June 2021

Here is the long delayed second batch of reviews of 2021. I've had a bunch of personal stuff going on this year that has vacuumed up what little free time I had coming into the year so its been tough getting done the amount of writing I want to, let alone getting anything done on a regular monthly schedule. I still have a bunch more great stuff to write about so stay tuned. I'm hoping the second half of the year will allow for more time to dedicate to writing.

Eyes and Flys - New Way to Get It [no label] 

Eyes and Flys, Buffalo’s best band nowadays (at least in the purview of this coastal elite), dropped a new single earlier in the year and not only does it continue their strong showing, it might be their most complete and best single to date. 

This 7” finds the Flys doubling down on their punk energy [times] pop touch [divided by] sub-par fidelity (the sweet sounding kind) formula they’ve been experimenting with. I think they’re getting somewhere. The titular “New Way to Get it” is one of their finest songs yet. Acoustic strums and peppy handclaps are nestled into the band’s slashing energy with Pat Shanahan’s raspy shout made even more sandpapery with plenty of gain on the mic. The song functions as the band’s modus operandi in my mind. In a world where everyone seems to be lost in the 21st century spotified wilderness (and incessantly complaining about it), Eyes and Flys have returned to the ways of the DIY forbearers making home-made 7” singles of (seemingly) home-recorded tunes with all rough edges kept intact as valuable, essential qualities. New way to get it, indeed. 

“Free to Go” is squeezed onto side A, with measured amounts of jangle sprinkled into its fast ‘n chunky riff formula. The B-side is a Nerves cover, “Many Roads to Follow”, which features some Spector-y bombast at bargain basement costs. 

Three songs, all good and all unified in their aesthetic. Eyes and Flys have tried a few different things in their previous singles but I think they may be honing a “sound” now. I’m excited to hear what the next one’s like. 

Monokultur - Ormens Väg [Ever/Never] 

More high quality shit from the Big Apple’s most highly respected cultural center, Ever/Never Records. Ormens Väg is the Swedish duo Monokultur’s second LP for the label and if the caliber of this record is anything to go on, I hope they snapped the act up to a six-album deal. Monokultur have the rare ability to seem really strange to the straight-laced crowd and deliciously poppy to a weirdo like me. From track to track they aren’t even weird in the same way, nor do they deliver hooks in the same way. 

I have a hard time pinning down Monokultur which is the most exciting/aggravating thing to encounter as someone tasked with writing about music. The duo manages to show many sides of themselves while maintaining a seamless atmosphere through the album. “Demokrati” has me asking “are they the 39 Clocks of the new millennium?” “Pennen I Handen” recalls the bleary-eyed folk-pop of Ignatz. At times I’m getting a kind of somnolent Comet Gain vibe (like on “Bär Deras Saker”). If David Lynch ever plans on making another Twin Peak he oughta book Monokultur for a month-long residency at the Roadhouse. I can already envision the molasses throb of “Decennium” and its 50s rock & roll meets synth spook stew playing over the end credits. Monokultur might be at their best on tracks like “För Sent” and “Människor Och Träd” which marry a strong grasp of melody with a detached, sometimes mumbling vocal. The songs seem to be blown along like a leaf in the wind, drifting but determined to find a home. 

I might be zeroing in on an analog for Monokultur and it’s Maths Balance Volumes (if they weren’t quite so damn weird). Both groups are similar in that they seem creatively restless, willing to try new things and break a few rules, but will never (or may be unable to) get away from whatever special recipe makes them sound like them. And, hey, if Monokultur turns out to be my new Maths Balance Volumes, they are indispensable. 

Mystic Inane - Natural Beauty [Cleta Patra/La Vida Es Un Mus] 

Just because 2020 was the year of terrible surprises, doesn’t mean it was bereft of kickass surprises. #1 on the list: new Mystic Inane!? I had long given up hope that arguably the best discography of the 2010s would grow any larger but it fuckin’ did. I don’t know if these were recordings from years ago when the band was active. I don’t know if the quartet reconvened for one last rodeo. And I really don’t care. I got more Mystic Inane, something I never thought possible. I’m playing with house money for the rest of my life. 

Natural Beauty tempo-wise is the most hardcore MI record as we don’t get any nasty “Deep Creep” trudges or unhinged frothing at the mouth a la “Eggs Onna Plate”. But that’s a-okay because we still get four great, speedy songs out of the deal. 

Lead by a sick riff and riotous snare rolls, it is impossible to not start a mosh pit on the disco floor when “Death of a Disco Spiv” is blaring. “Mystic Ignorance” (pronounced “muh-sssstic ehhhh-nunce”) might be the best of the bunch shifting between an angular riff and ringing chords lending bombast to MI’s workmanlike punk ethos. “Peckerwood Nero” is my daughter’s favorite, as she started singing along to the “ooh ooohs” at just 1.5 years old. Mystic Inane really knows how to connect with the children. 

Candice Metrailer is one of the finest guitarists of recent times and she kills it on this record as usual. Her lead at the end of “Mystic Ignorance” is so good and so brief it kills me. Her interplay with Nathan Cassiani’s work on bass is one of the things that has always made Mystic Inane special and this is no different on Natural Beauty. 

Mystic Inane was one of the best bands around during their brief tenure so (if you haven't already) buy all their records and enrich your life. 

Opposite Sex - High Drama [Spik n Span] 

Ah New Zealand, surely the greatest contributor to rock music on a per capita basis. Must be something about the culture there because they’ve cracked the code. Great bands have stayed together and stayed great making strong records one after the other, avoiding burnout and conflicting egos and whatever other reasons that cause bands to splinter. 

Well, here comes a member of the new guard, Opposite Sex (who have been around for at least a decade themselves―not exactly new), with a new record High Drama on a label named for one of the country’s greatest contributions to music of any era. I have Opposite Sex’s last record Hamlet (they got a thing for drama) and it has some great songs (noise rock excursion “She Said”, chamber ballad “Complicity” and the Snapper-y kraut-punk raveup “Regicide” to name a few). The LP found the band trying on several different hats and looking good in most of ‘em, but High Drama seems to strive for a more unified sound. There are no guest contributors or dramatic left turns into different genres and as a result the band sounds even more confident. I don’t even hear any overdubs, very much a band in a room vibe. Opposite Sex is clearly comfortable with their sound and who they are as a band.

High Drama opens on a ferocious note with “Shoots Me like a Knife”. With male-female vocals playing off each other, a rollicking rhythm section and mangled guitar, Opposite Sex sound like the B-52s if they were the types to beat your ass with a bicycle chain. Equal parts pep and savagery. This idea of taking two sides of a dichotomy and smashing them against each other carries on throughout High Drama. There are two main poles in NZ underground history, Flying Nun and Expressway, and while the band sits somewhere in between, they lean heavily toward Expressway’s oddball embrace of noise and distaste for convention (especially on a track like “Nico”). “Robotica” captures both sides with a an Aislers Set-sy evocation of 60s girl groups existing simultaneously with Live Skull-esque guitar grind. The drifting twang of “Breath in a Dish” vaguely calls to mind The Renderers, another NZ band that carved out its own little hole, not quite sounding like anyone else. 

“Combine Harvester” swerves all over like an intoxicated driver, bopping along in aggressive but bouncing fashion. The jauntiness brushes uneasily against a wah-wah’d feedback frenzy and bassist and singer Lucy Hunter's serene singing of the chorus “You were the love of my life / Now I don’t care if you fall / Into the long, long loving arms of the combine harvester”. Behind the mellifluous veneer, Hunter sounds pissed and hurt and pulls no punches. Discarding any sugarcoating whatsoever, Hunter gets as blunt as possible on the unfettered indictment of misogyny, “Dick on a Throne”, over a slinky bass line and freelancing guitar recalling one of my favorite Birthday Party tunes “Yard”. 

High Drama’s centerpiece, however, is clearly the nine minute “Owls Do Cry” which features Hunter’s best vocal work. Working from a coo to out and out rage and back again, her peculiar phrasing leads the loping, feedback dappled tour de force through its peaks and valleys before unleashing her voice at the summit to rip the song apart seam by seam. Closing on “Dinosaur” is a bold move since it stands well apart from the preceding album. Lead by male vocals, its loose, rambling nature belies the simmering tension that steadily builds with no release granted. The gambit pays off as High Drama leaves you with more questions than answers, eager to flip the record and start again.

 

Von Hayes - Wa La! [no label] 

Philadelphia’s Von Hayes first came to my attention with Moderate Rock, a fine CD of GBV-indebted pop perfectly suited for my car stereo. Wa La! is the two-piece’s follow up (naturally named after a quote in a letter from Tobin Sprout included on the jacket) and a massive step forward in my eyes (and ears). Top to bottom this is a great set of songs, not a runt in the litter, and there’s more variation and inspiration to the arrangements as well. 

 Wa La! is loaded to the hilt with earworms, I’ll only touch on a handful but rest assured they’re all present and accounted for on record. The album kicks off in perfect fashion with 65 unplugged seconds of “Topy” forging headlong into the martial snare rolls of home-brewed stadium rocker “I’m Tired”. Von Hayes know how to bookend as they send you off on the soaring “Message to the Sparkled Egg Star” so in love with rock & roll you’ll want to start your own garage band. Between those high points are a bunch more high points: the solemn, weary “No Title #11” takes its chances throwing a lonesome vocal on a bed of scraping violins and it pays off in spades, “Zamp” is smeared with Like Flies on Sherbert-ish idiot-savant guitar overdubs colliding into one another, “I Had No Idea it was Today” is a soulful mid-tempo number that’ll get under your skin like a depressed tick, “Decades in the Breaking” is a “California Dreaming” for a new generation, and some Strapping Fieldhands influence comes to the fore in the shambling psych-folk spectacular “Quarantine Dreams”. 

I’ve been listening to Wa La! for months now and its charms have yet to fade. This is one that’s gonna stick. I don’t make year end lists but if I did Wa La! is the kind of thing that would go on ‘em. Recommended!

Interview with Raub Roy of Weird Ear Records

In addition to stitching together incredible, textured sound environments for over a decade as Horaflora, Raub Roy has been operating the Oakland-based Weird Ear Records since 2012. As the name suggests, Weird Ear is a one-stop shop for the best sounds the weirdo scene has to offer, from musique concrète concept albums to furious electro-acoustic improv to electronics-based micro-composition and much, much more. I chatted with Raub via email about the formation of Weird Ear records, his own work as Horaflora and his more recent project Scy1e, record collecting, bothersome USPS policies, touring by bike, and what the future holds for Weird Ear in 2018 and beyond.

AO: When did you start recording/performing as Horaflora? What was the impetus for the name?

RR: Horaflora began when I first started performing in a particular way, with an array of small self-contained sound makers, all spread around the room, each adding a little bit to the whole sound, in an immersive way. Hora Flora was a joke name that came from the ‘Horrific Flora’ that each separate item could be seen as, a microcosm amongst the macro, the closer one got, the more detail that could be sussed—like when you get real close up to a plant in your garden, usually teeming with life, little critters and textures, all contributing to the overall impression, but when focused on, each object is its own little world.

AO: The two Horaflora works I'm most familiar with are The Gland Canyon and "Glibbertone" from the 7" you split with Neil Young's Bromp Treb project on his Yeay! Cassettes label. They seem to be polar opposites in the Horaflora world, The Gland Canyon rolls along patiently for an immersive 80 minute ride while "Glibbertone" spits you back out after a scant 4 minutes. What were the creative processes like for these two?

RR: Ha. Well, The Gland Canyon was the first thing I made that I felt held merit, and it is essentially the culmination of years of field recordings, improv sessions with friends, and solo explorations of acoustic phenomena. That Yeay! 7” I recall having trouble pinning down something appropriate to the format, at the time, being more into long form works, but ultimately was able to come up with that track, which was made on an old iPod touch, using an app called ‘Gliss’. That was probably better considered as an early Scy1e track, but I hadn’t decided to delineate projects yet at that point.

AO: The Gland Canyon is quite an incredible and extremely long piece of work. You mentioned it being the culmination of years of material, was there any initial intention to create it (or something like it) from the get-go? Or was it more a matter of building something out of a palette you had spent years preparing for yourself to one day work from?

RR: More a case of the latter—I had been recording long improvisations/explorations of solo sound sources for quite a while, somewhat as ‘food’ for my sampler, but also with the almost subconscious intent to use these recordings as tracks to pit against each other, quite influenced by EAI and its ilk at the time. Long form recordings (like, 20 minutes to an hour) of dronier material were initially laid out as a bed on which to further build, and just kept adding and subtracting until the computer I was using at the time stopped working—so, the last render of my material became the album. It was finished for the most part anyways, but I think I would have gone through and cleaned up a couple more instances of me chuckling or whatever that had gotten into the render. (The raw recordings were made with deliberate silence or minimal tonal frequency, to allow eminent fixability, so lots of layers are actually happening at all times (even when it sounds like very little) and it was a bit of an exercise to chase down spots with mic bumps, throat clearing, or what have you, so there’s still a bit of that there.)

AO: The cassette reissue of The Gland Canyon you put out, seems like a sort of proto-Weird Ear release as it doesn't have a catalog number or, if I recall, the Weird Ear logo. Do you have any designs on issuing it again as a double LP in line with the subsequent Weird Ear release strategy, or have you moved on from that work at this point?

RR: Yeah, that edition, “WER-000” was conceived of as a test of the cassette manufacturing process, and was designed before we had the logo, I think. I would love to someday have it available on vinyl, though the HF side of the new Phinery, ‘Body Lag’, is sort of a continuation of that work, and at 36min, would lend itself a bit more readily to vinyl, requiring only a single slab, so more likely that would be the case upon the Phinery release selling out someday.

AO: When did Scy1e spring to life? What separates it from your work as Horaflora?

RR: Scy1e was born of circumstance—the daughter of the other Weird Ear, Dianne, came to live with us in Oakland, and the space we had used for practice became a bedroom, at which point I shifted from acoustic-object-based performance and recording to an in-the-box approach that required just a synth rig and headphones, and could be done in any room of the house, or elsewhere, see? The Scy1e project may be differentiated though, as a more purely electronic exploration of what Horaflora attempts to achieve via electro-acoustic means, an exploration of disparate rhythms and interconnecting systems, but by means of voltages as opposed to Horaflora's interdependent acoustic phenomena. Scy1e also deals in short form pieces more readily, as opposed to the average HF piece timing in at 20 minutes or so.

AO: Has the exploration of a different methodology as Scy1e influenced your approach as Horaflora? Or illuminated some aspects of it that you weren't previously conscious of?

RR: I realize that all in all, despite completely different working methodologies and instrumentation, they are still very similar, sonically, and dynamically. I have been trying to get out of the ‘whatever happens, happens’ approach to structure, and into something more deliberate, but so far have only managed this due to happy accident methodology, but continue to seek a breakthrough.

AO: You mentioned your recent release on Phinery, Body Lag/Craedle Calls, which is the first split that Horaflora and Scy1e have shared, correct? What was the process like developing that? Did you always have the idea that you were making two different sets of music that would eventually complement each other?

RR: The idea of the ‘Double Feature’ came of a fairly natural process, being that Phinery was planning on doing some more ‘new music’ type stuff on CD, rather than tape, and I had envisioned Body Lag as fitting on CD better than split over two sides of tape, so submitted it as such, but along the way, the decision was made to go with tape after all, and, rather than having the program repeat on both sides or be split over two sides, I submitted a matching duration of Scy1e material, most of which was culled from my Scy1e subscription Bandcamp page, but more curated than the ‘albums’ there tend towards.

AO: Weird Ear started in 2012 but you've been making music as Horaflora for a while longer than that. What inspired you to add 'label head' to your job description rather than being a musician only?
RR: I had started collecting vinyl in earnest around 2010, and Weird Ear was created to get us LPs from artists that had none yet… the impetus has since changed somewhat, but it’s basically a way for us to own copies of records that don’t exist until we make 'em!

AO: What were some of your favorite records you collected at the time that lead to the impulse to start releasing records?

RR: I believe that the first one I bought that gave me an appreciation for having a collection of my own was Bird, Lake, Objects by Masayoshi Fujita & Jan Jelinek, which I picked up at Aquarius Records in San Francisco, with my mom during a visit. We listened to it while making dinner that evening and I got this notion of a sort of sound that I wanted to have on vinyl as opposed to files. Ekkehard Ehlers's and Paul Wirkus’s Ballads was another I recall fondly from those early days of collecting. I think, though, that the impulse to release LPs myself did not come until after I turned a corner and just wanted everything on vinyl, which happened incredibly fast, between 2011 and 2012, living down the street from Amoeba SF, and then Amoeba Berkeley… I have since tapered my record buying, due to having completely run out of space… wanna buy a record?

AO: Your first release, WER-001, is Stand Up Comedy by Alessandro Bosetti which is quite an audacious beginning. What led to the decision to make the Bosetti album Weird Ear's first step into the unknown?

RR: The decision to have Alessandro become 001 was made for us, as he was the first to respond to our initial call (to specific artists) with a piece ready for pressing. When we first heard the material, we were not certain that we wanted such concept-heavy material to be what we put out, having hoped for material such as Her Name or Royals, but it grew on us, and is one of our favorite things that music and art can do, when one’s sensibilities come around to something previously found difficult or misunderstood.

AO: I remember when I first heard that cassette and I just thought what the hell is this? and had no idea whether I liked it or disliked it. It definitely grew into something that I really enjoy, particularly the first side, but it has maintained an inscrutable intrigue to me. Did Alessandro let you in on the conceptual inspiration behind the project?

Stand Up Comedy LP
by Alessandro Bosetti

RR: Well, I think that the recording describes its own context pretty thoroughly, which is one of the things I particularly like about it, as it functions as an explanation and performance/piece all in one, and says what needs to be said about itself, itself…! If much more was portrayed to me at the onset of our vetting of the material, I don’t recall now.

AO: Have you had this "Stand Up Comedy" experience with any other Weird Ear releases? Where some time was needed to fully process it before making the decision to release it?

RR: Well, the split LP with Trumpet Trumpet Synthesizer (and Horaflora) was a little like that, as the TTS side is some difficult listening due to extremely high frequencies that they employ in some sections, but the tensions created are well worth it, which we realized after just a couple listens. I think that having Stand Up Comedy be our first release made us scrutinize it a bit more than we have since, possibly, but more often than not, our releases are things that we feel could be played to people that aren’t as deeply involved in experimental music, and still be enjoyed and appreciated, differentiating us from some purely experimental/noise labels. We hope to continue to skirt trend, not only on the scale of the global scene, but within our roster/catalogue as well, which actually may mean we need another highly conceptual piece before too long, having put out a few collections of more song-form avant pop/folk more recently (Angela Sawyer, Hollow Deck, Owen Stewart-Robertson).

AO: Some of that Hollow Deck record is reminiscent of earlier Joanna Newsom to me and seems like it could garner airplay on "general" college radio without any trouble. However, much of the Weird Ear catalog is quite out there: long run times, strange sonic textures, bizarre concepts. Can you expand further on how you see Weird Ear as standing apart from other labels in terms of cultivating accessibility toward the less experimentally-oriented public?

RR: Ah, well—we have very little intention of cultivating accessibility, actually. We are specifically catering to those who may like the challenge of an acquired taste, or listen, in this case.

AO: In our private correspondence at one point you told me, "I truly am not one for Rock," though it seems like you are interested in other song-based forms as you mentioned, is it pretty much set in stone Weird Ear will never drop a rock & roll record or is there an outside chance the right band will come along and flip your lid?

RR: I suppose there is an outside chance, as we have a couple band-bands we like, but I generally feel that there are enough other labels that would/could be interested in that sort of thing that I wouldn’t feel the need to do it myself. I consider Beauty School to be about as ‘band-ey’ as I would care to get, though, I DO have an affinity for the Italian free rock scene, stuff like Sinistri, 3/4HadBeenEliminated, and Christa Pfangen… though, international artists are difficult to sell, due to the logistics of worldwide distribution, which we have yet to get ahead of.
 
AO: That Beauty School cassette is phenomenal and one of the first Weird Ear releases in the catalog was the Addleds tape, both are projects involving percussionist Jacob Felix Heule. How did you get hooked up with him?

RR: He lives across the building from us! He is a good self promoter, so pushes stuff on us in a way others here do not… just as well, too many folks here to put out all their albums if they all were as ready to go with stuff as Jacob is—We actually live in a building with a ton of Bay improv/experimental luminaries, members of Las Sucias, Blood Wedding, Voicehandler, Ettrick, Burmese, Jeweled Snakes, Sharkiface, Tarantism, Stacian, Cloner, Tainted Pussy, Foreskin Sashimi In Paradise, Glochids, Homoglochini, Nurse Betty, Foot SOS, Toppbrillo, and Midori Records… that’s my household shout out, so no need to ask for a household shout out now.

AO: What can you tell me about Waxy Tomb? It's great stuff but just about every label description of WT releases I've seen seems to avoid mentioning meaningful info about the project. Even the Weird Ear description seems deliberately obscure.

RR: Jules is looking for a label to release their newest work, at the moment, I can say that. The newest, GridDrip, has lyrics on the bandcamp page, maybe you can derive something meaningful from that? I believe that to decipher would run the risk of spoiling the intent to mystify…

AO: Apotheosis Putrefactum, by Andrew Quitter and Nick Hoffman, stands out as a far darker entry in the Weird Ear catalog than usual (though there does seem a similar ethos to Horaflora in terms of patience). What enticed you to release the tape? Does it indicate a direction for Weird Ear that you're hoping to pursue further?

RR: Well, times are dark. I could see that becoming more of an interest for our output than it had been in the past. In terms of releasing it when we did though, it has more to do with trying to not step on our own toes, fall into too much of a trend of our own output. I love labels that specialize in one particular kind of sound that I, like many, can’t seem to get enough of, variations of a similar aesthetic, Rastor-Noton, Orange Milk, birdFriend, all come to mind, but we are trying to sidestep homogeneous approaches across our artists and releases, when possible. We certainly have tastes that subjectively inform the choices we make, so it’s always going to be connected there (which could be said of any label), but we can pit our tastes against our intentions to not repeat too much, and that should keep us in check for another few years at least...!

AO: Both Quitter and Hoffman have been both making and releasing noise for a long time—Hoffman has operated various labels (Pilgrim Talk, Ghost & Son, Scissor Death) while Quitter operates Dumpster Score. Had you been looking for an opportunity to work with them for a while now?

RR: Well, Quitter was only known to me in a peripheral way, I had associated him with Chefkirk, and the Eugene-Scene, but until they submitted the album, had not looked as closely at his work as I had Hoffman’s. Nick and I have conducted some trades in the past, and he came to my attention probably back in 2008 or 09, through the EAI/experimental music forum ‘I hate music’, as he showed up on a lot of albums I was digging around then—group stuff with the Dotolim crew, the duo with Aaron Zarzutzki, and things that have since blended into a generalized memory of listening from that time.

Apotheosis Putrefactum really scratched an itch for us though, as we love that EAI, and recognize that a lot of friends really like a darker, dronier, doomier, sound than we really get into, so the marriage of those aesthetics was an immediate "yes" when I heard it. Those guys also have a great patience, I think that only the Angela Sawyer LP took longer to come out after it was proposed than that tape.

AO: The Weird Ear Bandcamp page features a label sampler which is a decent place to start for the uninitiated. The compilation culminates with two excerpts of great Bhob Rainey collaborations with Chris Cooper and Vic Rawlings, respectively, and I have always wondered, which Weird Ear release are they taken from?

RR: WER006, it was slated to be a split 10” of those duos… that one got lost in the sauce, for now, at least… we are leaving the CAT# open just in case we get back to it someday… I would relinquish any hold on it to anybody looking to release it for those guys though, already did some free promo via those CD samplers being sent to a few radio stations… get in touch, maybe someone wants to split that split…

AO: Scott Scholz wrote very astute liner notes about German Army curating labels in the way that labels generally curate artists—I know I've gone to their discography several times just to research the labels I am unfamiliar with. Did you approach German Army about doing a release or the other way around?

RR: Scott has some kind of amazing grip on the overall arc of that project, which is a feat in and of itself, but then to articulate it as well, that guy is potent. As for the approach, they wrote us to swap records, and an album idea was hatched from there.

AO: Where did the concept for the German Army dual flexi-disc release come from? It's very unique.

Taushiro 2xFlexidisc
by German Army

RR: It came about very organically; from an initially submitted set of materials which was going to be a tape, I requested more songs be added, as I like a good long listen when I pop in a tape, and at some point it occurred to me that since the pieces were individually so short, they could be split up onto flexi discs, which, since the infamous international postage hike of 2012, we had wanted to work with to be able to offer cheap shipping worldwide, and once we realized it would have to be multiple flexis, the idea to play around with the transparency came, and finally the specific idea about the decoder ring style layout of the titles and tracklist. Thom Dudley, the designer we work with from time to time (he designed the 7” piano roll/computer punch card for that Yeay! 7”, as well as everything for Stand Up Comedy, and numerous others in the catalogue) did an amazing job of creating a 4 stage decoder ring, which really works, amazingly!

AO: That is fascinating that USPS policies are influencing the formats that artists and labels are releasing music on.

RR: Yeah, in January 2013, I think, international shipping jumped from like $13 to $19 for a single LP, and hit independent labels in particular, pretty hard. Much ado was made, and some rickety solutions were suggested, in particular, some labels and distros tried to take advantage of media mail within the us, and suggested to international consumers that several orders from within the states could be amalgamated at one point before repackaging all together for shipment to their final destination (sweet spot is 5 LPs - like $30)… we tried to offer that, but the one fella that took us up on it in the last five years was a huge hassle to deal with, so we turned to flexi discs, which may be mailed for the price of a letter (under $3, intl.). So far, so good, but the funny thing is that most customers internationally are happier to just pay $20 for an LP than take us up on the suggestion of trying to amalgamate and save money, so maybe not as big a problem as seemed initially.

AO: Do you have a particular Weird Ear release that stands out as one you're especially proud of (or simply just your favorite)?

RR: I think I am actually most proud of Stand Up Comedy, actually, as it came about through a very interesting process of give and take between me and Bosetti, in which each of us had specific conditions, and in the hashing out of these, we ended up with something extra special that came of the process of the hashing out itself. So, more specifically, I believe he wanted a run of a certain amount, say, 500, but we had initially imagined doing very short runs, and so the idea to do a short run of an extra special edition (of course manifesting as the picture disc with the ‘lyrics’ running along the record grooves) was born! I have really been enjoying that process, when it comes along, but that first dip into labelhood really took the cake early on. Nothing like your first time perhaps..

AO: Weird Ear had it's busiest year yet in 2016 releasing several tapes, 2 LPs and another dual flexi-disc package by Tlaotlon, but it's kept quiet in 2017, is Weird Ear preparing something big for 2018?

RR: Actually, I had meant to release a few things by now, this year, and put the label to rest until after a big tour next year (of at least the East Coast, if not much more, by bike), but we spent much of 2017 in shock and disarray after the devastating end of 2016, with the Ghost Ship tragedy here, and the fuck in the oval office, as well as the general direction of the world, but have been slowly coming back to life, as it were—we started a bi-weekly event ‘Weird Ear Presents', after not booking anything for over a year, and have started playing shows again, as well as really pushing to get these releases out.


AO: So you're planning to do the whole tour on bike? Are you going to be living out of a backpack, gear and all? Are any other artists joining you?

RR: Well, we aren’t 100% sure yet, but the very first tour I did was the ‘Cycledelic Music Trip’, on bike, from Maine to Georgia, in 2008, with Kurt Weisman. This would be the 10 year anniversary of that, and, while we would love to have it go further, for longer, the logistics of such a trip are daunting, to say the least…! But, yes, would be with all our gear in trailers/panniers, hopefully with Kurt again, and Dianne plays now as well (in 2008 she was literally along for the ride), as ‘Nurse Betty’. We might do a partial drive, and then bike, then drive (like, [Oakland] to Maine, then bike down and somehow resume driving to get back to the Bay), but the East Coast is dense enough that we can do a bike trip tour without large gaps between shows, but once you start in on the rest of the country, it’s days and weeks between playable towns/cities (particularly considering the kind of music we are playing is simply not presentable in just any old small town!). I have been riding a recumbent bike the last few years, in preparation for this trip, though my rig for Scy1e is such that it wouldn’t be bike able in it’s present form—I hope to be able to split the difference between Horaflora and Scy1e performance styles for this tour, and am already preparing material and methods to make this a reality. We had blogged the trip in 2008, writing it all on a 1st gen iPod touch, and uploading at ‘internet cafes’, but since then, cell tech has obviously exploded, so we hope to do a more significant documentation this time out. There is a lot I could talk about regarding the changes between then and now, but may save that for a later time…

AO: What has 'Weird Ear Presents' been like so far? Which artists have been involved? Is it strictly music/audio art-themed?

RR: Well, it’s so far been music/audio themed, yes. It’s a free event at a bar, Darger Bar (named after Henry Darger), in which we have two or three acts play on alternating Tuesdays. We’ve presented [artists such as] A Magic Whistle, Gossimer, Andrew Weathers, Eric Glick Reiman, Dirgeslurry and Scy1e. Victoria Shen of Boston duo, Trim, and Oakland underdog Foreskin Sashimi In Paradise are both playing on the 19th of this month. In the new year, Matt Robideux and The Blues will be at Darger Bar on January 16th. We have generally had an enthusiastic response from the patrons, artists, and the bar employees as well… it’s a pretty small space we host it in, but in the current trend of small spaces in SF (and Oakland) going away due to so many factors, we are trying to do a little something to keep the flame alive, if you will.

AO: Weird Ear has featured some fellow Bay Area fiends like Glochids and the aforementioned pair of Jacob Felix Heule projects (Beauty School and Addleds), is there a specific push to document the local scene with the label, in addition to organizing Weird Ear Presents?

RR: Hmm, not especially, as we had envisioned the label in terms of sonics, live performance, and to have physical goods where none had yet been made available. Glochids was based in Arizona when I first became interested in his music, and I offered to put out his music because it was the only way for me to hear it, outside of one 3’’ CD and a minute of live performance on youtube!


AO: It also seems like Weird Ear might have a special connection to, or at least affinity for, Massachusetts with the Angela Sawyer and Hollow Deck LPs?

RR: I am originally from Western Mass, and we are focusing on a series of LPs by New England-based artists, co-released with Feeding Tube, but that was borne of being interested in the music, not to document the scene, and there was enough New England-based stuff to release that we ended up envisioning it that way and grouping it together. Foom/Foam LP and a Bromp Treb are still pending, the last two in the four part series.

AO: I'm happy to hear you'll be working with Bromp Treb again. You mentioned the co-release series with Feeding Tube Records, which has been one of the coolest, weirdest, most prolific labels out there for a while, how did that partnership come about?

RR: We both were interested in the Hollow Deck album, and I think that I sent 'em the other New England-based material we had lined up and they agreed to split all the releases with us! Feeding Tube, as an entity, seemed to show up just as I was leaving the area for SF, but we have had plenty of interactions since then, as their house band, Zebu!, has hosted here a couple times, and every time I’m in Mass, I buy a good deal of stuff from them, and have about 10,000,000 friends in common, so it wasn’t that difficult a partnership to have formed!

AO: Have any particular labels served as inspiration for the way you do things at Weird Ear? Either in forming the initial vision or currently?

RR: Not specifically, like, not the way I’ve seen other labels cite influences. We certainly have favorite labels, but nothing that I think of as inspiration for WER. Whenever I happen across another label that treats each release as its own thing, rather than the somewhat formulaic (though attractive) trend towards homogeneity in music or design, I feel a kinship, but didn’t start out with that intent, per se.

AO: If you're at liberty to share, what does Weird Ear have on the horizon for the new year?

RR: The Foom/Foam LP, which is another New England-based split with Feeding Tube, and is Arkm Foam and Chris Foom doing tape and turntable improv sessions which are crunchy, cloudy, and chewy by turns. An Attilo Novellino/Collin McKelvey collaborative LP shared with the Italian label, Kohlhaas, and another flexi-disc by Bay Area spaceman, Bran(…)Pos. After those, we will be taking a break from putting out physical goods for a while, as our living and financial situation is expected to be in flux sooner than later, which may see us relocating out of the Bay Area, and possibly selling everything to fund a long bike tour, before the environment collapses too much to launch such an expedition. I will briefly plug Bandcamp, as I have really enjoyed supporting independent artists on that platform, and their ‘Fan Collection’ concept has gone a ways towards fulfilling the collectors impulse, without accruing more STUFF. While on hiatus, we hope to support artists through purchases there, and looking into digital-only WER releases as well.

AO: Do you have any advice for fledgling labels or those folks out there mulling how to start their own?

RR: Start with smaller runs of things than you think you’ll be able to sell, then be prepared to focus twice as much energy on selling as you did on making the actual product. Finding distribution and getting things reviewed and into the public eye is hard, and without that, one may find oneself with back stock laying around for years… which, I always remind myself, is why we like to really take our time, so that we can stand by each record for years to come.

For more info on Weird Ear releases and Weird Ear Presents:
Weird Ear on Bandcamp
Weird Ear on Facebook
Weird Ear on Twitter
Weird Ear on Instagram

Tricorn and Queue – Tapestry Head Ban [Housecraft]/Xiphiidae – Bronze Hut [Housecraft]

It’s taken me way too long to say a few words about Housecraft. They flew under my radar for a while but once they came to my attention I was very impressed. The visual aesthetic is consistently top-notch and head Housecrafter Jeffry Astin has a keen ear for great drone acts, most of them lesser-known (at least to me). I also have much love for any label that peddles cheap tapes, these two are my picks from the sampling Jeffry sent me a while back. So let’s get this review poppin’.
I’m pretty sure that Tricorn and Queue is just the name of the crew and not a collaboration, but don’t quote me. The first of the four stops on the tape is “Gilded Feathers/First Flight Over Ashen Trees” and I’m tempted to call it my favorite but we’ll see where I end up by the end of the review. The first portion of the track is full of skittering muck. Pieces of vocals, sustained tones and clipped, cut, echoing percussive sounds. Despite the complete lack of congruence the group seems oddly focused. Like they know where their impulses will take them before they even have them. There’s a point where, it seems, the players make a conscious effort to get pretty and it sucks me in every time. I'm guessing this is the “Ashen Trees” portion. Lovely tones slip slowly underneath the mild cacophony, surrounding and filling every crack with flowing, floating beauty. It has an amazing effect on my mind, calming but forgoing any sort of blandness. It’s a really wondrous flight that I could fly with forever. Nothing is out of place, every new tone, every peak, every valley; it’s all effortless and all about the oneness with sound. Sorry to get new age-y on yr ass but this is fucking great. There’s a little synth part that eeks out at the very end that’s exceptional too as the piece slowly gives in to silence. “Live @ the 612, Gainesville 7/20/07” fills out the rest of the side, and it continues the somber lilting idea but it's kept in check by an occasional, delayed metallic tapping. Things then turn a bit weirder with a reversed violin-type sound and various washes of noise. This gives way to another set of glacial sounds. A glacier seems like an apt comparison because it’s cool, smooth and pervasive but it’s also subtly destructive at the same time. Tricorn and Queue always have a counterpoint, something that chisels away at the smoothness a bit. Though it may not have the power to flood the world with ecstasy like the first piece, it’s a fine effort.
On the flip, “Stone Fleets Home” leads off. This sounds more aquatic to my ear. I may be psyching myself out a bit but I think there may even be a recording of water in there somewhere as well. This one seems a bit more synth-led but it could easily be blissed-out guitar that I’m hearing. Actually that’s probably it the more I think about it. That piece is over relatively quickly before moving into the finale “Triangled Goldflower/Apache Radiation”. Dude, I don’t know what “Apache radiation” is but I wanna find out. This piece returns to the style of the beginning of the tape. A strange collection of all sorts of sounds, not really smashed together but “lumped” I guess would a better word. There’s a pseudo-choir sound that I’m loving, as well as a lo-fi blues guitar that pops out for a few notes and lots of other cool sounds I’ll leave to your imagination. All the elements cycling in and out make for a dizzying swirl of sound. Always mellow, never boring. Which works pretty well as a descriptor for the tape in general.
I’ve been seeing this Xiphiidae name around town a lot after I got this tape but I had never heard of the project before hearing this little baby. I wouldn’t be surprised if Xiphiidae got a bunch of record deals based on this tape alone. This tape is less airy and about a third of the length of the Tricorn & Q, instead creating a tad bit fuller sound. Lots of glistening sound waves from all kinds of sources. This project seems to be heavier on the synths, though there are some other sounds pushed down a lot I can’t quite pick out. Throughout the side a new set of tones will swoop down to displace another only to be displaced minutes later. I know this is all a bit vague but it’s tricky to pin down all the sounds/phases the track holds in its 7 minutes. The other side is cut from the same piece of cloth though the instrumentation varies a little and the track as whole seems slightly less cloudy. There’s a real nice period on the side where an elegant lo-pitched tone glides along while a crackly hi-pitched din floats on top giving way to chimes and other murkiness.
Two phenomenal releases for fans of tapes, drone and natural highs. Housecraft does an amazing job with packaging and these two are cases in point. Tapestry Head Ban has two-layer j-card with printed vellum and a piece of material soaked with color. Really nice looking. It also comes with an insert and tape labels. Bronze Hut comes with a hand-made collaged j-card and tape labels as well. Both tapes are out of print but I’ve seen copies around at a few distros, if you're interested. I’d also recommend just buying some of the new Housecraft stuff cause it looks rad and is sure to be nice on your wallet and your ears.

Slow Listener – Slow Listener [JK Tapes]/Non-Horse/Horse Head – Horse Split [JK Tapes]

Alright, so I’m excited to talk about these puppies cause they are my first puff of the recently formed and totally rad JK Tapes label run by Peter M. outta Chicago. Also, it’s my first slow listening of Slow Listener who is a combo from the UK who I have been hearing many good things about. Furthermore, it’s the second release I’ve heard from supposed sonic shapeshifters Non-Horse and Horse Head. And they are both tapes! So as you can see I have many things to be excited about.
First of all, I must make it known that this Slow Listener tape is wayyy too short. Now that’s outta the way... This thing flat out slays (Slay Listener is more like it, ha?). Twenty-three minutes of lovely zombie murk. I’m not sure what Slow Listener does to get their sounds or if it’s one guy or twenty but there are definitely plenty of loops going on, that I am sure of. Side-A starts with a keyboard-y type loop circling until it is united with a lightly whirring low frequency nudge. There are some tape-esque manipulations going on towards the end and the last minute sees a shift where a loud bright tone comes in (I’m assuming that it isn’t a new track but there isn’t any accompanying info so I can’t be too sure). Side-A is pretty subtle throughout, not minimal though. It’s slow gentle churn heads straight for your pleasure zone. These guy(s?) actually sound a little reminiscent of The Skaters to my ears. They are physically doing things way different than The Skaters operate, but they achieve that same kind of warm, fuzzy euphoria nonetheless.
The B-side rules too, and maybe a little harder even. There is a tad more open space and it’s got a real nice subtle beat that comes in and out every 12 seconds or so. It’s based around another keyboard loop with total murky shimmer (is that an oxymoron?). There is also someone working feedback swells, maybe guitar or pedal based, that snake around the original loops, rising, enveloping and lovingly cannibalizing them until, like the first side, there is a change up at the very last minute. Slow Listener likes to keep you on yr toes I guess. Again, I cannot stress this enough, straight to the pleasure zone. My fingers are crossed for a new Slow Listener 5 cassette boxset to drop from the heavens and into my hot little hands. Heh, a boy can dream right? Yes he can and will, this tape is already helping him with that.

Both of the “Horse” releases (Haraam, Circle of Flame and The Defeatist) I’d heard prior didn’t leave a huge mark on me, but certainly left me intrigued to hear more. So finally, I have followed my intrigue and, indeed, heard more. The result? Two thumbs up, one for each side. Non-horse’s contribution is a single 13-14 minute live recording called “Feggic Shoam”; with a title like that, I think it’s pretty obvious that you have no idea what you’re going to get. It starts out a little touch and go, echoing blips and cut-ups jumping around wildly. Not too long after, the track begins to find its legs and cohere. I like the second half of the track more I’d say, mainly cause it’s got this great sample/loop of an acoustic guitar that a bunch of sounds are built on top of. There is some new age droning going on, scratchy electronic sounds, a choir submerged in reverb, a pitch-shifted two note guitar loop, something akin to a harmonium, a really wobbly cheese synth/trumpet duet and even what sounds like a referee’s whistle. Pretty nutty sonics if you ask me. And totally live too, which is sweet. I’m still not entirely sure what G. Lucas Crane does to make his sounds, other than he uses tapes. I’m not sure if he records tapes himself to use or if he’s just really into cassettes and collects and samples them. Either way, he’s definitely the only guy doing whatever it is that he does.
Meanwhile on the other side, Horse Head back the tape with five tracks of weirdo boogie slop/romp/stomp. Originally, upon initial listen I picked Non-horse as the winner of the Horse match-up but I’m not so sure any more. The HH charm has been growing on me with each successive listen. It sounds like they’re operating in a trio format(?) Loping drums, jammin’ laze bass and a dirty axe. And vocals, with only the slightest hint of derangement. Each track has it’s own title and all that—well, to be honest, one is untitled—but I like the way they all lock into kind of one long five part track. Favorite parts are when the rhythm section gets groovin’ and speeds up/slows down at will, anytime the guitar takes a “solo”, and trying to figure out what the unintelligible vocals/lyrics are all about. I’m not that great with comparisons but this has a bit of that early 90’s slacker thing going on, as well as kind of a Wipers vibe but carefree and in love with life. Like if Wipers woke up on the right side of the bed every morning. So the Horse Split has what every self-respecting split release has going for it, two radically great sides that make you want to just flip back and forth without listening to anything else. Maybe next time around we’ll get a Non-Horse Head collabo tape, that’d really up the ante.
So, JK Tapes man. Two seriously great entries this early in its life, make it one to keep an eye on. Plus, Peter is super hardworking, dropping batches of twelve at a time, and keeping the prices insanely low (generally $3-6 postpaid!). Most of the catalog is sold out already I think (including that wicked Slow Listener tape which was gone in a flash) but I’d check around distros for copies of stuff. The Horse Split is still in action straight from the label but its ltd. to 100 so hurry if you want one. There are a bunch of other great looking things there too, like the JK double cassette comp and a Tan Dollars tape (a Horse Head side project of sorts) and so on. So anyway, seriously watch out for this one man wrecking crew/label cause he’s probably got a lot more up his sleeve that he’s not telling us about. I’ve got a batch of 3 JK cd-rs to still talk about as well.

By the way, the Slow Listener tape is packaged rather minimally but the A-side is sealed with wax which is cool. The Horse Split is packaged in one of those mini-Disney type cases with an insert with a drawing of a diamond, coins and a pipe and sprayed orange tapes with neat labels. Check ‘em out.

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.

Favorites of 2008 (if anyone still gives a shit)

So now that we're into the second month of the new year here is my "best of" list. What a disgrace I am. I had some hindrances but it's still pretty pisspoor journalistic activity. Anyway, for anyone who finds this to be still relevant, I hope you dig this in all its mostly-written-in-December-but-posted-in-February glory...

Last year I was too burnt out (and not a big enough fan of "best of" lists to compensate for it) to make a list, but had I, I probably woulda said the best record of the year would be Kevin Shields' The Death of Patience or The Cherry Blossoms' LP with best track going to the Yellow Swans' side of their split 7inch with The Goslings. For some reason I feel a bit more up to doing one of these things and maybe it'll be lame but I'll never know if I don't try it out. I didn't want to do a hierarchal "Top 20" or anything but the first section are the records that just blew me away the most this year, while the second section is bunch of other great records I listened to a lot. All are worth hearing, and if I hadn't gotten sick of writing this there'd be a shit ton more records listed here.

Gang Wizard God-Time-Man Universal Continuum Calibration Disc (LP) [Green Tape/Lost Treasures of the Underworld/olfactory/Tanzprocesz]
What an album. This thing is a total monstrosity. Each of the three tracks here are brilliant but I can't not listen to this as a whole. It just doesn't feel complete otherwise. I don't know how it happened, but it feels like there some's divine hand guiding all the mayhem here. Whether intentional or not this sounds like the most meticulously constructed record I've heard all year. It's just perfect.


Night of Pleasure Night of Pleasure (7") [Columbus Discount]
So technically this came out last year but I didn't hear it until this year so... I don't give a shit, it is going on this list. This record can't be more than 6 or 7 minutes in total but I listened to these three songs (especially the b-side "Bitch Pitch") possibly more than any of other group of songs this year. I have a huge soft spot for basement scuzz rock and this 7inch is kind of a distillation of what's great about that style. It doesn't hurt that records has HOOKS (note the capitalization). It was still in print last time I checked and super cheap. Strongly recommended.

Blank Dogs Untitled (7") [Daggerman]
Probably could have put any of Blank Dogs output from this year on this list so I'll save some space by just putting my favorite. "In a Web" is an instant classic worth a million plays with it's euphoric detuned central riff and ominous baritone vocals. "They Said" and "Stuck Inside the World" aren't too shabby either. All hail 2008's darkest pop sorcerer.


Mudboy MUDMUX Vol. 1 (7") [DNT]
This 7inch is amazing on all fronts, great artwork, clear blue vinyl and most of all two equally sensational (but different) sides. Mudboy takes on two songs here and remuxes them, still not quite sure what that entails, but the final product is an absolute beauty, whether its the eerie, impossibly groovy jam on the first side or plaintive accordion ballad on backside. Just a phenomal single. When the hell do I get to hear Vol. 2 already??













Ducktails Untitled (7") [Breaking World]/Ducktails/Mudboy Summer of Saucers [DNT]
Maybe more than any other artist this, Ducktails has made waves in the underground and rightly so. These two pieces of the Ducktails saga seem the most essential to my ears. The 7inch features the supergroovy, sunshinin' cosmitropic Ducktails sound with four (or is it three) songs and the tape dials down the rhythmic factor creating a gorgeous 13 minute free floating, adventure through space that moves though a handful of movements concluding with a lonely but still smilin' acoustic guitar.

The Hospitals Hairdryer Peace (LP) [No Label]
I remember reading somewhere an enthusiastic listener calling this album "the best record of the past two years!" Now, I wouldn't go that far but it's probably one of them. Like that Gang Wizard LP this record really feels like an album. There are a couple songs here that are great by themselves ("Animals Act Natural"; "Dream Damage") but the 14 songs here sound their best within the context of the album. Complete with its recurring, national anthemic riff, this album absorbs you into its world; listening is almost like a trek through a noisy jungle. The Hospitals find total sonic synergy in this messy, ragged collision of cacophony and rock songs. I can imagine in the future, having kids and putting this one on the turntable and saying "take a seat, we're going to listen to a great album." It feels like one of those albums you don't forget.

Caldera Lakes Caldera Lakes (CD-r) [Sentient Recognition Archive]
Man oh man, I was not prepared for how good this Caldera Lakes shit is. Obviously, I knew it would be (or at least should be) because Eva Aguila is one of the most consistent artists around but Caldera Lakes (which is Aguila and Brittany Gould of Married in Berdichev) have unlocked a section of the sound spectrum no one new existed. All their releases deliver the same sublime, harsh/soothing beauty but this release in particular I really connected with maybe only because it was the first I heard. Though I will assert that "Tornado" is the finest kernel of sound they have yet produced: a mess of feedback, siren-like vocals and an amazing construction of loops. Whatever release it is, you need Caldera Lakes in your life.

Oneohtrix Point Never Ruined Lives (CS) [Young Tapes]
So when I initially noticed this project I read the name as "Oh-nee-oh-tricks", then "One-oh-tricks" and now I'm pretty sure it's "One-oh-tree" a little like Tweety Bird saying "103". If anyone has information on this matter don't hesitate to get in touch. Regardless of the pronunciation this may be the most stunning, beautiful tape I've heard this year and I'm really kicking myself I didn't jump on this guy's stuff earlier in the year. I respect the approach taken here because it's dreamy but not because it's drenched in reverb or obscured in any way. Instead, a cosmic new age palette is employed to it's fullest extent. The thing is though, even the great stuff from the cosmic new age style still has a quaint cheesiness to it and this tape is so genuine and moving that there is nothing quaint or cheesy about it. It's simply a lovely, brooding, lonely score to an imaginary space age romance. Or so my mind hears it. As soon as it ends, I flip it over and immediately play it again. Space has never sounded so lush.

Black Pus/Foot Village Split (LP) [Deathbomb Arc/DNT]
Brian Chippendale has outdone himself with his side here. Some of it was released awhile back as part of the DBA tape club but I never heard it then so it's all new to me. "Floatzilla" was my election night theme song as I have mentioned before. Relentlessly groovy, relentlessly great. Oozing with positive vibes and posessing your body with dance movements you never thought possible. "The Black Whole" is also brilliant synth only stuff that has a different feel than all other synth jammers I've heard. Synth dudes take note. The flipside contains Foot Village at their most furious and hilarious, worth hearing as well.

Ex-Cocaine/Yellow Swans Split (LP) [Not Not Fun]
I don't know what kinda stuff the DYSwans have in the vault but their side of this LP may as well be their swansong (pun realized but not intended). 15 minutes of hulking majestic blackened beauty. A perfect outro for the one of the greatest bands in history and the best live performers I've ever witnessed. Ex-Cocaine also contributes the best shit they've ever made including an awesome Meat Puppets cover.


Maths Balance Volumes Information is Pain (CS) [Taped Sounds]
Don't know much (read: anything) about these two(?) dudes(?) other then they live somewhere out in Minnesota. This tape, from what I think is the latest carnation of Lieven Marten's Belgian Bread & Animals label, is a potentially addictive substance. An unknowable combo of stewed tapes, guitar blues and slurred vocals--that's my guess anyway. Catchy and creepy; they do their thing like no one else.



Angel Snake/Monopoly Child Star Searchers Split (CS) [New Age Cassettes/Pacific City]
Of the thousands of Ferraro/Clark projects that come out every year, I guess it seems logical some would get lost in the shuffle but it's a bummer this one seemed to be. It's the first instance I've heard of Ferraro on one side and Clark on the other and I think works out great. The first part of Side A is one of my favorite things to come from Ferraro's brain or even the Skaters' collective brain. On the B-side contains the strongest overall Star Searchers release in my opinion; same style as the other releases but just done better for some reason. Typically zonked fold out full-sized paper cover.

Little Women Teeth (LP one-sided) [Gilgongo]
A supreme twenty minute scorcher with plenty of moments of beauty and plenty of anguish emanating from guitar, drums and dueling saxophones. This is virtuosity matched with inspiration. Not much more to say.

Du Hexen Hase Under the Clouds of Sleep (3" CD-r) [No Label]
This little disc is an anomaly to me because it's a pretty long piece at 17ish minutes and relatively little changes throughout its course but it's one of the most listenable, affecting pieces of music I've heard all year. Total bleakness but with an ever present glimmer of hope. If you weren't one of the lucky 47 to score a copy of this, I heard a rumor that it may be reissued as a split LP with Blue Sabbath Black Cheer which would be totally boss. Say your prayers for that.

Bulbs Light Ships (CD) [Freedom to Spend]
Unlike just about everything else that made it onto this favorites of 08 list, this album didn't get on here because I couldn't stop listening to it. I've listened to it a fair amount, sure, but this isn't quite ear candy in the way that most other stuff here is. Don't get the impression I don't like this, cause I do very much, but this is a record I really respect. One that challenges and amazes me every time I pull it out. It contains too many mysteries, and surprises that never fail to surprise, to not hear it. Very much worth the listening investment.

Vapor Gourds Dagger Magic (CS) [Yeay! Cassettes]
This tape has been trapped in my walkman since I got basically. I've always wanted to hear something like this, even trying and failing to create it myself. Lucky for me Vapor Gourds has succeeded. 30 minutes of short beats of all types, though the best are the ones with the hip hop stylee in my opinion. This tape makes me want to record some rhymes over it Grey Album-style (well Grey Album in reverse anyway). The finale is just impeccably classic too. Yeay! did a great job matching the the audio magic with visual magic, 4 or 5 color screenprinted cover and screenprinted tapes in a ghettofab/cartoonish font. Peep it and absorb it.

Radiant Husk Beyond the Endless Swale (CS) [Bezoar Formations]
Dudes, check this tape out. Even the casual reader probably knows how much I love the sax but the thing is it always seems kinda typecast despite being great (like Brian Cox). Enter Matthew Erickson's (Sudden Oak, Anenome Lodge) solo project Radiant Husk. The guy takes a saxophone (along a bit of electronics and keyboards and whatnot) and just paints the sky beautiful, ominous, static-y colors with it. Unique and transcendent and all sorts of synonyms for rad. I guess its kinda noisy and droney and psychedlic but none of those tags seem to capture it. Everytime I roll tape I'm continually amazed. Well worth the meager 5 bucks Bezoar is asking for. Bonus: acid trout collage on the back of the j-card.

Other pieces of the puzzle:
The Skaters Physicalities of the Sensibilites of Ingrediential Strairways (LP) [Eclipse]
Some people seemed to be down on this record, but I dig it. It's another solid platter of the sound only the Skaters can create.




Cheveu Cheveu (LP) [S-S]
Brilliant lo-fi French electro-punk from the sweetly pummeling "Superhero" to the utterly creepy but still kinda beautiful "Happiness"




Girl Talk Feed the Animals (CD) [Illegal Art]
Not the impeccably crafted masterwork that Night Ripper was but still a great pop record. I'm a sucker for this guy's stuff.




Nice Face Can I Fuck It (CS) [Jerkwave]
Don't know anything about this Nice Face guy other than he knows how to write a song. Check "Way it's Gotta Be" for proof. Fuzzed to the nuts (did I just write that?) with more hooks than a pirate ship. (wait did I just write that??) Extra points for putting this gem out on cassette rather than vinyl as most of his contemporaries do.


Nobunny Love Visions (LP) [Bubbledum]
Now that Nobunny has released this LP millions of people can throw away their anti-depressants and just put on "I am a Girlfriend" when they're feeling blue. It is literally impossible for me to listen to that song without getting up and dancing and loving life. The rest of the record is great too which is a total bonus cause it'd be worth having for that song alone.


The Pope Do You Wanna Boogie? (CS) [DNT]
Riotous, feedback stained shit rock. Totally great and so totally necessary to hear it on tape. Supposedly their last release (lame) R.I.P. the Pope







Black Orphan Circuits [UFO Dictator]/Black Orphan Video Kids [Hozac]
Don't know what it is about the midwest but it seems more, often than not, the best songs from this year came from there. "XX Spectrum" and "Video Kids" are utterly fantastic.

Traum Ecke Traum Ecke (CS) [Goaty Tapes]
I think this duo is guitar and keyboard and may have just been a one-off since I haven't seen anything else by them around. The first side is really ambient magic crystal drone stuff and the flip retains the floatiness with a nice subtle groove. Excellent packaging from Goaty as well with bitchingly bright yellow tapes.



Caldera Lakes Caldera Lakes (CS) [905 Tapes; Blackest Rainbow; Deathbomb Arc]
Each of these Caldera Lakes tapes is pretty evenly matched so I'm just putting all three on here. As mentioned before Caldera Lakes just have an amazing sound and any of these tapes will give you glimpse of it. I just happen to be extra nuts about that sound so I picked up every Caldera Lakes release I could find this year and I'm not even one of those completist types. The Blackest Rainbow one features fantastic artwork by Jake Blanchard too.

Kevin Shields/Droughter Split (CS) [Heavy Psych]
Probably most people that read this are aware by now how much I love Eva Aguila's Kevin Shields project so obviously I picked up this tape. To my surprise, and while the KS side is solid, I was really impressed with the B-side. Droughter brings it for 17 straight minutes never letting up and, here's the important part, never getting boring. One of the finest long form noise tracks I've heard this year.












Locrian Burying the Carnival/Exhuming the Carnival (CS) [No Label]/Locrian Rhetoric of Surfaces (CD) [Bloodlust!]
It seems like these guys have been around for a while and some how I missed 'em. Too bad for me. I remember hearing "Burying a Carnival" for the first time and thinking "Shit, how did I not know about these guys". Fantastic blackened noise/drone stuff that's up there with the greats of the genre.

Super Minerals The Piss (CS) [DNT]/Super Minerals The Thaw (CS) [Not Not Fun]
This duo is my personal favorite from the Magic Lantern web. I dig how The Piss sounds like it was recorded in some dank air pocket ten feet below the earth's surface. Never heard drones so dry and moldy before. The Thaw meanwhile has got to be biggest bang for your buck of the year, a c120 of the greatest hits of SM's own private stock.

Tricorn & Queue Tapestry Head Ban [Housecraft]
I'm sucker for a brilliant drone stuff which is why this is on the list. The first
piece, oh man, it's just beautiful as hell.







Do Tell Sewn to the Current [Housecraft]
I'm a sucker for brilliant drone pt. 2... The mastermind behind this 90 minute double cassette somehow manages to keep you floating for its whole duration.







Mincemeat or Tenspeed All Critters (LP) [Big Monies Tapes/Deathbomb Arc/Malleable]
So no computers, samplers, musical instruments... dude, what then??! Somehow this was created without any of those things, and fuck, what an impressive record it is. Gnarly techno-surf shit. Check it out.

Gay Beast Disrobics (LP) [DNT]
Gay Beast was actually supposed to be here on the 31st of Dec but sadly it appears to have fallen through but at least I have this LP to get me through. GB have a great sound visceral, angular and mathematically complex/precise which somehow makes it seem even more raw. Solid album and "Cock" and "Good Government" are two of the finest songs of '08

Lateral Hyetography Some Girlzzz (CS) [Really Coastal]
Not much to say about this cassingle other than it's a wonderfully epic pop number and I can't wait for more.






John Thill The Sluts (CS) [JK Tapes]
I can rarely understand a word this guy is singing when I do it's usually a bit creepy but this tape is the best folk/songwriter release I've heard this year I think. Dude, knows how to write a pretty song and a hilarious review.





Night of Pleasure/Day Creeper Split (7") [No Label]
Great self-released split from Columbus crews, Night of Pleasure and Day Creeper. More great messy NoP stuff is matched the more pop stylings of Day Creeper featuring the especially great bedroom bombast of "My Blue Screen".

Fag Cop Psychic Sickness (7") [Milk N Herpes]
My friend said that Fag Cop is scuzz rock. The more I think about it I'm inclined to agree. All songs are great but "Automatic Kansas" is the best of the gnarly, gnarled bunch. I may have found a reason to go to Kansas.

AFCGT AFCGT (10") [Dirty Knobby]
Local legends A Frames and Climax Golden Twins unite and make history. See them live, they will rattle your brain loose.





I also want to give a special mention to DNT records. I know I didn't hear everything that was released by every label last year but, for my money, DNT put on a better show than anyone else. Every release ranged from good to fucking classic, the artwork was always great etc. etc. and prices are CHEAP. I was impressed to no end and it looks like DNT has plans to top itself next year--look at the upcoming release schedule, it's stacked!