ZACHARY UTZ “High Speed” (Become Eternal)

Another person from Baltimore doing something interesting with synthesizers. The world might have enough of many things, but the aforementioned type of person isn’t one of them. Baltimore’s art scene is so fertile that “person with a synth” is defiantly a type of person though. In the case of Zachary Utz, he uses it along with a guitar to make very pleasant ambient compositions.

Clocking in just under 40 minutes the tape is solid from start to finish. Utz’s gentle songs feel like a sonic massage. No happy ending though…so don’t make it weird. This thing is completely platonic and totally ethereal. Give it a try for yourself using the link below.

Stream + Buy: https://zacharyutz.bandcamp.com/album/high-speed

-- Roy Blumenfeld

JJAAXXNN vs MOOMAW “#ILY2015” (Become Eternal)

Two producers, one tape. In 2007 or 2008 that scat porn allusion probably would have drawn some big laughs. But in #2016 it just seems cheap. So let’s make the music found on “#ILY2015” the focus instead. Each producer gets ownership of one side and they both hope to make their listeners put a dancing foot forward. It won’t be enough to make them notorious on the internet like feces play would, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the shit. I’m going to cut the rest of the review here before someone cites it in a paper on Freud. Links below. 

Album trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNlysw5Oh9Y

Buy: http://www.coffeeheadduck.com/#!product/prd4/4264300365/jjaaxxnn-%26-moomaw-international-year-of-light-2015

-- Roy Blumenfeld

SSELLF “Ssellf” (Become Eternal)

Sself’s ssellf-titled album is the latest addition to Auckland, New Zeeland based artist Christopher El Truento’s discography. By putting it out under a moniker as opposed to using his own name again, Truento has taken a chance to do things differently. Perhaps he decided to be ssellf indulgent? Fans of his past work might start off surprised by hearing vocals. But things return to typical form of experimental compositions that already make up his discography as the tape progresses.

I don’t think this music was meant for me and I don’t think it was meant for anyone other than Truento. Sometimes an artist’s best work can come as a result of making a product which is what only they want to hear.  Through embracing himself as SSELLF, Truento has given listeners a tape with two sides of interesting music to take in. Give it a try for yourself on the link below.      

Stream: https://christoph-el-truento.bandcamp.com/album/ssellf

--Roy Blumenfeld

TONE GHOSTING “Private Jet Experience” (Become Eternal)

Taste the donut constructed with a flight simulator generator.  The anonymous businessman awaits your conference call.  He wants to discuss this new invention, the cellular phone.  You can talk in your convertible while doing double nickels on the Pacific Coast Highway.  He’s training to be the world’s weatherman.  This is why you are joining him for the Private Jet Experience. 

He requests that the pilot’s personal chef attempts to recreate a meal his own mother would make for a Sunday supper.  Two perfectly crafted wedges of apple pie in shrink wrap sits on a shelf next to the intercom and stewardess’ demo life preserver and oxygen mask set.  The captain has an extra long hair in one of his eyebrows.  The coffee is served with sugarcubes, and the cups were handcrafted in late 19^th century Japan.  Upon a deep inhalation, the manufactured oxygen hits the brainstem and wipes away previous confusion.  The fresh, soft pillow between your head and the headrest absorbs your conditioner and is turning a yellowish beige.  Out the window, in the distance, your fourth grade math teacher  is at a playground with her grandchild, pushing her on a swing.

toneghosting.com

coffeeheadduck.com

--Adam Padavano

LEONARD CHARLES "Abracelebrex" (Become Eternal)

Every other release I've listened to for Cassette Gods in the last month was some variant on improvised noise/electronic sound collage, but this tape, by a one-man band with two first names, is about as far from harsh noise as you can get while still existing in the same universe.

At first listen, Lenny here seems to be a young Kiwi jazz musician and collector of classic electronic gear, and he's put together an impressively cheesy cassette of lite funk and synth jazz, heavy on the slap bass and programmed drums and monophonic keyboard solos. I struggled to wrap my head around it at first -- was Lenny intentionally trying to recreate the hold music I endured the last time I called Verizon Wireless to dispute my phone bill? But then I thought about the potential connection contemporary vaporwave artists and synth funk revivalists like Dam Funk. And then I wondered, do kids in New Zealand even give a crap about Dam Funk? I don't have a clue. And in the end I had to give up, because this music is just inexplicable and terribly awesome/awesomely terrible in ways I can't explain. Lenny clearly knows his way around a synthesizer; whether he should be legally allowed to put his hands on one is a different question.

After listening a few times, I was confused enough by the existence of this tape that I decided to go online and read the label bio (always a last resorts), which put a totally different spin on things. Turns out Lenny wrote these songs by himself while recovering from a head injury he suffered in an assault at one of his shows. I can't tell how I feel about this; while it does offer some explanation for the odder moments on this tape, it also kind of puts a damper on the unbridled energy I felt when I first listened to it. But then I put the tape back on, and instead of worrying about head injuries, I'm transported back to where I was on first listen.

The tracks with vocals sound kind of like Steely Dan, and the tracks that use cut up drums are more like Boards of Canada with the kitsch factor turned up to 11, but in the end it's all part of one singular and unstoppable frothing mozzarella volcano. After listening again three or four times, all I can say is: I want to hear more from this guy.

--Will Griscom

Physical copies: http://www.coffeeheadduck.com/#!sounds/c1dqn
Digital audio: http://shessorad.bandcamp.com/album/abracelebrex-e-p