DANG OLSEN DREAM TAPE "Zonk" C34 (Constellation Tatsu)

How deep does it have to get before you’re technically not at the beach anymore?

I feel like an asshole whenever I even think of saying that an artist makes “atmospheric (insert genre here)”, because that’s what music does; it provides an ambiance which either alters or maintains moods, right? Funk music makes you wanna dance and/or do “it”, heavy metal makes you wanna scrunch up your face and jar your brain loose from its comfy post, pop music makes you wanna talk over it and/or perpetuate consumer culture, etc…

The thing is, Dang Olsen doesn’t just tinker with your existing paradigm; he provides an aural portal for you to join him in his crusade for deeper dream appreciation. I had the good fortune to attend an art opening of his mostly chiaroscuro drawings and multimedia collages (digital photography and drawing) at a hole-in-the-wall gallery in Oakland a few months ago. After a half-hour of staring at his stark drawings, my partner and I left to get burritos. When I stepped out onto San Pablo Ave, I honestly felt like I had a contact high from simply being near the visuals of what Dang Olsen later told me were his sketches for working out his dreams” (rough paraphrase). The music has the same effect, for sure. Not just a mood adjustment, but a catapult into a deeper understanding. Sounds hokey, right? Well, I suggest you put some headphones on, pop this album on at medium volume, and try and go about your day without feeling the vibe. Take a walk anywhere. Clean the house. Reorganize your sock drawer. Without any chemical aides, your most trivial tasks will be imbued with cosmic symbols that will haunt your dreams. “Just Roll”, his prior release on CT is just as good.

PS- picture above displays the print included when picking up the 4-cassette Spring Batch by Constellation Tatsu.

PPS- exploring DO’s webpage is, in itself, a rad (head)trip worth taking the time to amble through. <3

http://ctatsu.bandcamp.com/album/zonk

and/or

http://danzodanzo.com/

-- Jacob An Kittenplan

DANG OLSEN DREAM TAPE “Moody Snooz” C30 (Hylé Tapes)

Dan Olsen is Dang Olsen, and if his parents had been smart, they’d have named him that right off the bat. But they didn’t, and Dan was just Dan until he realized he had a talent for warp zone pop nuggets, or maybe just pop nugs, and started liquefying his musical inspirations into fluorescent metallic goo. After a while, he stood back and surveyed what he had created, exclaiming “Dang!” Thus the prophecy was foretold.

This is not my first rodeo in Dang Olsen Dream Tape’s world: I reviewed his Constellation Tatsu tape Just Roll and loved it (along with his art, a perfect visual aid to the music – “eyeball brain rainbow entity”!). Here, on Moody Snooz, his first release for Hylé Tapes, Olsen continues riding the hypnogogic vaporwave train he’s been conducting for a while, marrying varied elements of the styles with an ambient bent, as if he intended all listeners to relax on a space beach after ripping gravity bong hits for a few hours. That’s right – you’ll not not hallucinate under these circumstances.

What’s weird is that I just added The Moody Blues’ Days of Future Past to my Discogs collection, because I have it on vinyl for some reason, so Moody Snooz, although it sounds nothing like The Moody Blues, makes me think of that. But this is a red herring, as Justin Hayward, John Lodge, and crew would never have come up with a tune as awesomely named as “Bud Booger Trance Majik” (and take that, Anthony Kiedis!) They also would likely have not been as adept at the act of balancing beats and space, as Olsen does. “High Guide” brings the drone with the subtle pulse, “Pumpin” drops the head-nod beat for cruising the strip, and “Stones” soundtracks the late-night comedown. And these are the first three tracks!

If the term “cold chillin’” is in your vocabulary (and why wouldn’t it be?), then Moody Snooz is the tape for you. There is no harshing this buzz – the Dream Tape rolls until it stops and then it unspools in your mind in the form of waves consisting of magnetic strips eternally wash upon a boombox shore. That is what the kids call “maxin’” and “relaxin’,” if I’m not mistaken. And I’m never mistaken. So get on it – the beach is that way, mon frère. Here’s an umbrella drink and a towel.

Hylé Tapes

Dang Olsen Dream Tape

--Ryan Masteller

DANG OLSEN DREAM TAPE “Just Roll” C33 (Constellation Tatsu)

If I had the money, I’d love to make a sound instillation with this tape playing on various boom boxes every fifty feet along a lazy beach, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.  It’s an instant mood elevator and nervous system calmer in one. The word ‘dreamy’ gets over-used, but this tape should be pictured in the dictionary above the definition.

Myriad synth mantras amble in and out of step with crisp, minimal beats that somehow hang out in the foreground without dominating, the moods varying from oh-man-I-slept-through-the-alarm-but-it’s-all-good-groggy to woke-up-to-piss-and-caught-a-shooting-star! This tape is good fucking times and I may just buy another back up in case I wear this one out! Hot damn!

http://www.danzodanzo.com/

and/or

https://ctatsu.bandcamp.com/album/just-roll

- - Jacob An Kittenplan