Here's a couple of SoCal orgs boogie-in' for a beatdown, Bonding Tapes from San Diego and zYPHER just down the 134 in Pasadena. The common denominator is Mr. Abstract Butta Fingas a.k.a. ABF. The mister rolls solo on the Bonding tape Invictus and teams up with Igor Amokian for Green Tape, another installment in their color-coded cassette series on zYPHER.Immediately after Invictus's spools get spinning, Mr. Fingas announces, via sample, that he's a "bigshot" on "The Trip_Penance." The album's namesake "invictus," while conjuring unfortunate memories of Matt Damon with a South African accent, is actually a Latin word that translates to "unconquered." So "bigshot," "unconquered," I think we have a theme here. But Fingas embraces the hype and backs it up so it's all good. Now that we've gotten your Latin word of the day out of the way...
The aforementioned "The Trip_Penance" bounces a bunch of synths off of themselves while "Disintegrator_Redeye" relies on a beefy synth-bass line to rule the roost. I find myself leaning toward the tracks that indulge in more classic hip hop impulses like "Bass Loner" and "The Builders," the latter of which marries a killer, heavily processed and panned brass sample with an almost 8-bit burbling synth counter melody. Brief but a killer.
The rubbery groove of "Vampire!" moves at a drunken shuffle, wobbling its way into your heart with an accordion-esque patch coughing up an ersatz wheeze. Mr. F gets a little more crunk on "Dilated" with heavy bass chords and tittering hi-hat. "Spaceship_Player Opus" hits on a nice little looped melody--Primo-esque but with a predilection to keep things off-kilter--that takes the tape to its peak before wrapping things up with the also-bangin' "Outro_You're Welcome".
I haven't been able to nail down whether this series of tapes sees Igor Amokian and Fingas splitting the sides (which the info on bandcamp for the series's first installment Red Tape states) or if they began collaborating as a duo at some point during the series's lifespan. Since the j-card itself doesn't provide any clues one way or the other I will cautiously move forward under the belief that this is the same format as Red Tape with Amokian on the A side and ABF on the flip, although please note the caveat that I may be completely wrong.(If this is a split then) the two artists are amazingly in sync because Green Tape (no relation to Illinois-based weirdo outpost Green Tape) feels pretty seamless. The first cut "Alien Signal" finds Igor Amokian's rough and tumble electronics pulsing and thumping. A quick bit of google searching on Amokian will lead you to a whole bunch of references to his circuit bending. What's less prominently mentioned is that he can bang too. "A Trillion Stars" settles into a slammin' boom bap style loop after a while, galvanizing the noises around it. "Cellular Cyborg" is majorly repetitive but it totally hooks me with this hi-pitched, nearly percussive melody. Amokian seems to favor more straight ahead time signatures than Fingas and "Cellular Cyborg" and "Ill Electro" are unflinching and relentless in their patterns. "Transport to Beta Sector" is unexpected but entirely welcome as its loping pace and mournful tone would be extremely effective even without the element of surprise. Could easily see it used to score some dystopian sci-fi flick.
While Amokian cuts his side into seven slices, Fingas (here billed as simply ABF) sticks with five cuts as he did on Invictus. "Liqid Chrome Aladdin" is a perfect transition into the ABF universe: languid funky bass, these great swells of a synth with the resonance turned way up and a killer little arpeggiated counter melody that drops in for a bit. The Fingas side is off to a hot start. "Angel Wings" always catches me off guard with its clean-toned lead vibraphone that sits surprisingly well among the drum machines, speedy synth patterns and agitated circuits. Well done. "The Vast Abyss" zags in the opposite direction brewing some tension between a host of melodic parts that aren't quite comfortable sharing a zip code.
"Martian Baggage Check" is the counterpoint to "Transport to Beta Sector" on the Amokian side with a very cinematic vibe. It's less of a fugue with more of an air of mystery and sense of mounting excitement via a chugging bass loop. ABF opens the track up midway through with a confluence of melodies via voice samples and percussive sequenced synth. If this ain't a collabo then Amokian and Fingas must have patch cables running between the CV ins/outs of their brains, Green Tape feels totally of a piece.
Both tapes are real nice, I probably lean a little toward Green Tape because I love how the two artists fuse their sounds whether directly or indirectly, and I always dig that grimy science fiction-inflected sound, but you can't go wrong. Bonding Tapes is wryly slangin' copies of Invictus for (TR-)$6.06 that can be grabbed here. Green Tape is hyper-limited but a few copies remain. Hustle to get those here.
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