BLUE SUEDE PLATFORMS “Collection” C65 (Albert’s Basement)

If you are especially,
incredibly enthusiastic
about Monty Pythonic,
solely-falsetto sung vocals
being paired with the
brevity-centric
pop sensibilities
of acts such as
Guided By Voices ,
prepare to
bear witness to this
UK-based collection
of bite-size
pop-nuggets,
out on Australia’s
bedroom label,
Albert’s Basement…

Click on the link provided below to access this type of music…

https://albertsbasement.bandcamp.com/album/collection

--Jacob An Kittenplan

$LOW “Lolly Gas” C60 (Albert’s Basement)

One of my absolute favorite sound sculpture/collage labels of all time is Lawrence English’s Room40, from Australia.  Both he and his label put out truly engaging sound art; at times serene, at others alienating, but always, Always, carefully arranged to provide an unspeakable story arc for the mind to interpret away, again and again, to its heart’s content. If I had the money, I’d buy everyone a copy of “Site-Listening: Brisbane”, a sound collage of field recordings that is woven together so expertly, I’d swear it was a dream sequence. It’s fanfuckingtastic and worth a hundred bucks in my mind, but easily orderable from Experimedia for well under ten.

If I sound like a commercial here, the ickyness is due to my delaying the non-preferred activity of doling out a “bad review” of $low’s tape “Lolly Gas”, which was also produced from the Australian that released this one hour long tape of digitally delayed guitar feedback. I really, really, really did not enjoy listening to one full hour of this. I know first hand that it is damn sure fun to dick around with delay pedals and feedback, but to release a tape of it? One full hour of it?

I hazily remember reading online record reviews in my late teens (nearly 20 years ago! Ack!) and there was this posit that, and I paraphrase capital-R Roughly, here; “If Maynard (Somethingorother) shat on a microphone and released a [recording] of it, all of TOOL’s fans would eat it up and clamour for more.” If I were a more enterprising person, I’d slap a TOOL sticker on this bad boy and E-Bay it for a hefty sum. Am I being too harsh? Judge for yourself via clicking the link below.

http://albertsbasement.bandcamp.com/track/1

- - Jacob An Kittenplan

SAM BAKERS “At Home” (Albert’s Basement)

Is there anything musically redeeming, or even entertaining, about a sound collage splicing audio samples for the duration of a whole tape? After listening to Sam Bakers debut release “At Home”, I’m of the opinion there is not. Side B starts with studio laughter. Maybe Sam Bakers is convinced we are in on his joke. Or maybe he’s laughing at those of us who don’t ‘get’ him. Well keep laughing, Sam. If he’s lucky in 200 years someone might find this piece of 2deep4u b.s. and mistake it for genius.

Stream: https://albertsbasement.bandcamp.com/album/at-home 

-- Roy Blumenfeld

the opinions of the individual Cassette Gods do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Cassette Gods on the whole. I listened to this and thought it was pretty cool - ed.

SCRABBLED “Live” (Albert’s Basement)

Being Australia’s third largest city isn’t enough to get Brisbane out of the shadow of Sydney or Melbourne. While it might not have that fancy opera house or the Eureka Skydeck, Brisbane does have Scrabbled. Fans of garage pop might want to bypass those other two cities and catch one of their shows. “Live” takes audio from a few different sets. Sixteen people played or guested on the album. It’s hard to tell who is who. The only one I could really make out was Bek Moore. Moore sings about topics such as junkies, how cops all look like eggs, and a shit-for-brains kid who plays video games then eats spinach from the fridge instead of stealing the alcohol. All around good stuff.

Will Scrabbled tourism be enough to push Brisbane over the top? Only time will tell. Until then check it out in the link below.

Stream + Buy: https://albertsbasement.bandcamp.com/album/live

-- Roy Blumenfeld

RENTBOY “King of Knives” C59 (Albert’s Basement)

This tape is a just-short-of-an-hour long recording of a guy, his amplified electric guitar, and his thoughts, brought to you by “Albert’s Basement”, out of Melbourne, Australia. The lyrics are printed out on the J-Card. The last song, “The Princess”, has the lyrics “The Princess must die tonight…”, and they, like the previous hour’s like-themed lyrics, are all, also, captured, in carbon, along with this guy, Dan Cross’s amplified electric guitar, and his understated singing. The singing is a little understated, a little lower in the mix, if you will, which is maybe why all the lyrics are, all, printed, on the J-Card, the J-Card, which is included with the tape. Did I mention that this just-short-of-an-hour long tape is from Melbourne, Australia? This guy, Dan Cross, from Australia (Melbourne, exactly) had not officially recorded/released some of these songs for 14 years before releasing them to the public, now. Now, here they are, caught on carbon, ready for you to listen to, to this guy, and his guitar, and his thoughts, from Melbourne, Australia. Between Lawrence English’s Room40 label and Silverchair, I’d definitely say that Rentboy, which is Dan Cross, from/near Melbourne, Australia, is much closer to, but certainly not a carbon copy of, the latter. There is only one song to sample on the link below, but, I assure you, that all words/guitar chord/strummings were from/near Melbourne, Australia.

           

https://albertsbasement.bandcamp.com/album/king-of-knives

and/or

http://www.albertsbasement.net/

- - Jacob An Kittenplan