TARAS BULBA: “Light Painter / Death Stalker” double a-side c45 (Scumbag Relations)

I usually get really frustrated when a musician creates countless guises for themselves and their various stylized sounds, it gets so damned confusing, and I worry that I'll miss something that I'll really like because I won't recognize where it's coming from. However, I’m starting to realize that as long as the parties involved are doing great work, it doesn’t matter what the hell they call themselves, we’re gonna figure out what’s going on eventually anyways. Rasmus Svensson is quickly becoming a big deal, not just in his native Sweden either, and not just as a musician, but also as a zine maker, a graphic/installation artist, and all while running his own label, Push the Button Multimedia. Normally working with his other bands Smycken, PWR, and Night Piano, this is the first I’ve heard from Taras Bulba (I’m assuming that the change of title was in service of the noisier, grittier sound) and it certainly didn’t disappoint. As the title dictates, there’s a definite progression between the songs from a place of safety to seriously dubious surroundings. Starting out with heavy flute echoes, adding organic percussion, followed by ominous electronics, and finally concluding in a serious guitar-psych run through the jungle. I find it interesting that he chose to break it up into songs over one long composition, but it in no way detracts, it almost listens like a math equation, it’s the science of interesting transition. A really great listen and the same program on both sides works in its favor too (no rewinding, heavy replay).

One-color silkscreen covers (either copper or blue), black tapes with brown spatter paint.

http://www.scumbagrelations.net/

MAJIC EYES: s/t c20? (Eggy Records)

Okay, first, I have to talk about this label. Where the hell did it come from? We received three tapes in the mail from them, all good, all with killer design, colorful, and with a palatable universal composition (something I typically really like, a label “theme”). Turns out, they’re based in Portland, Oregon and have even started distributing tapes by mail order from other labels across the country as well. You get a distinct feeling that whoever is in charge is really enjoying the process involved in this, there’s serious love coming from this establishment even though it might just be getting it’s first legs.

The other tapes available are worth checking out, but I found this one to be the easiest to write about (which isn’t saying much, the general information on all this stuff is somewhat limited, either that or I’m just stupid). Basically, it’s a fella named Danny living in San Francisco making, as the label writes, “hazy pop of prime Elephant 6”. That’s definitely the quickest identifier of this music, simple chord progressions, ultra bright bass sounds, sometimes blown-out yet subtle recording, it’s like he heard the Neutral Milk Hotel records and said, “well, I don’t have a whole bunch of people who know how to play exotic horns or anything that can help me out with this, so I guess I’ll just do it myself”. And that he did, a really impressive and vivid album was made in this guy’s bedroom, for the first seven tracks, that is. The last is an extra long rambler outdoors (aptly titled “a midafternoon walk on prince to broadway in summer”), a real pleasant way to close this short introduction to something you can probably expect to hear a lot more about in the future. If this is your bag, definitely climb in.

Silkscreen covers, opaqe orange tapes with b&w labels

http://eggyrecords.blogspot.com/

JAMISON WILLIAMS: “Onassis Project” c24 (Closet Sorcery)

This is another one that hit me out of left field, really had no idea what I was getting into. Williams seems to generally to stick to solo alto sax improvisation on most of his releases, which he’s more than proficient at alone, but on “Onassis Project”, we find him taking up the role of “sound manipulations” (as he’s credited), a seamless rapid-fire, cut-up blend of his sax, vocal howls, harsh electronics, and the occasional found sound sample. I’m really used to a “wacky” sound when it comes to this genre, but Williams barely scrapes the surface of that adjective (maybe once with a Hawaiian record) but, on the whole, this shit is TIGHT. It’s divided into five songs, but that seems like kind of a vain action since the composition is pretty universal throughout and, since it’s a tape, there’s no real way to tell the difference between them, but hey, it’s his right as the artist. All of the titles are seemingly related to Jackie O and her legacy in some way and the inserts feature pictures of political dignitaries or something that were assumedly important in her life. So I guess there’s your answer, it’s probably all really significant, and it’s just wasted on an uneducated nincompoop like me. Regardless, it’s a perfect length tape for what it’s worth, but good luck finding a copy out there in the ether, your best bet is to get ahold of the creator himself via his normal outlet:

http://www.vantagebulletin.com/

ROM B: “Incomplete Disco” c74 (self-released)

ROM B is the dark techno identity of Virginian Billy Brett, here bringing together three of his albums, “My Kind of Country”, “Business As Usual”, and “ROM B” into an incomplete discography (hence the title) on one really long tape. With pounding bass beats, synth stabs, and generally violent lyrics sung in a weird post-industrial nasal style somewhere between Swans and Aphex Twin, you can tell there’s a cool sense of sadism behind the knobs, a serious microphone mangler. These 36 tracks (all recorded within the last year and a half) definitely give you a full idea of what this music is about, almost to the point of beating you over the head with it, like a double-length greatest hits. The electronics are pretty active and powerful, my favorite being an extra long instrumental song on side two, but the singing can be difficult to attach to throughout, the “scary” sometimes ranging on silly due to the production (or lack thereof as it winds down). It’s most effective when smothered with heavy delay, giving it less of a “I’m talking right at you” feel and allowing the brevity of the lyrics a little more breathing room. I think if this tape were cut in half I would enjoy it a lot more, it’s currently suffering from what I call “Thanksgiving syndrome”, or putting out every song all of the time, considering them as having universal quality instead of, as they say, “killing your babies”. Still, there’s always something to be said for prolificacy and boldness, and there’s definitely plenty of that within.

Edition of 25 on opaque, orange tapes with color copy insert.

http://www.myspace.com/rombsounds

CHARLIE McALISTER "Turn of the Century Photograph"(Unread Records) C30

UPDATE: 3/10/10 - I am pleased to announce that a handful of songs from this cassette will be coming out on Charlie's first release for Feeding Tube Records: "Country Creamed/Victorian Fog" LP.

I first heard Charlie McAlister on a mix tape. "What is this demented rockabilly jam with all that fucked up banjo"? Sounded straight out of a "God knows when" time vortex. "A Hasil Adkins outake"? "Oh this was made last year"? Cool! The next encounter was the song "Sleep Walking" from an obscure 7" from the once published Whump Magazine that also featured Caroliner and a bunch of other great 90's stuff. Even cooler! Pop music with absolutely crucial organ sound and reedy vocals. Thus began the search to aquire more of the records and tapes McAlister has made throughout the years, and continues to make to this day. Many of these remain in print.

I'm choosing to review the decade old "Turn of the Century Photograph" tape because it offers a solid introduction to the McAlister catalog. It doesn't go as far out as some of his more collage-based recordings, but it has some really amazing skewed-pop gems. "Bog Man" has a mummy coming back to life to terrorize a small village, "Girls in the Big Parade 1917" has a wonderful WWI feel, and "Plantation of Pain" is just pure postbellum magic. If you haven't figured it out yet, McAlister creates true American folk music. It is the way he twists old stories and symbols into nearly incomprehensible new versions that has made him a legend of underground music for the last couple decades. The tape also has a very long and bizarre play about fried sandwiches at the end of the B side.

When I finally met the man, outside of his "Fire Ant Mound" in Charleston, SC, he took me 45 minutes down some railroad tracks and then told me and my compadre that he was going to cut our heads off. C. McAlister has a thirst for blood and it shows in his desperate recordings and works of art, which all come highly recommended.


"Turn of the Century Photograph" available from
http://www.unread-records.com (catalog #12)

You can get much more of Charlie's work at his website:
http://www.zen-grafix.com/charliemcalister/

AMBERGRIS "Sherlock Holmes and the Large Door" (Potlatch, I Gather) C20

Ambergris is the solo project of comic artist Matthew Thurber, the saxophonist in the now- defunct new age jazz band, Soiled Mattress and the Springs. This tape is the follow up to the amazing (and sadly out of print) "Anti Matter Alma Mater". Like the previous album it has a "book on tape" feel, with soundtrack and sound effects.

The A side is the title piece; a surreal story from the unreleased Sherlock Holmes archives. The detective, who we find is prone to walking about "on all fours like a mastiff", attempts to enter a sealed door lined with speared onions. It is refreshing to find a young artist working with actual ideas in this world of visceral and, sometime questionable, entertainments. Although this tale lacks the narrative scope of "Alma Mater" (it is about 1/4 as long), it is something I've returned to again and again whenever I'm sick of music.

The B side is a pair of Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 covers. It's cool to hear someone doing Fellers music faithfully and accurately in this day and age. If by some chance this is your first time encountering this seminal 90's SF band, please do not hesitate to check out some of their stellar albums, which are still available in various formats.

check it all out at http://www.ambergriscomics.com
and be sure to pick up the new issue of "1-800 Mice" as well.

COUCHIE POOCHIE (Feeding Tube Records) C10

The opening of this live acoustic set taped on a couch in Easthampton, MA is one of my favorite recordings in recent memory. That's not surprising seeing as Couchie Pouchie (a band with an ever-shifting moniker -- see Creepy Pee Pee, Crappie Pappie, Drippy Hippy) is comprised of D.B. Russell (The Frothy Shakes) and Tim Sheldon (Fat Worm of Error, Rack Rash - see review of the excellent "National Felt" in these pages) and the song is the Phil Phillips penned "Sea of Love". This much covered song is delivered completely straight and it's a soulful and heartfelt version, if maybe a tad creepy.

The rest of the tape veers into diffuse improv with Russell's high pitched and mongoloid singing/intoning accompanied by Sheldon's acoustic guitar and the singer's abstruse Casio sounds. The third piece is also a real winner; an ad lib with the lyrics "I wanna live in America, where the sun shines every day. Here in this real hell". A national anthem for these times if there ever was one.

Overall, a very deranged, yet surprisingly melodic tape of retarded half-songs. A reel winner! First edition of thirty or so still kicking, and I believe this will be reprinted by the label too.

the tape is available from feedingtuberecords.com

This is the band that later developed into Western Mass. super group Egg, Eggs - Ed.

MED.HAMMER "Shedding Life" (Existential Cloth) C60 Ed. of 20

Death drone. That's what this is. Simple, dark, heavy. I got my copy of this tape from Existential CEO Matt, himself on a recent trip up to Portland, ME. I listened to this driving done I-95 in the rain. I'm surprised I didn't drive myself through the guard rails into oblivion.

Shedding Life is just two thirty-ish minute live sets from their 2007 tour. Matt kept talking about what a blast that trip was. I would think these guys were dosing out on codeine the whole time, not partying. Goes to show you what I know. Maybe that is their kind of party. I wasn't there. I only know the end result, and its soul crushing.

So, to be clear, this ain't no Line-6 loop station mic and a singing bowl form of hippy drone. Shedding Life is one hell of a dark Thanatonic meditation aid. Next time I smoke salvia, I hope I remember to put this on. Hell or high water, it'll be a journey to remember.

Existential Cloth on Myspace.
Med Hammer on Myspace.

KID WIZARD "To The Stars By Hard Ways" (Hidden Fortress Tapes) C30, Ed. of 30

Space music for the lo-fi set. If there are two things in the world that I love, its DIY synths and tapes hiss on analog synth music. Both those are here in spades. Another tape that had a nice career in my car over the summer. Good for you, I haven't waited too long and copies are still available (at time of writing). But enough sales-hype, let me tell you about To The Stars By Hard Ways.

As notes warble on a home made mellotron (for real?), a filmless score is made, then bumped out of the way almost immediately by some juicy electro groove. That's the flow of this tape. Kid Wizard is a master of the medium. Only in the Bay Area would someone posses both the skill at electronics to build his own entire Synthsizer studio, and also have the musical genius to groove house parties like Kubric would have in the '70's.

If I were doing A&R for either Rephlex or Satamile, I'd be tossing this guy a cash advance. Some one, some one PLEASE put this on wax. It deserves it more than anything else I've heard this year.

Hidden Fortress Tapes.
Kid Wizard on Myspace.

THE MENTHOLS "Stereoisomer" C58 (Amateur Depression) Ed. of 100.

Who gave these kids the cough syrup? Garage punk that rides the line between total banality and total brilliance. Nine songs here that throb, swagger and pummel my brain and nether regions. Sympathy For The Record Industry dons it's Lufthansa cap, dusts off it's dog collar and bull whip and road-trips out to PA for an extended erotic, psychedlics-fulled one-on-one party with Siltbreeze. Extended interludes that are actually funny. I might be over-hyping this tape (could anything ever be that good), but even so this is some tight rock 'n roll. And, Jesus, just look at that cover art! Punk as fuck!

This tape sat way too long in my car stereo this summer to finally get a review, so I gotta tell you things fast and furious. Anyone reading this: jump on this band ASAP. If these dudes were from Brooklyn, they'd be internet famous already. Once an LP hits, I reckon The Menthols will be deemed CLASSIC.

Menthols on Myspace.
Amateur Depression on Tumblr.
Amateur Depression on Myspace.
Cut to the chase and mailorder.

TINY MUSIC: s/t c37 (Nihilist Records) & “F.W.S.S.” c76 (self-released)

This clanking collective of Chicagoans really know how to make an interesting din out of household objects. Using explicitly acoustic instruments, they can really clock out a cassette and give dudes with tables full of effects pedals a serious run for their money. Any electricity they do use is only to power their homemade gadgets, spinning chimes and slatted metal to scrape against. The actual list of items they use (included in the liner notes) is staggering, everything from drinking straws to window weights.

The music is always instrumental and generally dissonant, but the contraptions aren’t the whole of the music, there’s also a heavy use of various flutes and bowed instruments that, when the music does come together and become rhythmic, invoke an elven maypole dance, the family minstrel band doing some real medieval truckin’. I was a little disappointed that “F.W.S.S.” (which stands for "Fall, Winter, Sping, Summer”) didn’t really apply it’s seasonal motif more comprehensively; it seemed like each song, though possessing individual idiosyncracies, sounded largely the same structurally, with no difference in mood. Still, I think the potential of this group, both auditorily and in formation, is limitless, and look forward to future releases.

Both tapes come with xerox inserts, but “F.W.S.S.” has varied pieces of flora glued to the front and watercolored labels.

http://www.myspace.com/tinymusicband

FLEABAG: s/t EP (ok records)

I LOVE THIS BAND. And that’s what I told them when I saw them live...after every song. I was in rare form, fully psyched before they even started, at one point even yelling, “fuck everyone I knew in high school for not being here!” That’s right, I was that guy that night, and I am NEVER that guy.

I hate to say it, but I can’t lie, I think a lot of why I like this Oakland trio (besides their just being really good), former members of Punkin Pie, is due to nostalgia. Hearing their melodic, pop-punk riffs and vocals that barely edge over normal talking volume floods me with the same excitement I had of bringing home a new Epitaph comp. CD once upon a time. Truly, this is the kind of music Epitaph would be putting out nowadays if they didn’t have their heads so far up their asses. Seriously, that shit is embarrassing.

Singer and lyricist, Marilyn, has an adorable voice and simple, concise words that stick to the roof of your mouth, my favorite being a line from the song “Coals”: “you know how that goes, we can laugh, but we’re never happy”. Songs about youth, relationships, and social awkwardness without an ounce of unpleasant sappiness. I really wish I had this available to me a long time ago...

This is a 5-song EP, same program both sides, on pro-dubbed tapes with xerox insert. No website (I think), but you can write to them!

1935 Linden St.
Oakland, CA
94607

NATE GRACE: “Sevn Daze” c30 (Sonora Records)

There’s a lot to be said about genre fads, both good and bad, considering the negative connotation that the word “fad” comes with. Without turning this into some sort of college thesis about it, I want to state the fact that we all know that Ducktails has basically instilled a new craze for lo-fi beach-pop. It’s true, and if you need more proof, check out the Underwater Peoples Summertime Showcase comp., it’s all there. The good news is that, so far, it’s all been pretty darn good.

Enter Nate Grace and his Austinian cohorts, Jesse Jenkins and Austin Youngblood. Together, they play the golden trio of instruments (guitar, bass, drums) across five songs of tremolo bliss (it’s actually only 15 min., same program on both sides). Never mind the proficient quality of the original songs, their cover of “Pressure Drop” is worth the purchase alone. With clear writing structure, more CCR than they are Yo La Tengo, this really was a pleasant surprise and, on the second listen, these tunes already felt like old favorites. The quality is a little rougher than it probably could be, a little extra recording static, but that’s pretty much my only complaint. It’s a great EP and, sure, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who digs this sound (which is most of us), but I want to make it clear that the work is well-informed and that this dude’s not just another hayseed jumping on the bandwagon.

Comes with two handmade inserts in a stitched pouch wrapped in brown paper.

http://www.myspace.com/gracenate

SAM MARTIN: “Death?” c60 (Im Drinkin This Tapes)

A whole hell of a lot of songs (nearly thirty of them) by a seemingly earnest dude from a confusing record label. Martin, also of the band Capgun Coup, makes a simple recording playing acoustic guitar and singing in an “anti-folk” style reminiscent of Kimya Dawson and Jeffrey Lewis with lyrics that are sometimes painfully immature, with “cat sat on the mat” rhyme schemes about love, sex, booze, and yes, even the aforementioned cats. However, it’s surprisingly what makes this hour of poptunes somewhat endearing. The individual song styles are varietous and the guitar playing is tight. The tape hiss adds the perfect amount of flavor and, despite the content, Martin’s voice is that of a grown-ass man, both aurally and spirtually, ain’t no prepubescent uncertainty around this guy (thus my claim of his earnesty). This isn’t going to be for everyone, but I’m assuming he’s fitting right in with the singer-songwriter community of Omaha.

http://www.main.imdrinkinthis.railsplayground.net/artists/10

ULTRA BONBON: “Paradise” vols. 1 & 3 (Bonbon Bruises)

Located in Alberta, Canada, Ultra Bonbon (Danny M.) is near-harsh noise handsomely packaged in mini manila envelopes with a theme that I have yet to put together. Is there a theme? Maybe not, just because it’s in volumes doesn’t mean there has to be one. It’s strictly electronic work, and not particularly dynamic, each side of these tapes is an island unto itself, one idea played without change. However, the tapes are short and the sounds are interesting, so it’s really not that big of a concern. Vol.1 starts out with spare beep-burps, synth gas bumping around in your stereo’s colon, then flipping to a somewhat similar sound layered with piano stabs, hitting the keys with oven mitts on. I’m not sure what the time span was between these two, but vol. 3 sounds much more developed, side one with some intense synth squeal and boxing bass, alternating from the heavy to the speed bag, and side two with space sweeps and what sounds like distorted kazoo.

Like I said, this is more about the sounds at hand, they’re almost like singles in this way, and he has many other split releases available from his label as well, all as beautifully designed but in very limited editions. I know you’re asking “where is vol. 2?”, and my answer is “I don’t know!”, but apparently it’s a larger collection that may be released on Golden Lab Records sometime in the future. We’ll just have to wait and see, but either way, with his vast self-released work and a cassette on Husk Records, it’s obvious that this dude is working hard, and that’s priority one in my book.

http://www.myspace.com/ultrabonbon
http://www.myspace.com/bonbonbruises

NATIONAL FELT: s/t (self-released)

Fat Worm of Error guitarist Tim Sheldon gives himself a new guise as National Felt, remixing who knows what into what, who knows? What? Previously going under names like Oxbow Meads and Rack Rash, I’m pretty certain this is his first formal release explicitly sampling other formal recordings (first I’ve come into contact with at least), big time operator’s songs abused and rendered with Sheldon’s own sounds squawking and grinding around too. I envision a Hollywood studio tour passing a jukebox array of 90s top-ten artists struggling to film their music videos as workers loudly strike the sets behind them, as if to hurry the whole operation and get home already. It’s a pretty short tape too, probably longer than I think, but it’s such fast-paced, exciting work, this train blows right past you.

One of the things I love most about this tape is the packaging. It comes in a cardstock sleeve that not only is sealed by velcro on the front, but you see that smokestack? That’s velcroed up too. So you can either open it in this amazing way, or you can just slide it out the top, a really good example of creativity meeting functionality. If that’s not enough, the band name is etched onto the tape by hand. I don’t know how many copies of this Tim made, but still, holy crap!

No idea where to find it, try dropping the guy a line...

http://www.myspace.com/259246838

GASTRIC LAVAGE "Bloody Knuckles" c31 (Yod Tapes)

Chris Dooley! There are legends in western mass about him. Hell, there are legends all over the world about him, for real, whenever I go on tour and tell people I'm from Western Mass they're like "oh yeah, you know chris dooley?"! It's rumored there are multiples, people will see him skateboarding while he's on the radio and working at a flywheel benefit two cities away. He has an absolutely insatiable appetite for making things happen. That manic energy is maybe a little muddy in the tape but you can definitely tell that he's really having a go at it, totally shredding up guitars (and curbs!), screaming with a winter hat pulled over his face into an amp for 45 second before ripping one of the most unusual / intense drum solos ever (though the drums on this tape i believe are played by Andy Kivela).

The title of Bloody Knuckles for this tape is totally apt, there's even a sound clip of Chris saying "oh shit, are you alright, do you need a towel or something." Everything is shredded to pieces and flying, confetti style, in the air as Dooley lets his legendary energy loose on this c31.

Yod Tapes site doesn't seem to be up yet, but check back:
www.yod.com

MARK LORD "Pussy St. Tape" c27 (Nazot)

An absolute tarantula festival. Seeing Mark Lord perform a few times over the last year he has played easily some of my favorite and most captivating sets, one night completely unhinged another almost spartan, actually sitting (sideways!) on a stool adjusting his synth and barely talking into a mic. While live it was captivating, you were focused on the individual performing, whereas on this tape, like the best music, there is almost nobody present, you feel absolutely within the realm of the music and it is a convincing listening environment.

Whereas people are often looking to grab your listening attention with swiftness, unpredictable shifts and unrecognizable manipulations, this tape has an economy and intent too often missing from 'noise tapes' these days. Remarkable for not only its fidelity but (even more so) for its absolutely even arrangements and mixing, slight reverb on the tonal background is not lost amidst the staggering, stammering pulsing in the foreground.

The first side features some vocals that, in their lack of emphasis, find an almost authoritative tone that matches the dark but commanding presence of the synth work.

I can't say enough good about this tape. I really hope it sees a vinyl re-issue.
Highly, highly recommended and of course there's no site listed and nothing I can find on the internet. Good hunting, if you can track it down, it's worth it.

CONTAINER "Container" c30 (I Just Live Here)

At INC this year I bumped into a favorite dude/band/label guy of mine Ren from God Willing / I Just Live Here and asked him how his trip had been so far to which he simply responded "just long drives jammin minimal techno." Then we talked a good bit about the virtues of the genre, I probably made a dick of myself and he probably finished his slice of pizza.

Well, lo and behold, a few months later I set up a show for him in western mass and he hands me a tape by Container and whispers 'it's my new minimal techno project.' Well, if he ain't a man of his word!

The tape starts with what sounds like a creeping synth but very quickly it's apparent the dude was not lying, rhythmic to the core, mostly low end stuttering with the necessary 303 tweaking flourishes and bubbling, burping and percolating weird worlds on top, building and deconstructing the whole way. Slight reverb on the hi hat, heavy envelope effects end up eating the thing alive. Side two is a lot more thumping and has a more thudding 4 on the floor feel with a bit more background "noise" you might expect of a beat tape coming from a noise dude, but i'll be shit on if Ren didn't just deliver two sides of minimal techno for you all!

Always recommended!
I Just Live Here site is giving me some internet grief, but maybe not for you:
http://www.ijustlivehere.net/
and ren's god willing myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/innercarpet

ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE: "Buffalo Hump, Moon Face, Thin Skin" C20 (Grimeology)

Crisp, clear harsh noise on a label that does great mastering to cassette. This is loud and bereft of so much hiss that would ruin the experience.

Aside from such cliched nonsense as "flesh peeled from bone by molten rusted metal" I can say this is well executed and dynamic. Israeli Intelligence wastes none of your time. The a-side is a deftly assembled collage of snippets of everything gross: overblown vomit growling, reverbed out tape scratching, feedback loops and metal abuse. Its all there. In spades. Love it. Everything last long enough to be savored, and cuts to the next serving before there's one iota of boredom sitting in. I wish my recordings came out this good. For real.

The b-side starts out similarily, but rolls along with a slower pace, more psychedelic a molten floe, not violent erruption .

I'm happily sitting in my kitchen flipping this cassette over and over whilst writing. After deluging myself with some downloads of the Japanese harsh masters this week, I'm still finding Buffalo Hump, Moon Face, Thin Skin exciting and inspiring.

Edition of 50
Grimeology.com

QUEEN VICTORIA: "Apocalyptic Field Recordings Vol. 1" C20 (They Live We Sleep)

Wes Anderson should ditch his hipster-defining retro fitted mix tape style soundtracks for this. Breezy, lite summertime music. Eerily nostalgic. 16mm film footage of a girl in a sundress dancing in a field. Like someone's first student film circa 1989. Naively arty, bereft of pretention.

The first side is more song-oriented, a blues riff quickly cut off is replaced by a toy melody Baroquely meandering around someone's reverbed out singing. That soon morphs into a pulsing rythmic electronic groove, which again, cuts deftly into a soft rock crooner by for the neo-hippy set.

The second side rules. Toy keyboards plink away in the foreground, while the other elements, drum machine and singing, are simmered down to a fine atmosphere through reverb, delay and the loss of tape-to-tape generations. Cherubic is a good word to use for Apocalyptic Field Recordings Vol. 1, but the image I used before, of a grainy film documenting lithe youthful innocence may yield a broader understanding of the total vibe presented here.

Theylivewesleep.sitesled.com

**vintage review** LADDERWOE: "Mourning The Late Jennifer" C30 (USAGOLDEXCHANGE, 2006)

Delirious, lo-fi, lilting gothic out-folk from some New Jerseans. I picked this up from a smelly guy on tour a while back and it's shifted from car tape drawer to bed room tape drawer to shoe box under a bureau and back. Housecleaning yields peculiar treasures.

New Brunswick bands liked to tour these parts a lot from 2003-2007. This project is/was related to, if not part of USAGOLDEXCHANGE, Door, and maybe even King Darves. In fact, the show I spoke of had three of the four bands just discussed playing and is the show where King Darves went folk. I got a big pile of CDr nonsense that night. I also miss the noise Darves, but I digress.

Mourning... is best at being succinct. More than 30 minutes of this would be too much. But two 15 minute slabs of eerie feedback, acoustic guitars and harrowing howls are just right. This appealed well enough to me when I was entrenched in my Neo-Folk fandom, as it does now as I'm starting to finally develop a taste for what some of my friends and I simply refer to as "hippy-drone-noise." I guess that's what I'd file Ladderwoe under. It's too weird to be anything really close to "folk," but there's still too much song structure (especially on the other Ladderwoe recording I've got) to really let this be straight up noise. In my opinion anyway, and I'm the one writing, so, yeah, this is my god damned opinion!

On here there's enough scuzz and hiss to keep anyone's inner experimentalist happy. This could have been recorded room mic style with a couple guys cuing tape players as they moaned about The Late Jennifer and plucked away on a guitar and hit some things resembling percussion. There's even parts where I hear dinner ware clinking. This reeks of a humid coffee house show in late sumer. It's as cozy as it is unnerving.

TERRORS: “Inequipoise” c30 (Monorail Trespassing)

Don’t let the fact that this is on Jon Borges’ harsh/drone-notorious Monorail Trespassing label fool you, this thing is straight-up pop music. True, there’s a little bit of ambience on the edges of these songs but, for the most part, it’s pretty structured. I don’t actually know who the members of this band are, where they’re from, or anything like that. I can’t even tell with great certainty what instruments were played at specific parts, the production effects make guitars sound like pianos and vice versa, which I believe are the key mainstays (with a couple of additional string appearances). The style is slow and echoic, sparse instrumentation, but a dense sound, with so much reverb that the lyrics blend into one another and the music seems to hold on forever. The liner notes state that it was “recorded in a window” (assumedly the one on the cover), and it’s almost as if you can feel each chord drifting away, out into the night air. Maybe it’s better that the source remains a mystery for the time being, this might even be their first release for all I know. Hell, this could BE Borges’ work for all I know, but take what I don’t know and stuff it in a sack, this tape has a great sound and a lot of replay value, highly recommended.

Ltd. edition of 125

http://www.monorailtrespassing.com/