WARMER MILKS “In This Room” (Fuck It Tapes)

Mikey T. continues his careless hopscotch hitch-hiking across musical modes, this time sitting on the edge of a hotel bed and playing 11 very straightforward, mid-fidelity singer-songwriter tunes into a microphone. Two are covers, the rest are originals, but it doesn’t much matter as they all operate in identical emotional terrain: slightly bummed, strum-heavy, mumble-folk. The lyrics are rarely discernible and never memorable, and the acoustic guitar-work is mellow and traditional (makes even straightjacketed normalcy folk outings like “James and the Quiet” seem wildly psychedelic). On a couple tracks he lets things fray a bit at the edges and get slightly free/outsider but that’s very much the exception not the rule. Once again I reach the conclusion of a Warmer Milks album feeling strangely let down and confused.

COLOSSUS "Throne" (Heavy Nature Tapes)

It's been a long minute since Ryan LaLiberty's solo project first appeared here. Long, that is, considering the bewildering avalanche of new releases that comprises tape culture. As "Throne" makes evident, LaLiberty has devoted some considerable energy to focusing his sound since earlier recordings. Happily, the practice is paying off, as this tape shows a more mature, all around greatly improved Colossus.
Both sides are divided into segments, most being rough cuts which jump directly into the action. The pieces vary in mood but atmospherically keep spelunking in the same caverns. Colossus is still a guitar-dominated project, and one could easily trot out the usual Earth/Sunn0))) references to describe the buzzing resonance and low-end amp worship. But "Throne" does wander off that much beaten (though still enjoyable) path several times, and there finds its greatest strengths. Side A's closer "Dod Djur" is one of the more psychologically affecting creepy crawls this reviewer can remember of late. With hissing voices shifting backwards and forwards, insect noises, swamp gurgles and a rumbling bass that's faint enough to be felt more than heard, it could be the result of an ill-fated walkman left for some overnight field recording in Mordor. "Throne" also bears the distinction of a multitracked work which sounds more like a live group session than something extensively recorded over. Particularly in the way which LaLiberty experiments with vocals and subtle background noises, one can pick out inflections of early industrial music, which is unusual for a young project these days. It's disheartening that "Throne" lacks in the edition department (only 30 copies?), since the recording and the insert (black print with stamped/lithographed appearance on dark heavy paper) make for a solid combo.

www.myspace.com/collossusnh
www.blogspot.com/heavynaturetapes

GOLDEN CUP "Eye Mith" (8MM)

Rarely does drone evoke feelings of celebration and splendor. Rarely is drone done by experts. Here is a tape that beats the odds in both categories. "Eye Mith" is a gorgeous release primarily built out of drones of joy. While not as pure as the Nu-Age revolution, currently going on in both noise and noise-rock alike (see Infinite Body, Abe Vigoda, HEALTH, etc), demands; there are also enough bells and synths worked in here to turn on anyone hip to the now. And not that I want to put down the Nu-Age movement (because things must always stay in motion), but these recordings will definitely still sound alive and amazing in 10 years while much of the genre-creating of Nu-Age probably will not. Much of this life/energy that Golden Cup creates comes from their delicate use of overblown channels while recording. Just enough to make things sizzle and vibrate, but not so much that anything becomes murky or aggressive. Put this on the next time you celebrate a victory!

VILLA VALLEY / OUBLIETTE split (Excitebike Tapes)

Part of Dan’s “Catch Up” series of tapes, where he finally gets off his comfortable ass and releases masters he’s been sittin’ on since 2006. Fortunately for EXBX’s rep, no-fi noise misery like these two sides can never age – it was born/recorded rotten so it can’t really get any worse. The VV jam is a ragged trawl through gross blown-out electronics with no light at the end of the tunnel, just another tunnel leading into another tunnel. This is what it sounds like to a mole digging through the dirt beneath a war zone: loud and shitty. Oubliette’s side is even more hostile if you can believe that, total anti-musical feedback flat-lining, a storm of hornets stinging your brain a billion times in a row while you throw yourself in front of an SUV to make the noise please stop. I made the crazy mistake of rocking this CS on headphones. It won’t happen again. (P.S.—Dan must’ve been in a REALLY ironic mood when he collaged “Music To Gladden The Way To Heaven” on the spine of this fucker).

STRANGE WATER “Sunken By Seaweed” (Excitebike Tapes)

Dan from Haunted Castle/EXBX and Mike from Arbor/Treetops (everybody’s just a composite of backslashes these days, aren’t they?) hang out with a 4-track and make sound FX. The bulk of this CS sounds submerged in….strange water? Hence the ‘band’ name I presume. But, yeah, it’s a very rumbling heavy flow of audio they’ve decided to document here, pretty tricky to discern anything in particular happening, music-wise. Some scrapes get a bit sharper, sometimes it’s just a numb expulsion of waste matter pumping out of a rusty pipe into a landfill. No vocals, no percussion, no breakdowns, no idea who the heck’s doing what in this tag-team. At a certain point – when yr ears are just DRENCHED in the Strange Water scene – it gets easy to theorize that Dan and Mike have left the recording room and are just chillin in the kitchen sipping on some Arizona Ice Teas. Cause fluctuation/variation definitely ceases and all that’s left is the endless electricity. And when I say ‘endless,’ I mean C60 style. You might wanna take a walk to grab some fresh air before diving back into this beast for side B, cause it’s another infinity of waterlogged distortion. Strictly for diehards. Or Mike/Dan.

BUDWEISER SPRITE "Mouthbreather" (Iatrogenesis)

The importance of band mythology/audience mind-shaping is typically influenced in equal parts band name, release art, and actual sounds when it comes to noise. Well, in all pop music actualy, but in a unique way for noise due to the particularly abstract nature of the sounds. While emotional pitch is definitely well under control by the experts, even the masters often use non-musical elements to help steer an act into a very particular place in their listeners' minds. Case in point: Shitty Vibe Smasher. Fellow Portlandites Yellow Swans have self-identified politically since the get-go, but Shitty Vibe Smasher are a little more merged as a noise/politics act. In other words, they are politics in action. By name they set forth on the more rarely blazed trail of "happy noise"... or more accurately: hero noise (a defiant political stance indeed.) And with Patrick Mair aka Glamorous Pat at the helm you know that the sunny side of noise is well represented. Of course, this is not just Pat's act, this is a group... this is that communal act which further pushes their sound from the vague realm of ambient noise into a clear Utopian smile zone. And it is here, at long last, that we get to the actual review in this text: As a member of Shitty Vibe Smasher, Daniel Rizer sacrificed self for the benefit of the whole and to lift identity to it's hoped pinnacle. As Budweiser Sprite though, Daniel defies the types of expectations that band names set forth, and delivers some of the most rockin' NOT RIDICULOUS noise that a dood named Budweiser Sprite could ever not be anticipated to make! Cassette manipulation, 4-track mixer feedback, and a passion for finding the true energy of sound are the tools used. Still extremely positive sounding, the use of aggressive loops and growling half-magnetizations invokes foot stomping at its most wild and foreshadows even more rock when being pensive. Daniel Rizer's silly stage name only elevates his expert use of the wide world of possible sounds (from murky to shrill to you name it) to put together a uniquely rock sound by virtue of the smile you wear upon seeing the whole picture. Not a surprise coming from a member of Shitty Vibe Smasher. Not just amazing music, but masterful entertainment all around.

MV + EE “The Ground Ain’t Dirty” (Fuck It Tapes)

Vermont’s most stand-up citizens (except for Ben and Jerry) unleash a little more of that homespun hippie-folk-raga beard-divining they keep touring the world with. I couldn’t really jive at all with the macho/retro studio slickness of Gettin’ Gone so I appreciate this CS’s sonic scene immensely by comparison. Tape-hissy drone-folk of the laid back and lonesome variety, played with the confidence of a couple so comfortable jamming together they don’t even have to pay attention any more. A few of the tracks seem pretty phoned in (but not in a bad way) and a few really shine as rough-cut gems from an inner mental mine that just keeps givin’. With a nice J. Earl fold-out j-card that reminds me of some Krazy Kat warped western landscape: a simple horizon line, some moons, a tree, and emptiness.

PEDALPHILE “Rather Ripped” (Wagon)

Really disgusting C30 of bubbling mud from Ryan of Emeralds’ solo world. The cover is a hideous color portrait of a child with a terrible skin disease and his/her eyes covered up and the spine is stolen straight from Sonic Youth’s Geffen-copyrighted “Rather Ripped” font, so this thing’s agenda is pretty clearly to fart in the face of whoever’s got their ear to the ground (to drive the point home the tape opens and closes with someone/Ryan reading an “Adult” personals ad). Musically, the A side is indistinguishable low-end ooze that just rumbles numbly and drips into the cracks in yr ears in a weird motion, but the B is a way more “heard this before” man-with-a-mixer style jam. It really just sounds exactly like a Behringer plugged into itself and casually fucked around with…that aimless putt-putt-putting noise everybody who owns a mixer is familiar with. At the end it gets a little louder and loopier (like when you turn the ‘high’ knob up and the ‘low’ knob down) but the overall vibe is more ‘technological demonstration’ than ‘aesthetic creation.’ For whatever the freak that distinction is worth to anybody.

HUMAN ADULT BAND “Impotent & Filthy” (Abandon Ship Records)

You know those bands with band names where it sounds like they got so tired of trying to think of good names that they ended up picking something bizarrely literal and boring? Like Average White Band and American Music Club and The Music? Well it’s cool that the underground sludge-noise community has a representative of that school of thought with Human Adult Band. I heard a previous tape by them on Bone Tooth Horn a long time ago and it didn’t stick out in my mind at all and I can’t say that this does much either. It’s basically a mild-sounding live set of theirs recorded at a place in Philadelphia called “Th’ Big Pink” that treads from plodding sleepy murk-marches to noisier chant rock exercises. The audio gives the impression the show was basically empty (there’s not much applause between songs, though they do inexplicably bother announcing the title of every song they play) and things never seem to rev up to a higher intensity level, nor do they zone-out into repetitive trance territory. It’s kinda just a mid-energy road to nowhere. I dunno. Live shows are a headache to document properly, maybe that’s the culprit here. Either way I doubt this is the place to start if you want to get into these dudes’ discography.

BLUE SABBATH BLACK CHEER "Blue Sabbath Black Cheer"/"Catacombs"/"For The Sickly Weakling" (Gnarled Forest)

These three cassettes, the first a c20, the latter two c30's, were all released simultaneously, in nearly identical packaging. Taken together, the result is a satisfying eighty minute piece, far exceeding the expectations of a listener put off, perhaps, by what may be the dumbest band name in underground music right now. If they were to actually pay tribute to the influences to which they so shamelessly refer in their music, a more appropriate name might be Wolf Police Hair Eyes. Which brings me to my dilemma: the music on these tapes is good, really, but from my old codger-like perspective, it is pure throwback. If I hadn't seen the artwork, I could have been convinced that these tapes were Wolf Eyes recordings from eight years ago. And that's fine, I suppose, for younger noise fans who may have never heard the pre-Sub Pop Olson, Young & Co.-- that music was good too, in its time. The horror movie atmosphere and spooky vocals, the buzzsaw electronics and slow pounding beats, the dogshit production quality. When done right, it really worked. Which prompts the question: when a bands moves on before its audience is ready, who fills the void that is left? It's certainly possible that pleasure may still be mined from the methods that Wolf Eyes left behind years ago. If it's still good when Blue Sabbath Black Cheer show up and start reassembling the pieces, should the audience just shut up and enjoy it as the next best thing, or attack them for being creatively bankrupt rip-offs? I'll take the former approach and say that these tapes should be enjoyed, even if one does it as nostalgia. Truth be told, this stuff is really engaging. BSBC are a tight, well rehearsed band, with thoughtfully composed tracks and an undeniable energy. Some of the material on these tapes come from live shows in Seattle and Portland, and they must have been impressive experiences for everyone present. (The rest of the tracks were recorded "in a shed in the woods" in case anybody doubted the band's kvlt authenticity).

UNIQUE OIL FREE AIR "Untitled" (Trapdoor Tapes)

Unique Oil Free Air has a few other releases on this Australian label, although this untitled cassette might collect the earliest material from what looks to be a very long-running project. Given that the liner notes state "tracks produced from 1989 to 1991," one wouldn't be surprised to hear the sort of distorted sample collages and feedback loops that the likes of Gerogerigegege was known for during the same period. If that reference gets the juices flowing, you would probably do well to check out the samples on UOFA's Myspace page (here). Includes glossy color insert.

GRYN BRVS "Grail Fruit of Les Prix Chauns" (Pendu Sound Recordings)

"Grail Fruit of Les Prix Chauns" is a live recording from the UK duo of Stuart Fernie and Ian Murphy (I've heard the band's name pronounced "Groin Bros.") rummaging in the free improv bin of assorted oddities and obscure sound sources. On side one, a zither strumming harplike arpeggios emerges from vibrating background static. Also on hand is a droning acoustic instrument called a "wyrn," a construction of Fernie's which according to the label description is like an Irish digeridoo. Add to this a violin, thumb piano and other assorted small instruments and percussion as well as humming electronic tones and you've got a very textually diverse arrangement. Considering this, the sound is quite sparse with quieter acoustic sounds in the foreground shadowed by feedback-heavy bass oscillators for most of the duration. Comparisons to modern European clatter units like My Cat is an Alien wouldn't be out of reach. Pendu Sound's packaging is saturated in hand assembled colors and stencils with a full-color collage insert. According to the label's web site this one is still available, so grip onwards.

www.pendusound.com
GRYN BRVS Myspace

PANICSVILLE / OUBLIETTE Split (Hung Like A Horse?!)

Surely the pairing of Andy Ortmann and Seth Oubliette was a match made in noise purgatory, because even sixty minutes of material hardly seems enough. Panicsville's "Brain in the Cat" (probably a description of the album cover, which is as disgusting as you might think) could easily stand as an album in itself and is as diverse a work as anything Ortmann has released. "Gates of Hell" begins with a slow ambience but is quickly consumed by off-kilter junk rhythm loops, bagpipes (!) and greasy tape canoodling. "Horsemen's Club," "Pregnant At Birth" and the title track follow with similar collage techniques, rarely still but executed with great timing. Ortmann has a hundred methods of creating sound and enough bizarro ideas to match each one. Gurgling analog bubbles, tape decay, disorienting stereo effects, abused samples, harsh circuit-blowing cacophony- it's all there, like a gearhead's personal mixtape or a symphony for ADD degenerates. The superb mastering reveals every nauseating detail.
Oubliette's side is equally great for totally different reasons. The premise is simple: 1) cut up some Halloween sound effects records, and 2) turn on lots of distortion. Thus the greatest noise Halloween party tape ever was created. There are twelve tracks in all with slight pauses in beween, although it's not obvious why. It might have been the fun of naming two-minute snippets like "Enjoy the Scarf" and "Sad Bridal Shower," but "Never Enough Horror" sums it all up. RECOMMENDED!

www.hunglikeahorse.org

TERENCE HANNUM "Obelisk" (Self released)

CG readers might be familiar with Terence Hannum through the Chicago groups Locrian (who have a forthcoming 7" on Mark Solotroff's Bloodlust! label) and Unlucky Atlas. A Locrian tape previously reviewed in these pages was a hazy, overall guitar heavy dronescape which borrowed from contemporary Japanese psych such as LSD March or Suishou no Fune. Hannum's solo entry carries the same feeling, but here it's melodica and harmonica that carry the melody, buoyant on waves of bass and vocal drone. There's something about a melancholy melodica sound processed through delay and echo that's too classic to ever be wrong. (Admittedly, that's coming from an Augustus Pablo fan.) "Obelisk" isn't nearly a dub track, although its wide influences could also include ambient, psych and noise. Shimmering and lulling at first and darkly caustic towards the end, "Obelisk" consistently focuses on a subtle, drawn out interplay between harmony and atonality.
The single eleven minute title track carries across both sides. It's a bit of a downer to hear the gradual buildup cut off at the halfway mark, but the material is enticing enough to flip repeatedly. As with the self-released Locrian tape, this is wrapped in a letterpressed slip of thick black cardstock. From a glance at Hannum's Myspace page it looks like there are still copies available, so connoisseurs of today's underground Chicago sounds take note. RECOMMENDED!

http://www.myspace.com/terencehannum
Or: P.O. Box 220651 / Chicago, IL 60622

EMESIS / SCISSOR Split (Trapdoor Tapes)

Trapdoor Tapes have been emitting various strands of hiss cultures from their Sunshine Coast, Queensland domicile since 2005, from what I could gather. A batch of five tapes arrived a while ago, so more information as it develops. The Emesis side is dubbed quietly but hits the spot with some hellish manipulated tape, delay and feedback maneuvers, possibly captured in a live setting. It's static, despondent and hallucinatory stuff with a machinated, almost industrial tone. The Scissor side is dubbed about ten times louder. Whirring drills grind away at harsh noise territories, bludgeoning the signal into obscured crackling at some points and chugging into phaser-heavy repetition at others. There are some interesting textures created with polyphonic signals, but the gadgetry feels overloaded. Eventually the signal totally dissolves into shards and pops, and the side is over. The casing for this split is probably the most grotesque of the whole batch, with a paint job straight out of finger painting hour and a sticker of Paris Hilton in all her irony, staring you down. I wasn't able to find info online about either of these groups, but check the Trapdoor Tapes pages below:

www.myspace.com/trapdoortapes
www.trapdoortapes.tk/

C-SECTION 8 "Mounds" (Trd W/D)

Not quite in the vain of noise that references pop culture, C-Section 8 is more a legit DJ act that would appeal more to the psychedelically aligned than any pants sagger. Coming from the same New Orleans camp that Load's Impractical Cockpit shoots insanity from, this dude thrives when adding his own drum machines to carelessly looped and abusively effected samples of oldies, pop, and rock n' roll. The result is a combination of lofi textures, sly progressions from one compelling yet sideways rhythm to another, and a dominance of beats and catchy melodies. For those aware of the Fat Worm of Error/Bromp Treb dichotomy, this plays out in a similarly as Impractical Cockpit/C-Section 8. Ultimately, great pop music for the trippy minded.

MOSSY THROATS / SCISSOR SHOCK Split (JK Tapes)

The combination of artists on this tape could be as unusual as it gets for your average split release. On one end there's Mossy Throats, Daniel Dlugosielski's solo project. Dlugosielski is probably better known for his Exitebike Tapes label as well as being half of Detroit's Haunted Castle. The untitled track on this JK Tapes offering kicks off with low, pulsating oscillations punctuated by high end squelches. The first section maintains a dismal, oppressive feel fed by grating low frequencies, tape manipulation, feedback and heavy delay, heightened by occasional bursts resembling animal distress calls. The second segment, though only lasting a few minutes, is more subdued and composed with periods of silence to allow sounds to appear and dissipate.
On the flip, Columbus, Indiana based Scissor Shock (Adam Cooley et al) lay down a cutting room floor's worth of styles. Ranging from yelping thrash to blast beat mayhem to nonsensical sound collage to spacey acoustic interludes, it's hard to discern what the band was aiming for. In any case Scissor Shock plays the most original- possibly the first- combination of trombone, drum machine, acoustic guitar, 303 acid loops and chimes heard yet, anywhere. The end result is such an affectionate homage to music that one can't help but admit that Scissor Shock succeeds by being wholly themselves. Perhaps if Half Japanese was reincarnated as Sissy Spacek this band *might* have some competition, although fans of Realicide might get down with it. Includes full-color insert with restrained but surreal photos (and no spraypaint this time, unfortunately).

www.jktapes.com/

various artists "NEON COMMUNE" (Not Not Fun)

Available only at Not Not Fun's Neon Commune Fest at the Echo Curio in LA, this set of four c-20s and three 3" cdrs (gasp, mentioned in Cassette Gods!) are the essence of the rare gem release. So, while ebay and human greed will eventual turn these into something else, for this very moment (because as I write, the fest still continues) they are a true treasure from the vaults of passion. Each of the items shows Not Not Fun at their most daring in the sculptural packaging realm that has been such a pivotal characteristic for them. The most successful of these risky bets is the Uneven Universe cassette that presents the tape in a mock impulse-buying bag, the same style that peanuts near the cash register of a gas station are packaged in. Two little plastic doggies, both on a lease tied to the cassette, and more than just "thrown in," but presented with a perfect balance that flatters the feng shui gods. On the other hand, when one takes a lot of risks, one must also expect to fall short. Hence the Metal Rougue 3" that is sort of just slapped onto a piece of wood. An artisticly loved piece of wood, but still raising that WTF factor with its loose ends. As a set though, everything is elevated and having a range of successes and failures just adds to both the immediate charm and to the fact that these are basically party favors for a fest not just of NNF bands, but commemorating a landmark in the NNF time line. Since these party favors can only be purchased while standing in room full of every release that the crafty duo has put out, the love that Britt and Manda put into everything they do is personally injected into these items in a way that transcends the normal music collecting experience. Enabling Britt and Manda to create this experience is the cassettes (and yes, cdrs) themselves. While the immediacy and tenderness of home-dubbing is always a part of any cassette release, in the Neon Commune setting it is put on a pedestal. Or is it NNF on a pedestal made of home-dubbing tenderness? In any case, it wouldn't have worked with a pro-pressed format. Also, don't worry yourself so much about if you can get these tapes for yourself, because honestly, they are worthless if you buy them on ebay. The lesson to learn is that there is a power and love to be harnessed in cassettes that Not Not Fun has shown only gets stronger, more meaningful, and groundbreaking the longer you nurture it.

VESTIGIAL LIMB "Headless Supplicant" (Husk Records)

It's like "My First Harsh Noise Tape" spelled all wrong in cute backward letters. This may sound totally arrogant and condescending, but this guy's real young right? Or he just started making noise? 'Cause it sounds like it-- but that's not a bad thing. Everybody started out sounding just like this. I'm serious. But there's promise here, no question. About twenty five percent of the choices Vestigial Limb makes on this tape kick ass. Another half are fine, totally acceptable. And the last twenty five percent are things an artist learns to avoid as he matures and masters his instrument. If I'm wrong and this guy's been at it for years, then I guess I'm an asshole. (I'm probably an asshole either way...) But youthful enthusiasm comes through in these recordings, even if technical virtuosity does not. And that's the stuff you can't learn, right? Everything else just takes practice, but without the passion, your music will end up sounding as soulless as Yngwie Malmsteen's. Total support.

SWAMP HORSE [S/T] (Husk Records)

Reverb mix = 100% wet. Gloomy and awesome. Swamp Horse is, apparently, Josh Lay and Morgan Rankin. But seriously, who cares what sounds are going into this cavernous processing chain? You could play a Steve Miller Band CD through this much reverb and it would probably sound cool. Well, perhaps not. But this is some serious dank cave shit. Real dank. And it's good. There's a lot of this kind of stuff popping up nowadays-- the kind of stuff that sounds like the soundtrack to an unrealized horror film script. A bunch of people are playing with that theme lately, and I'm usually very suspicious of it. The doom fetish really does nothing for me, but this Swamp Horse tape works, despite its participation in the sub-genre. It does so through simplicity. The pieces never leave their homogenous soundworld, nor do they attempt to manufacture any narrative. There's no payoff to the suspense they build, Swamp Horse just leaves you hanging. (And I like weird tape lengths-- a c21? Weird.)

LAISSEZ FAIRE "Asylum" (Abandon Ship Records)

Peter Friel's most recent offering on the Abandon Ship label makes up his sole output of last year, which is interesting considering the steady torrent of releases from his own JK Tapes imprint. Then again, the amount of time the man must spend painting his product (he's one of the most committed devotees of spraypaint as a commercial medium, in my opinion) has to account for many a missed recording opportunity. "Asylum" is full of the same psychedelic and chilly gutter resonance that would entice any ears particular to Mike Pollard's Arbor label. Appropriately too, since Friel and Pollard have previously collaborated in Widening Horizon (an earlier review of which can be found here). As with Pollard's recent Treetops cassette "When I Was Younger," "Asylum" deals with oncoming winter with a meditative but somehow ominous outlook. The first of four tracks, "Afgan" drops with an icy thud into percolating ambient loops and blurry melodic distortion which is most likely from a guitar or synthesizer but mashed beyond faintest recognition. Most of the album sticks to the same formula, but during the most frantic moments of "Platypus" and "Pomegranate" the churning scrapes and drones take on a unique animal-like tone. The dynamics range from lulling bass swells to harsh grainy obliteration, and although the sound is heavily layered it retains a live feel. One could gripe about the single sided c40 format, but it's a minor (and arguable) objection to an otherwise solid album. Nice iceberg motif on the full-color insert as well.

Abandon Ship: http://www.abandonshiprecords.com/

DIAMOND LEMONADE "Transmissions From the Past" (JK Tapes)

(Disclaimer: Being an idiot, I wrote the review below totally oblivious to the fact that it had already been written about. Sorry Brian! Well, it's Mr. Schütte's lucky day, apparently.)

Ulf Schütte is a German artist who runs the Tape Tektoniks label and has recorded numerous albums as Shivers (solo) and Aosuke (duo with Tobert Knopp). This Diamond Lemonade thing is pretty confounding; it reminded me of the scene in "Akira" when the stuffed animals came to life in gigantic proportion and destroyed Tetsuo's hospital room. "Transmissions From the Past" consists of two tracks which repeat on the opposite side. The first is a disorienting loop collage of backwards bells, swirls of toy sounds and minimal synth refrains. Track two is an acid-soaked nightmare of whirling bleeps and what might as well be the Teletubbies theme played with microphone feedback. Each composition lasts only a few minutes, which works to its advantage. Both take full use of stereo effects, so headphone listening is essential. Imagine Hans Grusel's jarring early work and you're not far off. The packaging is classic JK Tapes style with some of the best artwork seen yet, depicting a totem pole figure in a Gary Panter-meets-Mat Brinkman mythological dream field and washed over with watercolor. The cassette itself is a sweet sea foam green and goops of grey paint line the inside of the case. Lovely.

http://www.tapetektoniks.de
http://www.jktapes.com/

CENTURY PLANTS "Without Mercury" (Abandon Ship Records)

Century Plants is a duo of Eric Hardiman and Ray Hare who hail from Albany, NY. Judging solely from pictures on their Myspace page, this looks to be a predominantly guitar-based project. There's kind of an underwater psychedelic ambience permeating the twenty minute long "Floating Elemental," which starts off minimal with chopped and screwed cat mews before shifting to more discernable repeating guitar lines and controlled feedback loops. It might linger too long for some ears, but if you're in the right mood it's a nice meditative backdrop. "Photosynthesis" is heavier, and there's a nice texture created with the juxtaposition of bass-heavy drone and blurred vocal recordings. It can be difficult for a group like Century Plants to find a unique sound in a scene saturated with guitar-heavy psych, but "Without Mercury" isn't lacking redeeming moments, such as an unexpectedly ecstatic harmony appearing in the tail end froth of "Photosynthesis." Plus there's an opaque yellow tape involved that screams "educational." How can that possibly be a bad thing?

Abandon Ship Records: http://www.abandonshiprecords.com/