See all that up there? I don’t know anything about this tape, and
neither do you, because there’s nothing other than this photograph to give me
any indication. There are track titles handwritten on the inside of the J-card:
“tentative 10962” begins side A, and all tracks have the word “tentative” and
are followed by a 5-digit number. Or maybe it’s “tentatina” – it’s hard to tell
the v’s and n’s apart, as well as the e’s and a’s. So, uh, good luck finding
yourself a copy of this. And good luck finding somewhere to stream it. Perhaps
I’m the only human being in existence, other than the unknown artist
him/her/itself, that has ever heard this tape. Wouldn’t that be something!
Which is sort of a shame, as it’s pretty entertaining stuff. Sort of
against type, if I’m judging this based on its cover – and based on this cover
I’m thinking that this is a harsh noise wall artist, pretty much – the sounds
unfold in a sort of creepy synthesizer meets found sound jaunt, as “tentative
10962” (that’s what I’ll go with) is built from chainsaw or other power tool
samples that mingle with the music, gradually moving closer and closer to an
organized whole as the track progresses. It shouldn’t work, but it does. Other
tracks are similarly constructed. On “tentative 11745” (I think – this
handwriting!) an actual snare drum plods like a metronome, sort of Wolf Eyes
style (think “Dead Hills 2), before icicle synths pan back and forth, being
allowed to crystallize within the speaker components before grinding your audio
gear to a halt.
The electronic and organic components mesh remarkably well, and there’s
an ear for garbled melody here that probably doesn’t actually exist on this
plane of consciousness – you’ll have to follow it over to “the other side” if
you want to get a glimpse of the motivations or machinations. And maybe that’s
where we’ll find the truth about this artist, somewhere beyond the confines of
this planet. I’m open to whatever.
Yes, I’m impressed. I wish I knew who made this so I can point you in
their direction and you could enjoy this along with me. But I don’t, so I
can’t, and I won’t. So peace out on this review. END TRANSMISSION
--Ryan Masteller
UPDATE 8/10/16:
Good morning from Portugal, Ryan.
First of all, thanks a bunch for your time. It is a shocking generous review for such a bleak object.
Some facts about the tape:
- bagatela - tentativas de refundação do universo
- recorded between August 2015 and February 2016 in old mixtapes from my own collection, edition of 20.
- semi-random covers out of an image made by a friend.
The tape was sent to you in February and at this point I wasn't even expecting for you guys to listen to it, so this is a warm surprise for me too.
I feel I have to excuse myself for such an autistic approach to the world in terms of packaging, but at that point in my life I really had an austere view on things.
A lot of things happened meanwhile, and I actually decided to start a very small label/archive with a good friend in April. We retrospectively decided to add the cassette you reviewed to our catalogue as 000.
You can find it here:
I won't bother you with more information, but please ask whatever you feel like, I'll be glad to answer.
Again, thank you very much and keep up the exquisite work there at Cassettegods.
Pedro Cassiano
Posts
