NO BASEMENT IS DEEP ENOUGH Label of the Year

This is not the first time we've covered Serbio-Belgian cassette-as-art-object label No Basement is Deep Enough, and for good reason. They've already released work by some great cats and kittens, but now they've gone and done tapes for two of my favorite goo things: Egg, Eggs and Garm as well as some bands I'm just getting into.  All of the following are cassettes in special packaging.  Check out the music player at the end of the post.

BR GARM "Garmsquirm2012" - Another winner from Strange Maine proprietor Brendan Evans.  Keep 'em coming Brendan.  This is the strangest Garm yet and the third within one calendar year.  This man has never been so prolific!  This tape is free ranging, totally madcap and playful, probably the best tape I've heard in a while.  Only 50 copies!!!

EGG, EGGS "Zygotic Crack" - The most current Western Mass jam session going on is Egg, Eggs.  It's got all the members of all the other jam sessions, but most especially it's got the bird man himself, David Russell. Hare Krishna indeed, with hawk skulls flying at your face!

ASIAN WOMAN ON THE TELEPHONE - Russian band with US release on Anonymous Dog and another coming on Feeding Tube.  All sorts of No Wave with dramatic flair.  Intriguing to the maximum, hear more! Lots of sounds on their bandcamp.  Thiw NBIDE release is a split tape with KREAMY 'LECTRIC SANTA, who presents a tasteful sample buffet.

HARRY MERRY  "The Life Lived" - Recorded between 1989 and 1994. Really great Dutch home recorded lo-fi songs.  Some of it sounds like Rudimentary Peni with casio and tape hiss and other parts feel more like acid damaged pop.  One of the most "conventional" releases on the label.  A really great find.

F.L.U.T. "untitled" - Contemporary Belgian warped hippie kraut throwback with worse drugs.  That's a compliment.

MAGMA TRAKT "s/t" - Super psychedelic contemporary Serbian noise sermons.  The sound of this dudes voice is hypnotic and frightening as he talks to you over electronics performing menacing washes and patterns.  Great minimal percussion parts on this.  They're not making them quite like this in the USA yet...

FAST DEADBOY - Two tape box set in an edition of 33 copies presenting some late 80s Serbian noise.  A lot of this music is charmingly primitive feeling, but it's an interesting artifact.  The tapes are house in one of the best packages from NBIDE so far.

Folks in the US can buy NBIDE releases at Weirdo Records, Time-Lag, Lighten Up Sounds & on Discogs.  All tapes are in editions of 50, so act fast.  The label can be contacted at ignacedb@hotmail.com.

Listen to Harry Merry, Garm, Egg, Eggs and others on the player:

No Basement is Deep Enough is curated by Ignace de Bruyn, with artwork and design by Milja Radovanovic.
Check out Male Bonding, a sublabel of NBIDE. I'll do a post on them some time later.

FAVORITE TAPES OF 2011

Just to be safe I've waited until the final minute of 2011 to post my best of list for the year just in case somebody scored right before the buzzer. It goes without saying that this is by no means definitive or complete, but if you don't have these tapes, your cassette playing power is certainly diminished. In no particular order:

ALTERED GEE "European Gees" c69 (L'anumaux Tryst) - what a great surprise. This is a 19 year old kid making extreme chillout R&B/electro that completely tops every synth and drum machine album released this year. The fact that I seriously doubt this guy knows he's part of a trend makes it all the more enjoyable. Sample here but definitely purchase here.

RYLEY WALKER & DANIEL BACHMAN "Of Deathly Premonitions" c30 (Plustapes) - steel string guitar duets that definitely have the spook about them. There's plenty to love when both of these young fingerstyle acolytes get together. Some of the material also has an Indian influence. Listen here or buy here. Ryley's solo tape "The Evidence of Things Unseen" on Plustapes is no slouch either.

GYPSY TREASURES "Buried Goods" c28 (Not Not Fun) - for a band that doesn't even play live and probably isn't even really a "band," this tape is seriously great. Modern psychedelic music. Listen here.

VILLAGE OF SPACES CORNERS "Morning Nap" c46 (Turned Word) - lovely folk album from Village of Spaces, nee Uke of Spaces Corners County. A demo version of the fine "Alchemy and Trust" LP. The tape is sold out from the label, but you can score a copy from Second Layer in the UK if you've got the dough, or just buy the LP version (different recordings, same songs, plus it's got Michael Hurley on fiddle on one track!) from Turned Word.

TOMY GARM "This Eros" c90 (Creature King) - This is probably my favorite tape of the year. I just wrote about this last week, scroll down...write to theancientmainer@gmail.com for a copy.

R. STEVIE MOORE "Ariel Pink's Picks Vol.1" (Laughable Recordings RSM Cassette Club) - really fine compilation of tracks from out Moore's distinguished home recording career, compiled by Pink. Available as a free stream and maybe purchase a few places.

NUDE SUNRISE "Should Be" c62 (Spooky Town) - expansive and gritty rock, a la "Sister Ray." Still available from the label.

BRUCE HART "Music For Drawing" c31 (Not Not Fun) - Zach Phillips, keyboardist and songwriter for Blanche Blanche Blanche and man of many pseudonyms plays to the sci-fi soundtrack set and does it better than rest. Audio sample or purchase.

BLANCHE BLANCHE BLANCHE "Songs of..." c32 (Night People) - I'd be crazy not to include this one here as well. A spotty dubbing job mars the quality of this outstanding first effort from the Brattleboro, VT duo of Sarah Smith (vocals) and Zach Phillips (keys, vocals). The song writing takes front seat and arrives with the same kind of freshness that must have been felt when Truffaut and Godard released their first 12" chillwave singles in 1959 and 1960. Still available from Night People.

UNTITLED TAPE that I received while playing a show at Gay Gardens this Spring - not sure what this project is called but it's an exceptionally well done collection of skewed folk. email nathanrainer@verizon.net and tell him Cassette Gods sent you.

BLOOD STEREO "Tape Hiss For Brainwash" c30 (Feeding Tube) - now that I don't work for the label, am I allowed to finally sing it's praises on Cassette Gods? I hope so...this murky and frightening little number is a fine addition to Blood Stereo's catalog of twisted vocal and tape experimentation. Get it here.

LEFT BEHINDS "Recess At The Psych Ward" c9 - great muppet hardcore a la the first Meat Puppets LP. Go here and you'll figure it out.

BIG BLOOD "Dark Country Magic" (Don't Trust The Ruin) - anything from this Portland, ME duo is worth checking out. They have lots to listen to on the Free Music Archive, but you really should buy some of their releases for the beautiful hand printed packaging that comes with tons of inserts. Their "Dead Songs" LP on Time-Lag is one of my favorite records of recent memory.

PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED "Second Edition" & "The Flowers Of Romance" (Virgin) - finding sealed copies of these on cassette during the most recent Cave Bears/Knight Howls tour just about made my day. Thanks to the Cambridge In Your Ear!

that's all yolks.

TOMY GARM "This Eros" c90 (Creature King)

Happy Boxing Day! Just about once a year I find something that I can unequivocally recommend to just about anyone. Last year it was Chris Weisman's Fresh Sip. This year it is the music of Garm. I will go on to review the cassette I'm holding in my hands by Tomy Garm, but first off I'd like to recommend that you go right out and buy B.R. Garm's just released first LP "The 78th Morning Tide" from Don't Trust The Ruin the swell imprint run by the band Big Blood. It's the best new LP I've heard all year. Completely skewed apocalyptic folk for all centuries. Okay, are you back from doing that? Good. Go back and buy another one or two copies for your loved ones. Done with that? Then read on...

The Garm moniker is used by Brendan Evans of the band Visitations (R.I.P.???), one of the most delightful and mysterious groups of the mid 2000s "free-folk" renaissance. Both their single LP/CD and double LP on Time-Lag are essential. Visitations also performs from time to time as AM Frank, a Suicide tribute band. On top of all that, Brendan is also the owner of Portland freak-haven Strange Maine, one of the coolest little music, movie and curio shops in the Union.

On This Eros or 'Something No One Wants To Hear' This Year's Opus...Down Home Whisperings he goes by Tomy Garm. The tape plays almost like an outtakes compilation of the LP. But like the best of those kinds of releases, it is more unfinished, sprawling and, in many ways, more illuminating than the LP. That being said, both albums are absolutely stunning, blending warped folk songs with weird sonic effects. The cassette is the first release on Creature King Tapes and CDs, a little home brew operation run by Brendan and Caleb from Big Blood out of the back of the record shop.

This long 35 song, 90 minute album is divided into a Garageband side (as in the Apple program) and a four track side. The first section is mostly made up midtempo eerie electronic vocoder songs (I'm feeling a little bit of Trans but also the dark pop of Danielle Dax circa Jesus Egg That Wept), but also touches down onto some wobbly folk-psych terrain that finds Brendan harmonizing with himself in a high falsetto recalling the work of his friends and collaborators in Big Blood. Wide ranging is the name of the game here. Some people may be turned off by such a long diverse album, but to me it plays out like a mix tape made with the utmost love and care. The apocalyptic edge of the Garm LP is somewhat subdued here. This is both due to the songwriting and the presence of synthesizers on many tracks. This Eros is by turns sad and sexy and at it's best occupies some sort of middle ground where erotic love and romantic love seem mingle with the bittersweet. He even throws in fucked up covers of Neil Young and Gordon Bok for good measure.

There isn't an immediate differentiation is sound once we get to the four track material on the B side, which goes to show how well Brendan utilizes the usually scummy sounds of Garageband to create natural sounding music. The instrumentation remains about the same: guitars, acoustic or electric percussion and keyboards. Upon closer examination, the four track cuts are definitely less dense and more reliant on stringed instruments. I'd say that the material on this side is darker, more experimental and improvisational, but there are many defined songs here as well. While I probably could have gone for 90 minutes of the more fully fleshed out material on the A side, it's hard to argue with an album that is as good as This Eros.

The double sided three panel fold out has great artwork that my poor cellphone camera photo does not do justice to. My copy is also hand water-colored, and I bet yours will be too. There is nothing on the internet about this tape, so you're really going to have to trust me on this. If you want a copy I suggest writing Brendan directly at theancientmainer@gmail.com

SAMPLE from This Eros Tomy Garm TAPE (starts at 1:45)
SAMPLE from The 78th Morning Tide B.R. Garm LP