REGULAR MUSIC “Online Summer” C47 (Never Anything Records)

Deep drum kit bearing distant weight, timbrally divergent arpeggiators and drones loop around in a disorientingly elliptical search for familiar negative shapes through thick oaken canopy overhead. 

Their Bandcamp page’s tag of “American Kraut” is certainly fitting.

Much like a beefy bouncer at a belligerent biker bar's nickname might be “Tiny”, so to is Portland’s “Regular Music” glibly named, their every immeasurable measure never once repeated verb(e)atim, their morphing, unsync’d synth and percussive sequences always one step ahead/behind the other, building and (relatively) relieving tensions solely through their proximity and relative frequency.

Slightly dark & completely disorienting, Regular Music’s “Online Summer" is great for zoning out and/or taking a solo walk through the woods to, its arhythmic cycles lending one’s imagination towards unKnown spell and ceremony.

https://neveranythingrecords.bandcamp.com/album/online-summer

and/or

http://www.regularmusic.org/

— Jacob An Kittenplan

ROSS BIRDWISE “Crisis Ordinary” C38 (Never Anything Records)

Not just arhythmic, but downright unapologetically dysrhythmic, Ross Birdwise specializes in exorcizing the ghosts of familiarity and context from The Beat just before our human brains can latch onto any lasting relationship with it. The only patterns to seek solace in are the ratios* of crisp notes to muted ones, echoed beats to rests, semi-tonal movements to indistinguishable pulsations of indeterminate length and frequency, electronic patch to possibly organic shredding.

In short, “Crisis Ordinary” is a real cluster-fuck of a beat-collage, with a wealth of haunting noise and drone accents to make listening alone at night a sufficiently nape-tingling task.

File under: "Haunted House Music from the Future"

https://neveranythingrecords.bandcamp.com/album/crisis-ordinary

and/or

https://rossbirdwise.bandcamp.com/

— Jacob An Kittenplan

*and, really, only the concept of any rational association here

MICROMELANCOLIÉ “Streaming” (Never Anything Records)

Not one to let a good reference slip past me, I have to credit my Tiny Mix Tapes colleague A B D for his astute observation of track names as wave formations on “Streaming,” the excellent new tape on Never Anything by Polish artist Micromelancolié. That shouldn’t be a surprise – A B D records (did record) as Mt. Accord in his spare time. He inhabits the same universe as Micromelancolié.

Water is a repeated element on “Streaming,” the title itself a nod to trickling liquids and the effortless flow from source to destination. Micromelancolié’s synthesizers play off this constant motion like reflected sunlight, sometimes frigidly and turgidly as the water drops below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, sometimes torrentially as it seeks its way around a steep cataract. In any event, Micromelancolié pursues the dynamics in each property, extrapolating upon it in inventive and captivating ways. The use of field recordings is also a nice touch – there’s certainly a deft hand involved when it comes to weaving in found sound.

…Or “Streaming” refers to digital music streaming, but c’mon – we all know you’re really supposed to buy physical cassette tapes. That’s what this internet website is all about!

Psh. Streaming music.

Idiot.

The perceptive reader will have already clicked on the Never Anything link below without even reading this whole thing, so I welcome you back from purchasing your tape (along with the rest of this remarkable batch, which also includes Event Cloak, Peter Kris, and Nils Quak) to revel with me in the sublime soundworld that is Micromelancolié’s “Streaming.” Pull up a tape deck and have a listen!

Micromelancolié

Never Anything Records


--Ryan

MORTUUS AURIS & THE BLACK HAND “The Journal of a Disappointed Man” (Never Anything)

We are all The Disappointed Man, and we share this journey of disappointment with the UK’s Peter Taylor, the man laboring for all of us as Mortuus Auris & the Black Hand. We live in the era of the Grand Letdown, and all of the people who have thwarted any of our stumbling attempts toward happiness are reflected here back into us, a reminder that the universe is cold and indifferent and even hostile when it comes down to it. And of course “recent events” – yes, everybody, strap in – have pretty much bleakened the future to such a degree that it’s almost impossible to consider without a heavy dose of Prozac to accompany the vision. It’s dark out there.

Or is that really true? Yes, it may feel like that sometimes, and without resorting to the pie-in-the-sky platitudes of “everything’s going to be OK” (because honestly, a good hunk of the time it’s not), maybe all The Disappointed Man really needs is a) a kick in in the right direction or b) something once – just once – to go his way so he can get himself back on track. (Forgive the pronouns – I’m just following Peter here because he’s a cisgender male; pretend everything’s gender neutral.) So, among the clearly heavy subject matter of this instrumental release (the MAbH formula of experimental/drone/ambient is sublimely intact) peek shafts of periodic light, as when death is suggested in the title of “A Grave Amongst the Spheres” but the fact that perhaps the body and spirit of the person in that grave has returned to the universal consciousness or energy flow ends up being more comforting than anything.

And that’s the beauty of Disappointed Man – while not participating in a sort of gallows humor in the face of sheer disillusionment, Taylor still takes an alternate point of view from the one that’s directly menacing him. It’s not hope, necessarily (although it could be), but rather it’s a shifted perspective that allows for considering the beauty in the turmoil, the moments of peace and rest while the world – a personal, singular world – is subjected to disjunctive forces at frequent intervals. “Solace in Histories” trickles down a gentle piano melody, its notes stopping time for consideration of the title where “solace” is the overarching mood but “history” takes on strictly personal meaning. One can’t help but ignore the broader, capital-H “History,” with its violence, and its wars, and its sheer volume in this instant, where you’re reminded of the quiet and precious interactions among people. Taylor takes this a step further on the obviously titled “Our Tender Interaction,” almost nine minutes of ache shared with one’s most intimate relations – partner, parent, child – but the weight of that ache spread over multiple shoulders becomes less heavy a burden.

The Journal of a Disappointed Man is a reserved and resigned document meant for sharing, a record of hardship and of honoring the ones who share that hardship with you, who are there for you through anything, and with whom the joys – small or large, frequent or infrequent – are celebrated together, making them all the more sweet and important. Disappointment is an overwhelming load to carry, and any relief from it, however slight, can be an intense reprieve. If that liberation results in unbridled hope, so be it. If all that comes from it is tentative joy, that can be just as good.

Never Anything

Mortuus Auris & The Black Hand Bandcamp page

--Ryan Masteller

COIN LOCKER KID "Discordia" (Never Anything Records)

I guess I'm damn lucky. Got number 47 of 50 of this limited run tape from Coin Locker Kid. So, let's slide this baby in and see what we have here. I might note there are sixteen tracks, nicely listed on the brief but functional j-card insert. Inside, a download slip falls into my hand. Another nice touch.

An assured voice opens track one. "I don't think this record is going to mean a lot." We'll see about that. A soft programmed beat pattern is overplayed with what appears to be a male vocalist singing backwards, a bit of melody is hinted at as a subtle gust of synth effects weave through the beat. Lots of great editing. This is good stuff!

This rolls into an irate male voice lecturing on the ails of the world at large. Then a near-rap over an oscillating shift between two tones. Everything is subtle, but effective. I marvel at the effort that went into piecing all this together. Singing voices, raps, stern adult lecturers....all palatable over the repeating shift of tones. "Hanging by a thread of cross checks and balances..." I couldn't have said it better.

By the third cut it is clear this is much more than it seems. A modern-day, no, futuristic opera is what we have here. I can visualize this onstage. Captivating. Saxophone? Really? Coin Locker Kid is not afraid to try anything...and it all works.

By "Echo Of The Eye" (5th track) we get an actual song. This too is tasteful but pointed. "In the echo of the eye, I die..."  The sax is back, but it's space jazz not be-bop. The next selection initiates with another lecturer (is "the kid" a student?) over another underscored synth based discourse. Side one continues in with a variety of more of the same-but different. I can't overstate how well this is put together. Let's flip it over...

 "As special as you are, you're not as special as you think you are" opens the second side. A stop-start affair but nevertheless another song. Tasteful guitar work, or is that programmed? Again, this demands a visual accompaniment . Film? Musical? Side two leans more on actual structured songs than did the previous side. Never am I bored. My coffee sat getting cold while I intently absorbed all that was offered here.

I'm not big on track-by-track reviews but I see I'm dangerously close here. With that in mind, I will say that side two two holds up well, though if I had to choose between them, side one gets the edge. Coin Locker Kid has created something just short of a masterpiece here. The irony being that other popular works in its class sold millions on a variety of formats while this jewel is but a run of fifty tapes.

Buy this tape, if you can find it. Buy the download if you can't. This far exceeds any comparison to other tapes in the genre. In fact, it supersedes genres. It's pop/ musical/ electronica. Coin Locker Kid is the most vibrant new artist I've heard-on any format-in years. This is the "Sgt. Pepper's" of the tape world. That by which all others will now be measured. Simple stunning.

www.neveranythingrecords.bandcamp.com

--Bob Zilli

TERESHKOVA “Golden Tomgirl” (Never Anything Records)

Portland, Oregon, native Jeff Lane keeps on keeping it weird on his latest tape as Tereshkova. The bedroom psychedelic pop fest Golden Tomgirl knows when to freak out and when it needs to shimmer and shine like a vivid half-awake dream. Often these two ends of the spectrum collide in the middle, and the result is a drug-fueled magic wand to the head, leaving you unconsciously screaming while obscured by clouds and dodging continuous trucks and thunder under a mother’s smile. Did I get enough references in there for you to understand where I’m and Tereshkova’s coming from? I sure hope so.

So to shove the obvious in your face just a little more, Tereshkova takes a lot of his inspiration from early Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev, with a little Floyd thrown in there, but all this with a lot more synthesizer embellishment and electronic percussion. Don’t worry, the requisite fuzzy guitar freakouts are there to satisfy the acid heads with a shoegaze fetish. Understandably, then, there’s literally not an ounce of disappointment for anyone – I think all those references cover the entire spectrum of whether or not you will appreciate this tape. Those who don’t aren’t on the right drugs. And stupid.

But don’t do drugs.

Never Anything Records

Tereshkova

--Ryan Masteller