C.I.A. DEBUTANTE"We Will Play For Spirits” 2xC45(SDZ Records/Crudités Tapes)

Part modular ambient/industrial/noise-loops soundtrack, part spoken-word socio-political critique, part esoteric conspiratorial psycho-drama, “We Will Play For Spirits” delivers like an abandoned warehouse filled to the brim with the very same greasy, hollow orbs one might find in a drainage ditch just outside a McDonald’s; i.e. it is a fucking mess. But, when taken in, in the right mindset, it is revelatory. And messy. Really, really fucking messy.

Imagine McGuyver deftly crafting a transistor radio out of two Ouija boards, a demonically possessed Teddy Ruxpin (who just so happens to be excessively invested in e-stalking* Dwayne Goettel), three stolen 9V batteries, and a rather rusty bouquet of contact mics. The very same experimental mood could conceivably be achieved from this FrankenBeaRadio, but CIA Debutante’s arrangements here are nothing short of premeditated and calculated, boasting an obvious labor of love over the expert tailoring of vocals-and-noise interplay that feed and amplify and feed, loop, feed, and amplify off one another, over and over again, this all creating an ever-evolving beast of a tale to blurrily chase.

So. What might this relatively sound like that has been done before? Not fucking much. Maybe think early Skinny Puppy’s synth-heavy instrumental vignettes, but with vocals added by a fuzzy/static/blown out, forced-baritone vocal-fry’d robot proposing some pretty-party-poetic far-the-fuck-out-there shit. &when there aren’t words meandering about, there’s an equally chaotic texture of modular synth and/or doctor’d guitar freakoutery snaking its way through this constantly shifting in-and-out-in-and-out-of-key confusion.

With or without headphones, these tapes just keeps getting better &better with each listen. Too bad the physical release is already sold out. Look for more CIAD in the future and/or download from bandcamp!

*as in e-ternally

https://sdzrecords.bandcamp.com/album/we-will-play-for-spirits
https://soundcloud.com/ciadebutante
and/or
http://sdzrecords.free.fr/

 --Jacob An Kittenplan

THE DICTAPHONE “TP HSS” (Crudités Tapes)

It’s hard to revisit and re-review a tape you’ve already done, which is the case for me with The Dictaphone, a swell post-punk outfit from France. I’ve spent many an hour poring over the words I wanted to spill upon them and their super cool release Tp Hss, which is extra super cool because all traces of vowels have been removed from the title (take that, you stupid vowels!). Those words coalesced into a godlike falcon creature that became a review at Critical Masses. Do I want to take that time again? No. Am I going to revisit The Dictaphone because I liked them the first time around? Hell to the yes.

But first, why don’t you wander memory lane a little bit and take a gander at those deliberately crafted odes I originally penned? I was in a particularly patriotic mood that day, apparently.

Are the beats still sparse, the low end still heavy, the high end cloaked in effects? You betcha. I feel the same amount of cynicism oozing from the tape reels as I did the first time. Suicide, A-Frames, Joy Division, all make appearances as spectral inspirations for The Dictaphone. The band churns out nihilistic anthems in a workmanlike fashion, but ropes you in to the proceedings with a sinister catchiness that’s impossible to ignore. Imagine The Dictaphone at the forefront of the decline of Western civilization, ushering in a grand new era while we eat it up like monkeys who are super hungry for banana-flavored social change. In the words of the illustrious Padmé Amidala, “So this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause.” I’m clapping my ass off.

Crudités Tapes

The Dictaphone

--Ryan Masteller

SPACE BLUE “Space Blue” (Crudites)

Lo-fi extraterrestrial New-Agey synth tape from an Electric Bunnies solo project. Released on French label SDZ’s tape imprint, which makes perfect sense because this sounds like music that a French person might make for a soundtrack. 

But lo! It was made by a Floridian who lives in Los Angeles. Two places where it would be highly likely to be abducted by aliens, become influenced by the music of other spheres, and come back to earth to make a chillwavey long form album about space, with names like “Relax,” “A La Luna,” and “Venus Of.” 

Lots of exciting surprise sounds hidden in this budget mix job…. bits of sound collage, clips from other tapes or field recordings, variations in the rhythms, interjections of human language. An underachievery tape that is nevertheless carefully crafted to communicate a mood and reward close listening. 

Kind of boring at moments but in a weird enough way to think about and listen to again. Somewhere between Suicide, Stockhausen and the X-Files original score at its best moments.

https://sdzrecords.bandcamp.com/album/space-blue

—Liv Carrow

V/A Réviviscence Ectoplasmique C60 (Crudités Tapes)

I've put off reviewing this fantastic compilation of forward thinking noise, rock and pop artists from what I believe is a French Cassette label, Crudites Tapes, because it's a daunting challenge to really review a compilation that gives the release justice. All the songs don't necessarily correspond to the one before as various acts have very varying styles of approaching music. To put it simply, there's a lot going on here. So I'm just going to wing it, who cares?

If you desire sonic variety in your cassettes, look no further. This cassette offers a great range of flavors for those who don't mind their music super noisy or psychedelically loungey. From challenging foreign vocal scream fests to surf reverb distortion doo-wop... it can be skuzzy and cool, as harsh as a microphone crushing a half stack - and as psychedelic as minimal hip hop beat accompanied by dark phoenix feedback and LSD handclaps. It's not without acoustic guitars, vocal harmonies and brass arrangements as well! There's songs in here that can meet the needs of a young dark-synth fanatic to a cool grandparent in a beach resort nursing home. There's also just strange foreign reinterpretations of classic rock/ballad structures, garage rock in different languages that I don't even know, you know ... if you like obscure, cool music from lands far away, ... wow, hey, what more do you want?

Also, the cover artwork by Piere Tatin is FANTASTIC! I wonder how big it is in real life? Kind of reminds me of the ghosts from and the color pallette of "Princess Mononoke".

So yeah ... blast it for new and neat surprises ... ! I recommend highly.

http://cruditestapes.tumblr.com/
http://crudites.free.fr/


--Jack Turnbull

Tracklisting:

A
1. Henri le Gorgeous & The Meth Addict’s Kittens Society Band Gang - Bijou anal pour l’esprit
2. Pierre & Bastien - Démocratie
3. André - Mend
4. RER A - Classical Murder
5. Yuppies Indeed - During Fire
6. Advent Nivid - Big Man
7. Anne F Jacques - Liège Plastique Carton

B
8. Carrageenan - Drive
9. Fracture Ouverte - Johnny Blaze
10. SSBASS - 200 HP 12,000 RPM
11. Shopping - Theme
12. Left Leg - In this union
13. Putavelo - Ma copine
14. 11ième étage - Je ne sais pas trop quoi faire
15. Theoreme - Paul
16. Guy Mercier’s Empty Mall - Péage Mélodie

Listen: http://sdzrecords.bandcamp.com/album/v-a-r-viviscence-ectoplasmique

Buy: http://sdz.bigcartel.com/product/v-a-reviviscence-ectoplasmique

2 X Crudités Tapes

The French label SDZ Records has a cassette imprint called Crudités Tapes which has a couple of fine releases of the analog family. Industrial in parts, electronic blippity-boppity here and there, and warm all over, The Spectrometers album Off is a thumper of listen. The group is clearly indebted to bands like Cabaret Voltaire and Suicide, which isn't a bad thing necessarily, yet they concoct a set of pieces that combine elements of stuff we've all heard before into a satisfying new whole. The title composition frames the album in mystery static as it is also the finale, but in between is good, quality music. I'd like to seek out more works by The Spectrometers.

ILth Zongz's The demolition of a ghost is like listening to a noir-industrial soundtrack. ILth Zongz is Chicagoan Christopher ILth (Functional Blackouts, Daily Void) and the album was made with reel-to-reel collages according to the label. I'm impressed. This sounds way more digital and as each track is simply titled "Song 1-9" we as listeners are encouraged to draw our own conclusions. Both tapes add a great deal to the musical dialog of our times.

Buy and Listen HERE.

Guest Post from Josh Johnston (Kentucky USA)

Various Artists “Marecages Restauration” (Crudites Tapes)

With a cover depicting a gator’s head on a child’s body, you can’t help but be a bit worried that the sounds won’t quite live up to the sights, but this French compilation is packed with enough sonic goodness to do a picture of the pope in a rhinestone suit justice. It’s a bit lengthy (twenty tracks clocking in at an hour), but the affair never grows dull thanks to the sheer variety of sounds scattered throughout. Windswept soundscapes and manipulated samples of speakers discussing schizophrenia saddle up beside uneasy folk and good ol’ guitar-driven rock. Electronics run the gamut from dying machine to fast-motion dream. The vocals are playful just as often as they are downright creepy, and the songs are sung in English almost as frequently as they are in French. There’s even a cover of “Strychnine” thrown into the mix, because why not throw a cover of “Strychnine” into the mix. Definitely worth trekking on over to Bandcamp to try/buy (http://sdzrecords.bandcamp.com/album/v-a-mar-cages-restauration).

 LOUGOW “King Conversion” (Friends and Relatives Records)
These two fifteen minute slabs of tape manipulation and percussion feel like nightmares I would have had after falling asleep with the television turned up much too loud as a child. The first involves wandering through a burning office complex. A drummer can be heard fooling around in a distant room as if chunks of the ceiling aren’t falling, but the smoke prevents me from ever actually finding him. When the situation finally grows hectic enough for me to call off the search, I open the first door I come to and find myself staring out at a crowded factory. The workers go about their business, stoically ignoring the machines falling apart only a few inches away. Is this just me? The second involves fighting off paranoid hallucinations in an abandoned hospital as the one-man cult who dragged me there conjures some violent spirits in the other room. The occasional peaceful mirage presents itself, but I hold on to the last one a few seconds too long, awaking to find half of my body already in the mouth of some new creature. When it finally swallows me whole, I slide down the chute, dropping back into the same hospital. Clearly, you need this.

BUY IT HERE: www.friendsandrelativesrecords.blogspot.com
listen (http://lougow.bandcamp.com/album/king-conversion)

Anthony Ford “Kissing the Poverty Goodnight” (Otherness)
When poverty hits the sack, it rests its head beneath a dream catcher that it snatched from a booth at the county fair last July, and when Anthony Ford gives it a final peck on the forehead, there’s plenty of overdriven guitar work involved. Side A sounds like Ford hit record then proceeded to surf through a box full of experiments and sketches, eventually taking the cassette out and taping it to a flagpole during a storm. This is a good thing. Side B finds Ford breaking out more conventional (though, no less interesting) songs, with hypnotic, trem-picked guitars riding atop excited, rolling toms. I thought of a surfer having some sort of epiphany after narrowly escaping being eaten by a shark, and, for reasons unknown to me, deciding to become a snake-charmer, but that could just be me. There’s plenty to sift through here, and anyone up to the task will surely find the experience to be an enjoyable one. Shoot Anthony an email (othernessinc at gmail dot com) and procure a copy or two. It’s worth it.