Is anyone still checking this thing?
Does anyone want to take over the blog?
email me cavebears at gee mail dot comb
SCHWEBEN “Trees” C32 (Cosmic Winnetou)
There’s an easy connection to make between ambient music and forest
wandering. You’re just there, communing with nature, and every sound that
surrounds you is “ambient” in its basic form: it produces “an encompassing
atmosphere.” Schweben, aka Philipp Hager, takes this to its obvious
extreme, marrying field recordings with ambient music (synthesizers and such) to produce “an encompassing
atmosphere” that you can take with you anywhere – you don’t have to be stuck
out in the middle of the woods to have a similar experience. But what you should have is headphones, because
otherwise you’re going to miss out on the subtleties of the delicate sonic
experience (which you should already be planning for anyway, knowing that you
bought this tape from Cosmic Winnetou).
Each track is arboreal by design; there’s “Arbol del Tule” (Tree of
Tule, Mexico), “Tree of Life,” “Lone Cypress,” “Major Oak,” and “Baobab.” Each
is a gentle paean to growth, as the long-form, patient tones mimic the
development of plants. You can almost see sprouts and buds stretching and
blooming as you listen to Trees, the intricate
detail of the sounds zoomed in to the organic reactions. Sounds intimate,
solitary, relaxing, doesn’t it? It sure does! And it delivers as you sink
deeper into the trance, the scent of bark and leaves and needles hitting your
nose, the underbrush crackling beneath your boots. Maybe instead of taking the
woods with you back into civilization you should just give in and take your Walkman
out into the woods – I’m actually thinking that’s the best way to go about this
right now.
https://schweben.bandcamp.com/
http://cosmicwinnetou.blogspot.com/2020/12/cw52.html
--Ryan
MODUS PONY “Systemmetry” C5 (Superpolar TaÏps)
This is Superpolar
TaÏps cassingle series #6, and I’ve checked out #4 (Qualchan.) and #5 (German
Army) already, so you should probably go back and check those out. You’ll also
find the likes of Adderall Canyonly, Nicholas Langley, and Superpolar TaÏps’s own bleed Air among the releases (a veritable Who’s Who
of the international experimental tape scene – this is your third reminder).
This time we’re checking in on moduS ponY, and it’s like this whole series was
curated with me in mind. How many moduS ponY releases have I tackled? German
Army, Qualchan.? It never stops getting old. And here on “Systemmetry” we get
two and a half minutes of lovely guitar, synthesizer, and rhythm track, a
mathematically precise, avant-garde replication of a music box. Sure, it’s not really a music box tune, but it follows
a similar pace, rhythmic pattern, and simple arrangement that, when taken altogether,
sounds like the work of a master tinker, one whose deliberate placement of all
elements reveals an intricate connection of each piece. We’ve come to know this
of moduS ponY throughout the years, yet we can still marvel at it when it
confronts us head on. And yes, this one has an unstreamable B-side too, so get
to a tape! “2ystemmetry” is too weird looking a track title to pass up.
https://moduspony.bandcamp.com/
https://superpolar.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
GERMAN ARMY “What Brought You Here” C5 (Superpolar TaÏps)
Continuing in the Superpolar TaÏps cassingle series following that Qualchan. one, which
also features the likes of Adderall Canyonly, Nicholas Langley, and moduS pony,
among others (still a veritable Who’s Who of the international experimental
tape scene), we come to one of the most prolific artists you can imagine, the
San Gabriel, California, duo German Army. Long known for their “critique [of]
US imperialism and nationalism,” GeAr has built their brand on punishing
sonics, often bordering on electronic or industrial, featuring tribal rhythms
and spoken samples, and smashing at the façade of the status quo until it
shatters, splintering into abstract fractals that are arguably more beautiful
and interesting (and fair) than what came before. On side A of their C5, GeAr
blitzes through “What Brought You Here,” a taut drum-and-bass number flecked
with ethereal echoes and faded tones. It’s right out of the German Army
playbook, and it satisfies every craving you’d think it might. The B-side is
called “The Form of Now,” but if you want to hear it, you have to get a tape …
no streaming! Which is fine, the tape’s more fun anyway.
https://germanarmymusic.bandcamp.com/
https://superpolar.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
QUALCHAN. “Bumper Music for the End Times.” C5 (Superpolar TaÏps)
Qualchan. shouldn’t be a
stranger to you, and you can check their discography (a bit of which I’ve
written about over the years) by clicking on the link below, or searching
online by yourself, I don’t know, it’s your call. Also a thing that shouldn’t
be a stranger to you: Superpolar TaÏps’s cassingle series, which has featured
the likes of German Army, Adderall Canyonly, and Nicholas Langley, among
others, a veritable Who’s Who of the international experimental tape scene.
Each artist gets five minutes, 2.5 minutes a side, and Qualchan. peppers side A
of their tape with a hearty dose of plunderphonic slow jams, an instrumental
hip-hop vape track called “Bumper Music for the End Times.” Imagine if DJ Wally
had smoked just a little less weed, refrained from including the
giggle-inducing speech samples, and bumped up the crispness level from “dank”
to “woozy” and you get the gist. As for side B … well, you’ll need to get your
hands on a copy of the tape for that one, titled “To Fall in Love at the End of
the World.” You’re not allowed to stream it – the authorities have their eye on
you.
https://hangontoyrego.bandcamp.com/
https://superpolar.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
CLEARING “Themes” (Lillerne)
I knew it. You knew it too, you just weren’t ready to admit it yet. Or
maybe you just couldn’t piece together the thought until you heard it from me.
Either way, I knew it – I knew that
this Clearing tape was going to simply wash over me in all shades of bliss and make
me feel like deep mysteries of the universe were going to be made real to me,
and also that everything was going to be OK. It’s funny how nostalgia works –
longing manifests in the familiar, the safe, and curdles itself into a cold
anticipation, a tempered excitement. I used to thrive on that kind of feeling
all the time. I’m having nostalgia for my own nostalgia.
Joseph Volmer is Clearing, and he’s been at it for quite some time. In
fact, Themes marks his fifth cassette
for Lillerne. The fifteen untitled pieces – well, Themes 1 to 15, I guess –
were recorded to hand-cut tape loops and layered and processed from there.
Perhaps not surprisingly – I knew it –
these Themes billow like clouds,
vaporous, opaque, hazy, like soft-focus films of memory or faded photographs.
It’s pretty safe to assume that any Clearing tape is worthy of jamming in a
cassette deck any time you want the sweet swell of ambience to fill the room, and
Themes continues to prove that you’ve
made the right choice this time around as well.
https://clearing.bandcamp.com/
https://lillernetapes.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
FINAL COP/COP FUNERAL “Final Cop/Cop Funeral” (Already Dead)
An appropriate split for the times: Final Cop (German Army/Peter Kris)
and Cop Funeral (Josh Tabbia) have joined forces via shared moniker noun and
shared penchant for sonic destruction to superheat the establishment until it
boils and expands like a bubble, bursting outward in a grimy gust of withering
stench. Such is the rot at the heart of said establishment! But hey, I’m not
here to get too political …
Look, you’re not going to listen to Final Cop or Cop Funeral for the
nonpolitical aspects of it, so strap in bucko, or else you’re liable to get
whiplash, or maybe hurtle through the windshield, as this automobile of sound
and fury spins out of control. And there won’t be anyone to protect and serve
you either! Final Cop does what you expect, dismantling the concept of
industrial/electronic/noise and causing it to collapse around samples and synthesizers.
There is an amazing track called “Solving Homeless with a Hammer” that
encapsulates the cleansing burn society needs by way of blistering magmic synths
walls. Final Cop: the authority every neighborhood needs.
Or also maybe Cop Funeral. The Already Dead head Tabbia mixes oily
gristle in ProTools and places his laptop strategically atop a lit stove. These
are all things that you should not do to oil, or gristle, or ProTools, but the
results are fabulous. As Tabbia is known to do as Cop Funeral, he conjures
heaving wastelands of utter despair and joylessness and somehow whirls them
into a force of formless rage, a cloud of unrequited spirits back to avenge the
wrongs done to them. Spotlight track: “I Tried and It Sucked,” a behemoth of
disappointment, something we can all relate to these days.
True to form, Final Cop and Cop Funeral are donating all proceeds from
this release to CHIRLA, the LA-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights,
which works “to advance human and civil rights of immigrants and refugees.” Because
shouldn’t we just help people, right? Watch out for each other, pick each other
up when we’re down, or maybe ensure that the most vulnerable among us aren’t helplessly
ground up in the jaws of the machine?
https://germanarmymusic.bandcamp.com/
https://copfuneral.bandcamp.com/
https://alreadydeadtapes.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
SOLID WASTE “City of the Cosmos” (Distant Bloom)
Solid Waste has dissolved into the ether. (And yes, I know how weird
that sounds.) The trio – Nate Bethel, Josh Kahl, and Mario Martinez – once stormed
the St. Louis ambient/New Age scene, landing righteously and appropriately on
St. Louis ambient/New Age institution Distant Bloom after a couple of other
remarkable tapes elsewhere. City in the
Cosmos is posthumous – we will no longer be graced with the presence of
Solid Waste. (Again, that sounds weird, sorry.) But fortunately, as it happens
with all things wonderful that leave us too soon, we are at least able to enjoy
one last morsel of Solid Waste (sorry …) before the coming of that long, dark
night.
Distant Bloom has it right – the label mentions 1970s German kosmische,
1980s Japanese environmental music, and 1980s-1990s American New Age when
discussing Solid Waste. And that’s no lie – anybody mentions any one of those things in my presence and I
usually start slobbering Pavlovially. So when I say City of the Cosmos hits all those beats, just know that I basically
fainted from sheer joy while I listened. The trio zones out with synthesizers
much of the time, but they’re not afraid to knock you out with distinct
rhythms, such as the on the surprisingly upfront “Friends of the Earth” (there’s
that Japanese environmental music in play!). Even “Deep Forest Portal” has the
hint of a pulse, but it’s mostly the synthesizer arpeggios that carry the day.
And they carry you into deep trances, all the time, spectral sci-fi goodness
washing over you and leaving you floating in pristine stasis.
Isn’t that why we all came here in the first place?
This last little bit of Solid Waste is a perfect career capper, and has
me glancing at my watch ready for the inevitable, welcome, and glorious
reunion.
https://distantbloom.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
AZALEAS “Colorspace” C34 (Distant Bloom)
We now know Azaleas and Distant Bloom quite well, don’t we? We can
anticipate what will emanate from our speakers and into our dining rooms and
worksheds, our terrariums and yoga domes. I don’t know where you happen to
listen to your melancholy ambient music in your own abode, nor do I presume to
tell you how to do your thing or live your life. I will offer one piece of
advice though: try to listen to Colorspace,
the new Azaleas jammer, on a good set
of speakers in a room that reverberates out to infinity. Maybe a glass-enclosed
one with a swimming pool.
But Colorspace is so introspective
that the smaller the space you’re in, the better you may be. The Azaleas trio –
Alice Andres, Kat Andres, and Kyle Wade – make music like they’re breathing,
each constant huff of vaporous tone a full-body hit of natural wonder. The
synthesizers sparkle and twinkle like sunlight on a lake, the entire tableau
distilled into the sonic equivalent of vivid wonder. But of course there are
storm clouds on the horizon – when are there not? – and an existential danger
lurks. But it’s out of reach, out of time, and Azaleas can only harness what
they themselves can control. This they offer back to us as peaceful visions,
New Age meditations on the Midwestern wind, dispersing into the atmosphere. Floating
somewhere out there over us and gently coming to rest within our bodies.
https://distantbloom.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
KHYEX “Sparrowing” (Hotham Sound Recordings)
Vancouver’s Keith Freeman is an introspective fella. As Khyex he weaves
impossibly gorgeous guitar melodies, loops and samples, and synthesizer
accoutrements together into an astonishing whole, at once internally focused and
also universal in scope. Vocal snippets appear throughout, and Freeman treats
each one with a sense of wonder, giving each some space to breathe and allowing
specific personalities to peek through. It’s like we’re listening to a dream he
once had, and he’s provided us a soundtrack for it. And while it’s not, Sparrowing could easily be mistaken for
a guided meditation recording. I’m feeling meditative, and it feels like there’s
a purpose to the whole thing. How could there not be a purpose to this?
Maybe we’re just spectating as Freeman’s own guided meditation unfurls
before us. That would explain the hermetic nature of the recordings, the
insularity, the inward focus, like he’s processing everything that he’s ever encountered,
all moments, important ones and mundane. How does it all together? What gives
our lives meaning, purpose? We’re with him here, within him, listening to the
Khyex response to stimuli, experiencing the reverberations within his own head.
Maybe that’s what this tape is – a continuation of that chamber between his
ears through which reverberates the mysteries of life and existence. Wouldn’t
that be something if we could help him figure out what he was trying to get at
this whole time? I’m sure you can email Hotham Sound if you want to bounce
ideas off anybody. Or if you just want to pick one of these delightful cassette
tapes up for yourself.
https://hothamsoundrecordings.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
ENOFA “All Roads Lead to Polesworth” C60 (Third Kind)
Enofa’s a decidedly and wonderfully British electronic artist that goes
by the name Ross Baker when they do their taxes each year. I don’t latch onto the
Britishness of this just because “Polesworth” is in the title or because it was
released on Brighton stalwart Third Kind, there’s just a sense that this hi-NRG
electronic pulsefest is a total throwback to 90s raver culture, the energetic
rhythms and effortless melodies perfect for that retrofuturist dancefloor. I’ve
gotta say, too, that I’m a sucker for what Baker’s slinging here – I can pop
this on and relax to it all day, proving that you don’t need to stand up and wiggle
to thoroughly enjoy it. And trust me – I’m an expert at sitting down these
days.
Baker has appeared on Third Kind before with Seltrac as International Debris, another incredible release, and if
we’re going to start getting regular releases from them like this, we should
probably mark our calendars for when those releases are going to happen. It’s
not easy to put together such a streamlined body of work as All Roads, but Baker weaves in and out
of cuts like they're assembling an expert mixtape, the more fervent tunes residing
with equal comfort and natural placement next to chillaxed comedowns. So yeah,
a regular schedule here would be nice. But even if we have to place All Roads in a vacuum and ingest it
without context, we’re still taking in sixty minutes of the dance equivalent of
high-speed future transportation, frictionless and smooth, efficient and
beautiful. And winding up at Polesworth, if you can believe it.
https://enofa.bandcamp.com/
https://thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
SNOWFLAKE ORCHESTRA “Snowflake Orchestra” C62 (Cosmic Winnetou)
They’re both at it this time.
Our favorite Stuttgart ambient synth artists Joachim Henn and Günter Schlienz have teamed up as
Snowflake Orchestra, the single greatest frozen-precipitation confab in the
history of music. The front cover of the j-card says it all – and it doesn’t
even say anything. It’s just white snowflakes against a black night sky,
illuminated by a light source out of view; a streetlight perhaps? It’s a solid
stab at selecting Stuttgart streetlights as the source streaming silvery
illumination into stifling starless sky. But maybe that’s just me, and we’re
supposed to focus on the stillness – each white speck is both a recipient of
sonic accompaniment and a participant in the chilly nocturnal dance. You can
let your mind drift on the updrafts along with our delicate frigid muses.
And that’s what Henn and Schlienz do here – they immerse themselves in
the falling snow and become one with it. The Snowflake Orchestra pieces are
light and delicate, yet carry a sense of mystery and wonder that begs close
attention. Know how every single snowflake is a unique design? The Orchestra
here leans into that, treating the natural variations with reverence while
watching them blow around through the street. The sounds are what silence
sounds like if it had sounds, like breathing and waiting and watching in song.
That’s a neat little trick the Snowflake Orchestra is able to pull off – but if
I trusted anybody doing that, it’d be Joachim Henn and Günter Schlienz.
http://cosmicwinnetou.blogspot.com/2020/12/cw51.html
--Ryan
VLK “Nur Darme Stu Turmiento” C36 (Strategic Tape Reserve)
VLK’s 2018 jawn Avril and Sean in Camden was my introduction to the New Jersey DJ
(or at least VLK was once based in
New Jersey), the tape chronicling a young VLK’s commute to and from work with a
boss who listened to a lot of Sean Hannity and dumb stuff like Avril Levigne.
(I think I’m remembering that correctly.) It is a weird concept, but it absolutely worked. Nur Darme Stu Turmiento is also a weird concept that totally works,
and it also happens to chronicle another of VLK’s employment adventures. This time,
instead of being stuck in a car, VLK is instead stuck in an Italian restaurant,
forced to listen to late-1990s radio and being accosted by “Rat Pack–adjacent” personalities and “the
odd operetta aria outsider.” I can only imagine one’s boss at such a 1990s
restaurant as a paisano wannabe
goodfella. I can already hear him speaking in an amazing accent in my head.
Nur Darme
Stu Turmiento is a mixtape that aims to recreate the feeling of working in
such a restaurant. In fact, the entire j-card is a recreation of a menu from that
type of eatery, and it looks remarkably authentic. The music is not what you would expect to pipe in
from the PA – that would be more along the line of Old Country crooners and
opera singers wafting in the background. But VLK takes this concept and mashes
it right together with electronic proclivities, weaving together an astounding
mix that’s singularly current in its stylistic presentation yet retains a
distinct Hoboken-Italian-restaurant flavor. The new and the old flow seamlessly
together, a winsome meditation on a singular environment by someone who’s
experienced both the front and the back of the house. Plus, it’s just a banger
of a tape – no need to sugarcoat there.
https://strategictapereserve.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
MIDNIGHT WINDOW SCREEN “Orange Achievement” C38 (Personal Archives)
I am at a total loss when it comes to Midnight Window Screen. Online
search engines take me to Lowe’s, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, and other companies
specializing specifically in screens for your home. But that’s not what I’m
looking for, Bing! That’s not what I’m asking about, Jeeves! I want to know
more about these Midnight Window Screen folks who make music, the ones who’ve
released Orange Achievement into this
world. Why won’t you help me out, just a little?
I guess I’ll have to do all the heavy lifting myself, then. MWS is a
“band,” ostensibly, in that it looks like there are three people in play here,
although their photographic likeness is smeared with paint on the j-card. The
trio (I’m just gonna lean into it) dons a meditative fedora for the most part,
although “Infinities of Black” begs to be called noise, what with that piercing
frequency. But in general, synth tones mix it up with soft drums, while
vocalizations happen back there in the mix somewhere. Side B hits a few more
noise notes again with low-pitched seismic rumblings, but these are simply
grumbly textured passages rather than ear shredders. And while “Pure Tibet”
wants to close this thing out with lovely ambience, it gives way to the
10-minute “Cobwebs and Memories,” which sort of wants that, but sort of doesn’t
– the drums clatter like far-off thunderclaps that ride the vibe all the way to
the end of the line.
So in the end, Midnight Window Screen seems like a singular, focused
entity, and it plays like that too. MWS combines fascinating elements and
emerges unique. Hard to do, people!
https://personalarchives.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
VARIOUS ARTISTS “Content Aware” (Jollies)
A ten-track comp to mark Jollies’s tenth
release, Content Aware exists as a
perfect reminder of where the wacko electronic label has been and points toward
an equally wacko future. I’ve personally enjoyed every Jollies release I’ve
been lucky enough to get my hands on to a sublimely thorough extent, and Content Aware is no different. In fact,
I’m only familiar with two (!) of the artists on it, Kritzkom and Asymmetrical
Head, so that gives me an entire 80 percent of this thing to discover. And if that’s not a good
reason to dive into a comp, I don’t know what is.
I mean, it’s really the best reason, especially
if you trust the label putting the thing out. And I do. And it is. As usual,
the lovely, dank, downtempo electro pulses with intense mood, and each artist
makes themself at home on the tracklist. Francine Thirteen’s track is a nice
vocal-led torch song, and Jap Kasai gets wildly playful on their quirky
contribution. But the overarching aesthetic is fully in line with itself,
making Content Aware the perfect
tenth-release celebration for Jollies. There’s the uptempo crash of Sentry, the
clicky pulse of Kritzkom, and the theatrical synth work of Private Grief, all
Jollies tested, all Jollies approved. Why don’t you get in here and discover
something for yourself, you savvy listener you?
NIGHT FOUNDATION “Let There Be Light” (Flophouse)
Miami’s Richard Vergez does the opposite of what you’d expect from Miami,
where you’re normally accosted by all the Dolphins teal and … Vice pink and dusk clubbing and coeds
and cheap cocktails – perpetual spring break, right? Well, you fools – strap in,
because you’re in for the surprise of your lives! Or maybe not, depending on
what you expect from something called “Night Foundation,” and also whether or
not you even know about the Miami
connection, which I did not until I looked it up. Let There Be Light is, in fact, a tour de force of ambient
synthesizer explorations, kosmische introspections that illuminate what it
means to be you and how you connect to the wider universe. It’s not, decidedly,
a place where brain cells go to die.
According to Vergez’s Soundcloud page (no
Bandcamp?!), what you’ll mostly hear in his work is Arp Odyssey, synth strings,
and tape loops, and that’s what Let There
Be Light mainly offers. Every motion, every movement is deliberate,
languidly paced, hints of melody and rhythm peeking through the gloom. Because
that’s what we’re doing here – we’re moving from darkness to light, from night
to day, from inner to outer, but just barely. Night Foundation holds the noir
atmosphere throughout, even when the final strains threaten dawn. There’s
probably something there to latch on to, to feel good about, but not until
those first tentative steps are taken out from behind the nocturnal curtain.
Even if in the end we end up retreating back to the darkness, we’re at least
trying something new here, right? And that’s always a good thing – no pink or
teal or whatever to mess with the melancholy.
https://soundcloud.com/night_foundation
https://flop-house.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
DERE MOANS AND HORSELOVER FLATS “Lax Myths / Essentially Negative” (Strategic Tape Reserve)
What better way to get back into the game than
with two of my favorite electronic weirdos, Tony Lien, aka Dere Moans and purveyor
of Bad Cake Records, and Tim Thornton, aka Horselover Flats (and Tiger Village,
among others) and purveyor of Suite 309? I’ll tell you what better: a split
album by these two nuts on the aggressively intellectual Cologne-based cassette
label Strategic Tape Reserve! It should come as no surprise that the
combination of these three things – artists x 2 and label – have resulted in a
wildly inventive maelstrom of cacophony. At times harshly obliterative, at
others fantastically mesmerizing, Lax
Myths (the Dere Moans side) and Essentially
Negative (the Horselover Flats side) dream of definite futures where
androids definitely dream of electric
shrimp.
Did I type shrimp? Weird.
Anyhoo, Dere Moans hits hard and quickly, with
Tony repurposing some material he’s had laying around throughout Covid and
mashing it into a chunky paste of noisy sample jams. Don’t call it
plunderphonic: or, wait, it’s pretty plunderphonic, but then again, Dere Moans
is the best at that, so let’s cut him some slack. Lax Myths is bracing, that’s for sure, and the pace and volume
doesn’t let up regardless of what slides through the old sound-mulcher. It’s an
action-packed blast of face-melting vibes – the Total Recall of this package.
Tim as Horselover Flats loves him some Philip
K. Dick, and as such, we’re kindred spirits (I’m obsessed). Grabbing his
moniker from VALIS, Tim last played a
show, again before Covid, not as Tiger Village or CDX but as this Dick-inspired
incarnation of himself. Armed with sine waves, kick drums, and voice, Tim
crafts a paean to the literary master, a future-noise collage whose tracks are
all titled after Dick-isms. Appropriately schizophrenic and disruptive in
nature, Essentially Negative is his A Scanner Darkly, mind rending but not
aware. A glorious, nightmarish trick.
But in the end, you get these two on a tape,
you can’t go wrong. Strategic Tape Reserve does not go wrong either. Frankly,
they never do.
https://deremoans.bandcamp.com/
https://suite309.bandcamp.com/
https://strategictapereserve.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
BBJR / ARU “Europe 2172” C37 (Personal Archives)
I know what I’ll be doing in
the year 2172: chilling in the literal afterlife. What about you guys? For Bob
Bucko Jr. and ARU, they’ll be fresh of their sold-out, co-headlining European
tour, each decompressing in a separate mansion while already germinating the
ideas of their next collaboration. Bodies full of legal, mind-altering
substances. Evolved craniums pulsing with creative energy.
Imagine that, Europe still existing in 2172! So rich.
BBJr. and ARU – aka long-running Dubuque project of Randy Carter –
predict the future here on Europe 2172,
an imagined artifact of that glorious triumph of live performance. Bucko
tinkers with his gadgets and guitars, his pedals gleaming in the setting sun,
melding generous ragas with future meditative jams, all but forecasting what we’ll
all be listening to 150 years from now. (Well, those of us who haven’t been
raptured, that is.) ARU dares to turn the tables on BBJr., entering with some
milky dub that curdles and spills all over the gears and circuits, clouding
everything purply, shimmying and shuffling in dizzying chaos. But this is what the
2172 kids are clamoring for – or their clones are anyway, who’s to say which is
which, especially from a legal standpoint. ARU delivers. BBJr. delivers.
Our future is once again less bleak. Our past selves from 2021 are
grateful that either Bucko and Carter are clairvoyant or time travelers. Either
way, we benefit.
https://bobbuckojr.bandcamp.com/
https://arumusic.bandcamp.com/
https://personalarchives.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
DOGS VERSUS SHADOWS “Oscilloghost” (Third Kind)
You’re warned from the start: Oscilloghost
isn’t for the weak-willed, it’s for the truly hearty, those whose
constitutions can withstand a fright or two. And Dogs Versus Shadows, aka Lee
Pylon, lays it on thick, the suspense I mean, letting the spirits occupy his
synthesizer rigs and just get all gooey in there with the ectoplasm and the
wisps of whatever ether they’re made out of. Maybe they’re just figments of
ESP, but they sure sound real. They sure sound like they’re hovering just on
the other side of the physical plane, waiting for the right moment to bend
reality to their will and manifest.
Lee Pylon allows them to manifest.
Yeah, he’s like a medium or something, channeling otherworldly
entities, sometimes like an actual witch or whatever, sometimes like Steven
Spielberg when he mixes childhood wonder and horror in equal measure. At any
rate, the tones and tales are real, the experiments in sonic parapsychology
teasing out the creepily visceral and wondrously ethereal simultaneously. It’s
easy to get lost in the inky blackness of a winter woodland, wandering restlessly
as you search for meaning. Dogs Versus Shadows provides the soundtrack for
that, and maybe it turns out that – spoiler alert, Jack! – you’re the one who’s
the Oscilloghost after all. Wouldn’t
that be a scrumptious twist!
https://dogsversusshadows.bandcamp.com/
https://thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
COPS “Energy Trap” C46 (Cosmic Winnetou)
I feel like we’re hearing a lot about cops these days, but not in a
good way, you know? Well, I’m here to remind you that there are, believe it or
not, good cops out there, ones who wield their badges with courtesy and
respect. Is it any surprise that these Cops (yes, cap “C” now) are from
Brandenburg (in Germany) and not, I dunno, Minneapolis? I’d venture a guess
that there aren’t many Cops fans in Minneapolis. It’s too soon there … and
everywhere really.
But these good Cops don’t wield any weapons, unless you consider
synthesizers a weapon! I know a few people who might feel threatened by
synthesizers, but you shouldn’t be threatened by Niklas Dommaschk or Oliver
Koch, the partners on the electrodub “beat.” Far from the hardened police who
face dangerous criminals on a daily basis, Dommaschk and Koch ride the cosmic
wave into blacklit swirls, pulling scramble suits over their heads and going
deep undercover. The intake is the outtake, and the result is the sea of vibe.
I’d like to see somebody get busted with a kilo of Energy Trap. Intent to sell? Heck yes.
Slow tasered electricity pulses through the haze. Clouds at night. City
streets and on patrol. Cops has your back, my back, everybody’s back. It’s hard
to believe, but this rehabilitated image is ripe
for catching on. These Cops only serve
and protect.
http://cosmicwinnetou.blogspot.com/2020/12/cw53.html
--Ryan
ANGEL SIMITCHIEV & LINUS SCHRAB “Airborne” (Amek)
As if you didn’t know what you were getting into right now. Angel
Simitchiev runs Amek, and is also Mytrip. Linus Schrab is V I C I M, an Amek
alum. Together, they should inherently distill the Amek brand/sound into its
most basic form. That they do it is not a surprise; that they continue to
evolve the work of the label and push themselves in amazing new directions most
definitely is.
No, wait – I’m not surprised that they do that at all. I’m just
astounded at the result, that’s all. As if “that’s all”! But anyway, Simitchiev
and Schrab are dark ambient veterans, infusing their intricate vibes with alternately
heavy smears and delicate shimmers of synthesizer. Airborne is the sound of something massive gliding across the sky,
shadowing the ground below. It sounds like its size, and despite how big it is,
it feels light and airy too, like it belongs up there.
But that’s the beauty of Amek, and of the work of these two label vets –
they’ve perfected turning the crushingly bleak into the resoundingly familiar. Every
time an Amek tape arrives in my mailbox, I immediately get wistful – then I get
my rear end handed to me as it knocks my socks off. See? I can’t even keep my
metaphors straight around these folks.
https://amekcollective.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
SQRTSIGIL “Grayscale” (Antenna Non Grata)
Taking electronic minimalism to the next level, Polish artist Maciek
Jaciuk drops Grayscale, the color
equivalent of electronic minimalism. Sometimes, when the world’s against you
(well, against everyone, really), you
just need to sit back, strap on some headphones, and pop in a tape that’s
simply going to sound like you’re listening to electronically translated
functions of your own body within the confines of your own head. It’s
surprisingly tranquil, like you’re in Fantastic
Voyage but no white blood cells are trying to expel you through the anus of
the person you’re zooming around in. That’s what Fantastic Voyage was about, right?
But seriously, headphones are a must for a SqrtSigil release, because
you’re not living until you’ve experienced nuance. And nuance at this level. I’m
a sucker for experimental electronic releases that beg you to follow them over
all sorts of crazy terrain, and Grayscale
is one that presents a fractured path that must be pieced together as you
traverse it. It’s minimal but dense, intricate. Its color palette is deceiving –
there’s actually some hidden picture action going on here. Figure it out for yourself!
https://www.discogs.com/artist/5041370-Sqrtsigil
https://antennanongrata.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
GIOVANNI GRAMEGNA / AR.MA “Noise Study” / “Insect Hunter” C55 (Plaża Zachodnia)
Giovanni Gramegna suggests noise on “Noise Study,” the A-side of this here split. There’s
just too much tone here, too much to grasp onto to really slide it into a “noise”
category. Now, if Gramegna has been studying noise itself, and not presenting this side as a collection of “noise”
for us to “study,” then he may have
found something. Hidden in those sheets of feedback and power electronics are
wisps of beauty, shimmering celestial illuminations serving as living
groundwork for the onslaught of intensity. Or maybe this is just his idea of
noise. If it is, I want to be inside his head, like all the time.
Artur Maciak, aka AR.MA, has a little bit of a
different approach on “Insect Hunter” – mainly because side B doesn’t waste
much time building itself up to sound like insects
themselves. Well, just because “Noise Study” didn’t sound like actual
insects doesn’t make it any less of a spiritual cousin. AR.MA gets out into
nature at night, where there’s no light pollution, and records the experience. It’s
all wispy clouds on the wind and starlight, silhouettes of trees, and rustling,
indistinct movement. The insect hunter is always ready, and adventure is
constant and meaningful.
https://plazach.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
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