6.17.20: Silver Gosts
Reflex Condition – Unknown Restraints
6.15.20 by Tony Lien
Tabs Out | Reflex Condition – Unknown Restraints
Reflex Condition – Unknown Restraints
0.0.20 by Tony Lien
As far as UK labels go, it’s hard to talk about the experimental cassette scene without mentioning Third Kind Records. Going on seven years since its founding in 2013, owner/operator Nicholas Langley has continuously been able to curate a catalog that satisfies just about any taste – with releases ranging from thoughtful lo-fi folk music to avant-classical synthesizer work.
Something I’ve always personally enjoyed and respected about Langley’s curation is his devotion to certain artists and a willingness to work with them time and time again as the years go on – like Nikmis, or (the artist in question today) Reflex Condition.
“Unknown Restraints” is Reflex Condition’s third release on Third Kind (see 2014’s “Dashboard” and 2016’s “Witch Flower”). Though it’s surely a logical extension (style-wise) of these previous releases, there is an amplified essence of passion and (sounds cheesy but) adventure in these tracks. Honestly, as the moody, aggressive synth leads somehow become personified and rip through the speakers and bounce off of the driving, underlying beats like deep-space acrobats, I can’t help but feel that Neil deGrasse Tyson is going to come cruising in on his Cosmos ship and whisk me off to Titan or Europa or some nameless nebula far beyond the reaches of the known universe.
Besides the energetic instrumentation, the most idiosyncratic aspect of “Unknown Restraints” is the occasional inclusion of vocal passages. In the second track, an ethereal, synthetic voice – which almost seems like that of an artificially intelligent entity soon after achieving singularity – beckons us: “Come with me, it’s not so bad…” Though you can speculate as to what is meant by this, I prefer to see it as an invitation to truly immerse yourself in the remainder of the album. The voice is right, if that’s the case: it’s not so bad. In fact, it’s breathtaking (a little more necessary cheesiness for you).
There are still copies available on the Third Kind Bandcamp. Do your small part for the perpetuation of the human race and buy a tape. We’ll never get to space without embracing the spirit of interstellar adventure that defines Reflex Condition’s killer electronic compositions.
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Tabs Out | New Standards Men – I Was a Starship
New Standards Men – I Was a Starship
6.12.20 by Ryan Masteller
We’re not going to have great ensemble music for a while, I reckon. What with self-isolation and social distancing, who’s gonna get together for band practice? Who’s gonna tour a full band around the country? Who’s gonna allow anybody in a studio? It’s all up in the air right now.
So we grasp what we can. Did I say “instant classic”? If not, New Standards Men’s “I Was a Starship” is an instant classic, a loaded t-shirt cannon aimed in the face of a superfan, and once that trigger’s pulled, there’s no amount of lawsuits or settlements that will make things go back to the way they were. In fact, just suggesting that you listen to this is going to probably set me up for multiple lawsuits. (I have no idea why I have lawsuits on the mind lately – I tend to be a sue-r, not a sue-ee [insert “Deliverance” joke here].)
That’s because “I Was a Starship” is road music for a series of fatal car crashes shot by Lost Highway–era David Lynch. It’s stoner metal and prog and the deepest, darkest lounge all smooshed together like auto wreckage in a trash compactor. Imagine Tonstartssbandht listening to a bunch of Bohren, or Explosions in the Sky getting their Sleep on. But all at once. AND WITH NO GALL-DANG VOCALS. What, you’re gonna mess up this mood with some jibber-jabber? I dare you to. I DARE you.
NSM is a quintet this time around, the core members of Drew Bissell and Jeremy Brashaw joined by Personal Archives’ own Bob Bucko Jr., Ike Turner, and Luke Tweedy (no, not THAT Ike Turner – he died in 2007). “I Was a Starship” is three tracks this time around (and forever), each an eleven-plus-minute jam sesh that finds the players in total kraut lockstep as they stretch and evolve ideas. And it’s loud – you can really crank this sucker up! So if you’re looking into your crystal ball and see a future bereft of awesome records from bands (my friend John: “Next year’s records are going to be the worst”), circle back to “I Was a Starship,” and flip 2021 right off (god, I can’t believe I’ve already given up on 2021 too).
Plus, the artwork. You see that octopus? *chef’s kiss* That’s courtesy of Daria Tessler/animalsleepstories.
Did I also mention that ol’ Warren Defever of His Name Is Alive fame mastered this thing at Third Man Pressing, home to human vampire bat Jack white of Edward Scissorhands fame? Now you know.
Edition of 100 out now on Personal Archives!