Constellation Tatsu is a crazy productive label. Recently I opened a box sent by them with two big stacks of their recent tapes. It was almost too much music! Instead of trying to speed through all of the albums and give the artists a sentence or two here, I thought I would review the Nov/Dec batch and recommend that you electronic journeymen (and women) out there go exploring each release from the label's already expansive catalog to find the pieces that GET YOU GOING.
Right away I'm intrigued by Food Pyramid's Live/Dead, which HAS to be a conscious allusion to a Grateful Dead album of the same name. Given that reference point, I'm not surprised by the hallucinatory nature of the two side-long pieces on the tape. It is a live album, but damn, it sounds great (tho additional recording was done later). Waves of note clusters (almost literally) wash over you as ya listen. I would have been in a trance had I been at the Bakken Museum of Electricity in Minneapolis.
Next I find myself in the gentle, but forward moving world of Samantha Glass' Rising Movements. This is some head-nodding electronic music, but not the kind I feel like embarrassing myself with dance over. Glass' tape might be one of the best releases on CT. The artwork is cool too.
Mitchell Turner's Cascade is the quietest tape of the four. Soft, sometimes "80s" synth pads and cosmos key zips all roll, rise, and fall in an ice fortress of a listen. This will be great for relaxation, methinks. There are guitars too! They manage to sound like how raindrops SHOULD sound.
Finally, I'm listening to the sold out split release by EN and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. EN's "Blood" is nearly thirty minutes of minimalism/drone. JCL worked off parts of EN's composition to come up with the "Blood Variations" on side B. This is an impressive collaboration. I love hearing artists work together. Overall, the music isn't going to be for everyone, but for those of you who are patient, quality music will enter your earholes!
Buy and Listen HERE.
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