WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS “Nothing Here Now But The Recordings”THE SAVAGE YOUNG TATERBUG ep(Friends and Relatives)

Don't sleep!

Label description:

Originally released as an LP in 1981 on Industrial Records, which has long since been out of print, this is a collection of voice and tape experiments conducted by William S. Burroughs in 1959-1978. Explorations in home recorded voice, t.v. & radio cut-ups, backwards tapes, echo and sub-vocal speech - including the earliest surviving cut-up tape, recorded in conversation between Brion Gysin (the person who originally conceived the cut-up method), Gregory Corso, Burroughs and Sinclair Beiles at The Beat Hotel in Paris, 1959. From the liner notes: “These are recordings that weren’t intended when they were made to be seen as finished ‘works’ of art… The participants were thinking about alterations and the potentialities of the tape recorder… When you cut up and rearrange words, new words emerge, the future leaks through, seemingly at random.”

This is a bootleg that we believe originated from Norway.
Created in an edition of 50 copies and we
have only a small stack of them for sale.


$5 (postage paid in the U.S.)
paypal to: friendsandrelativesrecords@yahoo.com
or send cash to: 114 S. Huron St. #4, Ypsilanti, MI 48197

also available:

The Savage Young Taterbug – e.p. Cassette
(As known through his extensive touring of the U.S. sub-underbelly, as well as an unforgettable string of tapes on Night People, Charles Free approaches us from a different side of the street with this new E.P. of songs. Recorded live in hi-fidelity with only an upright piano and voice, the resulting boogie wuugie (extend’d) pain pop is up instant lock(es). To clear the air at the end, there’s a Partridge Family karaoke-cover that might possibly give DJ Screw’s children hope for a future in this world(s). From the liner notes: “recorded drunk on shitty beer in an apartment in chicago.”)

limited to 50 copies.
$4 (postage paid in the U.S.)
paypal to: friendsandrelativesrecords@yahoo.com
or send cash to: 114 S. Huron St. #4, Ypsilanti, MI 48197

Night People Spring Round-Up

The uniformly beautiful releases from Night People, the label run by Wet Hair's Shawn Reed of Iowa City, are surely not strangers to the readers of these pages. While we here at Cassette Gods often toil to shed light on the darkest corners of the audiotape producing world, bringing new talent to the forefront, we oftentimes find it helpful to check in with our old pals. The newest batch of NP tapes deserves special mention as there are some really ACE releases here. Let it go without saying that you'll probably want to check out the latest missives from Robedoor and Factums; enough said there. Here are some other spools that you'll surely want to unwind:


Goldendust "Digital Skies" c16
A really great short tape from this Midwest duo (LP forthcoming). Written songs with organ and minimal beats. Some new age-y lyrics as can be expected with this kind of stuff, but the production makes it entirely worthwhile. Crazy panning effects in the first song reveal the weirdness early on. Then some subtle guitar underneath. Crazy alien Vocoder singing leading to a darker B-Side. You can tell these folks are going for something more than creating a haze. Good time paranoid sci-fi vibes.


Cellophane Spill "S/T" c26
No hypnagogabop here my friends. This is some very cleanly recorded weirdo electronic music with fractured rhythms and a varied sonic pallet. It's similar to some of the best 1980s European stuff in this vein like Club Moral (but less harsh) or BeNe GeSSeRiT (but less weird). Most of the vocals are heavily processed and evil but when the first clear song comes in it sounds like they are actually singing in German? Some research seems to suggest these folks are from Texas, but it sure doesn't sound like it. Great stuff and the most unusual thing in the whole batch.


Blanche Blanche Blanche "The Songs of Blanche Blanche Blanche" c32
In my book the award for "album with the most heart" goes out to this Brattleboro, VT duo, but these guys are my friends so maybe I'm biased. Screw that! this is just exceptional stuff. Zach and Sarah write concise, complex melodic keyboard driven pop songs that evoke the common woes and WOWs of the 21st century 20something set, all without managing to slip into the same-old-same-old cliches so present in contemporary songwriters. Sarah is the "Mo Tucker of Vocalists", beautiful naive and solid as a rock. Zach is the mad genius behind the group's music and anyone who has followed his other projects (Heat Wilson, Horse Boys, Nals Goring) knows that the music on here is an evocative mix of modernist piano composition, 60's pop and 80's new wave. A match made in heaven.


Lantern "Stranger I Come/Stanger I Leave" c26
This tape opens with an only halfway successful attempt to enter the mirror, but once the electronic noodling is out of the way, Lantern reveal themselves to be more than decent Stooges inspired guitar/bass/drums/vox scorchers. The slower jams don't do a whole lot for me, but when they are on full-burn I like this tape quite a lot. A nice deviation from the usual NP sonic aesthetic and that's just like sister ray said.


The Savage Young Taterbug "Theme For Gasoline Weirdo" c16
As a performer and recording artist this guy Charles is a real STAR of the drunken feathered cap wearing set. Unlike his often baffling live performances, his two NP tapes have been really lovely, drippy-trippy listens. However, I feel like the overly reverberated trend doesn't necessarily suit what I find to be so special about Taterbug's music. I'm still waiting for him to record the truly Savage folk/pop album that I know he has in him. His songs and lyrics are real winners and it's a shame to bury them in so much of the murk-of-the-day. If you've never witnessed once of his more stripped down live sets, then you won't know what's actually underneath all this and I imagine you would find no fault with this stellar release.


Naked On The Vague "Midnight" c32
Remixed soundtracks from these Aussie mainstays. The spookiest of the whole recent batch. Ominous synths collide with foreboding feedback.

TATERBUG: “Boys of the Feather” c20 (Night People)

The directions that come with this tape instruct the listener to “play loud on weed”. I didn’t actually do either of those things, I just sort of laid on my bed and stared at branches out the window, reels spinning at normal volume, which worked out fine all the same. What first attracted me to this was Shawn Reed’s killer jack-o-skeleton cover art, but on “Boys of the Feather”, Iowa City’s most prominent resident dead head, the Taterbug, creepy crawls his way over a handful of songs of light chimes, Jefferson Airplane tape vacations, and Daniel Johnston-esque balladry. I make the comparison due to it sounding as if it was recorded directly to an old boombox just like Johnston’s early recordings, and when the Taterbug decides to sing, he wails just the same way, especially on the title track as he plucks away at what sounds like a one-string guitar. I’m pretty sure he even sits down at a chord organ at one point. Now, I’m not trying to make a DIRECT comparison between the two here, I know it sounds like I am, but I’m not, I swear (tugs collar). Although the execution is relatable, this really is in a world of it’s own, a world of sunny fields and floppy felt hats, unshaven armpits and really nice dogs. You guessed it, it’s a hippy dream, the kind of psychedelic that just trips out naturally without a million effects pedals and an 18-ft. high TV screen. I want to hug this guy, I want to hang out with this guy. Simplistic songs, bedroom brilliance at it’s best, and a great way to get ready for summer. Also, look out for his upcoming work with Ryan Garbes in the garage-pop band, Dunebuggy.

Comes with silkscreen J-card and xeroxed inserts in an edition of 100.

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