Electric Annihilation/Various Artists – Psyched Punch [DNT]

(FINALLY got this transcribed from my journal)
This is the debut issue of Electric Annihilation; a new zine edited and published by Tynan Krakoff, CEO of DNT Records…
Electric Annihilation has been a nice companion while riding the London Underground. The cover feature is an interview with Sun Araw who is of course blowing up right now and has been for awhile. I haven’t followed his music too much (though his side of the Predator Vision split is pretty rad) but the interview was interesting. Because of how decentralized the “underground” is, its cool to hear someone just chatting about what’s going on around them as Cam Stallones does here. It was interesting to learn Sun Araw was just kind of stumbled upon while Stallones was working on Magic Lantern stuff and then became equally as big a deal.
Shawn Reed (Night People/Raccoo-oo-oon) discusses how Wet Hair went from being a dark solo project before Ryan Garbes (also of Raccoo-oo-oon and the unreasonably awesome Trash Dog) hopped aboard somehow leading to their debatably tropical sound (Reed ain’t having it). There’s a close-up of his gear on the back page, so you too can sound just like Wet Hair kids! Their first DNT release, a VHS, is due this year.
There’s also an interview with John Olson, pictured sporting a rad American Tapes tee and Frankenstein monster of a sax. Olson discusses the small but fertile Michigan scene and laments the days when Wolf Eyes could play shows with White Stripes and Slumber Party without it seeming weird--I agree those were the days indeed.
Thurston Moore and Henry Rollins are asked about their thoughts on today’s underground. Moore compares it to the 80s “noise scene” and extols the sonic virtues of cassettes. The quick interview with Henry Rollins was interesting cause I had no idea he was into noise stuff. To be totally honest, I’ve never really understood why people are interested in him as a personality or why he has a show on IFC or why he randomly pops in movies playing SWAT personnel. Though he has occasionally dropped gems like “if I had the money, I’d pay Bono a million dollars a day to not make music.” Anyway, enough doggin’ on the guy, I have more respect for him after this interview. He discusses American Tapes, as Olson and Moore did—an obvious topic of interest for EA. Rollins asserts what noise is doing is what punk should have done. He’s not only impressed by the “zero interest in MTV” but compares its vision to bop. He ends the interview with another gem, “music survived the Reagan administration, Creed and Nickelback, so it can survive anything else thrown at it I reckon.”
Elsewhere in the issue, Nomen Dubium and Steve Hauschildt (of Emeralds) both discuss how they got to where they’re going musically. Although, the article I’ve found myself returning to the most is "The Last Man" by Jon Isaac (of Really Coastal tapes). It’s an engaging, if a bit unfocused, rumination on how listeners come to define and order sound. He moves through childhood anecdotes as well as pointing out examples in the current underground, particularly the vocabulary that small-press labels have developed to promote their merchandise. There is a pretty funny anecdote regarding Robedoor in there too. It was really great to have a non-interview article in the mix. Hopefully Jon Isaac continues to write for EA and maybe a few other writers join up to do other columns or whatever.
Another section I hope EA continues and expands is "Scene Reports." Sam Goldberg gives a rundown of some crazy shit goin’ down in Cleveland, Shawn Reed reps the new and old blood in Iowa City, and Matthias Andersson (of the Release the Bats label) gives a thorough, detailed portrait of everything rad going down in Gothenburg. I jotted down a bunch of Swedish names to check out, one of which, Attestupa, has a DNT LP on the way. Readers are encouraged to send in letters and scene reports, so everyone out there, get writing about your scene!
I enjoyed this issue and I think Electric Annihilation will only get better. Also it was a bold move not to include any reviews in the zine, the staple of every music mag. Its available from the DNT and Electric Annihilation websites and its also stocked by various record stores and distros.
DNT also put out the Psyched Punch double cassette comp that collects 3 sides of out of print DNT material and a side of new stuff to celebrate its 3 year anniversary (just a tad late.) The tape starts spooling with a vintage Robedoor track “Tribal Rites.” All militant, pounding drums, angsty wordless vocals and a whole lot of fuzz bleeding everywhere. Quite a good track that transports me back to 2006 when I first heard the band. Forbici is next with “Remote Concentrator.” Never heard of Forbici before but apparently they released something on DNT. This track is wiggly, directionless electronics—decent but not totally my speed. German makes the first of two appearances here with the minute long “Vein,” a surely grooving interlude. The Warmth/Yellow Swans 7inch (which was one of the earliest AuxOut reviews) is captured here in its entirety. Check the old review if you want more details but Warmth conjures a sonic bog and Yellow Swans are brighter than usual and as awesome as ever. Also, I finally learned what the Warmth track is called (“Demode”) cause the info is hidden behind a blotch of blue ink on the 7inch. German returns with “Neun,” a track of boisterous drumming and clanging, ghostly thumb piano. “Ironlung Wheeze” by Dead/Bird is the side’s finale. A bit like the Warmth joint but full of sputtering synthesizers and dying machines.
“Desert City Summer” by Nomen Dubium kicks off Side B in style. I remember a ND tape coming out a while ago on DNT a while back but I never checked it out and, man, I wish I had. This track is one of best of the comp. It’s incredibly lush and melodic and gorgeous. Really knocked my socks off when I first heard it. Wonderfully layered with some of the strata being soothing and other bits being of a more chugging nature but all blending beautifully. This cat has a VHS due later on DNT; I’m so there. UK crew Jazzfinger contributes a piece called “Birth of the Knife” and believe me it fucking sounds like the birth of a knife. Violent, sharp, searing, grinding, serrated, metallic—all belied by a lilting reed organ which as far as I can tell is the only sound source. Unassumingly but unflinchingly bloodthirsty. Plankton Wat contributes a track of winding reversed guitar called “Translucent Nights” and Acre closes the side doing his thing with unchanging walls of sound.
The final side of the reissued material begins with an untitled track by Mudboy. Since I’ve heard all DNT Mudboy releases save for Livish I can deduce this comes from that. The track features signature stacked organ lines and waves crashing in the background. A nice, borderline meditative track. Super Minerals make their first appearance with the title-track from The Piss, one of the most apocalyptic moments from the tape’s apocalyptic half-hour. Swollen sores of fuzz bear down on oppressive shrieks, creaks and rattling before they approach melody in the final moments. Quilts contribute the 15 minute “Pink Hotel” from their split with Quintana Roo way back from ’06 if I remember correctly. This comp is interesting cause it only looks back 3-4 years, but you can see how quickly the underground changes. Quilts, for instance, put out some cool stuff awhile back but have since dissipated (I guess) cause I haven’t heard or thought about them lately. Anyhow, “Pink Hotel” is a sweet track, if on the long side. There’s a lot of space in the piece, silence is poked through with plinking (toy?) piano, manipulated vocal slur and a static drone—all of which are run through delay pedals. By the end they have scraped together a subtle but persuasive melody.
Moving on the side of new material... The biggest surprise for me was the Blank Realm song “Cats on the Edge.” The bits and pieces I’d heard of Blank Realm was fine, folky free-psych stuff but it didn’t leave much of a mark. This track however is utterly slammin’. It’s nearly 8 minutes of mellow, ravin’ 60sish organ driven psych rock. This track is just the epitome of cool. The band constructs the song really well, perfectly balancing surfy spy guitar, heavy organ riffage, a solid rhythm section and a touch of wispy vox and keeping it all moving with chugging grooviness with effective dynamic shifts. Basically, I never want this track to end. It’s in a fist fight with Nomen Dubium for my favorite new discovery. Plankton Wat contributes another short track which weirdly enough has a lot of vocals in it in addition to the guitar. Super Minerals return with an awesome track “Purple Gravity Spindles.” It features the Minerals in total spirit summoning mode. After a bombastic opening, a good chunk is pretty quiet with a lonely flute until Phil and Will bring on heaps and heaps of lush, living sound. Really transcendent and frighteningly beautiful. I don’t know anything about Birdcatcher but they close with “Dusk.” It’s a good track similar to Super Minerals with murky flute loops (part of a complete breakfast) and bowed something-or-others creating a real doomy vibe.
The comp is already sold out (my bad for taking so long to actually get this online) but it’s limited to 100 so I’m sure a copy or two can still be found in distros. Good luck!

Snowstorm – Snowstorm [Malleable]

I'm wrapping up my stay in London preparing for my journey elsewhere. I'm not sure what the internet situation is going to be like over the next month so I can't say how often this site will be updated. I'm not planning on going on hiatus or nothing but just letting you know posting will be scattered. I've got some reviews written in a notebook that I need to get around to transcribing into a digital format but I wanted to get a couple more up before I head out tomorrow. Pardon the interruption, the review starts now.
I got a couple of things from Malleable records in Philadelphia who had a hand in two LPs I dug last year by Mincemeat or Tenspeed and Embarker. Keeping consistent with the other stuff I heard from the label, this full length 45rpm 7inch (12 songs) is pretty nuts. Snowstorm, also hailing from Philly, is a bass/drums crew which, now that I’m thinking about it, is one of the most consistent instrument lineups. Lightning Bolt, The Pope, Temperatures, Godheadsilo etc. etc. they are all varying degrees of rad. Only lame one I can think of is that Death From Above 1979 band and they have a dumbass name so it's to be expected. Anyway, that was a round about way of saying add Snowstorm to the list.
So there’s twelve tracks on this thing and they don’t have names or any of that, so in order to keep me from going nuts over reviewing a 7 minute record I’m just gonna treat it as sides. This stuff is pretty thrashin’ but always manages to find a groove even if it only riffs on it for 10-15 seconds. The bass shifts violently between ice pick feedback (trademark of the Malleable crowd) and surprisingly melodic, speed-sludge passages. There are remnants of the bands I mentioned earlier, but Snowstorm is on a frantic kick all their own.
The second side begins with pummeling in mind. With dynamics akin to harsh noise before lauching briefly into a rollicking stoner riff, then breaking down, speeding up and doing all sorts of sonic gymnastics. Awesome and hyperactively epic. The side continues with the same jacked up intensity, mauling your face but allowing for occasional gasps for air. They totally outdo themselves on this side, I’m constantly being crushed in new ways. Rules.
The record blows right past me, where each track is good but they never pass the threshold length where they get stuck in your mind. They drop catchy parts but they don’t repeat ‘em. It makes the record more of an experience than a set of songs.
Pretty killer record overall if you're down with this sort of thing (who isn’t??) and looks-wise this thing is a beauty. Off-white vinyl and killer vellum artwork/sleeve. Still in print!

Steve Gunn/Shawn David McMillen – End of the City [Abaddon/Abandon Ship/DNT]

I’ve been playing this one a lot on this wobbly, crap turntable I procured from an acquaintance here. I’m wondering how the experience will change once I return home and play it on a turntable that rotates in a perfect circle. Hopefully not too much cause as is this record might just be my favorite LP from the year so far. A trifecta of labels put End of the City out—the always fantastic DNT, Abandon Ship which this is their first LP (congratz!) and Abaddon which seems to be a brand new label.
The two artists’ work compliments each others’ really well here. Their sounds are similar enough that listening to the sides back to back feels coherent but Gunn and McMillen bring totally different ideas to the table.
This is my first experience with solo material from Gunn (he’s part of the killer group GHQ) and this does not disappoint. He showers us in pleasant vibes contributing a lovely raga-lite track. A groaning organ/sitar/something loop spirals around as he tears it up on guitar. Shakers come in later and they’re a real subtle but effective addition and tablas join the ranks afterwards. It’s fairly repetitive but not boring the least in. Gunn lays down a real nice solo towards the center too. For a while its only one track of guitar but there gets to be about 3 or 4 creating little, consonant webs. A renegade sitar pops up too and the whole thing ultimately wraps with a nice bed of loops. Beautiful stuff and effortlessly good, mellow vibes, a much sunnier experience than GHQ’s bleak, harrowing (and excellent) journeys into raga-drone.
I think Gunn’s side was probably my favorite initially but I think McMillen has swung me to his side the aisle. While Gunn worked very strictly with one sound, McMillen’s side constantly moves through many rooms of sound on his side. Beginning with a junk store instrument pile-up and almost immediately giving way to an amazing, creepy piano/thumb piano duet, augmented by the occasional hollow floor tom. After electronic scribbling, the piano returns full force, barely on this side of tonal, against a chirping cricket-style electronic melody. So then there’s an amazing evensong choral bit with the angry crickets still in tact and weird field recording rumbling around. Just beautiful, eerie stuff. Air raid sirens and all kinds of shit is in here; it’s nuts. A keyboard/guitar duet grows out of the last part with some kind of spoken word/poem reading and sitar in there too. All of a sudden the crickets get groovy against a bevy of sounds until a harmonica takes the lead and piano follows suit briefly unleashing an awesome suspense movie type melody. So what next? Where else is he gonna go? The answer is a path to a vintage era Skaters thing with distorted vocals, hand drums and a jiggy spirit flute. The whole ordeal ends unassumingly with a brief jam on a guitar that has a bunch of shit stuck between its strings. Oh yeah, there’s a crow cawing in there too… The question I keep asking myself is who is this guy? Why have I not heard of him before and how did this jumble of sound collapse under its own weight? The most that I’ve found is he’s a sometimes collaborator of Warmer Milks, which I confess I’m not too keen on. But I’ll be seeking out more of this guys stuff anyway.
The LP comes in a pro-printed sleeve with excellent artwork by Mary Kidd and a full size insert. DNT’s copies are gone but it was still in print at Abandon Ship and Abaddon last I checked. Edition of 500. Recommended.

Blood on Tape – Language & Movement [Reverb Worship]

Newish disc from Texan drone crew Blood on Tape on UK label Reverb Worship. They put out their debut tape last year which was a pretty damn good first set of drones and this is their second release——a 24 minute piece.
A sparse beginning of silence and birds leads into good ol’ electric drones slowly curling their tentacles around the emptiness. I think I may have written this before but Blood on Tape stretches a little into a lot without it wearing thin. Only a handful of elements are operating at a given time but they create a very full sound, one of the keys being that there are always well-positioned pieces of melody springing up at different moments. This piece has a fair amount of percussion as well, I think coming solely from cymbals. The combination of swelling, cavernous drones and the crashing cymbals actually creates some really epic moments with one cymbal almost sounding like a gong. There is a rather thunderous finale of sorts that leads into a new section of two guitars. The two guitars work around a melodic arpeggio, very gradually morphing into new melodies. Things just get more and more lush until a bass guitar (maybe?) starts stomping heavily underneath it all, turning a meditation into a procession, making the piece into a simultaneously relaxing and harrowing journey.
Another solid outing by these guys and it looks like they've got a few new things on the horizon as well. A lot of people have been moving closer and closer to new age territory so it is nice to see some people still manipulating pure ephemeral auras.
Limited to 47 copies and still in print.

Locrian – Drenched Lands [At War With False Noise/Small Doses]

Killer new full length by the new future of Chicago now that Obama has moved out. Lucky for you all, it is pro-pressed so it’s still in print as I write this which happens about 12% of the time.
Every new thing I hear from Locrian is consistent with the greatness of their past stuff but the duo’s work is also getting tighter and more seamless. Refined isn’t the right word but now that they’ve burrowed out their hole in the earth they’re smoothing out all the rough edges. Don’t get me wrong, they are still dishing out planet-sized sonic offerings but they’ve become even more dense and massive.
Anyhow, let’s actually talk about the music. “Obsolete Elegy in Effluvia and Dross” is more like an intro than a full piece, but it deserves to be a bit longer. Based around a two-chord progression and ever so gradual, disembodied vocals it’s a pretty hypnotic piece. A beautiful keyboard part only furthers this at the end then we’re instantly transported to the alternate universe of “Ghost Repeater” which is real hypnotic as well but not in a pretty way. Putting it bluntly, “Ghost Repeater” is the jam. It’s ten minutes long, but as far as I’m concerned it’s the hit single of the bunch. A bass throb runs the course of the piece and a long two-note synth part with menace to spare, casts a shadow of unease over everything. It’s like casting a shadow over the biggest, blackest fuckin’ cloud you’ve ever seen. It can be none more black. The track really knots up your stomach and puts you into a strange submissive state, like this thing is freaking the shit out of you but you are totally under its spell. Some sort of sonic Stockhausen syndrome or something. When feedback-ridden guitars show up, the monster’s momentum only increases. You gotta hear this track, totally essential to your life. Anyway, “Ghost Repeater” is the peak but the other stuff’s all quality too. “Barrne Temple Obscured by Contaminated Fogs” whatever the hell that is, features an effective, chemically unbalanced organ bit along with pervasive noise and anguished screaming, which never really has the effect on me it’s supposed to. I like the second half a bit more cause it dials down the screaming a bit so it melds more with the mess of organ notes and guitar parts. “Epicedium” is downright serene with mellow, auto-panned organ and clean guitar arpeggios which occasionally nudge the piece in more dissonant directions. It continues this way for nearly half the track until a two ton fuzzbomb is dropped. Despite the heavy barrage of distortion the piece stays pretty put picks up a newfound sense of urgency, due especially to some fantastic melodies played by an echoing, clean-toned guitar which gets to go solo at the end for a moment. A great, melodically complex work. A tolling bell opens up closer “Obsolete Elegy in Last Concrete.” Searing guitar feedback and sustained organ join it as is Locrian’s custom. The guitar takes about this staggered, juddering bass riff and everything gets real metal. Other tracks of guitar swell around it and I think some more organ is added as well. In the final minutes the duo returns to the chords of the first track making for a beautifully transcendent, rising-from-the-ashes vibe. Quite elegiac just as the title suggests and a damn fine way to end it all.
Its nice cause Locrian’s recent, sold-out LP Greyfield Shrines is on here in full as a totally bitchin' bonus track so it’s a total twofer. The CD is done up nice in one of those pro-printed arigato packs I think they’re called and the CD is all black with an embossed “Locrian”/pentagon on it. Comes with a nice insert/booklet too. One of the better records of year so far.
On a related note, Locrian’s putting on a noise/black metal festival with some others in Chicago called Matchitehew Assembly. Locrian, Bone Awl (yes!), Sword Heaven, Burial Hex and many others are playing so it looks sweet. It happens in a few weeks so check it out if you’re in the area. Info here

Maths Balance Volumes – Tried to Make a Call [Bum Tapes]/Rahdunes – Drink and Drive or Smoke and Fly [Bum Tapes]

I took full advantage of my temporary UK residence to check out Bum Tapes, a label I’d been eyeing for a little while but shied away from as I do too often from foreign labels cause of exchange rates/shipping costs... because I'm a cheap bastard. Over here though, these things are dirt cheap, 3 pounds post paid in the UK. That’s less than five bucks! Anyway, I recommend all you Americans out there to take advantage of the fallen exchange rates while you can. Anyhow, this is part 1 of my Bum Tapes report.
It seems with every Maths Balance Volumes release I hear, I’m more and more convinced they’re one of the best bands operating today. The magic concoction they brew (however it is done) is equal parts pop genius and sloshed basement crawl. The weirdest stuff is put on the first side of this tape, which I guess is called “Tried to Make a Call” though the second side isn’t mentioned. The first piece is a stumbling rag of sauntering carnival organ, a pair of slowed down mumbling voices and found percussion. It sounds like a wreck, and is in a way, but the group’s talent lies in making the most bizarre combos of sounds utterly catchy, if lethargic as well. The second piece is no less abstract but brings a heavy groove. It’s almost like a thrift store Black Dice (in their “dance” phase) but MBV uncover something much more strange and indescribable than Black Dice have or ever will. Based around a looped bass tone, a bunch of unidentified sounds are assembled around in unexpected but well thought out ways.
The B-side is basically a lo-fi pop song and it rules! It's mostly just an unfailingly catchy chord progression and indecipherable muttered vocals. Those elements form the skeleton of the song. Augmenting it is a lovely but subtle keyboard that pops up at the end of each verse. There’s also an amplified metallic something that provides a vague but oh so important percussive element and a bit of growling percussive banging comes in near the end. Even at ten minutes, this thing seems pretty damn essential. Probably the best argument for a cassingle I’ve ever heard, though it wasn’t marketed as such. One of those I always flip over as soon as it ends.
My buddy Adam told me about how good Rahdunes are a while back and, silly me, I’m just now taking his advice, and oh how right he is. The accurately titled first side “Sounds” is a pulsing masterpiece of drone. Despite heavy, throbbing synthesizer pulsations there’s a leisurely feel, like riding a train where you glide along but still feel the machinery grinding beneath you. The texture complements the vibe quite well, lush but synthetic——and with too much gravity to be considered new age.
The flipside is just as good. Two tracks are listed (“Acid Meter” and “Eruption Factor”) but it sounds like one seamless piece to my ears. Maybe I’m reading it wrong and its “Acid Meter Eruption Factor”? Aww, well, I’ll let that be a mystery for the ages. Guest drums, supplied by Nick St. Mary, turn the piece into a rollicking drone rock affair of thunderous proportions. One of the heaviest hazes I’ve ever been caught in. The drums drop out leaving thick, steaming frequencies to rise. Subdued drums return until the smoky vibes evaporate. Excellent tape.
Both tapes are still available but way too limited with nice artwork as well. Rahdunes is an edition of 40 and the Maths Balance Volumes tape is limited to 50. Can’t go wrong picking up either so I suggest you get both.

Juan Matos Capote – Jabal [Circuit Torçat]

Jabal is the debut release from Circuit Torçat, a new label out of Barcelona. This tape is quite good, if a bit too short.
The first piece “Goat Scape” begins with a strong but not harsh hi-pitched sine tone, which is modulated by other frequencies. Though there are brief flashes of melody, the track mostly focuses on textures brought about by combining various frequencies. By the end there’s a loop of a vocal-esque melody through I can’t tell if its from a human source or not. The title track also starts off with a loop of a manipulated sine tone. There’s another loop, reminiscent of turning a tape recorder on and off, that provides a percussive base as sustained, harmonized sine waves take over and the side ends.
The other side contains two pieces as well. “Tide” features sine tones also but over a shuddering bed of lower pitches. Over that base, various other fragments of other sounds are structured. They are probably all of electronic origin but some sound quite percussive causing the piece to scrape along capably. The finale, and my favorite, “Star Dust” reminds me a bit of the lo-fi new age thing going on now a la Dolphins into the Future. Despite a rough patch of distortion in between, the beginning is mellow waves of synthesizer and later brings out a pieced together, seasick melody before getting noisy again with oscillators and metal objects.
Capote’s work isn’t exactly minimal but that influence is present. He focuses on constructing pieces from small fragments of sound. Though the two work from very different source material, Capote’s work might possibly sound like an isolated strand of Tomutonttu’s sound clutter. Sound placed into odd but clearly defined structures. A real pleasant jam.
Edition of 50 and packaged very cleanly, check it out.

Ugly Husbands – The Faith of the Family [Roll Over Rover]/Warm Climate – Edible Homes [Stunned]

I like it when people start crossing the line between “song-based” music and experimental stuff, especially when I get to hear it on tape. Being the ever blessed soul that I am, I have two very different but very good tapes that fit that description.
First of all, this Ugly Husbands tape comes in a book. I know that has been done before, but a tape-in-book has never made it to my hands before so I’m fucking impressed. Lucky for me the music is pretty sweet so it won’t just be a novelty item to show friends. UH is a project of Stewart Adams, one of the heads of Roll Over Rover along with Sean McCann and Dave McPeters. Through its 16 tracks The Faith of the Family flirts with lo-fi folk/pop as well as weird sound collage and warm drone stuff, and is often at its best when its synthesizing the two. “Pee-chee” is a couple of acoustic guitars plucked and strummed against radiating keyboard or organ and a bit of feedback. “The Daily Record of C.J. Whitman” by contrast is an uptempo number with lyrics, slashing electric guitar, live drums and a little steel guitar as well. “Mr. Tower’s Dead Trophy” returns to the fingerpicked acoustic guitar and lap steel, adding voice and a few UFO synth parts making their way in. “Spotswood Rice” is a minute long interlude of static and keyboard loops leading into “Off-Hand with Alwyn” the longest song at 9 minutes and one of the best as well. It works with the same palette as the songs before it, but Adams’s vocals are more surefooted and it features a lovely melody (well that’s pretty symptomatic of the tape as a whole.) The song stretches along so effortlessly that I hardly notice it’s a good deal longer than the total of the 4 songs that came before it. Definitely shows strength of songwriting. “Red Hot Hot Doggies” features lonesome vocals adrift in toy keyboard, organ and a recording of something of ski ball arcade or something like that before fading into a movie sample I can’t identify. “Zipper” features more weirdness, this time a cartoon spring noise (boing!) and a vaguely organ grinder/carnival-esque vibe overall. “Radiola” has train whistles, a creepy dude saying “Hey mysterious traveler” and then a really cool tapefucked piece of music. With “The Graves at Counselors” Adams moves back towards the song-like realm with spacey keyboard, echoing guitar and maybe some piano? It all blends to a nice, pulsing mush. “Lay Your Hands on Me” recalls the earlier songs somewhat but is a tad more strung out and has a good dose of fuzz applied/smeared across its face. “The Blob” is more sound collage leading into “The Great County Fair” and “Starved by Ulysses” which is the best back to back match-up on here. The former reminds me some of the Golden Hours tape that came out Not Not Fun forever ago, a cheap, warbly organ and vocal duet with a certain stiltedness that really adds to the flavor. A well-place accordion near the end really sells the track. “Starved by Ulysses” is a pretty great song as well, perhaps the best of the tape. It has a fantastic lilt and the elements all achieve a pretty perfect unity including a great distorted accordion outro. The guitar in “Sleepwalker” drifts over a field recording of croaking frogs and the title track closes the album. Adams ditches the guitar for multiple layers of warbling organ and it’s a real nice shift bringing the tape to a lovely endpoint. I really love that this thing was recorded to 4-track cause it imbues the album with such a presence of warmth and blissfulness. At times the songs can sound a bit same-y, but it’s pretty damn good for a debut, and in a way the similarity of a lot of the songs creates a unified effect more like a drone tape. Worth checking out.
Warm Climate is a project by LA-based Seth Kasselman. The first song “Lost Teeth/Organ Donor” is the one I keep spinning and it’s a good one to put up front cause it breaks down any expectations right away. The tape kicks off with straight ahead Bowie worship with a twisted, plaintive glam ballad before sliding into an unsettling keyboard interlude that seriously reminds me of the piece of music from the scene where Cillian Murphy goes nuts and starts killing people in 28 Days Later. That little keyboard part is my favorite detail of the tape, I wish it wasn’t so fleeting but there’s no time cause Kasselman jumps right into a sixties rave-up jam with go-go ghost dancers and all. Downright brilliant track. This leads to the “Organ Donor” portion I guess cause there’s a whole cavernous mess of pipe organ that surprisingly really grinds on you as well as being a bit soothing. A great looped melody emerges and it’s a fantastic sight to behold until Kasselman starts fiddling with the radio dial as it spews bits of speech and static. “Cave In” has a bunch of jangling whatsits and it almost feels like someone accidentally dubbed in a world music tape for minute. Weird sorts of drones creep in and it might be groovy if it weren’t so damn creepy. Free drumming, seasick groans and more pipe organ appear out of nowhere and the track turns into a haunted pirate ship/jazz club. “Edible Homes and Gardens/Synth Pads for Homeless” brings back vocals but this time it’s over a distorted drum machine and hollow, sustained vibraphone tones. The second part of the track switches gears dramatically into a soft lull of acoustic guitar, puttering synth beboopery before laying on the synth strings along with spliced samples. A drum machine lurches forth steeped in incredibly saturated fuzz and the tape takes on a Portishead/Burial type feel. The anguished samples (distressed people saying things spliced beyond recognition) are a nice contrast to the prettiness of the keyboards. “Devine Souffle & The Southern Approach” starts with vocals singing over drums for nearly a minute before the “full band” comes in. It’s a great midtempo track, and it reminds me a little bit of early/mid 90s British stuff like a more chilled out Manic Street Preachers, maybe? “Motion Picks Glaze” by contrast is an acoustic guitar led ballad with slowly spinning warble in the background. “Gross Polluter” finishes off the tape with a more maximalist approach some vaguely tribal drums and singing, fragments of horns and vocals. An epileptic clarinet gets things going before everything drops out leaving some strange garbled tape sounds. Clarinet returns in fiery free jazz form joined by rumbling free percussion. I’m glad Warm Climate, along with crews like Wasteland Jazz Unit and Helhesten, is sharing the clarinet’s violent side with the world cause it’s a damn cool instrument and doesn’t get a lot of credit. The record drifts on manipulated chimes to its close. I can’t think of anyone else doing stuff like this and doing a good job of it. Glam revivalism has a tendency to kinda blow but Kasselman takes the influence and makes it his own, covering staggering amounts of terrain with his songwriting. A ride worth taking over and over.
The Ugly Husbands tape is down to the last copies of an edition of 50 and Warm Climate is sadly but expectedly sold out at Stunned, though its an edition of 120 so check around at distros, one is bound to turn up. By the way, this is just another instance to add to the list of Stunned Records introducing me to a brilliant artist I had no idea existed. I feel like sending them a thank you note every time I hear one of their tapes.

Ophibre/Hunted Creatures – Split [Oph Sound]/Hunted Creatures – The Failure of Human Instincts [Dynamo!]

Benjamin Rossignol a.k.a. Ophibre sent the most recent release from his Oph Sound label, a split between himself and Ryan Emmett’s Hunted Creatures project.
Ophibre takes the first side with a single piece “A Harem of Moths.” It’s a great piece of electric drone working with relatively low pitches, and shifting and structuring the sounds very subtly. Definitely a piece of music for headphones. I’m not sure what Ophibre uses as a sound source but I’d venture a guess it’s a synth and/or guitar, and there’s lots of layers of it/them. The texture created is very full and strong, and higher frequencies are added as it looms along. It’s not really a melodic piece but there is a lot of effort taken to make the piece harmonically consistent, resulting in a gently, searing drone. This isn't harsh in the least but there’s a churning force and sharpness to it. A nice one to zone out to.
The Ophibre side is good but the Hunted Creatures side is phenomenal. With a breathy bass pulse, higher frequencies are manipulated and despite a melodic undercurrent, the piece is prone to violent outbursts of grisly feedback. Some instrument sounding like a cross between a bass drum and a guitar takes over with a thudding procession. Less ominous drones emanate thereafter resulting in a spacey, distorted flight. A looped keyboard melody and glistening feedback are used to great effect. Emmett exhibits a masterful conjuror’s hand, showing a sturdy sense of control over his sound, fitting lots of little pieces into a coherent fabric… and all this is done live. The second piece, "Himalaya of Skull,” is a bit more compressed, combining a number of the territories traversed in the previous live set. Buried keyboard melodies, swaths of noise, choral feedback, manipulated loops all brought together by overall sense of direction. For some odd reason the piece really sounds like trudging along through a forest of howling steampipes before stumbling down a rocky cliff. I don’t know, I gotta call it like I hear it. I’m so happy this side made it to cassette too cause it really brings out the warmth and aliveness of Emmett’s work here.
I also have a Hunted Creatures disc out on Ryan Emmett’s own Dynamo! imprint. As the record’s title might imply, it falls a touch on the bleaker side. “The Achievement of Nothing” observes crickets chirping for a fair amount of time. The first couple times I listened I just thought it was a field recording then I realized its actually a loop that Emmett manipulates very slightly at times and goes on to form a rhythmic basis for the piece before the feedback and fractured vocal loops kick in. “Accomplishment and Sentiment” features a distorted guitar loud and clear and barely audible little sounds collaged around it. A reversed guitar provides a nice counter-melody in the last minute. “Residual Man” sounds like it could be a live recording. The atmosphere is dingy and clanking which is offset by a mild but quite melodic loop that dies out after a minute. Things get more tumultuous until it’s all literally swallowed up by some white light sine tone. Distortion and a guitar/synth pad loop creep back in gradually to finish it off though. “Incapable of Flight” is one of stand-outs for sure. It is noticeably thicker and weightier than the previous tracks. There’s a loop of a guitar or keyboard or something buried under two tons of distortion. It feels massive and stony, and you can detect things going on underneath but can’t make them out completely. One of those times to relax and get steamrolled. A melody emerges near the end leaving a bit sweeter taste in the mouth. “Sleeping Under the Deadweight” is the most violent of the bunch, and after a rocky start, it begins blowin’ up a gale of harsh feedback. This baptism by fire leaves you primed for the finale, the magnificently titled “Mercy at the Hand of the Lord.” With a heavy bass drum and something sounding like a hybrid between a guitar and piano, the piece marches mournfully, sparsely forth. The track is the most emotionally affecting by far, and shows a really solid grasp on Emmett’s craft. There are only three elements here: a bass drum, the unidentified melodic instrument and silence. And with that limited palette, and a fairly repetitive structure, Emmett creates something at once lethargic, monolithic and beautiful. A really impressive finale.
I’d say the tape might be the preferred, and I think more recent, example of Emmett’s work to seek out (and you get to check Ophibre then too) but there are still a number of great examples in the CD-r as well. The tape comes packaged rather elaborately with textured, white cardboard—which release info is printed on—wrapped around a case with wraparound see-through paper cover with geometric print and then tape labels with an even cooler print. Top marks go to Ben for his Oph design skills. The CD-r comes in a black digipak. Both releases are still available as far as I can tell.

Super Fun 3" Round-up

I had a tiny stack of my favorite kind of CD-r and I decided to lump them all together for a super fun round-up...
Bearses – The Prettiest Girl I Ever Saw [Hymns]
Not sure if this band’s name is pronounced like “bare-zees” or “bee-arses” but that’s beside the point. This 3incher, from Florida label Hymns, is a crumpled up mass of static spread across five tracks. There are samples of stuff buried deep down but they’re mangled beyond recognition by incredibly thick, saturated distortion and pitch shifting. Near the send of the first track a bit of carribean dance/pop stuff (maybe?) is barely audible through the muck leading into flashes of slowed radio DJ babble, heavily rhythmic crunching distortion and garbled vocal tones in the second piece. It’s nice having bands like Bearses to remind us just how much a fuck-ton of fuzz can morph one sound into something entirely different——namely magnanimously crusty squalls. The third track brings up the curtain a bit letting shards of distortion interact with the source material (a slowed down, rambling folk tune) instead of smothering it. It’s a well-placed melodic break in the middle of the record. The fourth track is interesting as well. There’s plenty of distortion but bits and pieces of gongs, bells and ethnic percussion poke through at certain intervals. The fifth track uses a lot hi-pitched freakouts amongst sloshed zombie slurs——a nice little kick in the teeth to remember them by.
For people, like me, who keep the radio dial placed equidistantly between stations or for fans of listening to records at the wrong speed played through twelve Metal Zones.
Arklight – Nolo Contendre [Ruralfaune]
A nice companion piece to that last CD-r is this Arklight 3”. Two tracks making up 24 total minutes of relentlessly chugging, bludgeoning noise. This is my first introduction to non-song-based Arklight and it’s pretty damn good. The title-track builds and builds on a pummeling loop/drum machine, while specks of static stagger in and out. They play around with the tempo a bit and offset the bass pulse with brief, searing jets of feedback. The track just keeps slumming, being tweaked here and there but mainly just riding the domineering beat. With about four minutes to go friendlier instruments are introduced——mellow, dirty guitar and live drums——and the track unwinds. “Rakkasans” starts up with a speedy, nearly techno drum machine. This track isn’t quite as noisy as its predecessor but it dishes out its fair share of feedback blurring the drum machine into a seizuring piece of equipment. Human shouts are coming from somewhere but they’re almost sensed more than they are actually heard through the putrid, filthy layers of fuzz. Traces of live drums are evident but they’re drowned in the bog like everything else. Straight up mildewed fury.
Single Indian Tear – The Black Category [No Label]
Moving into the easier-on-the-ears stuff, Single Indian Tear (the name ostensibly referring to the crying Indian/litter monitor from the PSA) are an Iowa City based duo and this 11 minute track is heavy on the synths. Not dreamy synths either, they seem to work with a bit more of a Kraftwerk mindset of loving their machines for the machine sounds they make rather than trying to disguise them as the ocean or the heavens. A variety of synth-tones are employed here from squelchy, filtered bass and tinkling belltones to static-y pulses and ray gun sounds. The track hits a nice stride around four minutes in where it settles into its skin and slowly cycles through the array of sounds at its disposal. There’s a three note motif that starts the track out and it returns in the second half but surrounded by creepy, “cat meow” sounds. Weird, dude. The last minute is a toy piano melody plinking across inter-galactic deep space synth and radio waves.
Sean McCann – Background Sound Two [No Label]
This 3” is another long, lovely piece by San Francisco’s Mr. McCann. I know his stuff is always lovely but this thing is one of the lovelier ones. This would be meditative if it wasn’t so immediately, palpably beautiful and in a strange way, saddening. There’s a wonderful mournful quality to the sounds here. A pretty melody twinkles, emanating from a far corner of the stereosphere as you just kinda drift along in a synthy sea. Not too much to say about this other than I’m enjoying the ride. McCann shifts incredibly subtly between ideas keeping the piece entirely engaging over its 22 minutes. I like how the melody at the beginning drifts away but makes a sly, unexpected comeback in the last couple minutes.
But why am I telling you this? This thing was given out with orders from McCann’s label Roll Over Rover and is all gone. Furthermore, it was limited to an utterly ridiculous 22 copies. That almost makes me angry there’s so few of these around. This piece deserves a reissue as a side of a split LP or tape or something like that. Hopefully some good soul reads this and takes it upon him or her self to do just that. It’s too goddam good to drift into obscurity.
KRGA – Thousands [Debacle]
The theme of this double 3” is the first disc concentrates on predominately acoustic arrangements while the second disc brings on the electronic elements. The first track “Thousand Armed” is rather nice with plenty of layers of acoustic guitar and hand percussion and then bits of flute and pump organ flowing by underneath. It doesn’t establish too much atmosphere but it’s really melodious and easy on the ears. “Thousand Headed” is more brooding with a lot reverb and an effected acoustic guitar and patches of vocals and other sounds stitched in. The first disc’s final track, “Thousand Hearted,” exceeds the combined length of the previous tracks. It’s a real nicely unfolding piece with a couple of dueling guitars over chiming bells and a reed organ that quietly leads the track. That reed organ is the real key here cause it glues all the clanging, jangly percussion, random bits of whistling melodies and other sounds with the acoustic guitar digressions making a real beautiful, dynamic and effortlessly flowing track. My favorite piece here.
The second disc opens with its longest track “Thousand Beaked” which after a minute of oscillator doohickery steadies itself and glides along with burbling tones. You can see some similarity between this disc and the first. Both feature multiple layers of sounds and use ever changing clusters of notes on top of sustained tones. The piece shifts often throughout its 11 minutes, hitting upon some nice, even pretty spots, but it doesn’t quite have the invisible guiding hand leading it coherently, seamlessly on its course as in “Thousand Hearted.” The second half is a quite a pleasantly buzzing bed of synths. “Thousand Eyed” is also a bed of buzzing synths but not one you’d want to sleep in, and the buzzing is more akin to angry wasps. “Thousand Horned” has some pseudo-bowed sounds and a pairing of slippery, blipping melodies. A digital fog fans out and overtakes the piece by its end.
3” CD-rs get the shaft a lot of times when it comes to packaging, but the Thousands packaging is clean and classy with two printed CD-rs mounted on the inside of double-sided cardstock that folds closed like a book.

Slasher Risk – Shoe Mania [Abandon Ship]

I stupidly never got around to reviewing the last awesome Slasher Risk tape on Abandon Ship and I ain’t gonna make that mistake twice. This particular tape is a live recording from the Eye and Ear music festival earlier in the year. Slasher Risk’s set was recorded on one night and Nate Rulli (Abandon Ship's captain) went home and pulled an all-nighter, dubbing and prepping 95 copies for release the next day. Which is pretty intense, though not near as intense as the audio document itself.
To put it plainly, Shoe Mania fucking slays.
Not many groups can start their sets with something like four minutes of a drum machine and Martha Stewart (WTF?) and still be awesome but apparently Slasher Risk is among the chosen few. Once the duo gets rocking, they get rocking. Heavy dual guitar mangling with zero time to catch your breath. I like the crowd on this cause at various points they start cheering Andy and Sara like they’re at a soccer game or something. Each epic guitar god gesture is met with a “wooo! eeeahhh!” Slasher Risk has an interesting style of dual guitarism cause they don’t drone or get psychedelic; they're noisy but not in an abstract “noise guitarist” sense. They just want to fucking rock. Really, this is rock music but minus the obedience to convention. This is what people should think of when they think of rock music. Slasher Risk was probably sent from up on high, to save this generation from Guitar Hero and its mall-bred Led Zeppelin t-shirts.
Anyway, we are getting way the hell off-topic. Someone takes the drum kit and takes the set to the next level. Just in case you didn’t get the message with the two guitars, the guitar/drums combo pounds your eardrums to a pulp. This is a difficult tape to write about cause I just end up wanting to say “This part rules!” and “This other part rules too!” so I’ll just sum it by saying there so many parts of this tape that just rule! At any given moment in the second half of the first side they’re riding a serious crest of fuzz until a bit of a breakdown at the end with lots of screeching feedback.
The program continues onto Side B, and actually the side works really well as a self-contained track. Coming out of the breakdown, the duo spread a thick fog of fuzz and then frantically lay into their instruments. Somebody takes the drums again and gets rollicking resulting in the aural equivalent of a shot of adrenaline. It seems like this stuff has to be improvised but it’s hard to believe.
What stands out to me here is that Slasher Risk somehow can swagger through massive feedback attacks. It’s hard to describe exactly but they destroy with style. Things slow down some when a drum machine enters the fray before they gradually grind to a halt. I tried convincing Andy to tour the west coast, not sure there’s any plan yet but my fingers are crossed that I can feel these sonics in person. This tape will be filling the need for the time being.
Still in print, check it out! …And also a Happy Easter to all!

Gigantic DNT Cassette Round-up

I heard through the grapevine that DNT is dropping some new sounds real soon which reminded me I needed to get my ass in gear and finally talk about all the rad work Tynan’s been doing with my favorite format.
Yuko Chino/Sasqrotch - Split
I’d heard Yuko Chino was a Sasqrotch member’s bedroom black metal project, but I still hadn’t much idea of what I was getting into when I first popped in the tape. The first track, an intro called “...of the Valley of the Wind,” emerges and it’s an unholy Frankenstein monster of two parts Rosemary Baby soundtrack and one part hip hop mixtape. It is creepy and amazing, achieving exactly what intros are designed to do——it gets me psyched hear the rest of the tape. The 1-2 punch is completed with “Dawn of the Black Hearts” the best track of the side. Here black metal is mixed with the best elements of electronic music. There are multiple layers of heavily distorted guitars and vocals, a cavernous, loping drum sample and then almost twinkling synths that glide along underneath the muck and secretly provide the true impetus of the track. A really great song and the guitars’ return after a long breakdown seals the deal. “We Believe in Nothing” really reminds me of another song but I still haven’t been able to place it. Oh well. This piece is a lethargic duet between detuned guitar and synth with hyperdistorted vocals making their presence known as well. It is a really lonely piece, especially when following the strut of “Dawn of the Black Hearts.” The concern exhibited in the title “Tell Me Where it Hurts” is purely feigned because this track is the longest and blackest of the bunch. A slow motion roller coaster through black metal hell, one of the ones you wait hours in line for and get off wanting ride it again. The synth was dropped (and vocals mostly too) so it is straight-up guitar sludge and feedback slinging with stark drum accompaniment. It’s all based on a simple but addictive cleaner-toned arpeggio. There’s a lot more tracks of guitar here than I thought originally which is why it sounds so damn massive. “Ea, Lord of the Outros” is just that. A chugging guitar/drum machine slow fade. This is the only tape of the bunch still in print so I suggest you grab it, if only for the Yuko Chino side.
Which leads me to Sasqrotch’s side-long live track “Genre-rhea.” There’s a really long build up, but when a saxophone pops in, it instantly puts a smile on my face. It plays a great borderline mournful melody against the tectonic bass shifts. And before long it gets into free jellybone mode and then the whole group settles on a course for swirling shitstorm. The other Sasqrotch releases I’ve heard were in heavy rock-trio mode, their line-up for half the track is guitar/bass/sax which is an exciting line-up in my eyes. Drums make their entrance by way cymbal rolls and crashes. With about ten minutes to go, the boys get into sludge and shout pattern. They get a nice groove going but the first half with the sax still wins my heart. Speaking of sax…
Uneven Universe - Nightcrawler Walls
This tape took a bit of time to connect with, but once I did I was hooked. It looks really pretty, with a fantastic super-pro art job but the sounds inside seemed at first maybe a bit too sparse for me. But a lesson to listeners everywhere: if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. The tape is a bog of dingy loops, a bit of sax and a bit of silence but it's constantly dismantling itself rather than going the usual route and building upon itself--which could be why it took sometime to grow on me. This was my first time hearing the project (though I've been looking forward to hearing it for a little while) so I needed a little more time to wrap my head around it but now whenever I do return to it with a fresh set of ears I enjoy it and appreciate it more than the last. It's nice because the sax playing is pretty melodic so the tape doesn't strand the listener in a cavern of dissonance. I can't tell if sax is the only sound source here or not but maybe it's being manipulated to create the watery pitter patter, strange animal growls and dilapidated house creaks at work here in the loops that sound too organic to be coming from purely electronics. I do think that some writer with more talent than I should adapt this tape into an existential short story or something. A man trapped in a cramped, dank room with a small flickering light dangling overhead, continually blowing his lungs out on a rusted saxophone for no one but himself. Nightcrawler Walls, man, creepy shit. Uneven Universe has made an impression on me though, I’m gonna be seeking further knowledge.
The Pope - Do You Wanna Boogie?
I wrote a review of this somewhere already but it got lost or deleted or something so I’m gonna keep this blurb short and to the point, which is just what these 11 minutes call for. The Pope is dead unfortunately but their memory will live on in this swansong. The bass and drums duo run through four songs in about 5 minutes on the first side. With hissing fuzz and riotous riffs, this thing was destined to be a tape cause it sounds so utterly blown out and awesome. From “Micheal J. Whiteguy” to “City Pride is Justified” the first side is non-stop fun. “12 ‘O Clock Boogie” takes up about half the length of the first side, at two and a half minutes, featuring a towering breakdown where skulls are crushed in the name of having a good time. “Grandma’s Mountain Boogie” takes the second side. Beginning slowly in epic fashion, it isn’t until halfway through they set the tape ablaze before slowing down again and finally pounding home the last thirty seconds. Here’s to a reunion tour in 2010.
Various Artists - Mash Mansum
I love cassette compilations, at least when they’re as good as this one. I like that Tynan kept things to 7 artists in 8 tracks, it keeps things from getting too overwhelming for the listener trying to keep straight who he or she is listening to. Anyway, the first side kicks off in wonderful Jesus Lizard-meets-Led Zeppelin fashion with “Waiting for the Bus” by Hunting Lodge. I don’t know anything about this band but I wish I did cause this track rules. Nearly 7 minutes of unhinged yelps, growls and warbles backed up by a furious wall of guitar, drums and synthesizer. This all results in an amazing throwback to 70’s blues rock riffing——and I don’t even like 70’s rock. This song is total fire, I want more. Moving on to two short tracks by Neck Hold, both are driven by drums and vocals, with guitar augmenting the arrangement of “Oh God; You Devil” and saxophone making a great appearance on “Sibling Rivalry.” Both tracks are a little slight but a lot of fun and whoever’s on the sax really knows how to mangle it. The only criticism I have of this tape as a whole doesn’t involve the music but when we get to the Shearing Pinx track (billed here as Shearing Pinks for some reason) there is a huge volume drop off. I’m not sure why cause these are pro-dubbed tapes and all but you gotta crank it up to hear the Pinx. Anyway, “Trusting the Forest” finds the Vancouver crew in the most raw free jazz form as I’ve ever heard them. Not among their best stuff, but a nice enough track. The Sticks start off the next side with a short track called “Aerobic Fuck,” a steeped in reverb garage-y surf thing which never seems to stick in my mind (no pun intended) but it’s nice enough to listen to on the way to next track. Gay Beast, proprietors of last year’s awesome Disrobics LP, contribute an also awesome track “Exploding Knee” which manages to fit a bunch of jagged sections together seamlessly into one gnarly piece of start/stop riffing. The band just straight up rules. Probably my favorite track comes from Deaf! Deaf!, another group which I know nothing about. “Loss of Appetite” is a fantastic sax-driven romp. It’s so urgent and catchy and at barely over a minute its real easy to just keep rewinding and listening again. Twin Crystals are the final entry into Mash Mansum and they offer up “Live in Olympia.” It’s \weird because this track sounds kinda like a band I was in in high school but, you know, actually good. Groovy drums and synth driven stuff. The track is actually two songs taken from the live setting featuring crowd noise and whatnot in the middle. The second which I gather is called “We Are Trinity” is more synth/drums with nonsensical shouting really reminding me of my days of doing that. Sorry to get silly and autobiographical but I love this Twin Crystals track and it gets me through its unintentional nostalgia inducing ways. Overall great tape, I like listening to it as a whole which can’t often be said about comps, so props to Tynan for curating it so well and also Danimal of Gay Beast for doing the awesome fold-out artwork.
Mudboy/Ducktails - Summer of Saucers
Hot off the heels of the utterly phenomenal and essential Mudmux Vol. 1 7inch on DNT (pick it up if you don’t have it yet) the part man/part machine from Providence contributes this side-long creeper. Eerie synth sounds spread across the side and some come across as deceptively human or maybe animal. The disgruntled machines find a surprisingly sweet melodic center. Between all the automated step-tones and gizmos and whatever other pseudo-mechanical jargon I can make-up, there’s an underlying softness and tenderness here. Mudboy’s ability to pull that off always seems to be the aspect I really appreciate and respond to in his music.
One of the bummers of the “split” is that can inadvertently put the two sides up against each other. This Mudboy side is really great but I mostly catch myself listening to Ducktails side cause of how much I like that one. Luckily I got this whole reviewing process to reflect on things and really realize how great all this stuff is.
End of digression. This Ducktails side is maybe the best thing the dude has done. A lonesome synthesizer drifting along by itself is met by an echoing, plinking keyboard. This sets a number of layers of synths into motion and it’s just plainly, fucking beautiful. I don’t how this guy does it but he taps into this wonderful melodic center that all the sounds seem to orbit; it’s like a magnetic field of melody where all the sounds occupying the track simply fall into their right place. Fucking beautiful but I already said that. That’s only the first half too, a mellow guitar/drum machine duet kicks in bringing up the signature tropical Ducktails magic. That one is brief but another elongated one comes on next featuring a mutinous drum machine before it slides into a lovely acoustic guitar passage. Utterly brilliant side. Killer art by George Myers as well.
Super Minerals - The Piss
While everyone is discussing the greatness of Clusters and Multitudes, I’m gonna take you back a year to The Piss, which still might be my favorite thing put out by the super mineral squad of Phil French and William Giacchi. The duo crammed 13 or 14 pieces into 30 minutes and they all meld together wonderfully. The single aspect that I love so much about this tape is it sounds like it was recorded in a dried out, moldy air pocket beneath the California desert somewhere. It’s an experience for those listening carefully. Among my favorite moments on the first side, the mechanical thrum of opener “Viral Cycles,” fiery tribally pulsating distortion and harmonica muck, the wooden flutes singing around dying embers, that they named a track “Firebomb the Zombie Army” and the bizarre werewolf/jungle/slasher movie sounds of the side A closer whose title is illegibly identified on the insert. On the flip side, there’s plenty more crusty distortion. “Descended Swarm of the Undead” is a temporary respite from the putrid bleakness, with a ritual performance turned into flickering drone by the sheer amount of fuzz its being pushed through. I hope “Futurelife” isn’t a legit look into the coming days cause it creeps the hell out of me. “Failed City Escape” is a sparse grinding of guitar strings and “Slaughter & Loss” and “Bloody Pandemic” make up a weird mechanic/percussive/static mildew between their combined 1:30. The title track closes the tape and rightly so, it encapsulates the strangled atmosphere, seething diodes and uncanny crumbling of sound of the 27 minutes that came before it. I hope I get to see these guys perform their excavation in the live environment before I die.
Plankton Wat – Alchemy of Darkness
Plankton Wat moniker is Dewey Mahood of Portland psych-rockers Eternal Tapestry. This tape is Mahood with a multi-track recorder, a guitar and a wah-wah pedal. Full disclosure, I don’t usually go for this kinda thing but this tape rips. Mahood is almost like a one-man GHQ. He piles layers and layers of guitar on top of each other sometimes they end up with a darker edged vibe like the fantastic opener “Of Darkness and Shadows” and sometimes the tape veers into slightly brighter territory as in “Transformation of Magical Properties” which flows into a pretty acoustic guitar piece. “Rituals” is a relatively sparse acoustic piece and it’s really great. It teeters on near dissonance throughout the whole track so there’s a lot more tension than one can usually pull out of an acoustic guitar. The second side is split in half between “Spiritual Invocation” and “Conscious Mind.” The former features a number arpeggios, some reversed, all laid on top each other. It’s sound in perpetual motion, creating an image of a landscape’s decay in fast motion or granules of sand being sucked away. The latter is more like the last light of dusk before evaporating into complete darkness. A long, slow fade of burbling notes to silence.
It looks like there is a scant few copies of this tape still available from the label so email if you’re interested and also stick around for the upcoming Plankton Wat LP on DNT.
Bobb Bruno – Clown’s Castle
I’m sure this has been said plenty of times before but this Bobb Bruno tape occupies a space in between that Arbor tape from a while back and his work under the Goliath Bird Eater name. “Snail’s Pace,” the first side, is soft and synthy for quite a while. A rattling electric kit ups the rhythmic quotient before the song hits the main drag. Bruno employs the steady beat he’s used on numerous Pocahaunted tracks and lays on the synths real thick. A real nice melody ekes out of the flanger jet fumes before the melody goes solo briefly creating a picturesque moment newly augmented by modulated guitar. Bruno creates a surprisingly lovely audio tapestry jetting across the sky. There’s a subtle bass part near the end that I totally love as well and everything comes to a close with a music box-like sequenced synthesizer. The title track fills the second side and where side A was mildy airy, side B brings the guitars on quite heavily. Exchanging two detuned chords back and forth builds tension for a while, letting a hi-pitched, mildly theremin-esque synth insurrection heighten it even more. A third of the way in Bruno kickstarts a loping drum pattern with an outrageously awesome slo-mo drum fill. The track doesn’t change a whole lot but just slides along increasing momentum little by little. That is until everything fades and the guitar is replaced by a fragile keyboard melody. There’s a little bit of glockenspiel in there too, which as many times as I’ve heard this, is always unexpected. It’s a shockingly tender finale and I don’t think he could have ended it any better than he has.
Pipeline Alpha – Darking Lights of Mazil
This Pipeline Alpha project is apparently from Germany and keeps an exceedingly low profile. The sound of this tape is hard to pinpoint exactly, it’s an odd strand of synth-heavy drone. This stuff keeps relatively active though; “Nagelfar in an Icier Lull” projects a weird, untraceable sample amongst a sea of frenetic, popping synth bubbles introducing a rather stoic melody against the grain later. “Seth in Deserts” opens up with a weird voice saying English(?) incomprehensibly through a thick accent. This gives way to a rather pretty raft of keyboards that manages to be buoyant and chilling at the same time. Electro-hand drum sounds pop up pushing the track into noisier regions. Perhaps most interesting is it ends on a sound sample of heavy sketching/pencil shading at the end. A very weird, cool track. The last piece of the first side is “Anubis Cures Aschmodal” and it’s immediately more confrontational than its predecessors. It’s darker and noisier and a bit more stagnant until a loopy oscillator and a stringed folk instrument of some sort liven it up in its second half. There’s neat bit of tape collage-y stuff too. Two tracks fill out the second side, the first being “Zusa” which begins with an unintelligible spoken loop. A saxophone-ish but most likely synthetic tone leads the crepuscular piece peppered by whirs and squelches of synthesizer. “Zusa” ends up being a pretty easy traveling, streamlined drone piece. “Dark City” features more breathy speech at the outset along with shaken, dull metallic noises and a bass undercurrent. Trudging along in total ominous-ness until more flashy synths pop up in the last minutes. A dark and strangely alien drone tape.

Chaostic Magic – Phantasmagoria [Debacle]/Forrest Friends – Forrest Friends [Debacle]

Sam from Seattle-based Debacle Records gave me a stack of CD-rs when I met him at the amazing Ear Venom reunion show awhile back and these two emerged quickly from the pack as some of my favorites.
Chaostic Magic is a duo of Corey J Brewer on guitar and Eric Ostrowski on violin (Ostrowski also played in the dual violin project/onslaught NOGGIN.) I’ve recently realized how much violin rules in an experimental context. I’ve been having a love affair with the Blue Shift tape on Breaking World and this CD-r is a dexterous firebreather. “Morning Nightmare” is rather friendly at first (keep in mind that is very relative.) Both sets of strings scrape and saw and skronk. Ostroski pulls tones out his violin reminiscent of a jittery oscillator, which is a feat in itself and it sounds so cool! The guitar moves through periods of fairly clean-toned but highly metallic mangled arpeggios and heavy metalfuzz assaults that might be classified as riffs if they weren’t so loopy and deranged. At certain points the two men imitate each other’s playing on their respective instruments which creates a kind of funhouse mirror effect. Near the end, there’s a calmer period where, I wouldn’t call it pretty but, sustained tones from both instruments complement each other nicely. One of this CD-rs biggest strengths is each track improves on the one before it. “Brains on Fire” is the default epic clocking in at the combined length of the other two tracks and it slays. Though kicking off brashly (and continuing on brashly) the track provides a few moments to catch your breath. One passage in particular sounds like it may be solely Brewer’s work (which if true would be damn impressive) there are guitar harmonics sustaining with a very lo-pitched, crazed bit of glissando that’s almost like when you play with a synth’s pitch wheel. This piece is a total monster through and through——too many great moments to mention. These guys play entirely free form in every way so there doesn’t seem to be any preset agreement on rhythm or harmony. The only thing Brewer and Ostrowski match up on is intensity. And you’d think a half hour mess of audioviolent guitar/violin improv might get a bit trying, these guys have incredible pacing and are able to continually entice the listener to follow while somehow avoiding the standard way to do so, that is providing brief periods of consonance amidst the maelstrom for the listener to latch onto.
The devasted finale, “Brown Cloud/Magic Dragon” begins more sparsely than the previous tracks. There somehow seems to be a bit more space in the mix. The reason for this may be that Brewer’s playing is more percussive here with lots of banging and rattling along with the blistering string strangling. Ostrowski, on the other hand, just takes to wailing. He allows his notes to sustain longer and I really like the results. Nimble tonal shifts are still a main feature of his playing but they sound great applied to a more consistently radiating bed of sound. This is at least true until he dives of the path into a knotted undergrowth of frenetic plucks. When Brewer and Ostrowski each embark on their final finger-breaking freak out in the last minute, it is a supremely satisfying experience.
After hearing this CD-r Chaostic Magic has shot to the number one spot of local acts I still need to see. Once I’m back in Seattle, Chaostic Magic, be prepared to have me gawking at you during all your shows.
The next CD-r, a self-titled one by Forrest Friends, is a half hour of weird whateverness. The Friends are a duo of Garrison (who runs the nonsensically titled Motor & Famine distro) and someone named Chad (who I’ve never met.) The first thing I remember hearing about this act was when I met Garrison at a show, he told me they went to play a noisefest in Spokane, WA (weeeeird, right?) and for their set they played “smooth jazz, Chuck Mangione shit.” The image of a bunch of pissed off eastern Washington noise dudes standing around watching someone play soft jazz makes me laugh my ass off, but thankfully, this CD-r is far from Chuck Mangione shit. The first track is a bunch of whimpering coos and garbled speech with sparse echoing percussion, slide whistle, toy piano and occasionally splinters of picked acoustic guitar. Out of the blue, everything comes together quite nicely, lead by a catchy melody on the slide whistle. The only track with a title, “Disco Cloud,” is my favorite of the bunch with an Asian-inspired guitar part doubled by vocals, rambling percussion and then outta nowhere a couple of synths pop up and the whole thing drifts off on a sick groove. The appearance of “disco” in the title is not ironic at all, this thing shakes and moves in the weirdest way. Really brilliant piece, and I'm pretty sure had disco actually been this creative and rad, Americans of all stripes would have united in it, said “no” to Reagan and kept the 1980s from being such a shithole. The next track summons a tribal rhythm and employs mellow wordless vocals. Though, it’s a repetitive thumb piano figure that anchors the whole thing. The subsequent track drops the tribalism for a minimal synth dance track. Based off a looped clicking pattern (occasionally augmented by drums,) more keyboards, voice and cymbal rolls drift in and out until it all gets piled on top of each other in last minutes. The fifth track is a bit lacking in comparison to the others but eventually hits upon a rather enjoyable, smoothly lurching groove. The final track is a good deal longer than the others and starts with a minute long pulsing synth intro stitched in before a huffing accordion pops up against the usual junk. This one has a more organic vibe to it, rhythm is still very important and ever present but it upshifts and downshifts whereas the other tracks find a groove and ride it til the end. Acoustic guitar is one of the main elements here and also maybe a piano or hammered dulcimer or something to that effect. There’s some electric burbling but the track is mostly occupied by organ/accordion and a heavily reverbed bell. At least until the 8 minute mark when another solo synth piece takes over a-twinkling. Overall, it’s a really fun listen and a different take on junk store shamanism.
Both CD-rs are still in print. They are available as part of volume 2 of the Emerald City Debacle, a subscription series focused around Seattle-area artists, as well as individually. Check ‘em out and give my city some love.

Horse Boys – Horse Boys [OSR Tapes]/Super Minerals – Clusters [Stunned]

The piano is an underused instrument in today’s underground. In the past, it was the choice noise maker for John Cage and Henry Cowell and others but as far as contemporary experimental music goes, Tim Hurley (Quetzolcoatl, Bonecloud) uses it a fair amount but I’m having trouble thinking of too many others. It’s a shame, cause the piano can make some amazing sounds, though they are expensive and a pain in the ass to tour with which may explain their rarity. Anyway, there’s actually a reason for the rumination. The subjects of this review are killer and totally different tapes created almost solely from pianos.
Horse Boys is a dude named Zach Phillips cranking out 39 lo-fi, neo-ragtime pieces in 40 minutes. And not to give away the end of review… it fucking rules! This is one of the best things I’ve heard all year. The pieces are sometimes tense and almost percussive like “What is Waking Up Like Sometimes” or “Who is Jeering at Me” and sometimes they’re incredibly sweet like the 17 second “What is the Adult World Like” and the layered, vibrant and borderline-frantic “What is Cartoons Like”. And sometimes, Phillips unleashes a seriously monstrous, tidal groove as in “What is Always Angry Like” where an amazingly catchy, groovy bass line is repeated and varied while Phillips just goes to town with fantastic, bluesy improvisations. An absolutely brilliant piece. On the second side after a series of dissonant false starts, “What is Discipline Like” launches into a mellow, Blues Control-ish drum machine/piano saunter. “What is a Bad Circle Like” explores a tape collage approach to piano playing and “What is Intimacy Like” glides along on lilting, jazzy improvisation. The 20 seconds of “Home” are lovingly melodious and followed up immediately by the agitated “What is Going to Church Like” which only provides a brief respite from the fearless flurry of notes near the end. “Lack of Resolution of Sequel of Sick Woods” is a magnificent score for an unwritten chase scene. Pulsing, complex and brimming with intrigue and suspense. “Investigation Gala for the Missing Years” turns up near the end and it feels well-placed. It’s full of good cheer and a triumphant “we’ll be seeing each other again soon” vibe. The finale “What is a Good Circle Like” continues this sensation but duets with a sawing violin until the tape’s close. There's so much more great stuff but I'll leave that to you to discover.
My favorite track of the whole tape comes early on the first side. “What are Ants Like” features a very dissonant, high end arpeggio for a good 40 seconds before introducing a fucking fantastic bass undertow. The bass part resembles Carter Burwell’s recent and brilliant score in Burn After Reading if you are familiar with that. This guy really has virtuoso chops and more impressively, he knows how to employ them extremely well. The piece is furious and a little unsettling but so complexly and perplexingly melodic at the same time. It feels like at any moment the composition could lose control, spin out and burst into flames. That or the boombox this was recorded on might. This is the most caustic and primal thing I’ve ever heard come out of a piano. Just before its conclusion there’s a shift to half-time revealing a dramatic, damn near florid outro. This tape is infinitely listenable and the end of every piece leaves you itching to hear the next.Really, really fantastic and obviously highly recommended; this thing is so damn unique and wonderful its worth tracking down at any cost.
I was thinking recently about how fittingly named Stunned records is. It seems like every time they put out new tapes, it’s always great surprise: killer music by artists of all stripes that I’ve never heard of (see the recent Albero Rovesciato tape for ultimate proof.) So what happens when Stunned puts out a tape by someone I have heard of? Total surprise again. Super Minerals (a duo of William Giacchi and Mr. Stunned himself, Phil French) have explored everywhere in the world of wet and dry drone, so naturally I expected more of the same. What I got instead was an astonishing cassette of moody piano emanations. The bulk of the first side is a thicket of tangled piano hits. I can’t quite tell if there’s multi-tracking going on or if there are just two pianos going at it——which would actually be pretty rad. The piece is based around a single cluster of notes, of which endless variations are supplied. Giacchi and French create a nice aura here though it gets to be a bit on the long side, the piece is pretty unchanging throughout its twenty minutes. The final 3 minutes of the side hold a strange clattering piece which adds some bells to the mix and heavily treats the piano (I’m guessing its still piano.) There’s a subtle sustained tone that holds the piece and all criss-crossed percussively employed notes together. Around halfway though the piece, it settles into an oddly propelled rhythm, conjuring up a vague resemblance to Cantonese opera. A really neat piece.
The flip side is broken into four parts. The first piece opens with billowing clouds of piano run through a million delay pedals. Chimes provide a constant, soft rattle. Melodies are slowly unfolded emerging through the mistiness of the piano compound. Drone music is, in a way, just focusing on overtones which Super Minerals does here. By piling hundreds of notes on top of each other a real thick sea of sound is achieved, letting all the notes cross-pollinate and sound awesome. The next piece dials down the drone a bit, focusing slightly more on the waves and rolls of sound coming straight from the piano itself rather than on layering. Giacchi and French summon some sheer beauty here, strikingly elegant and fully formed. They do an excellent job molding pretty melodies and intricate textures with and within all the notes. The third piece might be my favorite; beginning with a creaking, spacey timbre anchored by mild but thunderous low-end which gives way to an utterly lovely and much too brief chiming melody with a palpably tactile quality. Like some long lost recording recently unearthed. The final piece has less of a lush texture like the first two on the side but features swelling hills and ravines of sound. I’m wondering where/how this was recorded because I’m hearing some birdsongs buried way down in the mix. I’m pretty sure this wasn’t recorded in an aviary so I’m gonna guess it’s just overtones or something like that but its interesting nonetheless. Clusters is a great little tape and showcases Super Minerals stretching themselves in an impressive manner.
Horse Boys is still available as far as I can tell. OSR Tapes is a really strange but great label (more reviews of their works to come) so good luck navigating their website. The Horse Boys myspace offers to give you the tape if you ask about it so that may be the preferred route. Ltd. to 100.
As far as the Super Minerals goes, it wouldn’t be a Stunned release if it was in stock. However, 111 were made so that’s an added chance of picking a copy up at a distro.