ANGEL OLSEN - "Strange Cacti" C24 (reissue) (Bathetic)

Bathetic Tapes is pretty well known for their unique, genre-bending roster, and each time i buy a new tape from them,i can be sure are sure that it will be completely different than the last.The majority of their releases have been deeeeep lo-fi/bedroom pop,rock, and drone projects.With the release of Strange Cacti, they take a dip into more the stripped down, affected folk-hymns of a beautiful singer/songwriter named Angel Olsen.These six new songs are some of the most passionate, honest, and well written folk tunes that I've had the pleasure of hearing.
At first glance, you may hear something in the arena of Joni Mitchell's steady strumming and affectionate voice.In fact, there are elements of just about all the more obvious names in classic folk music, Melanie, Joan Baez, and even hints of Nico's deep and haunting croon makes it's way into her songwriting.Olsen sprinkles her own glittery magic over these heartfelt songs, and her insane vocal range is her secret weapon.Olsen's powerful,yet somber voice flutters around her gracious and confident strumming, and the two often intertwine to deliver deep, hair raising chords.Everything here is clean,untreated and her music doesn't rely on drowning in effects and studio trickery.There is a bit of chorus and reverb added to her voice,and it accents her wild pitch control very nicely.
Strange Cacti is a deeply personal album, but the songs leave plenty of room to insert your own story into their warm,heady vibes.It's full of heart wrenching howls, thick chord progressions, and just plain good songwriting.I can't wait to hear more from her very soon.Comes on solid white pro-printed, and dubbed cassettes with printed black and white photo j-card.
Get it from Bathetic

LEE NOBLE - "Darker Half" C45 (Bathetic)

Lee Noble has been around for a few years now, with a handful of tapes on a few household tape labels.He creates deep, swirling drones that hold just as much brooding blackness as they do bright and floaty vibes.
'Darker Half' actually does offer up just that,a 45 minute slow crawl through Noble's darkest thoughts and less than comforting creative consciousness.But not all of this looms in the dark completely.There is plenty of pure ear candy here,it's long before the clouds start to part and the sun comes out.Warm and shimmery vibrations take the wheel, and float along patiently on a cloud of echoed piano ambiance for a while.The puddles of delay bounce the syrupy melodies off one another, at times clashing for an instant, creating an accidental and beautiful chord.Eventually they wither away into a sharp treble-soaked guitar treatment.This tape flows extremely well from start to finish,and probably sounds amazing as an uninterrupted listen with no flipping.Deep and moody brain dancing from Mr.Noble.Repeat listening indeed.Awesome cover art and a pink tape.
These are probably gone now,but try your luck at BATHETIC.

HAUNTED HOUSES - "Make Believe You're Dead" (Bathetic) C35

 
  HH's second tape for the Bathetic label, and this one is a total winner.The cover art is decent, and I am a sucker for a bright blue tape.The music isn't too far off from his "the invisible war of the mind" debut, not as much of the traditional folk style, and a bit more polished in some areas.There's still plenty of grainy blues-driven folk to go around.The songs are pretty well written, and nothing makes it's way too far into total oblivion.Everything is captured to tape quite nicely, but for the mild hiss that looms throughout the album.The home recording quality actually gives the hoarseness of his vocals a nice rugged beauty, and could pass this as a live album for sure.
  The dark lyrical themes and blown out guitar drones give off some uneasy vibes, which only made me like it more, as a fair amount of this reminds me of what I adore about Pink Reason.Torturous howls, over the top high end, and that driving stomp-clap percussive thud are all here by the truck load.I do hope Haunted Houses make it to vinyl one of these days.If they have, and I'm just too far removed to know it...hit me up.Another score for HH and Bathetic.

Bathetic Records