Tabs Out

cassette podcast focusing on noise & experimental sounds
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Tabs Out | Laura Luna Castillo / Lensk – split

Laura Luna Castillo / Lensk – split

1.24.20 by Ryan Masteller

It’s cold out there folks! It’s cold in here too, on this split tape, the one divided between Laura Luna Castillo (probably a real name) and Lensk (probably not one). The latest in the Display split series sees these two artists try to out-scope each other, try to one-up the other by crafting sound in grand scale, a “cinematic” scale if the descriptive copy is to be believed. (It is.) Both seem to be vying for the chilliest composer title. Both seem to view glaciers as musical inspiration. This is good for us.

On “Things Have Started to Float,” Castillo slowly pieces together atoms until she has constructed a monolith of hovering material, the massive structure barely resolving from its stasis. Electronic tones flit through it like shockwaves, but it’s a menacingly solid, unbelievably frigid construction. It’s like she’s attempting to take over the world through freezing it, like this person, or this one, or this one. Is that what they all do? I can’t be bothered to check.

Lensk gets obvious with “Light (As It Shone Through Cracking Ice),” maybe the most appropriate titling of a track to reflect its inspiration as there ever was. Fractal tones interact with crystalline structures; universes open up in the geometry. Like Castillo, Lensk is going for the full freeze effect on world domination (or the full domination effect on world freezing – if there’s even a difference), synths boring into the ice like drills. Maybe Lensk is like this person, or this one, or this one.

Either side, you can’t lose. Grab a warm blanket, because you’ll need one by the end of this split. The deets: Clear C30 / Ink Imprint / Printed O-Card / Clear Norelco case / Labeled Black Bag / Sticker Included / Edition of 40.

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Tabs Out | Long Distance Poison – Technical Mentality

Long Distance Poison – Technical Mentality

1.22.20 by Ryan Masteller

Long Distance Poison, the synth duo of Nathan Cearley and Erica Bradbury, have been at it for a minute. This here’s their third release on Hausu Mountain, after all, and if there’s such a thing as a mind-meld – beyond the Vulcan one of course – they have achieved it here on “Technical Mentality.” The gist of this thing is the exploration of “early computing technology,” an archaeological expedition through circuits and motherboards to determine how all that connected on a sociological and anthropological level within culture at the time and how it continues to have an impact now. Sure, we all imagined the pixilated worlds of Commodore 64 code and MS Paint and what have you, but did we ever consider an alternate reality where those worlds came to pass, where future earth and future humanity somehow merged into a theoretical existence? 

Long Distance Poison considers it.

“Technical Mentality” is therefore simultaneously an ice-cold digital wasteland and impossibly alive sun-dappled environment. It can easily shift back and forth without warning, the tone and mood flipping like a switch, although one with a dimmer because, well, there’s nothing really TOO abrupt here. The key, though, is imagination – where does your mind lead you while it’s under the influence of “Technical Mentality”? I’m almost always beamed to the worlds depicted in the retro book covers of sci-fi novels. It’s easy to get lost in those, to project yourself into the surroundings and embark on unknown adventures. There’s mystery and intrigue, danger and delight, but the entire experience is always incredibly new and satisfying. Upon these voyages humanity and technology must coexist, must work together to achieve a goal or merely survive. And the trip is always just as immersive as the destination – this very well may be the actual definition of the Hausu Mountain “zone” put into practice. 

Orange C40 out January 31. This is also the first tape to feature the new Hausmo spine logo, designed by Eliot Bech (Chubby Pumpers). Excerpt of “Giving Up on Me” below to wet your whistle!

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Tabs Out | Robedoor – Negative Legacy

Robedoor – Negative Legacy

1.17.20 by Ryan Masteller

Four is not a funny number, but it’s a RESPECTABLE number, especially if you’re considering it in relation to Tabs Out’s Top 200 Tapes of 2019 list. That’s where you’ll find “Negative Legacy,” a grisly swamp of butt psych from Robedoor, LA’s finest purveyors of “dungeon-crawling” sleaze. What was above #4 on the list, you ask? Just an excellent Strategic Tape Reserve comp and a Fire-Toolz album, not to mention that “101 Notes on Jazz” thingy. Robedoor’s in great company.

Long a mainstay of the Not Not Fun community (Britt Brown is a Robedoor-ian after all), Robedoor has dropped “Negative Legacy” on Deathbomb Arc, another collection of California experimental-music lifers hell-bent on subverting everything you’ve ever known about genre … or anything, really. (Give it a try – toss them a subject, they’ll change your mind about it.) So Robedoor fits right in with these weirdos, given that they’re weirdos anyway, a bunch of CHUDs infecting the city’s water supply with their lysergic smear jams and redirecting their contaminated sewer lines into the reservoirs like evil-twin ninja turtles. And though the teenage years may have long passed them by, they’re certainly glowing, irradiated mutants as do their nefarious work.

So that’s what they mean by “Negative Legacy”: Robedoor has left a trail of chemical damage and misfortune in their wake, and we’re left with the heavy burden of tidying up after them. Fortunately, as we’re cleaning all this mess up, we can listen to “Negative Legacy” on our Walkmen, take in the damaged synths and reverbed percussion and sinister wails, utilizing the rhythm to guide our work. Little do we know, we’re just creating the same damage over and over, so we toil in circles for eternity, our Sisyphean task forever haunted by the “Negative Legacy” in our ears. 

I guess we could just press stop at some point.

Edition of 100 regular tapes (or edition of 3 AUTOGRAPHED ones) available from Deathbomb Arc. Quite an appropriate #4, I must say.