Tabs Out, Author at | Page 193 of 1032

June 29, 2020June 29, 2020

Tabs Out | Kil Gore Trout – Sound Experiments For Reel To Reel Tape

Kil Gore Trout – Sound Experiments For Reel To Reel Tape

Though I was already intrigued by the homage to Kurt Vonnegut’s fictional alter ego, I was sold by the fact that “Sound Experiments For Reel to Reel Tape” by Kil Gore Trout was recently released on tape via Fargo, ND noise label Black Ring Rituals — possibly the brightest beacon in the Midwest for fringe artists who dabble in noise-based sub-genres such as power electronics, industrial, harsh noise wall, or dark ambient.

Don’t just sit there and brush over those genre tags. Click on that link and (after experiencing Trout’s album, of course) explore the rest of the BRR catalogue. You’ll surely see — as I did when I first stumbled upon the label — that owner/operator Brandon Wald cares deeply for fostering an incredibly diverse array of creative projects. While some are saturated with revolutionary/socio-political undertones (see any of Wald’s own music released under the moniker Support Unit or the self-titled split tape courtesy of Aids Victim/Straight Panic), others exist in more abstract dimensions void of identifiable cultural rhetoric.

“Sound Experimentations For Reel To Reel Tape” is of the latter category.

If noise music could feasibly possess classical qualities, this tape certainly does. The cacophony of buzzes, shrieks, and frequency-bending sine waves is symphonic in terms of compositional scope. With a virtuoso’s touch — articulation and intent present with every twist of a knob — Trout is able to wed freeform noise experimentation with the same sort of amorphous (yet distinctive) vision coined by contemporary classical heavyweights such as Steve Reich or Fred Frith (except Trout, of course, uses electronics rather than guitars or xylophones).

I’m not sure whether or not Trout (or any other noise artist for that matter) would punch me in the head for attempting to categorize their noise music in such a way. Regardless, it must be acknowledged. Noise music is always evolving, and Trout is one of the fish determined to crawl out of the water.

There are still copies available on the Black Ring Rituals site — but keep in mind that there are only 25 copies that exist in total. This is far too few, in my opinion.

June 26, 2020June 26, 2020

Blotchouts – Lenora Guards the Egg

6.26.20 by Ryan Masteller

June 26, 2020June 26, 2020

Tabs Out | Blotchouts – Lenora Guards the Egg

Blotchouts – Lenora Guards the Egg

6.26.20 by Ryan Masteller

I couldn’t even imagine living in Alabama on a good day, let alone during this TIME of the COVIDs. But Blotchouts finds a way, the carnival-punk cacophony of “Lenora Guards the Egg” a greasy sparkle in the festering dirty river of human existence in the Deep South. Blotchouts probably can’t even wear a mask into the grocery store these days without the threat of getting beat up. It ain’t American to be forced to wear face coverings in public places, so anybody infringing on anybody’s freedom to walk into an establishment and NOT see a bunch of goobers covering their faces in surgical apparatus is ripe for a pounding. RIPE, I say!

Not that this has much to do with Blotchouts, or anything at all actually, and that’s before I even question my own preconceived notions of whether Blotchouts WANT to wear masks in public places. They may be the punchers instead of the punchees! At any rate, “Lenora Guards the Egg” is like listening to an itchy rash materialize on your skin and spread as far as it can before the antibiotics begin to do their dirty work. And that’s a good thing, trust me! Guitars irritate tender skin and synths squirt countermelodies like festering lesions lanced with the herky jerky rhythm section. That’s so gross! But that’s what you have to expect when you name your band anything with the word “blotch” in it – skin ailment metaphors are just par for the course here.

Skin ailment metaphors are probably par for the course in Alabama too, what do I know. You think those southerners are into songs called things like “Cockroach Milk” or “Enema”? How about “I’m a Baby”? Come to think of it, those aren’t so far-fetched. Still, the jittery jangle and abrasion of the wacky Devo’d maelstrom Blotchouts kicks up whips across the land, bursting through the borders of the Yellowhammer State and out into the great wider unknown. Weirdos getting picked up on tape decks from California to the New York island, just like Woody Guthrie promised. Did Woody Guthrie promise accessibly punk weirdness on the scale of Blotchouts when he wrote the New Testament? That’s a trick question – EVERYTHING was promised in the New Testament.

Buy Blotchouts and more, more, more from Pecan Crazy Records!