Tabs Out

cassette podcast focusing on noise & experimental sounds
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Tabs Out | 2015 Goldrush Companion Cassette

2015 Goldrush Companion Cassette
9.17.15 by Mike Haley

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The 5th consecutive Goldrush Music Festival will take place this weekend, September 18th and 19th, in Denver, CO with a cast of outsider artisans including Yoni Wolf, Lawrence English, Tara Jane O’Neil, Guardian Alien, and Pictureplane. For the 4th year a cassette compilation has been put together to guide ya through the roster’s diverse array of genres and talent.

This year’s comp is a 22-track, 80-minute marathon kicked off with some calm, reflective experimentation by Brooklyn’s Baby Birds Don’t Drink Milk. The material then sways through a catalog of moods, from the shoegazey chillness of Landing to heady guitar drone from AMULETS, before Tara Jane O’Neil wraps up side A with a gorgeously gushing unreleased cut.

Side B is equally stacked. Denver locals Bang Play blitz a standout track of crazy free jazz early on that leads into a grip of lo-fi, stoked-on-Elliott-Smith pop from Austin, TX artist More Eaze. The comp (well, I guess the fest itself) is full of that sort of heavy juxtaposition. Why?’s Yoni Wolf right before a dream pop take on Lucinda Williams’s “Passionate Kisses” performed by Lisa Prank (brilliant moniker btw). Straight up rock giving way to randomly dispensed oscillations. It’s a smooth taste test and a killer attack on stagnation.

Eye candy for the 2015 Goldrush Companion Cassette was executed by the always great Tiny Little Hammers. You can pick up one of the 300 copies a few ways: Free with 2-day passes to the fest, for $5 at the fest, or for $7 through Planted Tapes if you can’t make it out to Denver.

Side A
1. Baby Birds Don’t Drink Milk – Little Village [0:00]
2. Bollywood Life – White Wall [5:39]
3. Landing – Glow [9:40]
4. Guardian Alien – female masturbation music [13:41]
5. American Culture – My Teeth are Sharp [18:03]
6. AMULETS – NIHILISM ON 1-10 [19:36]
7. Benoît Pioulard – Needless to Say [27:40]
8. Crown Larks – Pt. 4: Satrap [30:38]
9. déCollage – Friendlings [35:33]
10. Tara Jane O’Neil – Kelly [39:16]

Side B
1. Lawrence English – Coda for a Fading Tide [0:00] 2. Bang Play – Push it Slow [2:53] 3. More Eaze – Amicable Detentes [4:41] 4. braeyden jae – A Joy of Hell [7:10] 5. dugout canoe – (‘-‘) [11:39] 6. Yoni Wolf – Rifle Eyes [23:35] 7. Lisa Prank – Passionate Kisses [25:44] 8. Make-Overs – Post Show Hissy Fit [27:49] 9. John Chantler – A New Power [31:04] 10. Nevada Greene – A Love of Irrelevant Mind [35:20] 11. The Space Lady – Who We Are is a Key [38:18]

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mirande thumb9.16.15: Christian Mirande – Fear Of Flying

Mistake By The Lake offers up some dynamic field recordings from pilot in training Christian Mirande. [Check It Out]

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Tabs Out | Christian Mirande – Fear Of Flying

Christian Mirande – Fear Of Flying
9.16.15 by Jacob DeRaadt

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Christian Mirande is a new sound artist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Some cursory research revealed that he’s a pilot in training for the United States Air Force, thus the ironic title of this release. However, there’s a clear vision presented here on this cassette that is undeniable.

The use of stereo delay and organic sounds in varying acoustic environments really works as an audio diary of travelling. The listener begins to question the situation in which they’ve been placed. Juxtapositions of textures both brittle and soft, up close and far away. Gentle tones glide into an airplane runway. An interruption of small rocks tumbling around plastic containers. There’s also an impressive use of silence, and near-silent passages. Great transitions on this one: Gradual shifts as well as sudden jolts into a new landscape. No sound lasts longer than a minute or two, which lends itself to a vaguely episodic feel. There seems to be almost varying biases to the field recordings. Again, I’m not sure if the artist is utilizing analog or digital gear in this process, but ultimately the mystery of the recording process has this listener mystified.

“Pierced Steel/Heron” shows signs of layering various sounds to make a complex narrative. We’re not talking classic-era music concrete here but the fashion in which the elements crawl in and out of the ether are sublime. “Com Cycle” stood out as the strongest work on this cassette. Brief bursts of juxtaposing dark matter colliding in the recesses of an old mind. One of my favorite elements is ever-present here: The sound of empty rooms with some mistaken ambient sonic event happening outside the window. The edge of perception degrades, the rust belt of the magnetic tape reel rolls to reveal a subtle intention.

This careful assemblage of field recordings is essential for anyone longing to hear more sonic detritus in the vein of Jason Lescalleet, Justin Meyer’s earlier eponymous works for tape, or Jeph Jerman’s more sparse works.

“Fear Of Flying” is available from Mistake By The Lake in an edition of 35 copies.