GERMAN ARMY “What Brought You Here” C5 (Superpolar TaÏps)

 

Continuing in the Superpolar TaÏps cassingle series following that Qualchan. one, which also features the likes of Adderall Canyonly, Nicholas Langley, and moduS pony, among others (still a veritable Who’s Who of the international experimental tape scene), we come to one of the most prolific artists you can imagine, the San Gabriel, California, duo German Army. Long known for their “critique [of] US imperialism and nationalism,” GeAr has built their brand on punishing sonics, often bordering on electronic or industrial, featuring tribal rhythms and spoken samples, and smashing at the façade of the status quo until it shatters, splintering into abstract fractals that are arguably more beautiful and interesting (and fair) than what came before. On side A of their C5, GeAr blitzes through “What Brought You Here,” a taut drum-and-bass number flecked with ethereal echoes and faded tones. It’s right out of the German Army playbook, and it satisfies every craving you’d think it might. The B-side is called “The Form of Now,” but if you want to hear it, you have to get a tape … no streaming! Which is fine, the tape’s more fun anyway.
 
https://germanarmymusic.bandcamp.com/
 
https://superpolar.bandcamp.com/
 
--Ryan

GERMAN ARMY “Blending Landscapes” C50 (Soil)

I don’t think I’ve made it clear enough over time – German Army is here for us. Maybe now more than ever.

Because, you know – the pandemic. The racial injustice. The government. German Army is as fed up as we are. They always have been. Always will be.

So their release schedule is, shall we say, robust. And here is another in a long line, Blending Landscapes, which, if I’d have to venture a guess, was made with an ear toward interaction, inclusion, forgiveness. But not without a healthy dose of introspection and reconciliation. No Blending Landscapes without either of those.

That brings us to the “blending” itself – GeAr’s electro-smears are out in full force on Blending Landscapes, featuring darkwave pulsers, electro bangers, enveloping clouds of trance, and organic vaporwave, all feeding off each other, all bleeding through track limit distinctions in an inky river of curdled code. Or maybe it’s the black blood of our diseased culture. Either way, it’s gross, thick, liquid, and moving.

GeAr excels at finding the common denominator between people and cultures and highlighting and ridiculing the perceived differences, rendering them laughably ridiculous. Here they do us one better by peeling back the skin of our faces and revealing the bone-white skulls underneath. The common denominator is anatomy! We all have skulls.

And after all that, after all the written investigation, in the end it’s only proper to grab the nearest tape deck and zone out for a decently long time to this, letting Blending Landscapes infiltrate the pleasure centers of your brain. Also the thinking centers, and the empathy centers, and the disillusionment centers, and the dissatisfaction centers … you get the picture.

https://germanarmymusic.bandcamp.com/

https://dearsoil.bandcamp.com/

--Ryan

Q///Q “Vanguard Youth" C40 (Strategic Tape Reserve)

While there may be a slightly detectable GeAr flavor in Q///Q’s “Vanguard Youth”, you’re far more likely to taste a parallel timeline where, back in 1990, it wasn’t England but rather Portugal, and it wasn’t electric lutes, keys, & drums but rather synthesizers & drum machines plugged into those delay(s) and reverb pedals that a certain possible Spaceperson 33 decided to take up with their hypnogogic barrage of self-battling mid-tempo arpeggios and lulling mantric riffs against our earholes. If this isn’t a what-could-have-been homage, I don’t know what is. Same fugue-like fog and serene tangle of lolling grooves, but maybe slightly looser, hazier, and would-be-nappier, were the vocals* not so ceremonially executed and interest-piquing. 

The GeAr diaspora ventures further and further, far out and farther outer!

https://strategictapereserve.bandcamp.com/album/vanguard-youth

and/or

https://germanarmymusic.bandcamp.com/album/q-q-gear-side-project

—Jacob An Kittenplan

*Chanted half in Engrish, half in Portuguese