Tabs Out | Mary Lattimore – Returned To Earth

Mary Lattimore – Returned To Earth
1.12.17 by Kat Harding

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Harpist Mary Lattimore has teamed up with Soap Library to release her latest cassette, “Returned To Earth.” The New York-based holistic tape label is offering Mary’s tape with hand-embossed artwork and a packet of heirloom orange zinnia seeds, ensuring the beauty of the outside matches the inside of the latest tracks.

Side A, “For Scott Kelly, Returned to Earth,” is Mary’s welcome home message to American astronaut Scott Kelly after his year spent in the International Space Station. After a fall left Mary with a broken jaw, wired shut and unable to speak, she channeled her feelings of isolation and loneliness into song. Scott’s frequent updating of his social media feeds, including the progress of his “space flower,” an orange zinnia and the first zinnia to be grown in space, kept him connected to Earth and served as inspiration to Mary. His beautiful posts of Earth’s wonder from afar was a small reward for his solitude, and Mary’s incorporated all of these feelings into a six-minute track, full of wandering chords. Picked strings seem to dance over gentle strumming, calling to mind Scott’s view of swirling clouds over our lonely planet and his whirlwind of a journey home. The trailer for the cassette, hand-drawn by John Andrews of indie band Quilt, features hyper-color crayon drawings, inspired by Scott’s time in space.

Side B, also just over six minutes long, is an improvisation from Mary and musician and artist Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, who met in the wonderland of Marfa, Texas, and recorded in New York City. Named after a tiny town in California, “Borrego Springs” features piano, guitar, and harp coming together to form peaceful melodies one might listen to while staring up at the stars in Borrego Springs, a town 55 miles away from any bright city lights, where astronomers flourish. The song quietly starts off, nearing a minute by the time the harp and piano have begun to fill the space of the silence. Gentle echoes and reverberation of guitar and piano alternate around the harp. It is not long enough, and the whole tape should immediately be played again.

Get a copy of the beautifully packaged cassette, or pick up the digital files, on her Bandcamp page. Every dollar of proceeds from Bandcamp will go to support the Sierra Club.

Tabs Out | Rags – Cipher Of The Infinite Moment

Rags – Cipher Of The Infinite Moment
1.3.17 by Kat Harding

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The 37th release from San Mateo, California’s ((Cave)) Recordings, Rags’ “Cipher of the Infinite Moment”, is James Seevers’ experimental journey through time and space. With each side-long, 16-minute track, it’s easy to put this on and get enveloped in the otherworldly echoes and reverberation.

Aptly titled “A Long Corridor,” the track is a long journey to the deep unknown and back to the surface. The track hums open with a buzzing guitar and underwater sounds swishing around, then moves to feature what sounds like the voice of the devil himself. Slow, low, and barely decipherable, it’s joined by a chorus of cave dwellers in an unsettling concert. Rattling bells follow, with clacking drumsticks and rolling thunder building to a swell. Around 5:30 in, simple guitar-picking echoes to near-silence while clacking and clanging continue. A pleasant electric guitar tune picks up midway through the song, with the disembodied and distorted voice coming in to strike fear in the lone listener. One can faintly make out “what are you doing?” or at least that is what I personally heard while keeping a panic attack at bay. With six minutes left of the song, Rags relapses underwater and comes up for air again. Bursting forth at almost 12 minutes in, bright reverberation screams forward, ebbing and flowing over the silence. Hurried, frantic guitar strumming comes in and suddenly Rags has the listener in a punk song. A beat of silence gives way to a clear, melancholy tune that plays the song out, ending abruptly in peace.

Where side A featured the devil, side B, “A Flickering Light,” opens with a chorus of angels, a litany of light voices finding a harmony together, soon petering out to the ramblings of a madman about movement, connection and energy, a frantic TedTalk from underground. With a buzzing behind it, the one-sided conversation continues, mentioning cosmic waves, motion, and information. By three minutes in, the track reaches sci-fi synths that then dissolve into a flamenco-inspired guitar stream. Faint voices weave in and out of the music, with reverb competing with the mysterious lecturer, this time going on about imagination and black holes. With about five minutes to go, the song is a melodic and thoughtful guitar track, with the faint choir joining in one more time. The preacher joins again, urging belief, but in what? A deep cello sound eventually ends the song, leaving the listener buzzing with existential questions.

Pick up a copy of the cassette on ((Cave)) Recordings’ Bandcamp.

Tabs Out | Wild Anima – Blue Twenty-Two

Wild Anima – Blue Twenty-Two
12.6.16 by Kat Harding

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The word “anima” can be translated from Spanish to mean “soul or spirit” and from French to mean “the feminine part of a male personality,” also referring to Carl Jung, the Swiss founder of analytical psychology. Put “wild” with it and the band is a perfect fit for UK label Blue Tapes and X-Ray Records, who describe themselves as “secular drones and spiritual pop.” Featuring an eclectic group of instruments including violins, Korean flutes, and more, Wild Anima’s Blue Twenty-Two tape is an atmospheric and at times, supernatural, experience. Alex Alexopoulos is at the helm of Wild Anima, with help from friends.

Described as “Songs from Above,” side A was inspired by a trip to India and her observations of Tibetan culture. Compassion and forgiveness swirl through the tracks, broken up digitally into 5 smaller listings, but considered as one on the tape. Recorded in one take on a farm in southeast England’s Devon in January 2013, these tracks came about before Wild Anima even settled on a name. The side gently opens with echoing vocals and minimal instrumentation, and continues down an aerial path of swirling reverb and soft tones. The velvety sound can easily fill a room, engulfing you in celestial tones that never feel too dark or unsettling. The middle of the side, “Forget and Forgive,” is my favorite, with misty sounds reminiscent of floating peacefully the bottom of the pool.

Side B is billed digitally and on the tape as one long, beautiful song called “Selene,” produced by French Ambient Dub producer Tom Morant, also known as Natse. He was driven to make this ambient track after having listened to “Songs from Above.” Using some of Wild Anima’s violinists and Alex’s vocals, as well as Inuit shamans’ voices, he pieced together a celestial and haunting song. Side B feels more full than side A, with more apparent instruments and the shamans’ chants, weaving together to soundtrack a dream sequence where you can imagine the flashing lights and seemingly endless tunnel of that Willy Wonka psychedelic boat ride scene, only less scary. Where side A is shadowy, side B has a glittering brightness to it.

Pick up a copy from Blue Tape’s Bandcamp, where you can just grab the tape, or you can get a subscription to all Blue Tape’s releases.

Tabs Out | Red On – Ghana Remixed

Red On – Ghana Remixed
11.29.16 by Kat Harding

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“Ghana”, an impressive experimental album by Red On, was written and recorded just over two years ago on October 23, 2014. Never meant to be released, it was a day of improvisation and recording of one-of-a-kind tracks with analog instruments in a mic-ed up room. I chatted with Red On, also known as Philipp Dittmar, about the original tape “Ghana”, the remixes, and what “Red On” really means (nothing really, just a play on the German word for red, “rot.” Rot On!).

Recorded in the magnificent Veitskirche, Veitsbronn Evangelical Church, Philipp wrote and recorded every track on the album in the moment, the unique improvisations recorded for the one time only, and never meant to be duplicated. Check out this teaser for some views of the hauntingly beautiful space, surrounded by religious relics and carved angels, a perfect fit for the spaced out, wandering tracks. He noted that he spent his childhood in the village near the church and wanted to go into the session not with computers, but with instruments, running everything through bass and guitar amps. The track selection featured very little editing due to the incredible acoustics of the space, which allowed the music to fill the whole room and create an all-encompassing physical experience.

Flash forward to September of 2016 and we’re treated with a remix tape, provided by Philipp and his friends. The remixed tracks are more upbeat and club-ready than their deep and sometimes droney counterparts: these are the songs I want to be soundtracking my exploration of a new city, wandering around in the twilight, while the originals are the ones I want to listen to while laying in a field, drifting in and out while meditating about the universe. Good news for cassette lovers: the tape release is significantly longer than the vinyl, which just features the more dancey selections, according to Philipp. Both were released on Nuremberg, Germany’s Verydeep Records, with the cassettes on a hand-numbered white body, featuring graphic red, white, and black cover art.

Side A of the tape is packed with five tracks, four of which are the same original with completely different interpretations, and it is wonderful. Philipp put full trust in his friends to “do their thing” while chopping and splicing his songs, and then worked on song order together. He did one of them himself, too, under his house music moniker “Philipp Roth.” The second track “Ghana 10 (miira) [Christoff Riedel Remix]” is among my top songs on the side, perfect to dance to, but also has the space to rest in between sections. Although it is difficult to pick favorites, as the following track, a take on the same song by Alex Ketzer, is just as good. Put this tape on to let your body get lost in the sound.

Side B is four entirely different tracks that do not disappoint. “Ghana 11 (moona) [Marx Mid Term Cycle]” is a sweeping remix, washing over you and encompassing you in sound, bleeding seamlessly into the next dance track “Ghana 6 [A. Elm Remix],” a song you cannot listen to without moving. A dark, echoey, and sinister feeling marks the last track, “Ghana 13 [Johannes Lauxens Version]” harkening back to the historical church the base tracks were recorded in. Church bells toll over gloomy reverb for an unsettling end to an exquisite tape.

Pick up the shortened version on vinyl, or the full cassette, from Verydeep Record’s Bandcamp and check out Philipp’s latest project, Miira

Tabs Out | Sister / Body – Spells

Sister / Body – Spells
11.21.16 by Kat Harding

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Released at the end of September from Prague’s Baba Vanga label, Sister / Body’s “Spells” is a fantastic distraction from whatever ails you. Sister / Body’s droney, industrial tracks feel like they’re coming at you from a deep tunnel of secrets and it’s worth jumping in.

I could hardly find anything about Sister / Body, other than that they’re from the Czech Republic and they have a handful of tapes out going back to 2008. The Prague duo’s ruby red tape features beautiful and mysterious artwork, like a hand holding a fuzzed out crystal ball, with a person’s hand holding what appears to be lotion on the inside, adding to the mystical, about-to-cast-a-spell feel. They open the tape with “Black Jacket Angel,” a fascinating track clocking in at more than seven minutes that puts equal importance on the sound in the song as the silence. Next up is “Darker Lover,” another spacey track with alien sounds and an obscured, deep voice singing over a consistent beat. “Spell” is the perfect title for the track closing out side A, as futuristic synth sounds wash over the slow, droney lyrics, pulling you into a trance.

Side B starts off with a female voice over vaguely alarming noises, bringing you right to the brink of a panic attack and then back, leaving the beat echoing in your ears; “Moon is Gay” bears little resemblance to the spaced out tracks on side A. I’d love to make a Johnny Cash “Ring of Fire” joke here, but the two tracks are so thoroughly different, I can’t muster one up. Sister / Body’s “Ring of Fire” is dark, growling lyrics over laid back beats, surrounding you in an almost-sinister sound. “Shadows” hails back to the side A, with a less-panic-inducing track to leave you relaxed. The song ambles through quiet and meditative beat with daze-inducing lyrics and an occasional, but not jarring, burst of metallic sound, ending the tape with a bit of fuzzy feedback before leaving you in silence.

Snag a copy of the cassette from Baba Vanga’s Bandcamp.

Tabs Out | Big Neck Police – Don’t Eat My Friends

Big Neck Police – Don’t Eat My Friends
11.7.16 by Kat Harding

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New York punk band Big Neck Police released “Don’t Eat My Friends” through Ramp Local in August of this year, a perfect scorching record for the brutal summer heat. And thanks to global warming, it’s still hot where I am in November, so nothing is lost in the seasonal listening of this tape. Big Neck Police’s chaotic, clanking sounds sound improvised and organic in the best way, like one jam session with Hugo Stanley on drums, Mac Kelly on bass and Paco Cathcart on guitar divinely spawned the whole cassette.

Described perfectly on their Bandcamp as “noise-punk” with a bent for improvisation, Big Neck Police’s side A crashes open with “Street,” a loud and disjointed tune with shrieking guitars and vocals, giving way to “Guy Named Justice” a noisy cacophony coming in at just under two minutes. My favorite on this side is “Mercury,” an energy-giving alarm with high pitched picking over an ambling bassline and a wailing verses. Rounding out the side is “A Gringo Like Me” and “Old Table Merchandise,” the former a discordant, twitchy jam with vocals that would surely shred the vocal chords of the average person, the latter a short hopeful tune with indecipherable words hovering throughout.

Side B kicks off with one of the more coherent-starting tunes on the tape with “Funicula,” but the feeling doesn’t last long, as tempos and effects change mid-song, bringing in frantic songs like a bell tolling for the gallows. “Morgan and Stag” dissolves into a creepy swing-sounding scene that could easily be in any horror movie. It literally gave me chills. Compared to everything else, “Harrington” could nearly be considered quiet, with an almost consistent beat throughout and a chorus of “Harrington, Harrington” coming in toward the end of the track. The shortest track on the tape is “Standing There With My Parts Out,” a brash moment of pounding drums and buzzing feedback. Clamoring vocals in “Crayon Gets Dull” compete with screaming guitars and clanging cymbals, leaving your ears ringing as the tape ends.

Grab a copy of the cassette from Ramp Local’s Bandcamp.