PANEYE “Remote Summer Clouds” C55 (Illuminated Paths)

There are a bunch of rad synth riffs and dreamy sequences and washes and ghosts of awesome neon eighties dance parties and then half of them GET RUINED BY THE FUCKING 4/4 TECHNO DOWNBEAT. I’m going to go and set this tape on fire now and pay hard earned cash for it later, once somebody finds a way to make noise cancellation software that buries the technobeat. Also, if you are someone who is considering sending Cassette Gods your techno tape, please consider, for the both of us, requesting that I not get your tape. Plenty of people who are not allergic to techno will likely go ga-ga over this, as the production is great and the layers are masterfully arranged.

           

http://illuminatedpaths.bandcamp.com/album/remote-summer-clouds

and/or

http://illuminatedpaths.org/

- - Jacob An Kittenplan

DEATHCOUNT IN SILICONE VALLEY “Acheron” (Extreme Ultimate)

Prisms collide with Klaus Schultze on this pixelated tape from London’s Andrew Nixon, and a VHS aurora borealis concentrates, penetrates, and dissipates all listeners at a molecular level. I’m writing this review now through thought synapses captured by my computer in the nanoseconds before I became part of the universe.

Extreme Ultimate is the name of the label. Extreme ultimate is the sensation of cosmic power one gets while listening to this tape. Before one is obliterated of course.

Nixon’s synths pulse and oscillate, drone and hover, and gaze out into vast expanse of space and time. The compositions ruminate on our place within existence, and brim with nostalgia. They venerate Science and Discovery, and see the future, which is great beyond our limited imaginations.

If I had to choose (and I don’t, they just strike me), “Habitual Arp Worship” and “The Car” are simply excellent. John Carpenter meets Vangelis, and all the other synth soundtrack masters. Superb.

https://extremeultimate.bandcamp.com/

https://extremeultimate.bandcamp.com/album/acheron

--Ryan Masteller

SPACE BLUE “Space Blue” (Crudites)

Lo-fi extraterrestrial New-Agey synth tape from an Electric Bunnies solo project. Released on French label SDZ’s tape imprint, which makes perfect sense because this sounds like music that a French person might make for a soundtrack. 

But lo! It was made by a Floridian who lives in Los Angeles. Two places where it would be highly likely to be abducted by aliens, become influenced by the music of other spheres, and come back to earth to make a chillwavey long form album about space, with names like “Relax,” “A La Luna,” and “Venus Of.” 

Lots of exciting surprise sounds hidden in this budget mix job…. bits of sound collage, clips from other tapes or field recordings, variations in the rhythms, interjections of human language. An underachievery tape that is nevertheless carefully crafted to communicate a mood and reward close listening. 

Kind of boring at moments but in a weird enough way to think about and listen to again. Somewhere between Suicide, Stockhausen and the X-Files original score at its best moments.

https://sdzrecords.bandcamp.com/album/space-blue

—Liv Carrow

ANGELA SAWYER “The Last January"(Hidden Temple Tapes)

Playing with toys, machines and voice, Angela Sawyer is a seasoned sound craftsperson. There is a first person diary-like account inside the cover, which may or may not explain these two sides of sound to tape. Maybe witnessing an Angela Sawyer performance would reveal any questions as to what and how, regarding the instruments and sounds. Something cathartic is happening, this is the document, and it might heal the player and listener alike. It’s real stuff happening here, with its own plan and structure, by a solitary human. It’s minimal but vast. It’s good for what ails you.

http://hiddentempletapes.storenvy.com/products/12136131-028-angela-sawyer-the-last-january

--Adam Padavano

PHiSH

TOUR STARTS TODAY IN BEND, OREGON

BE A LOVER NOT A HATER

IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY HAVE A LOOK

GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH

hit me up if you still know how to have fun

will be there with crew atlanta --> mangaball

TRACKING “Tape 2” (Servataguse Muusika)

This three artist compilation tape is the second offering from cassette label Servataguse Muusika. Listeners will have a chance to hear noise compositions by Krisitian M Roberts, Grey Park, and Leitmotiv Limbo. All 3 seem to embrace industrial and minimal electronic influences at varying capacities. In general, one thing that can often be frustrating for me as a listener of this kind of thing is when the tracks don’t build or progress at all. With this tape though, I wasn’t as bothered by that. Even in the most intentionally repetitive moments I felt captivated by the atmosphere being created through sound instead of bored by it. 

Get a copy here: http://www.servataguse.com/

-- Roy Blumenfeld

NORTH2NORTH “Chemical Garden” C20 (Ionic Order Records)

North-2-North are a kind of groovy, techno-indie, duo from Denmark. Mostly, their music stays on the more somber side of the keys, maintaining consistent somberness without ever actually despairing, which is kind of fun. I imagine a bunch of sadly swaying show-goers, juuuuust motivated enough to move, but not actually fully commit to a shaking of the hips, eyes a notch narrowed, poised for a teardrop, but flirting with glazing over, entranced; enTRANCEd! Get it?! Ha!

           

http://ionicorder.bandcamp.com/album/chemical-garden

- - Jacob An Kittenplan

JUJU “Echo de Gradient” c40 (Hylé Tapes)

I love the French – somehow, they just know what’s up. Like, when I was chilling in Paris, I was all like, “I could really go for some art right now,” and Paris was all, “Yo, check out the Louvre, dude!” And I did, and they had all this art there! It was great. (It really was, funniness aside.) And then, one time in Strasbourg, I had this super duper hankering for a bottle of gewürztraminer, and Strasbourg was all, “Hey bro, every café in town’s got that. Sidle up!” And I did, and it was awesome. (It really, truly was.)

So these Hylé Tapes cats, they just started up their label when the clock struck 2015, and Juju’s Echo de Gradient is their first release. I had no idea what to expect from the duo of Adrien Kanter and Richard Francés – Juju didn’t really conjure up a genre in my head (plus they’re French, of course, so anything goes), and the album title made think this was going to be a straight ambient release. I even thought that would be the case through the first five minutes of the opening title track, until the drums crept in, lending the soundscape a nightmarish prog atmosphere. It felt kind of along the lines of a darker Food Pyramid passage, and it was utterly delightful. In fact, it was what I wanted, exactly, at that moment. How did Juju even know?

The funny thing about this tape is that Juju kept going, charting the path of my subconscious desires with wickedly precise ease. “Terrance” followed in its full drone meltdown glory – exactly what I wanted, at that moment. It was a bold move, and it totally paid off.

So I wasn’t even guessing anymore at this point, because Juju just knew. “Miles’ Limes” orbits a postindustrial dance floor, a weird disco/techno hybrid, like Daft Punk and Joy Division getting cozy over a Bud Light Limerita, because that shit is delicious, and not at all a total taste bud violation. The tune was another welcome left turn, though, again exactly what I wanted, at that moment. (But I don’t need a Limerita, though, in my body, ever, ever, ever.

I think you get the picture, and I haven’t even touched on side B, the twin monoliths of “Pas de Futurism” and “Miroirs,” each grade-A prog-psych-drone-experimental astral goodness. Juju is clearly psychic – they know me inside and out, and what I want, before I want it. Well, either that or they bugged my office (which is where I usually zone, tunewise). Now that I think about it, I’m kind of uncomfortable with the idea that Juju’s bugged my office. I think it’s time to do the monthly sweep a little early.

https://hyletapes.bandcamp.com/album/echo-de-gradient

--Ryan Masteller