Submissions s/t (Skrot Up)

    Submissions are a band that is hard to grasp. While they aren’t all over the place, their influences seem to be. A lot of the time it sounds like a noise pop band, but it also sounds goth influenced, but then it sounds like a band that saw a krautrock documentary and is into Wavves. It’s pretty confusing to say the least. It even at times just sounds like Joy Division or some other band that sounds like Joy Division. I don’t dislike this tape, but I guess I just have a huge difficulty concentrating on the music. Which could be the most interesting thing about these jams!

    To say the least, this stuff is pretty dark and heavy, which sounds great on tape! It even gets really psychedelic at times and gets you going. The tape looks solid; most stuff on Danish label Skrot Up looks great. It’s got a nice cardstock J Card, and is faux Xeroxed which is pretty interesting. In the end, this band is worth checking out I guess. One of the members is in Best Coast and the others are in German Army. Tight! 

Listen HERE

Buy HERE

Nomen Novum "If You Look For It, It's There" c46 (Broad Beauty Tapes)

Another debut release to talk up here from a new label out of Philadelphia called Broad Beauty Tapes, this one from Atlanta’s Nomen Novum, the experimental pop project of one David Norbery. First, it should be duly noted that one of the people behind the Broad Beauty label is none other than Colin Pate, whose group Remote Islands released one of the most unexpectedly brilliant pop albums of the past few years in Days of Heaven out on Stunned. With this in mind, along with Pate’s recent work in Ladies Auxiliary, I was quite confident that, from a label curatorial point of view, this guy could sniff out a decent pop album a mile away. Sure shit, after listening to “If You Look For It, It’s There”, my gut instincts proved correct.

Norbery is one of those omnivorous modern pop songsmiths, gobbling up kernels of electronic, sound collage, dancehall, hip hop, and pop music and spitting them out into something quite memorable. Sure, some of the vocal harmonies, electronic textures, and naïve lyrics spread throughout do bear trace similarities to Animal Collective, or maybe the experimental-hip-hop-turned-indie-pop of the Anticon Collective, but Norbery clearly knows how to write catchy, hook-filled and heartfelt pop songs in a very classical sense, which a cursory stroll through his previous recordings would confirm. I’ll openly admit that some of this borders on being almost too glossy for my tastes, but then I have to ask myself, “Why are you listening to this for the 15th, 16th, 17th time . . . . . without writing a single word about it?” The truth is, like any good pop music, this is just an easy album to enjoy, and I could easily see Nomen Novum gaining some above ground traction in a “Best New Music” type of way. If you can’t get behind the songs, at least you’ll have a nice knitted cassette warmer to keep your favorite drone tape snuggled up in.

cassettes and cassette warmers here
1's & 0's here

Sindre Bjerga and Daniel Spicer - "Voice Studies" #9 & #10 (My Dance the Skull)

On Sindre Bjerga's site this text heads the page in the top right corner, "…cassette player drones and kitchen sink psychedelia, sound ghosts hidden deep in the molten magnetic tapes.. always aiming for that mind-altering head trip…" That statement of purpose pretty much sums up his "Voice Studies" tape as well. The tape features three live performances two in Norway (A side and half of B) and one in Russia (other half of B). Side A is called "The Demise of Personal Hygiene" and I laughed and laughed and laughed some more upon first reading that. How fun! The music is not exactly funny however. A series of gurgles, blonks, boings, and thuds, represent the demise I reckon. The second side has two performances, "Procrastination is the Square Root" and "A Possible Outbreak of Clinical Hysteria." Both continue the contact mic clashing crashing guttural rumble of the A side's piece (with "Outbreak" being an extremely short cut). This makes for a demanding listen. As pure sound, I love it, but for a stroll or vacation drive, I wouldn't listen to this particular experimental tape. The mood just has to strike YOU.

What we have here is a rare opportunity for the reviewer to be the reviewed. Daniel Spicer is a broadcaster, musician, and writer for Wire magazine, if not the best music mag (I think it probably is the best), then certainly the most consistently well-written. Spicer's entry in the "Voice Studies" series (put out by My Dance the Skull - see my previous reviews of Jaap Blonk's and Janek Schafer's contributions) is music for the adventurous listener, not just an adventurous listener. "Let the Body Attend (for Angus MacLise)" is the title of Side A and as you might expect from the dedication, it is a percussion rattling ode to original Velvet Underground member and musician/poet/crazy person Angus MacLise. Spicer yelps the title phrase along with other Gertrude Stein-esque circular verbiage while Evie Spicer (Daniel plays too) beats the hell out of some percussion instruments. This piece is about ten minutes long and quite entrancing. It's definitely an appropriate ode to one extremely idiosyncratic musician. Side B is called "The Diamond Life (for Henry Flynt)" and, like the A side, it is a specific tribute to a music maker who is as out there as they come, Henry Flynt. This piece consists solely of the title phrase, freakout Ornette violin crushing by Spicer and a gaggle of friends making assorted sounds in and around the furious bow & string action. This is wild energy music and something to be excited about. The piece on the A side was good, but "The Diamond Life" is great. CRAZY LISTENING. I would hunt this tape down just to listen to the B side. Daniel Spicer's knowledge of left field music obviously contributes to the success of this cassette. Musicians like MacLise and Flynt are not widely known names, but anyone familiar with the avant-garde would know them. Bravo!

Buy and Listen HERE.

Shivering Window - Inner-Exo (Juniper Tree Songs)

    Sometimes in the summer it’s too hot to go outside. The yellow tint of the sun pours through the blinds and soaks the carpet. On, “Inner-Exo” by Shivering Window I feel like the music was made while isolated in a desolate summer hole.  It’s really bright and intensely lo-fi. Fuzz rolls over every inch of the tape, even over the tape fuzz! I just picture an empty suburban house with nothing but an amp, pedals, and a man tearing it up in an empty white walled living room. I would absolutely associate this music with the color orange. Did I mention it is also the first release on a cool new tape label out of California called “Juniper Tree Songs”? Anyhow, there are some songs I really like on this tape.

    My two favorite tracks are “Pretty Creepers” which has a clearly defined hook and is really relaxing but constantly on edge and despite its pop structure feels very mobile and alive. This slam is the kind you turn up really loud in your car and scream to yourself when no one else is around. The other track I like is “Even God’s Lowliest Creatures Want Love”, which is an appropriate ending to the tape. It’s another morose little pop song with some feeling a great summer jam as well. Hit the beach with this stuff it's sure to keep you going and serve up the appropriate amount of Vitamin-D.

    Physically the tape is really nice, it’s pro dubbed and the art looks pretty solid, it’s got a printed collage cover and a nice orange spine. However, with this tape it’s all about the jams, which I feel surpass the artwork tenfold.   

Listen and Buy!

The Lost & Found Sound (Time Lapse/ I Had An Accident)

    The sound gurgles along; leaving whatever is in its way behind. These sounds are so sure of themselves. They keep building up and moving away, constantly multiplying before they splay out into the tonal universe. I’d imagine this is what raising a child might feel like if you sped it up by x1000. While you stay the same they forever grow and you see them still, but in a different way each time. I think this is most compelling thing about the music that “The Lost & Found Sound” (Stacy Stephens) creates.

    While a lot of electronic music seeks to deal with the ephemeral and time, it doesn’t always hit the nail on the head. The threshold that has to be reached to push a listener over is very specific and to me most people fall short of this mark. However, Stephens does a remarkable job of placing the listener in deep thought. Of the two he sent me I listened to “All Day Déjà Vu” out on (I HAD AN ACCIDENT) more than I listened to his split with Walter Gross out on (Time Lapse). This was not because one is better than the other, but because All Day Deja Vu is more of a complete piece. Stephens doesn’t hold back on this one. He goes straight into the deepest chasm and lets you float wherever you feel. Either way you could get stuck in this music forever.

    Packaging wise these tapes look pretty solid, your standard case and j card set up. I prefer the aesthetic of the split to the solo work. A great addition to a collection for any electronic noise addict, the labels have sold out but Stephens still has some copies left over on his personal bandcamp! 

Listen and Buy HERE

Monsturo - CTS14 (Monorail Trespassing)

    Monsturo is composer and experimental performer David Rothbaum. It is said that this tape “CTS14” is made on a modular synthesizer. While I do believe it was, it is pretty interesting how patient he is with his machinery. One doesn’t hear the typical Wendy Carlos/Blade Runner approach that most modular synthesizer performers bring to the table while listening to this tape. Instead on this tape the listener must bask in the faint light that Rothbaum brings out from the tones on this tape. Imagine you're trapped somewhere and light only peaks in through holes in a steel door, but that light is what keeps you sane and it becomes what you cherish most. While it may seem like a test of endurance at times this Monorail Trespassing release I feel is meant to put you in a different state of mind and pull out the meditative side of the listener.

    All in all the tape looks solid and follows in the layout of previous monorail tapes. It looks good and is worth picking up if you are ready for it!

Listen and Buy HERE

Long Distance Poison - "Ideological State Apparatus," Celer - "Lightness and Irresponsibility" (Constellation Tatsu)

How many times have I been stuck in the thick molasses air of humid human drudgery? I couldn't wait a week to continue writing about Constellation Tatsu's releases so I went ahead and finished 'em off.

Two tapes, played one after the other, bled into my memory eye as I slept...(finally asleep). The drama of a flickering eye shut. The sloth. The slow motion sickness of going nowhere. Two tapes could have been one if it weren't for the division of sides and the stop POP of the stereo when Side A suddenly ceases. Long Distance Poison is eternal music. Titled, Ideological State Apparatus, I have the unnerving sensation of Philip K. Dick deja vu. Tune one is called, "The Three Voices of Tawuse Melek" (very PKD right kids?) and it's the long slow burn of an astral plane vacation. D-R-O-N-E...twenty minutes later I flip the tape and dive into, "The Government Spawn Seek the Tomb of Her Stars." LDP's brand of mystical ambient/drone is a damn journey.

Celer is the craftsman behind Lightness and Irresponsibility, the fourth of four tapes sent to me by the good folks at Constellation Tatsu. This cassette is more fun, at least in presentation, than the Long Distance Poison release. The music is not that different however. MORE. DRONE. Good stuff, but I've done tripped the light fantastic all afternoon, what else can I find out in the ether? CT is a label of high quality and I definitely appreciate the production of the music as much as the pro-design of the tapes. Just buy any and all tapes from these California freaks if far out spins the juice, you gotta drink.

Buy and Listen HERE.

Jason Lescalleet - How To Not Do It (Chondritic Sound)

    While I was on tour I swung through Vacation Vinyl in LA and picked up some tapes put out by LA based label “Chondritic Sound”. The tape that stood out to me the most was Jason Lescalleet’s “How To Not Do It”. Lescalleet isn’t your typical noise guy. I would say he is in an elite class of sound manipulators. The way he works stereo and his ability to operate tape machines and analog synthesizers to create luscious and vivid soundscapes is unlike anything else I have heard before. On this tape you are walked through conversations panning back and fourth between multiple people. Quiet eerie breathing looms over the setting of what seems to be some sort of aquatic wasteland. This tape is scary but if you dive into absolute meditation it is mind bending. You can see the tungsten lit poolside grass and see the Spanish women discussing personal matters while ghosts of the lost loom beside them. A man then gives a monologue about the cost of his rent, and the dreamscape continues until you are soaked and completely involved in this one! 

    Needless to say, this tape is haunting, and creates visions that even the most talented of visual artists cannot create. Hell, the tape is even physically beautiful; it’s burnt sienna with blue speckled paint and has a really nice gold card stock with green print j card. It’s a must have for any tape collector. If you are into experimental music or not you have to get this piece of art!

Listen and Buy 

These Wonderful Evils / Last Eyes split (Planted Tapes)

After several months of being ears deep in electronic blippity bloop, it has been sort of refreshing to catch a wave of really decent guitar-based albums over the past few weeks: Willie Lane’s “Guitar Army of One”, Chris Forsyth’s “Kenzo Deluxe”, C. Yantis' “Strung Figments”, and now this dual-headed beast of a release from These Wonderful Evils and Last Eyes, marking the debut of Denver’s Planted Tapes. Zak Boerger, the fine lad behind These Wonderful Evils, ditches the electric guitar psych sizzle of previous outings and goes at it all Takoma-style on his side. I’ll refrain from dropping the “F”-word here for risk of Ben Chasney rolling his eyes so far back into his head that they’ll never return to normal position, but the open-ended, Americana-meets-Raga-like tendencies do bear some semblance to that towering six-string master. Boerger, however, plays with a heavier hand and an often-aggressive strumming style, which distinguishes his work from a lot of those players, though. Maybe I’m full of (Sandy Bull)shit, but this stuff still hits on a very gut level. Last Eyes, another solo guitar project, this one by Denver’s Val Franz, tickles another aural sweet spot for me: blurry, overblown, guitar ambiance with a rockist thrust. If Grouper ever collaborated with The Dead C and had Christian Fennesz manning the boards, a dream collaboration if there ever was one, I imagine it could sound like something along these lines: blown-out and beautiful. Curious to see where Planted will g(r)o(w) next.   

Listen and buy fresh here

Rat Bite - "Two Teeth" (Aborted Society Records)

Alright pit chil'ren...gather 'round, an old man is speaking...Fuck YOU! I aint old. Who ya callin' old? 


Rat Bite, from the hud money gloom of Seattle, have a new cassette out on Aborted Society Records titled Two Teeth. The band calls this six song mania collection "demos," but I say NO - this is a finished product. What the hell else could be added to it? When I was a kid I could've bought this at K-Mart...maybe...or more likely a M&P record store that stocked cassettes from independents. Rat Bite are one part guitar mag metal riffers and one part old fashioned punkers (melodically cartoons, but "Moss Shrine" is a damn fine sing along). On the tunes where RB feature bass player Mary Holly as co-vocalist I heard the offspring of X coming through my speakers. It would be great to hear more of this, as one angry dude barking is as tired as opera (I still like both however). Eh, bottom line...average amped up tatted sweaty yelping thrash hounds=Rat Bite.  Plague not included.


Learn More and Buy HERE.

Fear Konstruktor - Transparent (Lava Church)

    Fear Konstruktor’s “Transparent” isn’t scary; it’s more desolate than anything. You can feel the harsh cold of Moscow where Nikita Evsuk (Fear Konstruktor) is from. This tape sounds like a wasteland, it’s so empty, and is quite sad. That hollow feeling looms throughout the tape. Envisioning the large bronze statues and political figureheads becomes easy. A post apocalyptic world lies in front of you, the ground is bare, the rivers have run dry, and the city’s infrastructure is a thing of the past. Ultimately, there is something quite beautiful about the wreckage. All in all this tape is a good effort, and would be a perfect addition to the tape collection of any noise head.

    The packaging is great; full color everything, and even a trading card from the label Lava Church is included. Worth checking out! 

Buy Here

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loopool "∞" & "∞ II" c∞ (Welcome to the 21st)

This first loopool tape must have spun a good 30 minutes before it occurred to me that I was listening to no more than a 15 second tape loop. First, I haven’t encountered a cassette assembled in such a way to do this before, so that sort of threw me for a, well, loop. Secondly, good loop-based music has this sort of way of dissolving time or, at least, messing with your sense of it, prompting all sorts of questions. In the case of "∞", is that chiming sound the beginning or the end? Why do those panned gurgling textures shift in-and-out of focus with each passing listen? With "∞ II", did I just start in the middle? Why are those muted horns coming at me now and not at the end? Where is the end? Why do my dog’s ears keep popping up at this section? How long should I listen to this? Why am I listening to this? Jean-Paul Garnier, the Los Angeles-based sound artist behind loopool, writes on his website that, “Among the many goals of loopool are: the expansion of the musical pallet, the usage of music outside the realms of entertainment, and creation of music that is a psychedelic, not psychedelic music, but music that acts up the brain to alter consciousnesses.” After listening to both of these tapes, multiple times in fact, I’d say he has achieved these goals on all three counts. What could possibly come off as some overly conceptualized gimmick is, by contrast, a rather mind-bending listening experience. As a wise, yet misguided, space traveler once proclaimed: "To infinity and beyond!!"

Welcome to the 21st

Blood Bright Star/Obsidian Towers - Split (Constellation Tatsu)

I received four sleek enticing tapes in the mail recently from a new label called Constellation Tatsu out of San Luis Obispo, CA. CT's site lays out their musical philosophy as, "adventurous with spiritual artistic sensibilities." There's also a quote from Faulkner, a variety of mad mixes, and collage art pics, but I'm not writing a review of their damn web design am I?  With this post I'll be discussing two of the tapes and in a few days I'll finish off the batch.

The evening of my listening session came after a lengthy spell of depressing political junk television. Talking heads babbling about jobs in one segment to international bloodbaths in the next. It was all horrible. I couldn't take another wretched moment so I jacked in my audio freak headphones (big fat mothers) to my stereo and let the A side rip. Guitar music at walking speed like that of Earth except not comatose, it begins with simple picked lines/arpeggios multi-tracked before blending into louder amp driven fuzz patterns. Heavy bottom and soaring highs hitting my spot, shit I want the guitars to keep a candle burning at the orgy! This piece is much too short. I could've listened to another ten minutes. Alas, the tape stopped. Time for the B. Obsidian Towers is classic taper drone in my opinion, with long tones of distant scree and tinder hiss moving in and out of focus. Not bad, just typical of the genre. Overall the split is a strong inaugural release. CT's debut is housed in fine red pro-everything (graphics and lettering really grabbed me on this one-QUICK NOTE: CT's visual aesthetic is professional and at the high end of the cassette product world), I know right away the label wants to make a good first impression, which they do.

Tape #2 of my sleepless night...the ambience of a modern day dust bowl raping God fearing innocents, at least that's how I hear it on first listen. Brazilian musician (and likely not concerned with the ravages of drought) Gimu is a psychedelic/drone/ambient individual...a wanderer by trade even. The tape's title gives it away, A Silent Stroll on Sombre St. No other time but the nocturnal for this album. If the sun rises when the tape rumbles, a law somewhere must be breaking. This is a consistent work, if nothing else. The drones battle for space with what sound like looped vinyl pops at times. Individual compositions don't stand out to me so much as the start to finish quality. I might have one too many lost in space tapes currently on my shelf, yet this is one of the better examples of the form.


Listen and Buy HERE.

Little Spoon - Allergic to Jerks (Self-Released)

    Songs about having dreams run amuck on Little Spoon’s “Allergic to Jerks”. Which is appropriate because Boston, Massachusetts’s songwriter Cameron Potter creates infectious bedroom/dream pop. It’s all about how the beats and melodies intertwine on this tape and it is definitely the type of tape you slip into your Walkman and take on a journey. It’s pretty reverb heavy and despite its pace drags you into a slower more mellow state of mind. When I saw him he had a broken rib and still managed to play drums through his whole set, so as you might imagine you can really feel this guys passion for his music.

    The packaging on the tape is pretty solid, nothing mind blowing, but it’s about what is on the tape, and it comes with a free digital download too if you are into that. Either way, this is a solid slam for the dwindling summer. 

    Listen and Buy HERE!

Hear Hums - Psych Cycles ( Kassette Klub)

Hear Hums, “Psyche Cycles” is a constantly spinning wheel of interesting sounds, and that pop song you have heard somewhere before. An abundance of floor toms, decaying delay, and vocal yips and yawps drive this tape forward. To me it’s hard to not compare music like this to Animal Collective or Abe Vigoda. There is a lot going on, and the music is very sample driven, but remains pretty interesting. Ultimately, it’s best listened to either very loud or in headphones. In this jungle it’s about the adventure of peeling through the brush, rather than avoiding the wildlife. 

The tape itself looks very beautiful and was a nice introduction to the kassette klub label! It has neon green/clear case and the tape is red with nicely printed text on the A side. For fans of that wild tropical psych it’s worth picking up!

Listen and Buy HERE!

Bermuda Triangles - "Transmissions" (C.N.P. Records)

Jason Hodges is busy being noisy. A man of many projects (Suppression, Mutwawa, etc.), the Richmond, VA sound sculptor recently released a new tape by his group Bermuda Triangles titled Transmissions on his own C.N.P. Records. These herky-jerky boys have all the wail and madness of early Pere Ubu. Synths are performed percussively and the drums could almost be playing along to a different song entirely. This is off kilter stuff. Hodges' vocal howl wavers on top of and around the pulse(s). Recorded in 2011, the music of the BT's could not sound more out of time if it tried. Opening tune, "Black Knight Satellite," is part nightmare arcade acid flashback and part pile-driver. The title track recalls surf-rock snare drum rolls as Hodges and co. try to break on through. The band's angular beat music and tropicalia horror is of the highest order on this album. Bermuda is calling you to visit, can't you hear it?



Buy and Listen HERE.

Luscious Skin - "Ventriloquist" c35, Softoft - "Techech" c15 (Alchemist Records)

I always want to type "Luscious Jackson," but the duo is actually called Luscious Skin. Dancing their way from the midwest disco wastelands of Kansas City, LS manage to sound glossy and low budget at the same time. Their (Rhys Ziemba and Kyle Combs) "world" beats and pop vocal melodies are immediately attractive from the start on their album Ventriloquist. The title tune is a hooky acoustic guitar loop on top of a South American drum pattern with well done harmonies that hypnotize for over six minutes.  LS craft real pop music here, something that seems suited for a major indie. "You Belong to Yourself" is a bouncy bubbling synth jam that could be a "hit" if "hit" records still existed. "Office Furniture Exoskeleton" is my favorite tune with one of the better vocal arrangements I've heard this year. The album is pretty solid all around. LS knocks it out - I would recommend this tape for the synth-pop fanatic in your family.

Softoft is Paul Slocum of Dallas, TX. His EP Techech is a fifteen minute dance odyssey sound saturation to the max. Samples and club beats hit ya from the moment go and don't really let up. Some pieces tango with industrialesque whir or lo-fi buzz, but mainly this is a drum and happy synth party. It's hard to be disgruntled about something so short, so I'll just keep dancing, with or without you.


Listen and Buy HERE.

Zany Zongas - "Northpark" (Old Monster Records)

I walk to and from my job in Austin, TX. The blistering sun shoots me with death rays every summer and this summer isn't any different. When I get home - sweating like a cold beverage bottle - I grab the mail, throw it down on the coffee table, and try everything I can to lower my body's core temperature.  My skin should love the sun though because I spent my toddler years in the golden shine of southern California, but holy F how I hate the sun! I received a package recently containing a cassette by a group called Zany Zongas and a short note from their label Old Monster Records. I scanned the note and immediately noticed the phrase, "recorded live to tape in San Diego..." AH HOME! Brothers! I have to listen to this now as I decompress from a long ass day. Where's my frosty mug?

Zany Zongas' tape is titled Northpark (one of the neighborhoods in San Diego) and their LSD on the beach sound is improvised metallic guitar ooze. ZZ is a duo from what I can hear with guitars, bass, minimal keyboard upper register tones, and occasional percussion, playing slow circular riffs and orchestrated feedback. I would use the word "sludge," but that implies a certain kind of "metal" which I don't think is quite right for these guys. The music is dark, reflective, inward aiming, and causes me to sit back with my eyes closed daydreaming at sunset. The second piece, "Ahadu," is my favorite on first go around. The guitars approximate swirling light shows and somewhere deep in my mind a hippie woman is twirling barefoot. The pacing stays slow from start to finish so this album only works for me as mood music. It has, at times, the quality of an interesting demo. The last piece, for example, just kind of slows to an ending instead of reaching a real conclusion. I have the feeling that these riffs can be elongated and stretched out on stage, taking them past the rehearsal room. This is a good effort.

Listen and Buy HERE.

Scammers - "Magic Carpet Ride" c27, Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk - "Soda" c32 (Lillerne Tapes)

Readers, is there a better city for cassettes than Chicago these days? I want to know...write me and let's take a poll. 

Bowie had Aladdin Sane. Disney had Robin Williams. Chicago label Lillerne Tapes has Scammers' Phil Diamond. Diamond is a one man show and, according to the label's website, he's a goddamn great performer. Magic Carpet Ride is a concept album about Aladdin, but don't go screaming, running in the opposite direction from the word "concept" because it doesn't bloat this album one bit. In fact the tape is a scant twenty seven minutes! Hardly Quadrophenia people...On my first listens I didn't even bother with the lyrics. I'm not that kind of listener anyway. What I noticed what how much I liked the sounds coming from my stereo. The first cut, "Blue Satin," is very Bowie/Eno "Berlin" mixed with a heavy helping of Ian Curtis vocals. It is a slow developer, but I couldn't turn it off. One element I really liked was the drum programming. On several tunes big thuddy tom-tom fills roll in and I smiled and kept on dancing. The up tempo numbers are the most immediately enjoyable and again, I don't give a fuck about a lamp and three wishes, I have to shake da rump! Scammers' tape is a good one. I eagerly wait for his next offerings...take that Jafar!

Sometimes I'm just not in the mood for slow build textural drone works. Hell, I'm only human! Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk (Crazy ass band name, but cool right?) wallow in the lush life of methodically constructed music. Their sculpted tones did nothing for me when I first listened. I was kinda distracted to be honest. The night was calling my name, but I wanted to sit down with this tape and stare it down. So I listened, yet heard only the muttering crank in my head. I don't recommend forming an opinion of some band's musical efforts while in a foul mood, but that's what I did...I'm guilty of not paying attention to BBDDM. I've since listened again and the patience of the musicians to record this work must have been great because I  don't think I could've accomplished the slow motion performances. Now, I might be a faster bpm dude who likes songs, but BBDDM is recommended to the listener who can focus on minutia. I have this suspicion that I'll go back to this tape and suddenly find new things to like about it. Such is life.

Listen and Buy HERE.

Beach Dawgz - "S/T" c62, Potions - "One Buck" c32, Chicago Jim - "S/T" c62 (Pretty All Right)

Electronic music is our "folk" and the cassette (combined with the Internet) is the community conduit. Like the broadside and radio (pre-TV), cassettes are the medium with a message, available on the cheap, and away from the GREED merchants of the 1%. Maybe it's because today is Woody Guthrie's birthday that I'm ruminating on such notions. The technologies of the day and the crazy affordable nature of music producing tools have caused my mind to race with the beats (& spacey waves) of three high quality electronic releases from Pretty All Right records. As I write, popping in tape after tape, my ideals, dreams, and fears mix with Casio tones & banger dance vibes. I wanna rail against the man, but I'm sweating my ass off to the boogie...

First up is Beach Dawgz self-titled freakout. BD is a trio consisting of George de Moura, Tom Owens, and Drew Gibson. All three individuals have outside projects, but for this release they came together to work off of one another. The results are psychedelic, fun, and surprising. I found this tape to be my favorite of the batch because the sounds coaxed from the player's instruments were obviously heightened by working as a unit. 

Second on the playlist is Potions' album One Buck. This is the most lighthearted listen of the three. Recorded by Roland Potions sometime in 2009, his thumps and circuit bending whiplash keys, represent some of his earliest recording experiments. Side B's final piece is a trance inducing love-in gropefest of monotonous organ chords and percussion. I feel like the minimalism here succeeds where others might be unable to keep the interest going for six plus minutes.

Finally, on my tripping rave analog journey I meet Chicago Jim. His self-titled tape is traditionally electro and solidly "dance." Recorded using Tr808, Tr707, June 106, MicroKorg, MC202, and MPC2000XL, Jim's quirky electronica isn't as exciting or sonically inviting as the previous two titles, but it pounds the floor the most. It has a good beat and you can dry hump the air for about an hour.

Bottom line: Chicago has some great electronic mad musicians and they're doing it on tape.

If all that wasn't enough, enjoy this vid clip by Potions:

POTIONS - UNTITLED I from broken machine films on Vimeo.

Horse Thieves - "S/T" c20, Mole People - "Mole Scroll" c40 (Tolmie Terrapin Press)

Since taking up the cassette criticism vocation I've heard the good and bad of most any genre one can imagine: doom, punk, lo-fi pop, sythn-pop, ambient, drone, dance, noise, etc, but I've yet to hear bona fide country jams. OK, so maybe Los Angeles' Horse Thieves is more country-punk than say a traditionalist might hear 'em, but fuck it...I LOVE THIS BAND! Their twenty minute EP is so rawhide enjoyable I can't keep from playing at least once a day...It's damn fantastic. The slide guitar playing has me slapping my knee every time and the vocalist is like a drunk (or drunker) Kris Kristofferson mixed with some whacked out Meat Puppets slouch (not any of the acid punk rock however). Every song is good, tight, and under three minutes long. I love me some terrifying hiss scum noise blasts, but as an average listener I have more song based records in my collection than metal machine disciples so when an honest to God BAND cassette falls into my lap I always pray to my analog Buddha that it doesn't suck. "Red House," the first cut, accurately sets the cow punk dive bar on a Saturday night scene that lasts for the rest of the EP. Perhaps it's my Austin, TX home drfting into my brain as I listen to Horse Thieves, but I'm thinking about cold pitchers of Fireman's #4 and hot buzzing amps...and it makes me feel good. DO IT. BUY Horse Thieves!!

Mole People's Mole Scroll is presented wonderfully as it comes with a small booklet of poems that comprise the lyrics to the songs of the album, glow in the dark labels, and moody mysterious cover art. The demented No Wave Residents-ish vibe of the twenty song project is solid from start to finish, but I had little emotional response to the music. Honestly, rats and moles and sewers and grime all make me interested not and grossed out. I'm not being objective...tough. The guitars do crunch and squeal pretty nicely and the vocals are often treated to menacing proportions...I'm just not into creep rawk. Many listeners will probably think I'm dead wrong and that's fine. Give the Mole People a chance and prove me incorrect.

Listen and Buy HERE.

J Fernandez - "Olympic Village" [Reissue] (Teen River)

Oh shit, I've just discovered my new favorite tape label...at least for this month. Teen River is a funky fun lil label based in Chicago (I know, again with Chi town...but the city has the goods y'all) and they have released a ton of titles during their relatively brief existence - so read on and follow the links below. Come to think of it, I do remember reading about this label via Impose a while back, but memory is an unreliable authority.


J Fernandez's Olympic Village (reissue) is just a sweet ol "pop" album with dark melodies galore. Apparently the January release sold out so the minds behind TR (Gordon and Katrina Stonehart) have released it again. Fernandez's songs are wrapped in reverb, feature both acoustic & electronic beats, and are sprinkled with keyboards, but what I like best is that they are really songs. That is to say, the music comes across as thoroughly composed and well produced. I don't hear many tapes that have that "classic" produced vibe. Like when I was a kid hearing The Beatles or Beach Boys or even Radiohead, and marveling at how immaculately the instruments fit together. Fernandez's album makes great use of electric guitar too. He uses it like The Byrds used theirs. Chime & jangle, long may you ring. The opening tune, "Wasting the New Year," has a rolling riff that is just plain memorable. "Corridors" is another one of my fave songs here because it surprises me. Is that an accordion? Distorted organ too?!?! An instrumental song, "Impulse Mistakes," reminds me of an almost Brian Wilson composition for the Garageband era. OK, so I personally get a little tired of too much echo on music today, but for this tape I wouldn't want it "dry." BUY THIS ALBUM!


Listen and Buy HERE.


Teen River Soundcloud stuff (TR releases all styles).

Tabernacle - "Denovo I & II" (tabernacle tapes)

Jangle jangle ring clannnnnnnggggg strum strum Jangle jangle ring clannnnnnnggggg (OVERDRIVE) strum strum Jangle jangle ring clannnnnnnggggg strum strum Jangle jangle ring clannnnnnnggggg strum strum yelp wail jingle chim (pause)  Jangle jangle ring clannnnnnnggggg strum strum Jangle jangle ring clannnnnnnggggg strum strum fuzz fizz hiss screech (turn tape over) Jangle jangle ring clannnnnnnggggg strum strum Jangle jangle ring clannnnnnnggggg strum strum Jangle jangle ring clannnnnnnggggg strum strum Jangle jangle ring clannnnnnnggggg (OVERDRIVE) strum strum yelp wail jingle chim (pause)  Jangle jangle ring clannnnnnnggggg strum strum Jangle jangle ring clannnnnnnggggg strum strum fuzz fizz hiss screech (repeat)

Tabernacle's two volume collection is electric guitar as percussion music. Steady repetitive strums ring out their minimal tonalities and stay in one headspace. Tabernacle's recordings are like setting Marfa, TX to the routines of a guitar student, in his bedroom or basement, who loves hitting the instrument without learning anything past the act of strumming noise. If you dig this kinda thing, the label tells me their tapes are currently sold out via Tomentosa, but another batch might soon be on the way. Keep yr eyes and eardrums open.