Ambient Artist Tyler Magill Sustained A Stroke Protesting White Supremacy
8.18.17 by Mike Nigro

After a long weekend of standing up to fascist fuckos in Charlottesville, VA, Tyler Magill (that’s him chasing “Unite the Right” organizer Jason Kessler out of his own press conference) of Grand Banks and Carry suffered a stroke on Tuesday morning. The stroke was caused by a blood clot which were likely a result of injuries sustained when he was assaulted with fucking tiki torch on Friday night.

As you would expect with someone who’s involved in his local community, a GoFundMe page sprung up almost immediately to help offset his medical bills – I encourage you to contribute a few bucks to a weirdo in need.

When I say he’s “involved in the community,” I mean the guy is everywhere; a crucial member of the Charlottesville scene. He’s ripping sets and releasing tapes with his legendary free music project Grand Banks and solo as Carry, he hosts The Broadcasting System on WTJU, he runs the Low Records shop, and he’s a UVa employee.

If you’re not familiar with Tyler’s music, it’s time to get learned. He just released new Carry material on my label Oxtail Recordings (his artist copies were waiting for him when he got home from the hospital!). And Grand Banks is one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen – they’ve been jamming together for nearly 20 years and it’s just your luck that they have an incredible archive of live sets on their Bandcamp page. Their tape “QB4: 1877​-​1896” is one of the most dreamy and heart wrenching pieces of experimental music I’ve ever heard.

Tyler’s an amazing source of energy and vitality in the world and someone who’s shared an insane amount of himself with all of us. It’s time to share a little bit back – smash that GoFundMe link.

Music For Intention & Growth: A Purpose-Driven Sound Series
4.21.16 by Mike Nigro

This Record Store Day, I didn’t go to any record stores, in fact, I didn’t even buy any records. Instead, I went to Ace Hotel in Herald Square for some free tapes.

As far as promotional giveaways go, Moog Music’s “Music for Intention and Growth” series is about as down to earth as can be. The synth manufacturer looped in their local Asheville, NC cassette label Twin Springs Tapes to help coordinate the project, and worked with some real live contemporary synth heroes to make sure the jams were tight. Good on ‘em.

First up is Tabs Out subscription series alumna TALsounds: “Natal Host” centers itself around dark, sequenced riffs, which provide an unsettling foundation for Natalie Chami’s vocal layers and synth leads to wrap themselves around. Constantly shifting shapes, crossfading, and even occasionally going for some hard knife-to-tape edits, “Natal Host” is a restless listen that provides plenty of rhythmic nooks and crannies for your ears to get stuck in.

Kyle Landstra’s contribution, “Variables of Resolve”, incorporates lush polyphony into Moog’s mono world. Both sides start with patiently applied base layers that slowly build into skyscrapers of spiraling arpeggios, laser beams, and masterfully dialed-in steel drum tones. Landstra gets damn near stopping time with this one, and when the deck clicks you’ll wonder how long you’ve been staring at the patterns in your floorboards.

The most restrained of the three, Inner Travels’ “Blue Light” does more with less. There’s impressive use of stringed instrument sounds on the A Side, which pluck, strum, and bend their way through Parts I-III, utilizing a healthy dose of reverb to show off all their shimmering overtones. But it’s Part IV that really takes the cake in my opinion, where stargazing music box melodies weave in and out of slow ‘n low bass phrases to create a masterpiece of minimalist synthesis.

It’s clear that some real thought and care went into making the “Music for Intention and Growth” tapes legit releases on all accounts and not just slapdash freebies. Each of the artists brought their musical A-game, Logan Kelley knocked the art and design out of the park, and Moog did a great job of working with and contributing to their local cassette and synth scenes.

The “Music for Intention and Growth” tapes are available in Moog Mother-32 synthesizer boxes while supplies last, or maybe behind the counter of your local Ace Hotel or Asheville, NC record store.

Arrows – Voyage
6.9.15 by Mike Nigro

Ever think about the pieces of sound that get thrown away after first takes are cleaned up, edited, and mastered? The clicks of amps turning on, buzzing from old gear, spit smacking around in the singer’s mouth – all these and more all get nipped, tucked, and squeezed out long before most tracks hit the duplicator. That’s fine if it’s what you’re going for, but what if there’s good stuff in that scrap pile? If I were to guess, these orphaned sounds might’ve crossed Arrows’ collective mind once or twice. Their sophomore effort (following a sold out C30 from Digitalis from early last year) “Voyage” on Crash Symbols is full of snaps, crackles, and pops (and buzzes and hums, for that matter) that most engineers would have smoothed out long ago.

Now that’s not a knock in the slightest, because this Montreal duo (featuring Canadian tape scene heavyweights Fracesco De Gallo [Hobo Cubes] and Rémi Boudrias-Dussault [Velvet Glacier]) has whipped up a mighty fine dose of creaking, groaning, minimal dub-inspired tracks. Take a listen to “A2” below, which lays down a bed of slow n’ low cello-sounding drones, while the upper registers are taken up by the sound of ghosts playing marbles in the next room (that’s my best guess, at least). Another highlight is “A5,” which is a little closer to your traditional dub techno, but in a way that makes you feel like you’re standing outside the club in the rain listening to the music through the walls.

Of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg (or Velvet Glacier, perhaps?!? Anyone?!?) – “Voyage” is a deep dive into all kinds of bumpin’ warped zones, featuring low register rumbles, off-kilter sample cuts, and squeaky detuned synths. On paper it might sound like a disparate listen, but fear not, it’s all woven together by skilled hands with a charmingly backwards sense of rhythm.

100 copies of Arrows “Voyage” C27 will start shipping on June 16th. Take it for a test ride below, then preorder your copy from Crash Symbols.