Tabs Out | Permafrost AC – Skärmtiden läker alla sår
9.1.20 by Ryan Masteller

Ol’ Krister Mörtsell sure has his thing. Not only does he run the väldigt bra Do You Dream of Noise?, a massively cool ambient/electronic/post-rock label out of Sweden, he also performs as Permafrost AC, whose output varies from massively cool ambient to electronic to … I dunno, probably not post-rock. But still! Pea meets pod, or pod creates/cultivates/signs pea (to contract), and the rest is history, with Permafrost AC releases dotting the DYDON discography, and the discography of other labels. Including Lamour Records, which is what this one is on!
I have it on good authority (Google Translate) that “Skärmtiden läker alla sår” means “The screen time heals all wounds,” which I don’t understand in the slightest, so I’m not going to give it a second thought. (Translation programs don’t often get what I’m REALLY trying to say, you know? There’s an idiomatic blind spot to them.) What I do know is that we’re all wounded in some way, and we’re all striving to heal those wounds. Especially these days, these remarkably dumbshit, disappointing, and disconcerting days. Heal me, oh Permafrost AC, with your shafts of synthesizer light, with your gleaming cubes of EBow’d guitar!
And there they go – my wounds are fading. There’s something environmentally and psychically friendly about this kind of ambient music, the minor keys layered in the atmosphere, like you’re at the top of a mountain looking out upon the landscape and watching the clouds roll in. It’s not the kind of music that gives you an easy way out, emotionally, but it makes you think, contemplate, consider deep down how you’re going to approach everyday life hereafter. So it gets inside you and becomes part of you, and now you’re a serious thinker with an eye on making the world a better place. Wounds, begone! Now we heal your wounds.
Related Links
Tabs Out | Moth Bucket / Bridges of Königsberg – split
8.28.20 by Ryan Masteller

As antisocial as it gets. Moth Bucket and Bridges of Königsberg, together at last, for the first time, for the last time. Or maybe not the last time. I have no idea if they’ll hook up again, or even if the individual collectives (Moth Bucket is the duo of Kevin Sims and James Searfoss; Bridges of Königsberg is Christopher Burns, David Collins, and Peter J. Woods) will be able to share the same room in the near future. Who’s to say with all this self-isolation? I haven’t seen another human being in months.
Still, these are antisocial times, and this split is filled to the butt with antisocial antimusic. Moth Bucket gets it though – “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Jazz!” is their track, and I can’t believe it either. Horn is supposed to make it jazz, right? Moth Bucket plays horn, and reeds, and it’s not jazz. It’s a long lament of being stranded somewhere where there’s no human interaction, like a desert island. Like my house is right now – a stucco desert island where I try to drink my own tears for sustenance. (My wife keeps trying to get me to drink water from the Brita pitcher, but I’m not convinced she’s even there.) Horn just breaks up the electronics and sampling and “Fun Machine.” It’s noise, guys. It’s noise. Maybe it’s in my head.
It is in my head! Bridges of Königsberg makes certain of that with their side, a little something called “The Curse of the Second Act.” I had no idea I was in my second act (is that what middle age is?), but heck if I don’t feel cursed right now. And the trio just rolls over me with a mélange of processed electronics that crush my brain and my sanity, and then they just continue on their way. That this thing lasts for eighteen minutes is a testament to how much intensity I can tolerate at one time. Moth Bucket was eighteen minutes too. I might be dead at this point?
Orbit Orb Tapes’s site and orb-grab one of these 50 orbs (tapes) beforb they’re orb (gone)!
Related Links
8.28.20: Canigou Records






