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February 11, 2020February 14, 2020

Tabs Out | MOS FET & Eustress – These Days

MOS FET & Eustress – These Days

We’re already on shaky ground. According to Jollies, “‘These Days’ is a supernatural 1-900 party portal … Each poltergeist tells their story …” You would think that a tape label would be smart enough to avoid dabbling in such scary subject matter, but maybe it’s the relative youth of the label that’s compelled them to ignore such common sense. This is only their fifth release after all, so maybe we can cut them a LITTLE slack. Also, the label is based in Brooklyn, so maybe years of seeing firsthand how easy it i to hunt and contain ghosts have removed any sort of negative stigma toward them. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “Ghostbusters” has desensitized an entire generation to things that people should have a deep aversion toward.

Still, the things that scare us most can surely also fascinate us, which is where MOS FET and Eustress come in. The duo, like a spirit-hunting Mulder and Scully (or maybe like a normal Shaggy and Scooby-Doo), seek to contact the entities of the spirit realm, and they do so through ritual-like ambience. Indeed, the dark synthesizer drones conjure the same type of atmosphere as a séance would, mist descending on the participants as the veil between worlds grows thinner and thinner with each passing moment. The synths, like chants, awaken the apparitions, or at least make them aware of our presence. Then the fun begins, as they start to interact with objects in the room, some rhythmically, some abruptly and, dare I say, scarily.

All that stuff moving around, and nobody there to move it. Wow!

“These Days” is music for the dearly departed, those blissfully whiling away eternity, minding their own business, and drifting contentedly through unseen realms. It’s only when they are summoned that they become agitated, and MOS FET and Eustress are good at agitating them. Here, then, is the sound of my nightmares come to life, my deepest fears of ghostly interaction made real in sound. Terrifying? You betcha! Riveting? For me, surprisingly, yes! For you, yes, but not so surprisingly. Just check it.

Tabs Out | Way Deep – Spectrum

Way Deep – Spectrum

2.10.20 by Ryan Masteller

Every time you see one of those stylized “A” blimps over London you know Aphex Twin’s going to do something crazy and new (or at least just “new”). Perhaps now’s the time we ought to be looking for similar blimps over Virginia, but ones emblazoned with “W,” for Way Deep. Or maybe the duo wants to do their own thing, commemorate their events in their own way, like purchasing several “W” billboards along the DC beltway or hanging homemade “W” sheets from all the national monuments. On second thought, that sounds like a lot of work and expenditure. Better just stick with the blimps.

I invoke the hallowed name of Richard James’s better-known persona because Way Deep works along a similar IDM, ahem, “Spectrum” as the AFX maestro, or maybe an act like Auterchre or whatever. Doesn’t matter. What matters is that Way Deep controls the zone with wonky drill-n-bass miniature epics that send you into an absolute trance if they weren’t pulsing with jagged blasts of electricity. The ambient textures lurking underneath the foregrounded rhythmic gymnastics would be positively relaxing in another context. Way Deep should do an ambient mix of “Spectrum” to see how well that would work.

But we’re here, we’re now, and “Spectrum” is urgent and immediate, impossible to relegate to the subconscious. There is indeed a field over which “Spectrum” stretches, a measurable range of BPM antics. But it’s a Möbius Strip: one end of the spectrum loops back around into the other end, twisted 180 degrees, making the entire thing completely unorientable. Yeah, I know there are two sides to this tape (called “faces” here), and track titles are firmly planted on one or the other, but think about it: if you have a tape player that automatically flips from one side to the other and you get focused on doing something else, the chances are greater that you’ll lose yourself. Hence: Möbius Strip. Continuous unorientable “Spectrum.” Science wins again. What do YOU know about science, Aphex Twin?

Edition of 50 clear-lined cassettes, “made with you in mind,” from Become Eternal.

February 7, 2020February 18, 2020

Libythth – A Serious Glompotch

2.7.20 by Mike Haley

February 7, 2020February 14, 2020

Tab Out | Libythth – A Serious Glompotch

Libythth – A Serious Glompotch

2.7.20 by Mike Haley

I’m not sure how to pronounce Haord. My instincts tell me to go with /hôrd/, like hoarder, or a better comparison: like Hoarders. I don’t want to pile on the poor folks that appear on that reality show, they are honestly going through dark struggles and need help, but in addition to the possible pronunciation relationship, both Haord and Hoarders share a passion for some twisted-ass anxious damage. With one it’s hazardous stacks of empty Meow Mix bags and broken VCR’s and jugs for peeing in. With the other it’s the audible equivalent.

So when I heard that Haord was up from their year-long nap with some new releases I was like “cool!” This label’s discography can tie the listener in knots. Libythth (I don’t know how to say that either but I think it’s like a labyrinth except scarier) is participating in that tradition with “A Serious Glompotch.”

Seth Cooper (hey, I CAN pronounce that! Look at me!) is the person twisting up the mutant pretzels here, and has been for a reported 25 years. The tunes on Glompotch are loopy, goopy, and not easy to predict. Cooper’s synths are a skittish group that act on pure impulse. They belch up knee jerk giddiness before looking around and wondering “where they h*ck are we??” Lost in a libythth (a scary labyrinth most likely home to goblins) with moldy guitars and candy-stained drum kits, the entire gang makes the best of this Sid-and-Marty-Krofftian fantasyscape. No, actually, they thrive in it. Personally, I would panic in this environment. We are in a zone that is too surreal for Hoarders, too Haord for reality. Cooper apparently has the map to this place.

Welcome Haord to 2020, and transport yourself to whatever year Libythth resides, by purchasing this C50 pro dubbed high bias cassettes (blue) edition of 100.