Tabs Out

cassette podcast focusing on noise & experimental sounds
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Tabs Out | Bastian Void / Kyle Landstra – split

Bastian Void / Kyle Landstra – split
1.15.16 by Scott Scholz

voidk

Two of the best synth zoners to ring out a stellar 2015, Kyle Landstra and Joe Bastardo’s Bastian Void take complementary yet opposite approaches to modular mayhem. Both artists bring recent recordings of pieces workshopped over summer gigs to this split C45 on Chicago’s Lillerne Tapes, gifting us with a rare tape that explores both inner and outer space.

On the A-side, Bastian Void’s “Acorn Construction” is a perpetual motion machine, blasting off with a persistent arpeggiator section into a field of cosmic dust. Several other arpreggiator-dominated passages morph into one another, nicely balancing timbres from the three major food groups of kosmische: square, saw, and sine waves. Even when the piece eventually settles into swelling pads and fading drones toward its end, a sense of motion and vertigo remains. This side is a great companion for interstate (or interstellar) travel.

When you arrive at your destination, though, it might be time to turn within, and Kyle Landstra is ready to light up your limbic system with his “Seeking Refuge in Emptiness” on the B-side. Like Bastian Void, Landstra is no stranger to the joys of the arpeggiator, but here he focuses instead on slowly shifting pads and drones. A fine coda to his excellent “Unshared Properties” quadruple tape on Sacred Phrases just a few months earlier, this feels like a reverent embrace of stillness, made of compressed time and gentle atmospheres. From its midpoint onward, “Seeking Refuge” starts to incorporate rhythmic, arpeggiated figures, but somehow they feel more circular than linear, embracing the listener from a central position instead of defining a path of movement.

Bastardo laid down some killer infinite-regression artwork that’s just perfect for this split, and he printed up these j-cards all classy and gorgeous, too, with fine line work and vintage, muted colors. There’s a rad little card inside, too, where you can familiarize yourself with these fine fellows’ feline companions. These babies are almost gone, but you can still snag one of the last copies over at the Lillerne Bandcamp. Happy travels!

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bic thumb1.14.16: New Batch – Bicephalic

by Mike Haley

Bicephalic continues their split tape series of gonzo squeal with another double dose of noisenik unions. [Check It Out]

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Tabs Out | New Batch – Bicephalic

New Batch – Bicephalic
1.14.16 by Mike Haley

bic

Bicephalic continues their split tape series of gonzo squeal with another double dose of noisenik unions. This match up marks numbers three and four in the run, which will max out at eight cassettes. The artwork for these puppies, hand painted by August Traeger, is god damn dazzling. Not just for these new ones, but all of em. Go ahead and check. I’ll wait….. Ya see? That’s reason enough to collect all eight, and thankfully the jams are hella dope as well.

Promute tackle their side like hyper-focused bed bugs navigating through the coils of an overused mattress (you know those things don’t last forever, right?). Fifteen minutes of itchy, speckled sounds corkscrew at random, vibrating from junkstriments and metallic massages. Their partner for this adventure is Homogenized Terrestrials, who opt for an oily infestation. You know those times when you accidentally spill a mason jar of slugs and jellyfish parts into an oscillating fan on low? You don’t? That’s NEVER happened to you? Then you’ll just have to trust me that this is what that sounds like. Seriously, you’ve never done that???

Carl Kruger (possibly related to Freddy? Though I think they spell it differently. Still too scary!) riffles through the junk drawer, sips on empty Big Gulps, and searches for a pen that still has ink remaining for a gnarly span of gummy noise. The viscid experience is almost sad. “For the love of god, someone give Carl a drink! Please give him a pen!” I literally shouted that while listening to this track. And by literally, I mean figuratively. NJ9824 goes for it on the flip side. I used to love that show as a kid. Confession time: I am a GIANT Luke Perry nut, but man has shit changed. Gone is the day-to-day drama of privileged California youths, instead replaced with cleaved and minced audio fragments, Vibrant and void of attention. The occasional six second piano rasp brewed into sensory bombardment doesn’t slow things down. I guess kids today just don’t get Luke Perry?

Both of these cassettes are C30’s, limited to 50 copies. Grab them while they last from Bicephalic.