THE MUCH QUINTET “Volumes 1 and 2” C90 (Friendship Tapes)

Each member of The Much Quintet plays, but is not limited to, cello, piano, electric lutes of varying string-thicknesses, and woody/windy/bellowed keyboard-like instruments. They each also play in lock-fucking-step with one another; as in, for improv, this is diiialed-in. Both “Volumes 1 and 2” capture the intimate-bond/magic of deep-listening while jamming along W-I-T-H all your good buds, not a single note stepping on any other note’s foot or anything, each lick simply supporting all the others in ego-less grace. Amidst chaos and faux-stumbles, TMQ waft warm wisps of melody in & out of an otherwise deceptively consonant cacophony. Pretty rad!

https://friendshiptapes.bandcamp.com/album/much-quintet-vol-1-and-2

and/or

https://muchband.bandcamp.com/

—Jacob An Kittenplan

FRIENDSHIP CEREMONIES “Can’t Take the Country Out of the Boy” (Friendship Tapes)

Free jazz in the spirit of lo-fi punk, with tape manipulations. Raw and clangorous. The liner notes suggest a sort of new age psychiatry vibe. In fact, the deluxe handmade packaging somewhat outshines the recordings, between the funny enigmatic liner notes and a hodge-podge of imagery that defies expectations. The strange photo of an assembled plate of food on the edge of a sink is a nice corollary to the music, because they both strike me as documents of raw living. I look at the photo and – through the haze of human experience that separates me from the artist – I see a moment in Andy Allen’s life, his creative process, his prepared meal. Maybe it was delicious, maybe it was gross, but it was definitely the real raw-dog deal. The excitement involved in seeing that red plate of food perched at the edge of the sink is a natural equivalent to making “music for prescribed proportions w/ flexible content” out of bleating woodwinds and fast-forwarding cassette machines. Testify!

http://www.friendshiptapes.bandcamp.com

-- Kevin Oliver

MWCHINS "Pasta Straw"(Friendship Tapes)

MWCHINS : PASTA STRAW

heya, heres a guppie of a tape that goes down crocked!!! mwchins is one man and a few sounds. pasta straw consists of 3 tracks. i think. i guess. its a brief cassette of grambling and garbling and honing...honing all of itself way up into your psyckee. recorded onto cell phones in a few random cities, the tracks are named "repetitions" 1-3. you do indeed get repetitions, yet they do not seemed synched - thus delivering a bit of a dizzy effect unto your whole person. the sounds of a field sobriety test being failed. the insides of an old wooden pail. crumpled up debris on a dogs taint. mwchin rubble is surprisingly great! seek and find via : friendship tapes. (http://friendshiptapes.net/Friendship_Tapes/Friendship_Tapes.html)