BENJAMIN FRANKLIN “Takes Time” (Bread and Animals)

Don’t know if that’s really the title of this tape, but one insert just has drawings of dripping pizza on it, and the other insert has a family of tigers b/w a car farting photoshop scribble. So….good luck with that. Lieven has a golden ear for curating/cultivating 3D lunatic musicality, and this 1-sided neon green Ben Franky CS keeps that legacy more than alive and well. Fingerpicked guitar jaunts, pilates relaxation tape soundtrack synth work, cheap Casio gothic/bluegrass drum beats sped up way too much (??)…it’s all here, and it’s all a good head-scratch. More odd Belgian tape goo from the land where you can NEVER have enough of this kinda shit apparently. Maybe it’s the wine talking, but I think I really like this tape. Now I have to rewind…

UTON “Live In Death” (Bread and Animals)

Everything I had heard by this band previously was deeply vague, hushed, Finnish intimacy. So I wasn’t prepared for this. A paint-soaked 1-sided CS collecting 3 wild live recordings from shows in France and…somewhere else (the writing/info is mainly illegible), Live In Death finds Uton in a far more fucked and confrontational headspace. The “Live in Paris” jam builds from standard Fonal-style post-folk clatter into a racing, ritual frenzy dense with electric menace and group death focus. Easily the single most powerful Uton recording I’ve ever heard. The second piece, “Live in Reims,” is even more fried and wigged-out, with freaky exorcism vocal convulsions and shuddering tonal meltdowns. In person, this must’ve KILLED. Senselessly, the insert is covered with elementary school squirrels nibbling on nuts. Oh, Lieven.

FROZEN CORPSE “Acid Bubble” (Bread and Animals)

More alcoholic rigormortis from these prolific Belgian resin-scrapers. Carlo and Eva squint red-eyed at a table overflowing with wires and beers and slowly spit on their favorite cords and plugs. Pedals short-circuit, power adaptors fry, Carlo burns a pack of smokes, and Eva giggles. This if life on Planet Corpse. The Antwerp equivalent of the Fag Tapes/Sick Llama school of non-thought. Scuzzy aimless bong residue spread across the inside of yr skull. Very Deathbomb-circa-2000/photoshop-looking artwork.

CHARLES BALLS “Love Affair With Lieven’s Sweaters” (Bread and Animals)

Canada’s favorite amplified garglers pick up the piss pot and pour it on their head. A million minutes of aural intestinal discomfort, tape deck attention deficiency, and field recordings of dehydrating manure. Affectionately titled after the Cosby fashion sensibilities of Bread and Animal’s generous proprietor, “L.A.W.L.S.” cunningly blurs the line between “defective sound effects library” and “avant-sonic schizophrenic synesthesia.” Contact-miked jars of dead bugs have rarely sounded this…radio-ready? For fans of sound.