Tabs Out

Ruined Spirit – Black Metal’s Redemptive Arc

8.27.19 by Ryan Masteller

I think these guys are all wet. Black metal doesn’t have a redemptive arc! It’s all about death and mayhem. Right? Those guys with corpse paint. They’re up to no good. Plus, they’re quite growly, and I’m not sure they end up in the right at the end of the story.

Still, it’s hard not to wonder, and Ruined Spirit, aka the duo of cellist Jess Whelligan and guitar and electronics maestro Andrew Hillock, does their dangedest to imagine the world where black metal was good for you. Over two fifteen-minute pieces (Display won’t even CONSIDER your tape unless it’s at least fifteen minutes long), Ruined Spirit plays to the pensive ambient fan in all of us, the one that prefers post rock but can totally get behind the atmospheric buildups as much as the heart-pounding crescendos. And who’s to say the buildups aren’t equally emotional and harrowing? Not this dude. 

So Ruined Spirit uses their powers to tip the scales of evil to the side of good, inviting us on an unknowable gray journey into the future where sense is senseless and nothing is clear. We cling to the sides of our pensiveness like survivors of a shipwreck clinging to life preservers. We have no idea where we’re headed, but we’re sure it’s probably not good. But there’s a redemptive arc, so somebody probably sacrifices him- or herself to save somebody else in a sad climax. But that’s the point!

And to be clear, I’m pretty much trolling all of you about the black metal stuff – I like it as much as the next weirdo.

Grab one of these 40 copies from Display before they’re all out! Specs:

– Clear Cassette
– Printed Sticker Label
– Printed J-Card
– Clear Case
– Labeled Black Bag
– Sticker Included

Doctor9 – s/t

8.26.19 by Ryan Masteller

Do we call them supergroups in the underground? It’s a legit question. Nobody really has much of an ego (right?) and everybody gets along super well (yeah?), so “supergroup” simply may not carry the cache of something like the Traveling Wilburys. 

Doctor9 are the Traveling Wilburys of underground outsider culture. 

OK, sorry, I’ll stop with that, but you may know these cats: Patrick Shiroishi on drums, Felix Salazar on guitar, and Mike Meanstreetz (of Tingo Tongo fame!) also on guitar got together for a couple of performances that are captured on this here tape. First up is “Character Projects,” recorded 12/5/18 in Los Angeles, and it’s a slow burn. There’s a bit of squiggle leading up to a lengthy slow passage, but then it morphs into a honking free-jazz hoedown (or the jazz equivalent of a hoedown). Then it fizzles back out. 

Sounds like a MILLION LAUGHS.

Seriously, these guys have to be having a blast. I remember when my roommates and me used to jamma lamma ding dong down in our basement, and we were pretty good. We did some pretty crazy stuff. Shiroishi, Salazar, and Meanstreetz (let’s see that birth certificate, mister), though often subdued, do some pretty crazy stuff as well. “Art in the Park,” recorded 9/9/18, also in Los Angeles, slow builds again, running itself into some great no wave guitar squirts from axemasters. The track builds, and so does the sweat on everyone’s brow. Everybody spasms for like five minutes. Or more. Less? Hard to keep track of time when this stuff’s plowing through your ear canals. 

So, supergroup? Let’s ask Weird Cry Records – they’re selling these suckers after all.