Early Spring 2024

Elena Dakota - River Record! [Cudighi] 

Been sleeping on getting a review together for another wonderful cassette from Cudighi Records but I’m awake now. Elena Dakota is a brand new name to me (and the nom de plume of Elena Nees), and what a talent she is. Last September, I spent a week in the backyard stripping and sealing my deck. I started listening to the SongExploder podcast, which I’d heard much about. I listened to many episodes with “singer-songwriter” types that I was not very fond of. Sometimes, when they played the demo at the beginning, the seed was promising but by the end of the episode the final version was totally forgettable. Too much affectation in the vocal performances, consistently unaffecting or unimaginative arrangements, no je ne sais quois. I asked the music podcast gods, why couldn’t I have heard an episode with Elena Dakota? Or, for that matter, an episode for each of the eight songs comprising River Record!? Everything that my jaded ears objected to, is done properly by Nees. 

Nees’s voice is sleepily sanguine, accompanied by the gentle thrum of her guitar. The arrangements are spare but never boring, and sometimes one of the guest instruments really makes the song (see Sam Newman’s lonesome trombone on “These Walls Know How To Float” and “Plasticine, as I do the Sky”, or the muffled thump of the percussion on “Rice Noodles”, another highlight). “Walls”, in particular, stands out with the way Nees’s voice delicately intertwines with the brass and winds coiling around her. Nees shifts the tempo up on “Women in the Air”, her most accomplished composition, that really shines with gorgeous vocal harmonies. The spectacular closer “Lady Godiva (There is No Gun)” seems to push open the tight Academy aspect ratio that has framed River Record! up to that point into a sprawled out widescreen composition as Elena Dakota saunters off hypnotically into the distance, with her backing band in tow.

Reminiscent of the intimacy of Maxine Funke, early Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake aglow under a pink moon and maybe a bit of Samara Lubelski and Hall of Fame, and a good rainy day companion to the Seth Thomas LP Cudighi put out a year or two ago. Nees seems to have the right feel, the right intuition to make affecting, meaningful songs. My intuition says she’s just getting started and she’s got even better songs inside of her. I hope to hear them one day.

Taylor Daukas - Long Gone [Moone] 

Lately, I have been enjoying this fantastic little tape Long Gone from Taylor Daukas who has joined up with the Moone records crew in the deserts of the Southwest. The first side is strong, with two little gems plus an instrumental composed by producers Micah Dailey and Janie Dailey. “Pearl” and “Believing” pair up nicely, and I’d have been plenty satisfied if this were simply a cassingle. Each track features a languidly effective vocal melody that covertly digs its hooks right in. Daukas’s voice is the anchor and the arrangements sway around her forming a warm halo. “Pearl” features an oblique percussive stamp, almost sounds like a loop of someone knocking on the door but Daukas wades into even stranger territory later on. The title track marks the most peculiar arrangement on the tape, but it’s also the most exciting (though the oceanic trumpet on “False Door” is quite nice as well). Multi-tracked vocals, insistent not-quite-in-sync synths, field recordings of footsteps or the like, scatterbrained guitar plucks. You’re adrift in a swirl of instability but once again, Daukas’s voice is the guiding light, and when she tells you to “hold my hand” you reach for it without a second thought. 

Dimitriam - Amphora [Moone]
Homebrewed, hand dubbed, hand painted. Takes me back to the good old days of the cassette underground. Amphora, the latest from Tucson-based Dimitriam (also available on CD via Moone Records), is exceedingly easy on these skewed ears. If you tell me something was recorded on a 4-track, I’m already halfway in the bag, but Dimitriam can write some great songs too. The jaunty classicist pop romp, “Rug”, and the lightly smoldering epic, “Ceiling”, immediately stand out. Nestled among the proper songs are accomplished instrumental interludes. The goofily sloshed “QVC” carries with it an underpinning of dread due to a churning, ominous rhythm section. “Not Here” is a quality parody/tribute to early 80s UK synth pop. Same could be said for “Maniac” as it kneels at the home taper altar of Daniel Johnston instead. Amphora’s consistent in its inconsistency; each track, whether a hook-laden tune or backward tape experiment, is imbued with the same good natured warmth. What more do you want out of a cassette?

FMF - Future Moss Fortress [Drongo Tapes] 

Alright, so my reference point for FMF (possibly standing for “Future Moss Fortress”, or perhaps the titles of their releases fill in the blanks a new way each time, a la D. Yellow Swans and C.C.T.V.) is a band they don’t necessarily sound that much like. That band is Black Dice, but let me explain. The catch here is that Black Dice’s sound changed every couple years, and the impressive and galvanizing stunt that FMF pull off is that they sound like every piece of Black Dice vinyl melted down and repressed into one. From the early days of avant-hardcore ten second blasts of screams and static to Black Dice’s dance floor flirtations and latter day exploits into the aural version of squiggle vision. FMF sound like all that and more, and all at once. Speaking of Black ____ bands, side B’s killer drum solo shenanigans and squirting synth blurps gave intense seizure flashes of Black Pus, albeit thoroughly chopped and liquified in a Cuisinart from an estate sale down the street. Wisely, Future Moss Fortress is edited down to a dense, kinetic, cranial collapsing 16 minute carnival ride you will want to hop on again. Reserve that fast pass. 

Patois Counselors - Enough: One Night at the Daisy Chain [Ever/Never] 

A bit of an unusual release, but a welcome one. This isn’t a live record as there’s no audience, but it’s kinda like a live record with no audience. Perhaps you could say this is the highest quality practice tape ever released. Even though they’ve got a new LP on the horizon, Patois Counselors, the hardest working band in rock & roll, decided they might as well pop into the The Daisy Chain in NYC for one night of wild passion. They run through a set of old favorites from their prior two LPs but also drop a hearty helping of new songs too. It’s the latter that had my ears curling. By my count, we get four cuts from the first LP Proper Release. and one from The Optimal Seat, thankfully it’s “The Galvanizer” (my desert island Counselors pick, if the Lord scorned me enough to place me on a deserted island but loved me enough to provide me with a stereo). That means that over half the songs here are new (didn’t recognize any from the first 7” either). Not sure if they’re working them out for the next LP or just part of the live set, but it’s enticing to get a look at them nevertheless.

The opener was judiciously selected as “Serious Rider” has everything you want in a Counselors tune, including a soaring chorus (Counselors’ style). Definitely my favorite of the new crop. “Just Made Scarce” is an exciting new tune with great unexpected melodies and a kind of new wave-in-a-car-wreck aesthetic. I’m hoping there’s a forthcoming fully produced album version, and wondering how many Durans will be injured during the making of it. I’m enjoying the group’s newfound flair for drama as well. The excellent “Fountain of UHF” is chock full of noirish intrigue and the sextet turns into power balladeers on the memorable “Bands I Barely Spoke With”. I don’t know if any of the versions of the older tunes will replace the album versions in fans’ hearts but it’s still a delight to hear alternate takes, the rollicking and rocked up rendition of “Modern Station” is particularly fun. The one exception is “Get Excitement” which sounds especially unhinged, more so than the album track. Patois Counselors is one of the best bands we’ve got right now and it’s been four long years since their last record, so savor this cassette and get excitement that a new LP shall be bestowed before long.