ATOMO/TONY ROBOT "Yawnkillers" C26 (Auralgami Sounds)

Tony Robot’s side on the “O” card hosts some sort of masked robot warrior, right hand out, gesturing a lightningbolt clad finger “downward”, perhaps suggesting that you’ll want to “get down” with this release, or maybe that you’re “going down” in a fight with said arbiter of pain. And with the three song titles on his side: “Doom Stick”, “Death Adder”, and “Fatal Roundhouse”, it’s safe to say that a double entendre hath been implied, as the dozen minutes feel like yet another sequel to the Rocky training montages, only adapted to today’s sports/energy drink aesthetic. Plenty of “hard hitting” beats, replete with actual explosion sounds and “heavy” pulsings throughout. Tony Robot, indeed, wants to “bring it”.

Atomo’s side is markedly more eclectic and explorative, albeit just as “extreme” in the “get down and stay down” department.  Track one explores a sweet li’l piano lick that’d easily fit in the background of Big Boi’s “Boomiverse” album, but with a roller-skate-rink-on-speed’s accompanying percussion and processed “beep beep” (think Samba’s whistle, but 4 octaves lower) to keep the booty and neck from shaking in unison. Track two is a doozey, weaving between 5/4 & 4/4 seamlessly, and adding a catchy vocal line at the end, with a 6/8, pitchbending, apartmentcomplexburner, to boot! The final jam, in 8/8, aims to please you into the ground, with effortlessly upbeat energy for days. Maybe millennia. Really, I’m too damn old to be dancing, or even neck-swaying to this shit, so I’m glad this set is short, being so incredibly condensed and all.

If you’re in the mood for dance-tronic beats from where the mid-west meets the mid-south, this is good food for your jambox.

https://auralgamisounds.bandcamp.com/album/yawnkillers-by-tonyrobot-atomo
and/or
http://atomo-cares.com/

-- Jacob An Kittenplan

BODYCOCKTAIL “Autobiographical Dynasty: 1996-2015” (auralgami SOUNDS)

This is an appropriate release for me to cover on my 300th anniversary for Cassette Gods. That’s right! I’ve done 300 reviews! That’s 2,100 in dog reviews. Wow! I’m a formidable internet presence.

Actually, this is number 302, because I forgot to check when 300 actually came around. I sort of blew that.

Whatever, it’s appropriate because there are like 300 songs on this tape! Actually, there are only 30, but Autobiographical Dynasty is a retrospective, so of course it has to cover a vast swath of material within its reels. And it’s a great place to start for Bodycocktail, aka Zan Hoffman, aka “Kentucky’s Punk Crooner,” because there are so many recordings he’s released over the past 20 years that it would be an almost impossibly daunting proposition to find a starting point. Luckily, Autobiographical Dynasty is here to fill that void in your life and point you in a direction of intimate fulfillment that you didn’t even know you lacked.

Loosely sculpted around a proto-new wave framework (Bodycocktail’s categorization), the songs exist along a spectrum that includes both Suicide and early Ween. What you should read primarily into that is that there are no rules that Hoffman really plays by, except that he has synthesizers and drum machines and tinny guitars, and that’s just how it ends up working. It’s barely jokey – I wasn’t convinced at first that I shouldn’t be laughing throughout this, but there’s no way I can. It’s serious, and seriously engaging, although cracking a smile is pretty much a prerequisite.

So for 20 years Hoffman’s been concocting stuff like this in his laboratory, and he never moves along the same paths as the status quo. It’s like he was faced with choosing a direction that he would drive in, but instead he built the world’s first hovercar. Truly, where we’re going, we don’t need roads. (To paraphrase another mad doctor drawing inspiration from the 1980s.) These songs are in the air, and in the ground, and each is strange and unusual and tectonic in its landscape-altering ability. Bodycocktail is seriously too weird to live and too rare to die, a standard applied by Hunter Thompson to an equally unconventional character. Autobiographical Dynasty will carry you through the weirdness to an extraordinary new place. Can you handle it?

Oh, one last thing: why is there a picture of Paddy Considine on the cover?

Here’s to the next 302 reviews!

Bodycocktail
auralgami SOUNDS

--Ryan Masteller

ROB COLLIER "Ten Simple Pieces For Piano" C50 (AuralgamiSOUNDS)

Louisville’s Rob Collier may or may not own a cinderblock. I know that if I were in need of holding down the sustain pedal on a piano for as long as he does, I’d certainly use a cinderblock. The foot cramps up if you’re holding that thing down the whole time. Thus is the charm in Rob Collier’s aptly named “Ten Simple Pieces For Piano”; metronomic chords and single keys slowly plodding away, felted hammers gently coaxing the longest reverberations one can get out of piano wire. The overtones are given freedom to run their course, interrupted only during another striking before another note (or chord) rings out and blends into the warm, warbly mess laying just below an otherwise cold, simple clock-tick of hollow melodies.

https://robcollier.bandcamp.com/album/series-11-ten-simple-pieces-for-piano

and/or

https://auralgamisounds.bandcamp.com/

-- Jacob An Kittenplan

CHER VON “Kuhh Duuh” (auralgami sounds)

Cher Von is the project of vocal seamstress Chervon Koeun. Much like indie darling Juilanna Barwick, Kouen uses her voice without the constraints of language in expressing herself musically. She instead opts to make up words and fuses them with other sounds to make a final product that doesn’t sound quite of this world. The strange beauty of the music resonates more after multiple listens. Close your eyes and soak it in.

Stream + Buy: https://chervon.bandcamp.com/album/kuhh-duuh

--Roy Blumenfeld 

WATTER “This World” (auralgami Sounds)

The cassette reissue of Watter’s debut LP showcases drummer Britt Walford’s (Slint) painting on the cover, which to me, is a far more appealing visual than that of the original release on Temporary Residence Ltd. (still a pretty nice landscape photo). Another reward for this particular release is the bonus track “Digital Camo” on the end of side A. This tape is begging for a cassette deck with the continuous side flipping option, to wear it down to a threadbare tether. Wear and tear this one, make it your own.

Anyone missing the instrumental flavors of 1990s Chicago and Cologne may take interest, as “This World” contains the work of seminal practitioners, even in guest spots such as Rachel Grimes of Rachel’s. I didn’t get the poster for the release show, that is said to come with each of the edition of 100, nor did I attend said concert, which also featured Steve Gunn and Ryley Walker, but it’s ok, I plan to see all of these artists someday, maybe all in the same show again if I can. It’s a nice poster of two Russian dolls holding hands on a cable footbridge connecting and running through two different people’s ears, suspended over a rocky shore. There are complimentary sounds and visuals to consume and appreciate by all parties surrounding Watter. Louisville, KY’s auralgami Sounds is worth investigating, with artists such as Dominic Republic, Insect Policy, and The Wrists filling in the blanks, stuffing nuggets in hidden vaults.

Cassette release on bandcamp: http://bit.ly/1MbacME
A track: https://soundcloud.com/temporary-residence-ltd-1/watter-rustic-fog

--Adam Padavano