XUNHOLM "Asleep in the Shattered Mirror" C102* (Skrot Up)

So I get this tape in the mail like four or five weeks ago, right? The packaging, art, everything looks great. Anyways, I decide to take a drive down to lovely Burlington, VT to pick up an old head over the weekend in my friend Raz’ minivan and I bring along a little brown baggie for analog stimulation. I gotta say, this is the one I was the most worked up about. It’s got this real sexy Italian horror aesthetic that flies pretty well up here in my native Quebec. I pop this bad boy in and brace myself. The beefy square wave reverie of Xunholm washes over me as we approach the American border. There’s this undeniably sexy tape distortion going on that’s totally winning me and then…

…the fuckin’ thing just fizzles right out on me! Yo Nick, the tape you sent me is missing a cog and there’s just stray tape and shit all over the place. Next thing I know some border pigs are tearing through the car looking for drugs. I’m like, “man. I aint even high right now.” It’s just literally just the ennui of this broken Xunholm tape that’s got me busted and bewildered (for sure). I’ve never heard anything like it.

I’ve listened to the Shattered Mirror tape on bandcamp a couple of times since then but it’s really not the same. The Xunholm tape is, was, forever will be what it’s all about. For the record this stuff is dark, pulsing, melodramatic in a way that the other 2 2014 releases are not. I like the ambient stuff too, but this is a singular cassette for sure and I’m psyched to dig up another copy. Favorite tracks: Wind in her Hair, Running thru her mind. Check it out!

https://soundcloud.com/xunholm

- - Gerry Foxcroft Mandel, signing out