INNER TRAVELS “Clear Seeing” (Inner Islands)

Is it weird that Inner Travels hasn’t recorded for Inner Islands yet? I mean, these two are perfect for each other. Look at those names, for goodness’ sake! S. Targo, the Inner Travels guru, is as good an ambassador as any for the current crop of New Age visionaries, and you all know Sean Conrad at Inner Islands because of this excellent interview. They’re peas in a pod, and you can begin sentences with, “Inners Travels and Islands…” – look at the linguistic possibilities! Look also at the possibility of confusion – I’m not gonna lie, I’ve already caught myself mixing up the two names in this very paragraph.  Fortunately, because of my superior editing skills, I’ve got everything as it should be.

So let’s talk turkey, and by “turkey” I mean vibrant vistas of glittering synthesizers, where sparkling glissandos mimic through sound the “Radiant Sunrise” or ripple like refracted light through liquid “Luminescence.” That’s the Inner Travels way, and indeed Clear Seeing is Targo’s attempt to base his compositions on actual images. Obviously, he succeeds, as these meditative passages all “clearly” replicate their titular subjects. You can focus on any of them and be immediately transported through your mind to their magical locales. Targo accomplishes his loving renditions of both actual and theoretical visions, both in the tangible world and through the “mind’s eye.” These visions are useful for personal reflection, hence the “inner” everyone is talking about with the travels and the islands and the whatnot. You can get lost in this stuff if you’re not careful. And that’s OK – you’re only going to find inner peace anyway. Hey, another “inner”!

                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Inner Islands

Inner Travels

--Ryan Masteller

DEATH'S DYNAMIC SHROUD.WMV"Classroom Sexxtape"(Orange Milk Records)

Classroom Sexxtape is really one of the best albums i’ve listened to recently. Recently released on Orange Milk, it’s a nice blend of satire of the age of social media, ambient music, sample manipulation and clever arrangements. Though humorous at times, like when the opening track is interrupted by an iphone notification beep, the album is seriously enjoyable, and can quickly change from eerie synth and sample arrangements to juxtapositions of pop vocal loops on top of the ever changing electronic tracks underneath. The album is a perfect follow up to ‘I’ll try living like this’ which was a pretty defining album itself for dds.wmv.

I really can’t name any other acts that can successfully make an album that combines haunting synth tracks while other tracks sample miley cyrus. The blend of cliche top 40’s vocals and dds.wmv’s original backing tracks give parts of this album a bittersweet twisted feel that’s beautiful. On top of everything the ending 5 minute track on this album that though is different from every other track, I won’t reveal anything else about it except the ballad really seals the deal for the album once you’ve listened to ‘Classroom Sexxtape’ all the way through. I love dds.wmv and I love Orange Milk, and i’m really glad that they came together for this album.

http://orangemilkrecords.bandcamp.com/album/classroom-sexxtape

-- Lucas Martinez

GERMAN ARMY “Funai” (Kikimora Tapes)

German Army might be the most prolific name in the tape game right now, and it’s not particularly close. They pretty much release new music at the same pace I write these Cassette Gods reviews, and this one is my 176th in the past year and a half! OK, maybe German Army aren’t as prolific as me (and who is), but they still release music at an insane rate. I’m barely even including offerings by solo and other projects, like Q///Q , Final Cop, submissions, and Peter Kris himself.

Funai is utterly ancient on the German Army timeline, having come out six months ago. The gang is like ten, twelve releases down the road from it. I bet they barely even remember Funai, or what label it came out on (Kikimora Tapes, for those of you who can’t bother to look back up at the top of a web page). And oh yeah, it’s a banger, like all those other sweet, sweet German Army releases. I have no idea what’s in the water in San Bernardino, but if it’s anything like the rest of California, there’s probably not even any water at all, because California is a land of drought. I don’t know what they drink. (Insert Idiocracy joke here.)

I like to think, though, that German Army is the antidote to the sunshine, a dank, post-punk throbbing missile aimed at the smiling masses. (Go ahead, use that in your press release, just give me some credit.) These electro a-holes dump krautrock, Suicide worship, vintage and probably broken keyboards, and wacky samples (wacky I say!) into a blender and hit “frappe” over and over until a black, chunky sludge emerges. Then you drink that sludge. Over here on the East Coast that sludge tastes incredibly refreshing. I wish we could import more of that California sludge. Maybe that’s what they drink instead of water there.

I’m not sure where a good starting point is for German Army because there’s just so dang much out there, but man did I enjoy Funai, and I want you to get in on this, on the ground floor. (Although, I guess, the ground floor here is like fifteen stories up? My metaphors are falling to pieces like crazy today.) Listen with your ears fully tuned for creeping madness and industrial decay, and you won’t be disappointed. I’m not – I never was.

German Army

Kikimora Tapes

--Ryan Masteller

CAVITY "No. 1"

Hidden within this homemade, hand painted, fingerprinted exteriors you will find a mysterious maximal industrial gem from Belchertown, MA. Two cuts deep; just enough to give a taste of the metallic frameworks and detuned oscillating leads fit to score an escape from warehouse fiends hungry for skin. Punishment Park is as thick as magnetic tape will allow, with percussion pressing and diminishing only allowing a few bits of synth and atmosphere to breathe.

The second track, Necrodub, is a bit more reserved but deeper. Pulsing bass, washing noise, and tormented leads suggest those fiends caught up to their prey and are recording the death rattle. Following the DIY cues of the packaging and recording, cavity’s general direction is very punk, unapologetic but mysterious.

LIYL: Wolf Eyes, Bloom Offering, Helm

-- Joseph Morris

BRILLO "Seeds" C23 (Sass Bologna)

Well, sheeyit. Looks like this ol’ SOB got BOTH SB tapes in hir reviews package! Woot Woot!

Now, come clean, here, I gotta admit, straight out; hey, I ain’t no Hop-Hip carnyvowre…but…

Talib Kweli & DJ Hi-Tek were the backbone for Cincinnati’s MOOD, which have, for a solid two decades now been my all time favorite team, and Acid Reign’s DIVERSITY will forever surpass all my expectations, when it comes to all-encompassing-incorporation…

So I have my own weird standards, mmmkay?

But this
Instrumental
Release

Is damned fine! Variable genres mastered by (forgive the further name droppings of) Atmosphere and Jurassic 5 are laid out flat for your own rap practice and/or slide-guitar accompaniment (if you’re as bad at even pretending to have the rapid fire diction that it takes to actually pronounce the themes merited by these solid jams) herein.

Remember: there are no boring art pieces, just boring recipients. Sounds good? Have (y)ourselves a listen?

https://sassbologna.bandcamp.com/album/seeds
and/or
http://sassbologna.org/

-- Jacob An Kittenplan

MOODY MARLIN "Amorphous Tabernacle of Mildew" C23 (Pretty All Right)

This tape is both fucking silly AND some serious fun. Good party music. Irreverent. Quirky. Lo-Fi, noisy, pop-centric, ugly; but, like, GOOD ugly. BRAINIAC ugly. WEEN ugly; or, more currently, Man Man ugly. Raw. Good funk/island vibes. Just outside of that standard, western norm. Harmonically messy, rhythmically-concise riffs. Hard hitting. Swagger-inducing.

Sometimes, I wonder when all the formulaic pop-bullshit that’s piped into our earholes every single time we venture out into public will finally force a widespread enough backlash that these kinds of honest, playful, explorative jams will get the appreciation they deserve. In due time, I guess. If it has to get worse before it gets better, I’m hoping we’re at the apex.

Thanks for keeping it reel, Moody Marlin.

https://prettyallright.bandcamp.com/album/amorphous-tabernacle-of-mildew
and/or
http://www.prettyallright.com/

-- Jacob An Kittenplan

ORANGE CAKE MIX "At the Record Store" C32 (Why The Tapes Play)

Jaysus Chrice on a low-carb triscuit! Orange Cake Mix is an East Coaster with a 4-track mind, for sure! Over the course of 23 years, he’s recorded 56 albums on a Porta-Studio, all of which are downloadable for free (name your price) via the bandcamp link below. This particular one, “At the Record Store” is considered a compilation of unreleased tracks & odd ends between 1997-2001 and the continuity of styles certainly shifts around a good bit. From psyched-out bedroom folk ballads to freaky synth/pedal’d cosmic conjurings to new agey amblings, the only constant is quality lo-fi explorations in sound/song craft. Pretty inspiring stuff!

http://orangecakemix.bandcamp.com/album/at-the-record-shop
and/or
http://whythetapesplay.storenvy.com/

-- Jacob An Kittenplan

AL MARANTZ "Forgotten Device" C29 (OSR Tapes)

I haven’t heard casio-centric bedroom pop this good in a long while. Think Karl Blau’s “Nature’s Got A Way” meets Of Montreal’s “Sunlandic Twins” with a slight island vibe. No shit! Tight, funky bass lines, legion upon legion of effects-tweeked keys all over the place, unpolished, earnest, Lou Reed-esque speak-singing, and cheesy pre-set drum tracking. Catchy-but-not-TOO-catchy & the lyrics are pretty fun, to boot. Good party music!

https://osr-tapes.bandcamp.com/album/forgotten-device-osr30
and/or
https://soundcloud.com/amarantz
https://alexmarantz1.bandcamp.com/

-- Jacob An Kittenplan

VOODOO TAPES “Chant and Call” (Bokeh Versions)

In the summer of 1858, the Great Stink permeated the city of London, a nightmare whose ingredients consisted of an antiquated sewage system and a population just large enough to overwhelm it. Can you imagine how bad London smelled? Fortunately, the event kicked off a massive public works project to refit the city’s wastewater conduits, thereby allowing the city’s residents to breathe again, after a while of course. (The plan also cut down on the cholera outbreaks caused by the backed-up sewage.)

Maybe that’s a bit too much for an opener here, and you may be wondering what the eff I’m talking about. (That or you’re trying in vain to keep your breakfast down.) But put two and two together for a second here: first, Bokeh Versions is based in South London, which really had to have been hit pretty hard by the Great Stink, even though we’re a century and a half down the road from it. So the label got a pretty good deal, if you ask me. Right place, right time. Second, Voodoo Tapes, the recording moniker of Giovanni Roma of Naples, Italy, makes music that can pretty much only be described as “dank,” moving at a pace of “sludge” and eliciting wary glances in dark alleys in the middle of the night. In short, it’s perfect electronic music for European cities, well ventilated or otherwise.

Roma works in the Venn diagram center of dub and electronic music, crafting moody dancefloor pieces for disillusioned hipsters who are tired of all your Skrillexes and, I dunno, SKisMs. This isn’t to say that Voodoo Tapes sounds anything like or owes anything to Skrillex or SKisM, I just mean that those guys can fuck off and cede the PA system to Voodoo Tapes. Because despite all the grossout nausea inducements above, it’s the gut where you feel Voodoo Tapes the most, although it’s more gut-level earth movement than movement of any other kind. God, I’m feeling so dirty right now typing this, but I can’t stop! Anyway, dub meets illbient in an occult bookstore and starts a reading group, is what I’m trying to say, really. Because books make you smart, and Voodoo Tapes is smarter than Skrillex in, like, every way.

But don’t take my word for it, because my word sounds like a History Channel metaphor for music gone wrong. Take Jay Glass Dubs’ word for it, because he’s awesome, and he remixed “The Summoning.” And Jambassa’s remix of “Dawn” is pretty special too. And the five Voodoo Tapes originals that make up the rest of the tape are pure creep bombs lobbed from a laptop at the bottom of the Thames. Let’s just hope the dreaded London Fog keeps itself at bay for another 150 years.

Bokeh Versions

Voodoo Tapes on Farcebook

--Ryan Masteller

HOLYPALMS “Jungle Judge” (ArteTetra)

I’m gonna say shut up and hang on a second here, because you need to pay attention to Holypalms to fully appreciate the crazy amounts of energy crammed into these two spools of magnetic tape. Yeah, maybe Moscow’s Pavel Eremeev used to play guitar in a math rock band (uSSSy), and maybe that informs a lot of what’s going on here, but there’s so much more fabulous musculature in these one-man freakouts than should even be possible. Eremeev manages to sound like three or four full bands even though it was just him wandering around Asia with a baritone guitar and a laptop. And maybe also two cargo pockets full of LSD tabs, ’cause holy mountain, I’m getting a contact high off all this wild tunage. It’s gonna start sounding like the best thing ever to me pretty soon, and I’m gonna try to pawn it off to you as such if I’m not careful.

It is pretty great though. Eremeev refers to this project as “electro-noise-raga,” and that’s a good place to start. Opener “Jungle Judge (gnawaRemake)” gallops out of the gate at top speed, wreaking time-signature havoc on anyone dumb enough to try to head-nod along with it. To paraphrase Busta Rhymes, you’ll only end up breaking your neck. The guitar is tense and distorted, running along all sorts of Indian raga scales, slithering back and forth so fast it’s impossible to keep up. It’s easy to see where Eremeev’s math rock background comes in – he’s ready to take on the challenge of doing it all by himself. The rest of Jungle Judge follows suit in all sorts of surprising, rousing, and imaginative ways, showcasing Eremeev’s inventiveness as a one-man human blowtorch with a guitar. This tape is one hell of a face-melter.

By the time you’re “Stoned in the Jungle Stolen by the Liana” (what?!), there’s no turning back. It and “Surbahared Valse” end the album with twenty-four minutes of psychedelic warfare, an MK Ultra experiment across pulsing states of consciousness from which you can only emerge molded and reformed according to Holypalms’ vision. It’s a good vision, but it’s massively weird, and you’ll never be the same again. That’s OK – whenever you pop this sucker into your tape deck, you’re automatically in for the ride of your life, and I can’t say enough how much fun that ends up being. Even if you hallucinate for the duration, remember, you’re not on drugs, you’re on Holypalms. Keep it that way.

ArteTetra

Holypalms

--Ryan Masteller

BRAEYDEN JAE / ANT’LRD (Whited Sepulchre)

Ohio’s Whited Sepulchre label began their catalogue with a double dose of titles involving SLC’s Braeyden Jae, Fog Mirror and this fun split with Portland’s Ant’lrd.

Braeyden’s side is a natural companion to the Fog Mirror LP. The initial composition, Soft Reunion (For Keith), is a bit of timestretched noise and digital manipulation tangled with a bit of rolling ambience that Jae is known for. Side A continues with Endless Endings (For Bryce) which is carefully positioned over the first cut to allow continuity. A new composition of familiar elements: decimated noise and bright ghosting chords. Braeyden’s side ends with another dedication piece, Infinity Charm (For Ann). Jae tones down the white noise and gives full reign to the organ tones. Through the clues of the track titles, Jae seems to be constructing symbols of each recipient with audio representation. Keith and Bryce may be a little grittier and up front than Ann; Ann may be easy going and… spiritual. Joseph (me) may be reading into this more than he should. This side of material, like most of the Braeyden Jae material I have heard provides an image of the duality of existence: everything is beautiful and terrible at any given moment depending on your allowances and lenses. A listener could focus on the rough noisey backgrounds or the beautiful notes in the foreground. Some listeners may enjoy both in unison. Jae has a place for everyone.

Ant’lrd’s side is a clear departure from the A. Side B contains many similar elements but used in entirely different ways. Dream River Dark Artifact is presented in three sections: bright phased chords and field recorded knocks, tremolo picked guitar and looping synth lines, and spacey tones bounding over found sound vignettes. The first trilogy is committed to Eddy and the second, The Dark Between Stars, is pledged to Crawford. The Dark Between Stars is composed of metallic edges and organ swells, crumbled low end blotches and light muttering sine waves, intermittent panning and more recordings of intimate spaces. Ant’lrd’s collection is a bit more for the impatient or adventurous listener with many more unforeseen turns and hurdles throughout than the patient pace of Braeyden Jae’s side.

The split is an admirable work of gratitude from both artists and Whited Sepulchre which was made possible by a small set of donors and helpers. The community is apparent and the labor of love shines through in all facets.

LIYL: Astral & Shit, Hakobune, Amulets

-- Joseph Morris