555 "Nine Gates" (Moon Glyph)

Shimmering synths and computer gloop-beats. Space jams. New-Age healing at the chilled-out dance party. Taking a computerized elevated train in the cartoon future. Odwalla commercial jammers, waiting for seating at the Rainforest Cafe. The computer is bored and calculating jammers for you.

Things were really upbeat, but now chilling out quite a bit. Good variety. Lots going on, but everything definitely fits together very nicely. Have I mentioned shimmering yet? Lots of computery shimmering, definitely a theme here. Sick percussion sounds. Electronic and computery.

This one is synth and just a kick drum sound giving the pulse. Plenty of googling and gurgling and, of course, shimmering. Speaking of Google, Google has just informed me that this is a member of Food Pyramid, which totally makes sense.

Here comes the hi-hat. It's now a rave vibe on an alien planet oasis. 80's soundtrack vibes. I want a keytar. This is somehow making me realize I need a keytar in my life. If I had an office job where I spent a lot of time at a computer, I would probably be jamming this SO hard. I think my favorite thing on a few of these jams is the synth bass. So truly phat. Sophisticated, yet still kind of sick. Everything feels very calculated and is where it should be, no matter how sparse or busy it gets, all the sounds gel very well and wherever it goes it transitions seamlessly.

Okay, This song should have been in "the Land Before Time", in the beginning, before the little dinosaurs got lost or whatever happened, when the kid dinos were playing and the adult dinosaurs were doing whatever they were doing. A lot of this makes me think of scenes like that. Desert, water, future, sunrise, alien landscapes. And here is more of that shimmering. Cartoon creatures are waking up to the sunrise and dancing like robots. They are some sort of bird creatures. Someone just dropped the hi-hat. Shit, this is not my kind of thing, but it could really grow on me. Someone hook this guy up with some soundtrack work. Total vibes. Total moods. Total mood vibes. I'm vibing. I'm in th' mood. Shit goes from upbeat to dreaming seamlessly. Sick. This whole thing is pretty solid. Electronic pulse beats. I want to go work-out at a really hip urban work-out place. This track is like part modern hair salon commercial and part Sonic the Hedgehog, and some future synth-rave scmoov-jazz in a tux. Yeah right there, Sonic just hit a patch of those rings. Synth studio wizardry vibes.

And here is the last song on side A. Total chill-down. Total palette cleanser. Wait here cross-legged and the Master will bring the Sacred Truth. Envision the universe. Be cleansed by All Things Unseen. It will soon be time for you to receive the Ultimate Truth. But first, just space out and put your third eye on the pulse of the universe. The somewhat shimmering universe. You are now floating through space. Feel the nothingness surround you. You do not know how fast you are traveling, all you feel is serene. Open your eyes. You see an alien desert landscape, a distant sunset, alien creatures (from either before or after time as you know it) sip from the lake of serenity. This is the end, until you flip it over.

http://moonglyph.com/releases/mg71

-- Garrison Heck

Q///Q “NSABWA”

German minimal-pop composer offers up a collection of greatest hits. I mean I think that's what's happening, as some of the tracks have appeared on other tapes. No one's making it easy on me, let's say that much. Anyway, it's essentially an homage to early 80's coldwave enhanced/eroded by a voice that sounds like a babbling maniac pacing back and forth a bus stop. It's not really all that likeable, but I'm sure that's entirely the point. Somewhere in Europe somebody's trying their best to dance to this, and it's not going well.

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/qqsuits

-- Ken McIntyre

RYAN JEWELL “Radio: Vol. 2” (Notice Recordings)

NTR 028 is visually what I imagine exemplifies the production values of the Notice cassette collection:  A fine letter pressed gray j-card, and subtle white on off-white printed cassette shell.  The recordings are of two separate radio performances, at WKCR, in NYC and at Triple R in Melbourne, Australia.  Here are notes from my listening:

Side A:  A seemingly improvised sound piece brings to mind gas leaks, breathing close to a hot microphone and treading water under a tipped over canoe after closing hours in a state park.  A grizzly bear fiddles with the Tupperware, but when you awake to yourself as a child of 5, gripping the chains of the rusty squeaky swing set, the bear’s still lurking, only it’s on a treadmill, and you keep swinging.  You’re safe, in a steam room, breathing from a bendy straw, and knocked a wrench onto the floor.

Side B:  Boiler room, three stories underground, years of soot.  At closer look is what appears to be the ancient motor for some sort of vehicle, except HR Geiger designed and built it.  Turns out, it’s been heating this building all along, and it’s shaking like a tailgater at a Buffalo Bills Parking lot.  The spry technician’s been climbing around this heap of pipes and gaskets, clenching a flashlight in his teeth.  Occasionally he rests to drink what looks like a can of tomato juice, but the liquid resembles 10w-40.  I think it’s break time soon, from the smell of onions on the skillet.

Many rich sonic textures fill these performances made on opposite ends of the earth.

See also: http://cassettegods.blogspot.com/2012/01/sewn-leather-blood-runs-down-drain-no.html for a review of RYAN JEWELL’s "Radio: Vol. 1" on (Friends and Relatives)

http://www.noticerecordings.com

--Adam Padavano

STEPHEN SCOTT DAY "Mother" (Colossal Tapes)

I wanted to hate this b/c it's the guy's full name and the album is called "Mother," but I suppose we all have some demons to battle. This is pretty tight! Beautifully programmed drums battle w/ groaning synths and loops, creating a patchwork of insistent beats and moments of water-y pregnant pause. The martial drums on the second track pop. That's definitely the highlight, wish it had picked up again.

Best suited for short, awkward romps in a safe, homey car where the heat rarely works. Worry not, "mother", it happened in a Volvo!

www.listen.colossaltapes.com/album/mother-c24

--Mylanta Stamz

RAGS “Belief in an Order of Meaning” C32 ((Cave)) Recordings

 

One day, in the living room, we were not in our right minds, taking turns playing ADDJ on the turntable, spacing out, making pretty messes on the backs of abandoned record sleeves, getting slightly high on sharpie marker fumes. I’ll blame those fumes. I’d put on White Snake’s “Here I Go Again” 12” single, but didn’t notice that it should have been set to 45rpm.  No one else did, either. The sound from the speakers was heavy and the trebly parts were weird and jangly, but not like something I wouldn’t have put on on purpose. Time went by. Then, out of seemingly nowhere, the chorus kicked in… and we all felt simultaneously sheepish for not realizing the error of my ways.

I don’t remember anyone named James Seever in that room, but I have a feeling he’s witnessed something similar. The only track on side A, “Canopy of Veiled Quantum”, fills nearly 16 minutes of tape with what I’d guess a Sutekh Hexen record would sound like if steadily dragged under the needle at 17rpm; a guitar based drone/noise lamentation on being uncomfortably stable, heavy as pulse-less can be. The slow dynamic builds of mid-range noise are just a few notches short of what a general consensus on “harsh” could be agreed upon, while washes of feedback & warped, organic field recordings fade in and out.  Just barely underneath, not quite competing for utmost attention, are the converse tones of what just escapes being called “soothing” drones. This multi-disciplined SF Bay Area native has tension’s charms clearly commanded here, continuously shifting a feedback riff either too slow or fast to be catchy enough for whistling. By the time a tone of familiar guitar riffery sets in, an organ pipe reminds us that this James Seever is no one trick pony, but a classical minded composer, experimenting well with sinking his teeth into this looser, louder, boundless forum.

Side B, “Galactic Superstructure”, also about 16 minutes, keeps the distortion and constant permutations of guitar textures in the middle-ground; slow piping washes of choral tones meld seemlessly with alternating synth lines. This is nothing to operate heavy machinery to, or sit down and have a nice, hap-hap-happy, self-check in; it’s eerily, beautiful, get-lost-edly hypnotic, for just long enough…’til a schizophrenic run of atmospheric black metal runs almost dark electro-ambient runs outright six-organs-of-admittance-style acoustic meditation…and done damn well…which dumps into field recording of underpass-ish reverb percussion, then Buddhist monk-chanting, then back, again, to the opening vocalist (James’ wife or sister? Someone with a shared surname is credited!) swelling, in layers, trumpeted throughout many a pedal’d effect. A very dynamic journey, rife with subtext and potential for interpretation. Perfect for a creative writing exercise, or forced interpretive dance party. Farcical war-paint optional.

www.jamesseevers.com

www.caverecordings.blogspot.com

- - Jacob An Kittenplan