THE TUESDAY NIGHT MACHINES “Lozenge” C50 (Strategic Tape Reserve)

 

You can say a lot about the Tuesday Night Machines based on the packaging of their releases alone. Take Hawaiian Yurt Music, for example, which comes housed in a burlap O-card. Or Roof Tent Rhythms, which is enclosed in an actual piece of folded tarp under which the Tuesday Night Machines slept one night while compiling the samples that would comprise the release. And now there’s Lozenge, which comes in a regular Norelco case but has a purple felt j-card, and the cassette itself looks like a bright gold brick.
 
To be clear, these are not faults – they’re entry points for adventure.
 
This time the Tuesday Night Machines have served up a massive analog delight over two sides, each one a far-out excursion to the outer reaches of whatever TNM happens to be tripping on. (And that does not suggest actual “acid tripping,” just whatever’s floating the TNM boat.) I’m going to be honest – I’ve popped this thing in and completely zoned out to its ever-shifting sense of reality or unreality, lost in its vastness but grounded in its sonic waypoints, which lead the way toward full appreciation. I don’t know what that means, because you can hear so many frequencies, it sometimes becomes impossible to differentiate what’s there and what’s not. I’m pretty sure I’ve got a handle on it, but that surety isn’t complete. And that’s for sure.
 
https://nightmachines.bandcamp.com/
 
https://strategictapereserve.bandcamp.com/
 
--Ryan

THE TUESDAY NIGHT MACHINES “Waever“ C20 (Self-Released)

The Tuesday Night Machines have put out some really fun, beat-oriented stuff over in Köln with those weird-weird-fun-havers, Strategic Tape Reserve, but here, with “Waever”, they swap out the drum machines & samplers & general Good Party Vibes for a modular AE Synthesizer and the somber drones and mesmerizing texture’s in its dynamic wheelhouse.

The overall effect is a touristed waterboarding of the senses, a viscous, heavy blanket, a glimpse of overwhelming isolation as the washes fill and wet every wrinkle of the sulcus with plumb fucking purple woe. It is beautiful-through-desolation, a heart-wrenching deep sea dive into aquatic depressions, and probably great that it’s only 20 minutes long as you’re bound to be holding your breath for most of that time. Perfect soundtrack for aquatic spelunking and/or getting keelhauled in slow motion.

https://nightmachines.bandcamp.com/album/w-ver

and/or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifo3xUOGJCQ

—Jacob An Kittenplan

THE TUESDAY NIGHT MACHINES “Roof Tent Rhythms” C42 (Strategic Tape Reserve)

This sprightly beater is for all the old school Strategic Tape Reserve fans out there. The Tuesday Night Machines give us “Roof Tent Rhythms”, an interweaving of tones and phrases from ancient STR ghosts* of Krampusnacht past…but don’t worry. There aren’t any switches-for-stitches anywhere to be seen, just hap-hap-happy downtempo(ish), kitsch-classic beats kicked out via "an old battery-powered Akai MPC 500 sampling workstation”**. 

The overall effect is a li’l neon-crisp night out on the town just as the sun goes down, and it is strongly recommend to pair this release with qualchan.’s “The End of All Seasons”, released just a month or so ago and truly one shimmying bummer-town of a beat tape, if you haven’t already had the pleasure of mopily nodding along with it***; the juxtaposing feels**** to be had after taking in these puppies back to back is weird and satisfying.

https://strategictapereserve.bandcamp.com/album/roof-tent-rhythms

and/or

https://nightmachines.bandcamp.com/

—Jacob An Kittenplan

*tunage deftly purloined from Beauty Product, Jöns, Belmont Lacroix, & Mr. & Mrs. Chip Perkins.

**so say the STR copy gods.

***do it!

****as with most STR releases, the back story on RTR will hip you as to why the fuck this tape came in a repurposed tarp, so do your googlin’, or bandcamp-bio-peepin’ as your curiosity dictates.