Bathetic Has Created A Monster
5.13.14 by Ian Franklin

Bathetic Records’ newest release exists in a strange form of personal exposition alongside a thread of continuity and singularity. “Dynasty at Ghost Town” is the name of the staggeringly large collection of 11 different pro dubbed Type II Chrome confessionals from 11 different musicians/bands, known here collectively as “Various Artists”. Featured in this collection is a grouping of Bathetic favorites and all around experimental sound gurus including Aquarelle, William Cody Watson, Ekin Fil, Lee Noble, Planning for Burial, Scott Tuma, M. Geddes Gengras, Zac Nelson, High Aura’d, Padang Food Tigers, and Panabrite. The sounds therein run through the gamut of experimental styles and instrumentation including but not limited to: electro-acoustic melodics, drifting ambient arenas, solo synth explorations, complex digital gardens, subterranean rhythmic movements, hazy afternoon reflections, music box memories, repetitive structural procedures, industrial park white noise, and more than a healthy dose of soothing aural wave patterns.

The biggest common thread running through these 11 distinct releases is the artwork done by Simon Fowler. Beautifully minimalist in execution but complex in design, the covers for all the tapes link together top to bottom to form a long continuous and evolving piece taking inspiration from underwater reefs to geometrical and crystalline structures. Sometimes evoking a nebulous gas and other times twisting into piercing spires, the piece transforms to encompass all of the different, yet connected sounds from the artists within.

This is a unique type of release, of which Bathetic is no stranger to pulling off. They put out the simultaneous split/collaboration between Rale and Lolly Gesserit over two different cassettes with alternating artist sides released a few months back. These types of collaborative releases are genuinely interesting and fresh to me, hopefully encouraging others to explore “extended” release structures and experiment with different forms of presentation.

Check out Bathetic’s website to see track info, artwork, and sound samples for each tape. Not for sale individually, the whole batch will put you back only $50 which is an absolute steal considering the artistic talent of all involved.

Double (Hooker) Vision
5.8.14 by Mike Haley

The lawfully wedded label Hooker Vision, who were the subject of our second Laser Focus episode back in December, have been running quiet for about a year now. Thankfully that is going to change come June with releases from label heads Rachel (Motion Sickness Of Time Travel) and Grant Evans.

Samples from their forthcoming cassettes, Alpha Piscium C44 & Lacerations C34, are ready to rip on the label’s Soundcloud page and conveniently embedded right below. You see em down there? Good. Check em out! MSOTT’s fizzy synth simmer and GE’s dreary basement bleakness, along with some dope artwork, suggest these are gonna be some straight bangers and wont stick around very long.

While Hooker Vision has been silent, the Evans duo has been far from dormant. Rachel has been self releasing a bunch of those round shiny things in handmade packaging while Grant has been growing the VAALD family. Still, it’s awesome to see Hooker Vision back in action. Hopefully there is more to come.

Scope Some Rare Moons
5.6.14 by Mike Haley

We get a harvest moon every year. A blue moon occurs roughly every 2 – 3 years. A tetrad series, or four consecutive total eclipses, represent a blood moon. Hundreds of years can pass by without one of those suckers popping up and scaring the shit out of religious people. Fred Espenak, some eclipse-obsessed egghead from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said their “frequency sort of goes through 585-year cycles.” An even more uncommon lunar incidence: tapes being released by the Moon Mist cassette label.

No doubt dubbed over dumpstered books-on-tape cassettes from behind the library with poorly cut Jcards, Moon Mist bounced out of hibernation, announcing five new plastic goodies for your decks. Continuing the cut-and-paste-rip-and-dip-stoner-primitive style comparable to Michigan brethren American & Fag Tapes, the rowdy crew includes a dope sounding compilation and various mutations of label head Dan D in solo and collaborative form. Here is the raw deal, straight from the horse’s mouth…

Body Morph “Pussy For Breakfast” 2xCS
“Brand-new double cassette of slipstream saxophone insanity from BODY MORPH. First legit solo tape in a while. Alternately lush and grating slabs of nebular reed rubbing for sleep and love-making. The sound of space folding and waking up full.” (edition of 40)

V/A “Live Puzzle Vol.2” compilation C90
“Wild and confusing live sets recorded across the great nation of michigan. Musician offenders include: UNEVEN UNIVERSE, FLOATING HEADS, BODY MORPH, CRIMINALS, JOSH BURKE, E.A.S, and SLOWSLAG. Its like you were there, except better.” (edition of 40)

Winter Ruby “Open Grave” CS
“A couple of years ago, WR wrote several new songs, recorded them, and ceased operations for the time being due to life circumstances (good ones). OPEN GRAVE is a collection of those songs. Recorded in scenic warren, mi and it sounds like it.” (edition of 80 copies)

Major Blast s/t C30
“Napalm layers of absolutely horrible saxophone crust. Like dancing in acid rain mixed with sharpened reed hail. Severely unchill/a true blast. MAJOR BLAST: knox mitchel/dlugosielski duo” (edition of 30 copies)

Tarpit “Gradual Paralysis” C40
“Shivering primordial ear pollution from the TARPIT sound dungeon. Listen to your brain fall out your ear. A negative experience. SIDE A: solo; SIDE B: hooker/dlugosielski duo.” (edition of 40 copies)

You can grip these mugs on the cheap: $5 for single tapes, $10 for the double banger. Just zip line into Moon Mists’ Big Cartel, scroll down past the giant image at the top of the page, and you’re good to go. Have fun!

Abrada Improv Adventure
5.6.14 by Mike Haley

Years ago on the old Troniks message board some shmohawk posted a personal fear of theirs about noise turning into jazz. Specifically that all of the endless collaborations and improvisation were somehow a bad (or new?) thing. I don’t really remember why they were concerned that the noise world would do something similar to one of the greatest musical genres ever, nor do I care. In the eight or so years since I’m sure they have moved on to dozens and dozens of unworthy gripes while chiller crews have been experimenting, creating, and generally having a blast.

Case in point: Abrada.

On Thursday, the 10th of April, Francesco “Hobo” de Gallo and Piotr Kurek got together for a jam sesh before a gig later that night at Peut-etre Vintage in Montreal. The two had never played with each other before, but would be under the Abrada moniker. The pre-jam yielded a 25 minute compelling, tactual landscape of sound zones. Zones that ended up on this self titled cassette, the first born on Piotr Kurek’s Family Adventure label, released today in an edition of 100 copies. de Gallo’s sax squeals wail and swirl in loops through a stream of organ drum presets gingerly processed by Kurek. They spend time navigating through cosmic rhythms and puddles of crackle and confusion while that forgotten Troniks board member is all like “the cables for cell phone chargers aren’t long enough!”

The tapes come in gorgeous custom stamped Ocards with a minimal design. To order a copy get in touch with Kurek by email: patrapapapak at gmail com.

Foodman “How”
5.2.14 by Mike Haley

When I first read the name “Foodman” I laughed because “Foodman” sounds funny. But you know what isn’t funny? Brilliantly creative, genre-jumping, electronic unpredictability. Actually, I supposed that could be funny if you found that sort of thing to be humorous, but I don’t. I find the music of 食品まつりa.k.a Foodman to be awe inspiring. Awesome as the kids say.  That introduction, the one where I was like “Foodman. haha”, was a 2012 cassette called Shokuhin on Orange Milk. The 18 tracks, ranging from 30 seconds to just over two minutes, ricocheted around eccentric flavors of dance, chiptune, and noise. Stellar material that didn’t seem to have any clue as to what an off switch was. Foodman kept pumping, contorting, and exposing a spectrum of quirkiness shade by shade.

When the follow up cassette on Digitalis dropped the following year I let out a tiny giggle at the  Foodman moniker (I’m only human) then gripped it right up.「IROIRO」was another banger and I was starting to believe that Foodman could do no wrong. Which is why I was so excited to hear that a cassette release was in the works for one of my new favorite labels Noumenal Loom. The “Drum Desu” C39, due out this month, will be an edition of 100 pro-dubbers with storybook style artwork by Oal Yor.

Stream the sociable, rhythmic thumping and glossy glimmers of the track “How”, then get ready for the rest in the coming days.

Austin Cassette Fest
4.30.14 by Mike Haley

Area cassette heads who do not live by the strict policy of not messing with Texas should check out the Austin Cassette Fest on Saturday May 17th. The day long event, hosted by Graveyard Orbit and Sound Dessert, will take place at the MASS Gallery in East Austin starting at noon. Local and surrounding labels like Crash Symbols, Fleeting Youth, Tape Escape, Ritual Tapes, and more will be slinging cassettes straight at you. The day will also feature a cassette-only DJ (so CJ I guess?) set from The Vegetable Kingdom and a few other live acts.

$5 will get ya in the door. Another $5 will get ya into the after party at a place called Cheer Up Charlies, which I am assuming is a Willy Wonka themed bar. Here’s the Facebook event page so you can be like “I’m going”. I’m sure it will be a reel good time. Get it? Did you get that? Cassette puns are special.

Here is a sampling of sounds released by a few of the labels involved with the Fest. Enjoy!

Plains Druid Wants You To Get Lost
4.28.14 by Ian Franklin

There is a certain charm to a C10, or even a C12. It’s concise and upfront. It doesn’t make excuses or unnecessary delays. It’s a minutely porous construction which is presented and burned away in a fantastic immediacy. A C125 on the other hand (holy shit, 125!?!?), that’s a whole different beast entirely. You can get lost in a 125. You can lose yourself in a 125. And I think that’s exactly what Plains Druid’s new release “Super Real Islands” on Blue Tapes is hoping to achieve.

UK’s Blue Tapes’ 11th release is “Super Real Islands”, a pro dubbed edition of 100 each with unique artwork as an accompaniment to the luscious synth explorations within. Fantastic drones swirl all around your three dimensional aural cavities, flowing over each other in wave after wave of pulse width modulation. Drizzled with fluttery arpeggiations and swashes of filtered noise, harmonious melodies drift and sway in the summer breeze. Rhythmic structures develop and pulse with a lifelike quality, propelling the journey farther forward. Spontaneous House-like variations are woven into digital polysynth bath with staccato pulses of bass drum. Serious head zones lay within. Recommended listening for all body travelers, space jumpers, projection analysts, and office employees.

Check out the teaser video below and jump over to the Blue Tapes website to book your brain a spring cleaning with the full tape.

 

Three Shits From Digital Natives
4.20.14 by Mike Haley

After almost ten years as a label, releasing 149 cosmic specimens, Jeffry Astin’s Housecraft label has delivered it’s 150th stuffed-crust slice. A three hour (!!!) beast of a triple cassette by Astin’s seductive-as-sin-sample project Digital Natives. The triple serving is dished out on clear shell tapes packaged in those extra extra EXTRA tall norelco cases, which are, without a doubt, so fucking baller it hurts your guts. Each cassette is etched with hash marks so you know what’s what.

The triple C60, titled “Three Shits To The Wind” (like “three sheets to the wind”, but with poop), is limited to 50 copies and has been ambiguously described as such:

“The Vimy flies again. She backs in among them. Wrought in silver and now exercised exclusively in ceremonies, getting a grip. Inside, as I arrive a patented fly-wheel and one-way clutch closed test track. It’s a tad slower than a Porsche but at dinnertime he sits on the floor with his family and eats rice and meat with his fingers. It’s a race beside the race.”

I slung the above into Google Translate, going from zoner to English, but didn’t get very far. Just be prepared to get bathed in a foam of funk/pop/soul snippets looped, gooped, and glazed for 180 minutes (plus flip/tape change time). I”m aware of zero sound samples for this mug online, so here’s a taste of his C42 on Space Slave.

Word on the streets is that this tape is exclusively available from Tomentosa at a $21 price point. Click here to grab while supplies last.

 

……. And since it’s 4/20 here is this video:

Poet Named Revolver – Meets Gruesome
4.18.14 by Ian Franklin

The newest release from No Kings Records, the labels 50th, is “Meets Gruesome” from Poet Named Revolver, a band consisting of Steve Molyneux, Lee Noble, TJ Richards, and Caleb Steelman. A band since broken up but survived in this reissue of sorts from a batch of 50 that came out on Nailbat in 2008. No Kings gives it a fresh facelift with a pro-dubbed edition of 100 imprinted tapes with 2-color risograph printing and hand painted flourishes providing an excellent visual accompaniment. More on that later.

These jams are so good. Just want to get that out of the way first. I wouldn’t know how to categorize these tunes in a way that would have people nodding in confirmation and connecting the musical frames of reference of my insider knowledge; cause I don’t have that knowledge. But what I do know is that this is an excellent collection of loose but finely structured outpourings of emotion. Occupying a back-road ease and stripped down instrumentation these Appalachian infused, mathy folk, country hand dipped tunes bristle and shine with forlorn exuberance. Like admiring the beautifully sunny day slowly passing away from you. A red sun setting through the dense recollections of the day’s disappointments.

The main instruments suggest a somewhat traditional setup with guitars, bass, and drums but also include flashes of banjo and mandolin, multiple textures of electric guitar, harmonica, accordion, and screaming voices. Vocal harmonies emerge at the most satisfactory times. Rhythm changes develop naturally and spontaneously bloom into longer passages of post-rock type voyaging, eventually reducing back to the common theme of slow and staggering mid-tempo bounce. These songs are catchy in a sticks to your ribs kind of way.

Now to the packaging and artwork. This is the first No Kings release I’ve owned personally but I’ve seen and admired their artwork for a long time. I can only assume for others as well but they really hit a home run with “Meets Gruesome”. Printed with 2 color risograph, a method that uses different ink than a traditional copier and makes use of a master stencil which is rolled onto pages at a very fast rate, the j-card feels like no other one I’ve seen. Blue hazy photos of the band are laid out in perfect balance to the blue text, all with a background of pink dots. Topped of with a hand painted gouache orange circle, the total attention to detail does not go unnoticed. They even included a separate thank you card with the same orange gouache from the cover; an A+ in my book.

Stream tracks below and grab the tape from No Kings and get lost in your mid-afternoon reveries.

Richmond Tape Club
4.14.14 by Mike Haley

With the third RVA Noise Fest going down this weekend, and the release of volumes 5 – 8 tomorrow, it seems like a fitting time to focus a bit on the Richmond Tape Club. A series of cassettes from RVA noise heads, curated by Jonathan Lee.

Lee introduced the series last year with tapes by Negative Gemini, Slow News Day In The Vampire World, Elian, and his own project Anduin in editions of 30 – 70 copies, and available digitally through Morr Music, as a way to exhibit awesome shit going on in his hometown. “When I was growing up” Lee said “every local band put out demo tapes. Following local demos was a way to look at a community. There’s a lot of great sounds coming out of Richmond and this was an affordable way to showcase them. The physical object connects locally. The digital connects globally”.

“Negative Gemini is the solo electronic project of musician Lindsey French. Using various synths and a vocal loop pedal, she layers new wave-inspired melodies and beats underneath brooding lyrics that become, at times, abstracted into canorous trances amongst ambient shimmer. The result is gloomily bewitching pop landing somewhere between Grimes, Laurel Halo, and Zola Jesus. Hallucinatory and powerfully fun.”

“Slow News Day In The Vampire World is the ambient dub project of recording engineer / producer John Morand and his wife, artist Tara Morand. Mainly utilizing a DJX, drum machine, and turntable, this EP also features edited live inputs from acclaimed artist Stephen Vitiello, Molly Berg, Jonathan Lee (Anduin, Souvenir’s Young America), Bobby Donne (Labradford, Cristal, Pan-American), and Miguel Urbiztondo. Some of these tracks also appear in the Irish horror film Portrait of a Zombie.”

“Created between November 2012 and May 2013, these are the first new tracks from Michael Duane Ferrell’s Elian project since 2011. Originally recorded and arranged on computer, each track was then signaled out to external effects and accompanied by synthesizer. This marks a change in technique from his previous releases on labels like Home Normal, providing a much warmer, fuller sound that’s always changing, never still, and heavily dark. Huge, engrossing dronescapes.”

“Developed from some of the sounds and themes used in a series of installation performances titled “Sketches of the Lesser Death,” these are the first new tracks from Jonathan Lee’s Anduin since 2012’s Stolen Years LP. It’s the beginning of a dream narrative where each song is a chapter, every sound a character in motion. Includes contributions from Stolen Years and Lesser Death collaborator Jimmy Ghaphery on saxophone along with former Souvenir’s Young America mates Graham Scala and Noah Saval on guitar and harmonica respectively.”

The Jcards and system for signifying which volume of the series you’re looking at is pretty sweet. Every Jcard is black with RICHMOND TAPE CLUB on the spine and a snippet of map on the cover. The first four tapes have red squares silk screened on the front, the number of squares being the volume number of that jam. So one square = volume one. Two squares = volume two. You see where this is going, right? Good. The next four modify the theme a touch, stuffing black squares into red squares to get the particular volume number. One large red square with four smaller black squares in it for the fifth in line. Number seven has two red squares, one with a four black squares and the other with one in it. Four red squares, each with it’s own black square is number eight. Good idea, looks dope. I like it.

Volumes 5 – 8, all of which you can order up right now and preview below, will be from Stephen Vitiello, Brandon Hurtado, Mutwawa, and Matt Boettke. The first four, including a 4B addendum by Andiun, are still available. Each cassette in the series will set ya back an measly $5.50 (aka: no brainer). Grip em at SMTG Limited. You also have the option (this week only) to grab the whole digital shebang for a $25 donation to RVA Noise Fest III. Whatever floats your boat, get to work!