10.21.19 by Ryan Masteller

This oughta be right up our alley: a “meme jazz fusion” group? That’s essentially the attitude of Tabs Out at any given moment. In fact, if the podcast had a Bandcamp page, the tags would be “meme jazz fusion” and, I dunno, pizza and toilets and stuff. Honestly, it’s not that highbrow an endeavor, no matter how hard I try to class the place up.

Space Heater is a new group on Terry Tapes, and “Full Blast” is their debut EP. You may recognize “drums, synth, voice” performer Andy Loebs from his own excellent solo work, and Loebs and “keyboard, synth” person Devin Lecroy are also in 3 Cherries. Chris Lott is in Gabor Bonzo, but we’re not talking about his concurrently released solo tape here (don’t worry, it’ll be for another time). Point is, these cats all play on each other’s Terry Tapes tapes. It’s the Asheville, North Carolina, proximity … although when did Terry Tapes operations move to New Orleans? That seems like a new development.

Space Heater has ONLY provided us with four songs here for us to enjoy and get to know them through, and you would think that that’s not enough, and you would be right. You might also be wrong, because I feel like I’ve gotten a good read on group through these four elaborate tunes – that doesn’t mean I’m not clamoring for more, see. “Meme jazz fusion” isn’t a joke, neither is nerd prog or math rock, and none of these descriptors preclude anyone from unironically playing a keytar in any iteration of the band. (Serious question to Space Heater: Do any of you play a keytar? If so, high five!)

So imagine that Steely Dan and Tortoise found themselves stuck in the same Star Trek transporter position and came out the other side all globbed and moleculed together in some sort of sick, hellish abomination that refused to die and just sort of still made music because that’s all the new entity knew how to do. Maybe that would be Space Heater. And, no, we can’t put it out of its misery; we have to listen to what it’s doing, tap into its dreams and inspirations. We have to be enamored with it, because against all odds it’s still valiantly and wonderfully entertaining. 

Wait, no, that’s not it – the odds aren’t stacked against Space Heater. The odds are WITH Space Heater coming out on top. This is just how it works with Terry Tapes!

… And hey, there are only eleven copies left as of this writing. Out of 100. Already practically a collector’s item!