Tabs Out | Radere – Sloth Period

Radere – Sloth Period
12.2.16 by J Moss

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“Sloth Period,” by Denver, Colorado based artist Radere (AKA Carl Ritger), is one of a duo of new releases of his on the Full Spectrum label. It’s partner, “I Can’t Sleep, I Can’t Wake Up”, was released as an LP. “Sloth Period” consists of two long form ambient drones, one on each side, composed using modular synths and guitar.

The music is amorphous. Unlike many drones, which seem to have a directional build up in intensity, volume, and sonic pressure, the variations in “Sloth Period” and the B-side composition “Tend the Engine” are periodical, undulating like the back of a lake dwelling cryptid. Tones and musical ideas come and go out of the spotlight on a bare, spacious stage of fuzzy synth drone and atmospheric swirl. Modular clicks and grinds, shimmering bursts, bell-like tones and faint echoing guitars like the most long forgotten dub sample in the universe make themselves heard and then descend once again into the general milieu. The sounds alternate between spectral distance and, more rarely, an otherworldly vitality. This is definitely one of the mistiest, most meditative drone/noise tapes I’ve had the pleasure of sampling. If you could see this music, it would be rounded, soft, and kind of shiny. The surreal, Salvador Dali-esque artwork on this tape, depicting a silvery ball bearing moon rising over a handful of green sludge in muted soft focus shades, captures the mood and feel of the music visually, as does the silver tape shell decorated with bubbles that recall the reverb-dulled edges of the tones. When played back to back with “I Can’t Sleep I Can’t Wake Up”, which is comparatively busier, sharper at the corners, and imbued with more tension, the pair makes for a compelling listen with vast emotional range. The experience can be altered by switching up the order of the listen, allowing “Sloth Period” to function as either a prelude or a comedown. Recommended for patient lovers of pure ambient music.

Grab it from Full Spectrum.

Tabs Out | New Batch – OSR

New Batch – OSR
11.15.16 by J Moss

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New York based multi-format label OSR is one of my favorite labels that I have run across in my years of writing about underground and DIY music. I was introduced to them through a cassette I received for review from the excellent Joey Pizza Slice, and I was hooked from there. They have an extreme dedication to releasing a staggering variety of weirdo jams, and an affinity for old school moves like xeroxed, zine-style catalogs, and a stated not-for-profit ethos. OSR feels like a slice of late 80’s international postal Tascam underground that has time traveled to 2016. Unfortunately, OSR is hanging it up after this latest batch of cassettes, LPs, 7″s, and books, but luckily for us there is a ton of it. I was able to sample a trio of the new cassette releases and none of them let me down.

 

First up here is a self titled release from UK artist Mark Beer, a prolific DIY recordist who has been at work in this field in some capacity or other since the late 70’s. This short, four-song cassette gives us a look at some of the old and some of the new, including two songs from this decade and two from the early 80’s. The fact that the songs hang together well speak to an element of timelessness Mark Beer has been able to achieve in his recordings. There are elements of pop or rock songwriting, but it is fractured, either buried under psychedelic abstraction or stripped down to it’s most minimal outline.

 

Next is an album called “Violence Etcetera” by singer/songwriter Christina Schneider. This is a beautiful/dark/shiny/light/heavy album of hazy, fine-tuned melodies. Schneider played just about everything on the album herself, with the help of a few friends here and there, into the warm circuits of a Tascam-488 in the time-honored tradition of lo-fi musical inception. The sound and method might be pure C86, but the complex, unblinking lyrics, full of visceral imagery, feel very timely. Another piece of evidence that OSR has an ear for sounds which might be able to transcend the moment of their creation.

 

Finally, we have the latest effort from prolific, eccentric multi-instrumentalist Jake Tobin, “Accidentaly on Purpose”. The musical virtuosity across a variety of instruments, the tightly composed twisting and turning rhythms and melodies, and the weird lyrics and attitude of the album immediately made me think this was like a lo-fi version of Frank Zappa. The influence of noise music creeps in a lot around the edges of these baroque jams as well, at times they descend into complete chaos. A jazz-like harmony of doubled horns doing a complex scale will be given a mechanical tape-slur, static descends, vocals are pitched to unnatural octaves. By far the least accessible release in this batch, but maybe my favorite.

 

Buy stuff from OSR here. Get it before it all sells out. If you miss that, get it digitally on their Bandcamp page.

Tabs Out | Future Ape Tapes – 1093

Future Ape Tapes – 1093
10.24.16 by J Moss

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“1093”, the latest release by prolific Athens, GA experimental band Future Ape Tapes, and their first release on Fall Break Records, is easy on the ears but tough to wrap your head around. This collection of mostly instrumental, heavily improvised compositions flows together as an organic, psychedelic whole, with occasional, abstract vocals lending to the atmosphere. much of the music is built from drum loops, synth drones and shimmering, echoing guitars, that when combined sound like dub music for a new age LSD spa. these chill vibes are punctuated by climaxes and explosions of more discordant sounds; moans, field recordings, synth glitches and guitar shards.

On their bandcamp page, Future Ape Tapes explains that the idea behind their work is “de-evolution as progress”, a concept (and somewhat of a Devo reference) which makes sense the more you listen to this tape. These could be heard as traditional-type songs with space having crept in between all their cracks, entropy having set in; rhythms fracturing, melodies stretching and bending, riffs becoming caught in a loop like a broken record and defining their own beat. Psych rock songs as cities decades after abandonment by humans, the roots and limbs of plants forcing apart the concrete structures.

There are many layers to this music and this tape is worth repeated spins. Get one here. I also recommend digging a bit into Future Ape Tape’s extensive digital back catalog, a lot of which is free or name-your-price.

Tabs Out | Residual Echoes – A Far Out Mixt Ape

Residual Echoes – A Far Out Mixt Ape
9.29.16 by J Moss

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Residual Echoes is a long-running California drone/jam/psych band known for excellent, far-out live performances and their ability to throw down a truly lysergic guitar pedal freakout on top of motorik kraut-rock rhythms. “A Far Out Mixt Ape”, their new cassette on Winnipeg label Dub Ditch Picnic, collects 4 previously unreleased songs/jams from their archive of recordings.

The opening track “We Aren’t Here” begins with a lone guitar with a distant, crunchy, lofi feel playing the song’s groovy central riff, indicating the outtake nature of the release. The rest of the band kicks in after a few seconds, with a locked in rhythm section and a catchy, reverb drenched vocal melody in a windows-down kind of Sunday weed drive package. This musical dose of sunshine acid does not last, the song swerves quickly from it’s beachy hooks to guitar explorations and mind-bending breakdowns driven by stacks of effects and heavy drumming. The second half of side A, comprised of the suite “California Pipeline/Gungru Tarang”, shows a more contemplative side of Residual Echoes, starting with a solo guitar space-race of looped tones and riffs with oceans of reverb and canyons of echo. This bleeds into “Gungru Tarang”, a pulsing raga that builds it’s atmosphere with swirling eastern-style violins in step with toms while the guitar takes more of a back seat drone role.

Side B kicks off with “A Marriage (orange ufo mix)”, another more traditional psych rock song with an excellent slow building melody that goes long, pushing eleven minutes into deep NEU! territory. The final track, “Khar Shabi”, is a more subdued, slow and mysterious raga with hypnotic female vocals, my favorite jam. Being that these tunes are selected from old recordings, the mix shows off the versatility of Residual Echoes as a recording project. The imprint of kraut-rock kings like Agitation Free, Can, and the previously mentioned NEU! can be felt heavily across this tape, and the rhythm section has the skill to invoke those vibrations.

You can also hear the care-free looseness and stoned out oblivion of classic California psych. It’s a heady hybrid. Get the tape here.

Tabs Out | Skyjelly – Blank Panthers/Priest, Expert or Wizard

Skyjelly – Blank Panthers/Priest, Expert or Wizard
9.19.16 by J Moss

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Skyjelly is a Boston based mutant/psych/punk trio with heavy avant-garde leanings and global influences. “Blank Panthers/Priest, Expert or Wizard”, out now on Doom Trip Records (also home to brand new sounds from the godfather of DIY weirdo recording, R. Stevie Moore), combines two of their previously digital only self-released albums onto one lengthy magnetic reel of twisted sonic expeditions. the “Blank Panthers” side was recorded with Lightning Bolt sound engineer Dan Auchenbach, and it has an overall vibe of lofi experimentation and up close intensity. there is a heavy Arabic/Eastern influence on the guitar playing in the raga-like jams, bringing to mind the punk rock eclecticism of Sun City Girls, but with less filthy innuendos and higher production values. I dig the sonic crust that overlays the drum sound, which creates a spacey tension with the far out vocals. the sound is heavy and swirling even at the quieter moments, making for an immersive, original psych experience.

“Priest, Expert, or Wizard” takes a mellower approach to it’s tones and compositions. I like the sequencing because Side B is a good way to come out of the aural pressure and tornado-like presence of Side A. The world music/Eastern vibes, experimental noise, and psychedelic tones are there but it’s all more reflective, a different lens through which to see Skyjelly’s vision. “Catherine’s Rabbi”, my favorite track, is a beautiful, weirdo near-ballad. “Watch Out”, midway through the side, briefly takes you back to the world of “Blank Panthers”, but is quickly followed by the dreamy “All Around Me”, an atmospheric psych folk song reminiscent of some of Anton Newcombe’s early work.

Throughout both sides Skyjelly walks a fine line between looping, repetitive jams, and bits of melody and song structure in a way that is uniquely their own. The two-for-one package here is nice, it’s really two stylistically distinct albums from a solid band on one tape. This thing sold out quick on it’s initial run of 100, but Doom Trip has pressed up another limited edition of 70. Don’t sleep on it. get it here.

Tabs Out | Justin Frye – Music For Contrabasse

Justin Frye – Music For Contrabasse
9.6.16 by J Moss

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New York artist Justin Frye is best known as the band leader of the twisted and brilliant art/jazz/punk band PC Worship, producing a thick catalog of mind altering LPs. Earlier this year, in his off-time from that and other work as a producer, Frye quietly self-released a tape of experimental compositions called “Music for Contrabasse”, a gritty and organically psychedelic exploration of the possibilities inherent in that instrument. The two sides of this tape take divergent approaches to developing the vibe of the bass.

Side A, “Trio for a Double Bass” is a deliberate construction, a long-form composition built from three separate improvised performances. Over it’s 19:15 length, it embodies all modes of the bass. The piece begins with an ominous textured drone that grows in weight. this mutates with time into percussive passages and free jazz scalar departures in the higher registers of the instrument. the use of layering to form the “trio” allows for the drone to remain a grinding, churning constant. at one point a coughing fit can be heard, symbolic of the mix of improvisation and contrivance at play here and maybe also referencing “Sweet Leaf” by Black Sabbath, who knows. The drone dissipates and becomes periodical at the end of the piece, allowing final high pitched scratches to float in the mix.

Side B, “Live at The Outpost for Contrabasse, Prepared Tape, and No Input Teac 2A” is an improvised live recording that emphasizes much more fully the low-drone side of the bass with the tape loops providing a surreal rhythm and the ability for some on-the-spot self accompaniment, bedding some more free jazz style solos that would be at home on a classic Ornette Coleman record, if saxophones and drums were clattering around them. This piece also contains a coughing spell, and ends with snatches of conversation, laughter and what sounds like the sounds of leaving, packing up and leaving the performance.

The two sides compliment each other well and fully expose the experimental roots that lie under the surface of Frye’s more well known work. Grab the tape here.

Tabs Out | Nate Henricks – Crownleaf Chorus

Nate Henricks – Crownleaf Chorus
8.8.16 by J Moss

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“Crownleaf Chorus” is the seventh cassette release from prolific digital/visual/recording artist Nate Henricks, and the third on the excellent Patient Sounds label (he’s also let go two digital albums since the April release of this cassette). This tape is a departure from the frenzied cut-and-paste style of past releases. Albums such as “Neon For No One” and “Quest For The Obsolete Egg” functioned as hyper-speed internet-era aural collages, uninterrupted streams of sonic imagery, found sounds, post-punk grinds, and brilliant shards of psychedelic pop melody that shattered like mirrors into chaos. In contrast, “Crownleaf Chorus” is an album of twelve concise, discrete folk rock tunes, bright with mandolin and fiddle, a love letter to more subtle influences such as the pastoral hippy barn rock of the 60’s/70’s and the wry, soul-searching indie folk of the early 00’s.

The album has an an overarching vibe of saying goodbye to a loved one that you will see again but not for a long time. It’s melancholy and bittersweet through twists and turns, verses like rivers, mountainous choruses, and mournful tunnels. The most upbeat parts of this album are like driving alone; you’ve said goodbye but at least you’ve got the open road ahead of you. The emotions expressed in the songs tend towards sorrow but you can feel the joy that comes from making the music, sliding into the vibe like the seat of a beloved car. Traces of the experimental nature of Nate’s past releases remain. During the track, Lost Distance”, a mellow jam featuring slide guitar, there is a glitch as if your tape deck malfunctioned. Each song after that trades in more of its folk rock corduroy for 90’s drop-out denim and deeply layered guitar solos. The closing track, Everything Is Wrong, brings things full circle with strumming mandolin, that alt-country bass-bass-snare, and a minor key fiddle riff, but in the final seconds, a marimba type sound assumes the melody and becomes the last thing you hear, a surprise ending.

Tabs Out | Ovis Aurum – Nocturnal Pools

Ovis Aurum – Nocturnal Pools
7.18.16 by J Moss

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Ovis Aurum is the recording alias of prolific Austin, TX based experimental electronic artist Gary James Geiler. “Nocturnal Pools” is his latest release for Irish cassette label Fort Evil Fruit.

“Nocturnal Pools” sounds like urban decay and abandoned buildings; spectral echoes in places once vibrant with human and mechanical life that now lie still and covered in dust. Crunchy, minimal beats march through rippling ambient synths like a lone walker, hood up, moving through an early morning fog. Electronic whispers come from the corners of the songs, organic samples fall rhythmically like water dripping through a broken ceiling. Most of the sounds are coated in a bit of distortion, and there are moments of extreme minimalism and grit, where found sounds are allowed to breathe. There are also vast, beautiful passages that remind me a bit of “Another Green World” era Brian Eno through a strict DIY lens. Highly recommended. Get one of the limited edition of 60 from Fort Evil Fruit right here for 6 Euros.