Cosmic Winnetou
10.18.16 by Bobby Power

Since 2012, Guenter Schlienz has carved a happy little corner of blissed out ambient cassettes through his Cosmic Winnetou imprint. In that time, the Stuttgart, Germany-based label has issued tape after tape of heady, meandering music, including career highlights from Pulse Emitter, Kyle Landstra, Panabrite, Micromelancolié, and many more. Prolific without diluting itself, curious without being aimless, consistent without feeling stuck in a rut, Cosmic Winnetou remains a reliably tranquil retreat into some timelessly beautiful sounds. Recently, the label issued a three-tape batch featuring new tones from An Elm, Strom Noir, and a collaborative split tape by Uton and Ø+yn offset by Bird People and Creation VI .

First up, “Monster Collab” dishes out two sides of fortuitous collaboration. Uton, the solo project of venerable veteran of Finnish tinkerer Jani Jirvonen, teams up with Argentinian outsider Ø+yn (aka Pablo Picco) for four meandering tracks of equally disorienting glee. From subterranean drones to lo-fi, alien broadcasts, the two projects find beauty in grotesque places. Side B brings Bird People and Creation VI’s “Riverbank Raag,” a 25-minute raga that seems to almost literally levitate on command. As soon as the piece starts, you can’t help but feel a sense of weightlessness, embarking on an inward journey starting at your ears and going deep into the beyond.

Strom Noir’s name should sound familiar, having already issued more than 20 releases on the likes of Sacred Phrases, hibernate, Zoharum , and more. The project, helmed by Emil Maťko, perpetuates an endless bob of bucolic ambiance, culminating here with the white colour of the clouds. From the opening moments of lead track “All the Bright Places,” Maťko unfurls a series of lulled melodies that are perfectly tailored to suit scenes of waking from slumber or drifting off to sleep. “Ako Lynie Ticho,” “Chvenie,” and the extended, magnum opus-like “Concrete, Bones & Dreams” meditate on melancholic waves of piano-led bliss. Elsewhere, “Because You Left” relies on texture studies and gritty sheets of lush noise.

Last but certainly/obviously not least, An Elm’s “Fly Pan Elm” seems to veer into an entirely different direction as the previous two tapes. Reportedly “inspired by long-haul flights” and “dedicated to all aircrews,” the tape gives off the vibe of careening through air. While you’re peripherally aware of impossible speed and movement, your immediate state is one of pressurized motionlessness. The feeling is both paralyzed and highly dynamic. “Fly Pan Elm 1” jets through clouds of synth-laden pulses and processed dialogue lifted from some unknown film, only to be foiled by “Fly Pan Elm 2,” a layered and fog-like lattice of wafting synth chords. “Fly Pan Elm” 3 and “Fly Pan Elm 6” are exercises in transcendentally sublime and disembodied ambiance while parts 4 and 5 speak to eerie, arpeggiated workouts muted with a calm, dreamlike sense of dread.

All in all, Cosmic Winnteou’s eleventh batch highlights the labels penchant for pulling together diverse but inextricably linked artists from across the globe, all for the sake of adventurous sound.

Das Torpedoes – The Russian Submarine
8.28.16 by Bobby Power

Captained by Charles LaeRau, an eternal outsider based in Omaha with ties to “psychedelic junk-folk collective” Naturaliste, Das Torpedoes chartered the early ’00s vague and esoteric waters. Evidenced by only a handful of cassettes and CD-rs on fringe institutions like Animal Disguise and the Seagull Label, the project’s bleak but sublime aesthetic plays out with dingy charm, equally disfigured and composed. Now, Gertrude Tapes embarks on a campaign to revive Das Torpedoes’ relative mystery with a handful of reissues, starting with “The Russian Submarine.”

“The Russian Submarine is a concept album, reportedly inspired by the sinking of a Russian submarine. Throughout the tape, conflicting sounds are always at odds. Simple, floating beauty is undermined by some foreboding sense of danger. The calming drift of wading in the ocean always aware of some distant, unseeable doom. “The Last Goodbyes/Leaving the Port of Mumansk” starts the journey with slow and steady propulsion, keeping a keep eye on the horizon and slowly pulling away from harbor. Lo-fi synths seemingly recorded on a boombox or hand-me-down four-track recorder play out with joy while flecks of rhythm and texture bloom under the water.

“Off the Coast, Submerging” presents the first sense of the eerie otherworld quality of diving deep under the waves. Darkness falls and all you hear is the random hums and oddly calculated music of machinery and anonymous engine parts. “Dreaming/Sounds of St. Petersburg” is full-on industrial drone, as though the entire crew is asleep and dreaming amidst the strange sub-aquatic amplification.

“Alarms Sound Emergency” is a nightmare of sorts, waking in a flash of glitching and drowning machines. You can almost hear the vessel taking on water, trying to escape in a futile and tragic display. “Last Letter Written” offers a moment of reflection — not a hopeful one but an honest one. “The Last Voyage” closes out the tape with oddly dreamlike and slow motion movement of tones.

The first edition of The Russian Submarine may have come and gone without much notice, but its a thrilling revisit here all the same.

1080p Turns 3
6.16.16 by Bobby Power

It’s hard to believe 1080p is only three years old. The Vancouver-based imprint, run by ex-music journalist and Rose Quartz honcho Richard MacFarlane, launched  in 2013 with relatively humble intentions to release music from all over the globe. Equipped with an open mind and an even more open ear, MacFarlane has since become one of the most fascinating and unique tape labels in operation today. Largely geared toward dance music with more than a few flirtations in auxiliary aural curiosities, 1080p rivals like-minded and established experimental beat imprints, such as Opal Tapes, Not Not Fun/100% Silk, Olde English Spelling Bee, and many more.

To celebrate the label’s third year, 1080p put up pay-what-you-want downloads of its entire catalog on Bandcamp. Join in the fun with a handful of our favorite highlights from the label’s discography below. Then grab up all the tapes you can handle!

Q&A With Angoisse
5.20.16 by Bobby Power

Based out of Barcelona, Angoisse is a boutique cassette imprint specializing in disparate, largely electronic sounds. Run solely by David Romero, who also records under the alias Fingering Eve, the label operates under a stark but diverse sonic umbrella that covers everything from noise and industrial to ambient and dissonant techno. Angoisse’s latest batch of tapes emphasizes this singular sense of variety with three new tapes, including the pummeling electronic scrambles of Pure Matrix, a blissed-out drift of ambiance by Dominic Coppola and Forest Management, and the return of Hsdom (aka Jochen Hartmann of the dearly departed Phaserprone imprint). We caught up with Romero just a few days shy of releasing this new batch of tapes to talk about the label’s withdrawn demeanor, austere but striking aesthetic, and apparent (lack of) ties to the local Barcelona scene.

When did you start Angoisse, and how did the first releases come together?
Started Angoisse a few years back with a friend who was a key piece in the Basque black metal scene and isn’t involved anymore with the label.

Where does Angoisse fit within Barcelona’s music scene?
I have no idea.

What artists or labels inspire you?
Right now most inspiration comes from things that are not music related, from fashion brands to editorials and magazines, to tech wear ads, accelerationism, speculative fiction, sport cars, trap music videos, and my personal Instagram, Twitter and Facebook feeds.

This new trio of tapes seems perfectly balanced, going from serene and subtle, through odd and abstract, to pummeling and dissonant. Do you see this batch as a triptych or three parts of a complete piece?
Each release is a complete piece on it’s own and I don’t really see them as a triptych but I guess it could work as that in some way. I prefer to think of it just as a batch that fits very well the idea of releasing electronics for all conditions.

Did you reach out to the artists for this batch, or did they come to you with the material?
Both.

Do you accent demos, or do you commission each release?
I prefer to commission each release.

Much of your back catalogue covers noisier and somewhat abstract techno sounds. Do you intend to branch out even more as the label continues
It’s constantly evolving and changing with every batch so it can branch out or even die any day.

You recently issued the label’s first piece of vinyl, with Exoteric Continent’s Peninsula 7-inch. What was different about working with vinyl? Why make a format switch for that particular release?
First vinyl was actually another 7-inch by Alleypisser that came out in the very first batch. The format switch on both releases was based on the artists’ preference due to either recording the material with that format in mind and just feeling like doing it at the time but it’s really annoying to work with vinyl and deal with pressing plants.

Do you design the art for all of your releases? Do the artists have any input
I do it at this point but always with the artist’s input until we get to a point where the final design is a good blend of both parts aesthetics and ideas.

Are there any hurdles to being both an artist and a label owner?
I’d say there’s advantages as I do not depend on anyone to release my own stuff and control everything.

What’s next for you, and for Angoisse?
There’s a new Fingering Eve release that should see the light soon and there will be some live dates after the summer too. For Angoisse, “Vanity Fair” by Gabi Losoncy is near ready and I’m very happy to release it very soon. After that there are many releases in the works and I’d rather not disclose any names yet, whoever cares should just keep an eye on the label’s sites.

Future Museums – An Absence [ video premiere ]
5.3.16 by Bobby Power

Since 2010, Neil Lord has steered his Future Museums project through a number of limited edition releases that mine the most psyched-out corners of modern ambient, drone, and lo-fi. While the band has sifted through a number of members, including Justin Sweatt (Xander Harris) for a spell, the Austin-based project recently settled itself into a comfy trio, featuring Lord, Maxwell Parrott,and Nicolas Nadeau. Now, the trio follows up its recent run of tapes on Fire Talk (including the excellent Tapestry Of Time and Terrain / Pleasure Cruise double-tape opus) with “An Absence”, a new 37-minute EP released on Mirror Universe. To celebrate, the label has put together a snazzy new video shot and directed by T.C. Johnson, who also does live visuals with the band. Musically, the 12-minute teaser finds Future Museums ambling through vibrantly desolate and deprecated locales, equipped with a modest set of effects pedals and a lethargic but hopeful drum machine. Landing somewhere between Windy & Carl’s epic, melancholic drifts and the band’s own peripheral sense of optimism, the trio finds a deep and inherent sense of beauty in the lowliest of places. Visually, Johnson parallels Future Museums’ aural lament, contrast stark and bluntly natural scenes of rustic decay with analog infidelities for a hypnotic and calmly disorienting, altogether captivating, series of meditations.

“An Absence” is available now from MU’s Bandcamp for digital / cassette preorder. 100 physical copies will be available May 20th.  Do yourself a favor and pick up the label’s “Austin, TX power trio” bundle of tapes, featuring this EP and new jams by Single Lash and Slow Pulse.

Q&A With Heavy Mess
4.27.16 by Bobby Power

Braeyden Jae first released his solo material a mere two years ago, with a run of frayed but beautiful cassettes issued via some of the international tape scene’s heaviest hitters, including Patient Sounds, Phinery, Hel Audio, Spring Break Tapes… the list goes on. But the SLC-based musician has been active in the tape scene since 2010 with Inner Islands, an imprint Jae founded with Sean Conrad. Now, Jae seems to only be getting busier, having just released his first work on vinyl via Whited Sepulchre and launched Heavy Mess, a self-described “discrete cassette label.” We caught up with Jae just after the release of two new tapes to talk about the beginnings of Heavy Mess, where it’s at, and where it’s headed.

 

When did you decide to start Heavy Mess, and how did the label first come together?

It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, like late 2013. It was initially going to be called Soft Etc. I had the first release lined up, it was the Gossimer tape “Across That White Plain” that Absenter ended up putting out. I was finishing up my gender studies degree at the time and it was something I realized I couldn’t take on in a sincere way, so I put things on hold. But the urge to get back into running a tape label kept creeping up, so I eventually came back around to it and re-dubbed the label Heavy Mess.

You initiated Heavy Mess with “soft launch” that included a release of your own, Broken Punk. Do you plan on releasing your own future work on the label?

I do have plans to release my own stuff with the label, but am giving priority to releasing other peoples work right now. So probably won’t see anything from me on Heavy Mess until sometime next year.

And now you’re returning for a true launch with two tapes: one by Sister Grotto and the other by Orra. How do these releases represent Heavy Mess?

I want Heavy Mess to be flexible in the type of sounds it can release. I had previously started Inner Islands (which Sean Conrad of Orra is currently running, and doing such a great job with), and got bogged down by how specific the zone was. Kind of like, feeling trapped by it’s aesthetic parameters. Heavy Mess will have a lot more freedom with what it can be. So more than an indicator of the type of zones Heavy Mess will stick with, I hope the Sister Grotto and Orra tapes will set a good tone for the quality of releases people can expect from the label. I really adore Sister Grotto’s and Orra’s work. And everyone involved with those projects are the kindest folks you could know. Really honored to have their trust in lending me their sounds for the label.

You’ve worked with a number revered cassette labels now. Did you learn anything while working from these labels?

Totally, I’ve been really fortunate to be able to work with so many honed in labels, and I’ve for sure learned a bit from each of them. I’ve been super impressed with Joe who does Spring Break Tapes. I really respect his process. He’s super involved and communicative and just really pumped on the stuff he puts out. He’s also a really good dude. Like, I haven’t released an album with him since late 2014 but he’s still actively supportive with what I’m doing. We text back and forth on a regular basis and he’s always making time to check out my new sounds. I’d like to have that type of interaction with the artists I work with, having it be more than just “I put out your album”. I’d like there to be family vibes ya know?

Are there other tape labels or artists who directly inspire you?

I’m consistently blown away by Orange Milk and make it a point to keep up to date with what they are doing. Also really into Astral Spirits, I have a pretty hefty collection of their tapes at this point. My fav label that popped up last year though was Lime Lodge, all three of the records they put out are top shelf stuff, and their minimal visual aesthetic is so honed in. But yeah, there’s so much great stuff going on right now. It’s really inspiring to see the overwhelming amount of quality work being put on a regular basis.

Where does Heavy Mess fit into the SLC music scene? Besides your own material, do you see the label issuing local sounds?

I guess it doesn’t. I’ve always been really shitty about figuring out how to integrate into the Salt Lake music scene. I’m also not too concerned with Heavy Mess having a geographic identity with the city it’s based in. I’m a pretty big introvert and honestly my deepest musical connections have been formed via online interactions and with folks that I rarely get to communicate with face to face. I’m also planning to move this fall, so Heavy Mess will be vibing elsewhere. Though, I do have plans to release a tape from a Salt Lake artist, Blush Stains. It’s a project by Taylor Christian who recently put out a self-released album with his band Seven Feathers Rainwater, as well as a tape on Phinery, with a drone duo he’s in called Iconographs.

Do you have final say on the audio and art of each release, or do you leave it to each artist?

There is a simple formatting for the j-cards that will be consistent for each release. Other than that, the artist has plenty of say in helping curate the visuals for their release, I like to keep it an open dialogue and get to a point where both sides feel good about it. As far as audio goes, I’m working with artists that I really adore so not a lot of input on that end. Just little things I guess, like suggesting which track worked better for the “a” and “b” side on the Orra tape.

What’s next for Heavy Mess?

I’ve got things planned our for the next while. It’s all on the site. The next batch will include albums from Blush Stains, Christian Michael Filardo and Teasips (Ang Wilson from Electric Sound Bath). After that will be two double cassettes from Ashan and Gossimer, both are solo projects from the folks involved in Orra. Than later on, stuff from Heejin Jang, Macho Blush, Padna and Amulets. I’m keeping myself busy.

New Batch – Vitrine
11.2.15 by Bobby Power

Boy, oh boy, was I late to the Vitrine party. The label, run by Allen Mozek (who also records as No Intention and is a member of both Good Area and Twin Stumps), has been around since 2013, slowly picking up speed and issuing only a handful of releases for its first two years. But while its output was meager, compared to other like-minded esoterica cassette imprints, the sounds and modest but striking packaging were – and are – downright necessary at this point, which choice highlights that include Safe House’s “Region VI“, Three Legged Race’s “Rope Commercial Vol. 2“, and Good Area’s “Dilettante” Cassette.

But Copley Medal’s mesmerizing and low-key hysteria on “Marble Cage” (VT08, Feb. 2015) was what finally got my attention, and I’m happy to report I’ve been hooked ever since. Each small batch, generally including two or three new tapes at a time, includes a range of sounds and contexts, ensuring some enjoyable level of discovery and intrigue.

This latest round of cassettes highlights both the label and Mozek’s uncanny ear for gloriously tattered sonics that nod to a number of ghastly sounds and ideas. VT15 brings the latest set of bizarrely mutated musique concrète by Tom Darksmith, the beloved tinkerer with past releases on Hanson, Kye, Chondritic Sound, and his own Mom Costume imprint. “Everyone is Welcome In My Room” plays true to Darksmith’s penchant for listlessly foreboding collages, constructing massive but desolate scenes of vague despair and almost guaranteed doom. Found sounds seamlessly intermix with Darksmith’s anonymous trove of instruments (?) and noisemakers, creating an immersive, 30-minute slab of disorienting bliss broken out into two equally engrossing parts.

Next up, 010001111000 (whether it’s pronounced “oh one oh oh oh one one one one oh oh oh” or “zero one zero zero zero one one one one zero zero zero” is yet to be confirmed) brings “lmof”, a slightly more optimistic survey of tape machine fuckery and distant, weary-eyed beauty. For tape’s opening section, dimply pastoral chords waft from some malfunctioning reel, intermittently interrupted by pure electronic signals and mis-firing wire connections. It’s a pleasantly jarring experience that leads perfectly into the tape’s wallowing meander through quietly hellish vignettes. Estranged guitar ditties and apparition-like vocals saunter into frame while other characters and distant textures take form and dissolve from moment to moment. Segues begin to fold into one another, rendering things both grotesque and beautiful obsolete.

Vitrine closes out this particular trio with a captivating tape by Mel Bentley, Philadelphia-based poet, writer, and designer. “Red Green Blue” appears to be Bentley’s debut audio recording, capturing a number of live readings, plus one piece featuring Jim Strong. Bentley’s work here revels in a visceral spew of urbanism, commercialism, identity, social media, and false sense of accomplishment. At times recorded in pure, live readings while elsewhere haphazardly lifted from a MacBook broadcasting from the other side of the room, Red Green Blue might be the perfect middle ground between the avant-poetry and experimental cassette worlds.

Make sure you follow Vitrine’s YouTube channel, perhaps the most reliable way to grab their tapes before they each disappear.

Check out An Introduction To Vitrine –>

An Introduction To Vitrine
11.3.15 by Bobby Power

Since first launching in 2013, Vitrine has gradually but steadily released a confounding series of cassettes that speak to label founder Allen Mozek’s varied and obsessive taste in esoteric sound. Ranging from squalored noise, Spartanic musique concrete, spoken word, and just about everything in-between, the label’s catalog boasts highlights from established experimental acts (Gene Pick, Adam Bohman, Three Legged Race, Darksmith, et al.), to relative newcomers and/or new projects (Copley Medal, 010001111000, Mel Bentley, et al.), and Mozek’s own projects (No Intention, Good Area). We caught up with Mozek to track the label’s history and explore the impetus behind its recent trio of tapes.

 

How did the label first come together? And can you speak to why the label seems to have been picking up speed in production this year?

The first batch of Vitrine cassettes were not released with the intent of starting a label (a comically lofty term for the endeavor to this day), instead, it was simply a method by which Gabi & I could better create a context for what we were doing, outside of affiliate associations. It was also meant to harken back to the small-run cassettes and home imprint which I cherish and collect obsessively to this day, despite ever dwindling funds. I don’t quite remember what the idea was behind the second batch of VT cassettes, Gene Pick & Safe House. If I remember correctly, the goal was to move beyond the nuclear core of a domestic couple to acts who I was personally acquainted with, as was the case with Chris / Gene Pick, or through the collector’s grapevine, as was the case with Shane English of Safe House. VT04 & VT05 were initiated while Good Area was still active and as such were begun more as jokes / elaborate conceits rather than the perpetuation of a label or aesthetic. Good Area dissolved while both cassettes were in development and as such became a greater personal focus for me. Vitrine evolved into my main focus following the dissolution of Good Area. I only like to release my own creative material sparingly, so the label became an outlet for me. These early VT releases still came out to the public irregularly, as I was paying for them out of pocket while attempting to subsist on a low income wage job. But despite the span of time between, say, the A.Bolus / Copley Medal batch & the Adam Bohman / No Intention batch, I was well underway planning releases for the next year plus. In fact, the reason for the increased activity can partially be attributed to a current slackening of financial responsibilities (as much of Vitrine comes out of pocket… I don’t make any money on the tapes) and a further increase in my free time.

That is to say, my life at 31 basically consists of waking up every morning, going to work, coming home, taking a nap, and then attending to this & that for the label until I pass out and start the process all over again. An additional reason for the increased activity is the fact that many projects which were initiated, say, a year plus ago, are now seeing fruition. My favorite releases are those which enjoy long gestation periods – the Stewart Skinner cassette was set in motion before I contacted either Chris or Shane for the second VT batch. In fact, the Stewart Skinner was originally meant to be a 70+ minute CD. That was Stew’s idea and it remains a damn good one. I think someone should take him up on that offer…

Sure, I love the times when I contact an artist and they give me audio & artwork within a month & both parties are good to go. But my favorite way of working remains the long incubation – the upcoming Byron Recital Hall was initiated around the same time I contacted Robert Beatty / Three Legged Race and there are a number of other artists who I contacted around the time of the comp whose cassettes I don’t foresee coming to light until April onward 2016. I have releases up until around VT36 mapped out. These will come out at a fairly quick clip, heaven allowing. If I suddenly stop moving units, well, then that will lead to a reorientation of goals. Currently the plan is to make it to VT50 & then disappear, though I also hope to release a handful of vinyl records – Good Area’s “Macbeth”, No Intention’s “Rabelais”, a handful of items from neglected contemporaries & an archival offering or two from buried artists who I find to be of some worth / import. Short answer – I currently have a lot of time on my hands, thus the increase in production. Natch.

The latest batch is relatively varied, in terms of your previous releases. How did this batch come together?

This current batch is one of my favorite VT collections yet. That is to say, I find it one of the most left-field assemblages yet. Darksmith has been a favorite artist for a long time. Once Vitrine solidified as an extroverted label, Tom was put on the short list of dream projects I wanted to work with. Vitrine, to risk hyperbole, was started because of the efforts of projects such as Darksmith. Tom was incredibly easy to deal with and was incredibly accommodating every step of the way. He asked me if there was any figure I wanted depicted on the cover of the cassette and I asked him to draw Anna Kavan – author of the unsung SF classic Ice. 010001111000 has been, to this day, the only unsolicited submission which has manifest into an actual Vitrine release. It’s not on account of a lack of inspired material directed my way, rather, I’m a cranky curmudgeon, and I have a specific, jaundiced vision for the label. 010001111000 just so happened to dovetail into many of my obsessions and further illuminated aesthetic nooks and crannies heretofore untraveled by the label. Contact with artists past and present in Japan remains of singular concern for me, and despite the sometimes frustrating language barrier, I am striving to foster a better intravenous of exchange. Mel Bentley is a writer and poet who I met through a gallery event in Philadelphia which I helped curate called Poems in a Room. She was recommended to me as an inspired writer, I booked her and was subsequently blown away. Amelia is a fantastic poet and also someone I greatly admire personally. Like her, I also came out of the creative writing workshop program, but whereas I drifted off following undergrad into a miasma of tape music and alcohol abuse, Mel has since fostered strong contacts with amazing poets and garnered worthwhile archival jobs with Ubuweb & Penn. I personally feel that her and I occasionally intersect in terms of method, but she is much more sophisticated and developed in her approach, while I remain wild in method, due to a self-imposed explosion from academia and attendant alcohol abuse. Her cassette is one of my favorites which I have heretofore released. I am confident Amelia will accrue an impressive array of publishing credits in the near future. It’s an honor for me to work with her at this juncture. Her & I have discussed a collaborative effort, but that has been perpetually forestalled by my trenchant lassitude.

Check out Vitrine’s new batch –>