Tabs Out

cassette podcast focusing on noise & experimental sounds
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Tabs Out | Natalie Rose LeBrecht – Mandarava Rose

Natalie Rose LeBrecht – Mandarava Rose

10.1.19 by Ryan Masteller

This is only a guess, but was our universe hummed into existence? Hear me out: only by some initiating force could all the pieces have fallen into place to kickstart a process that has resulted in sentient life on a planet billions of years later. Right? And we can be glad that everything turned out as it did – who knows what kind of hideous lizard people we would have become otherwise. (Yes, I am talking about us, humans.)

On another hunch: Natalie Rose LeBrecht has channeled that galactic hum on “Mandarava Rose.” How else can you explain the deep mysticism and cosmic connection on her new tape? LeBrecht, like a pagan medium, inhales the mysteries of life, the universe, and everything and exhales her interpretation of it (and no, it’s not “42”). Proving that we’re meant to evolve through introspection and self-betterment, LeBrecht weaves om-like trance-inducing passages, generating unwavering sonic fields that grow in power the more they’re allowed to sound. Not only that, but they’re beautifully intricately crafted – you gotta do a deep dive on this one to tease out all the nuance.

Like Nico and Clannad jamming in slow motion at Liz Harris’s place but with Inner Islands’ New Age tchotchkes available to totally mess around with, Natalie Rose LeBrecht, along with collaborator (and Galtta dude) David Lackner, go as far as they can to continue moving us away from a future lizard existence. Now THAT’S the kind of numinous spellcasting I can get behind! Where’s my twenty-sided die?

Delight your mind and heart and set adrift on a universal path with “Mandarava Rose,” available from Galtta Media in an edition of 110 “Hi-Fi cassette tapes”!

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Tabs Out | Aurora Nealand / Steve Marquette / Anton Hatwich / Paul Thibodeaux – Kobra Quartet

Aurora Nealand / Steve Marquette / Anton Hatwich / Paul Thibodeaux – Kobra Quartet

9.27.19 by Ryan Masteller

What came first, the cobra or the mongoose? This chicken-and-egg story has a weird ending, one that isn’t really an ending per se, but more like a continuous continuation along the continuum of an undulating reptilian pattern that hypnotizes throughout eternity. The hypnosis has come first from the depths of space and time and birthed the cobra. The mongoose was the afterthought.

I’m going to have to write everybody’s name here, aren’t I? OK, here goes: Aurora Nealand performs on accordion, alto saxophone, voice, objects; Steve Marquette plays electric and acoustic guitar; Anton Hatwich is our ever-steady bassist; and Paul Thibodeaux beats the skins, relentlessly. Together they make up the “Kobra Quartet,” and yes, they are the hypnotizing entity roiling through your mind’s eye as their dramatic interplay breathes like reptile skin. Do reptiles breathe through their skin? Surely some do.

“New Omens Pt. I” finds the quartet exploring the ambient space at first, the instruments setting a mood as everyone glances around and decides what the target of their spellcasting will be. They’ve settled on me. Fine. That’s what I’m here for. Then they dart in and out, like the forked tongue of some creature – badger, maybe? – contemplating a strike right at my brain. Then “New Omens Pt. II” gets heavy on the guitar and voice, but it still creeps around as if it’s slithering through the underbrush, finding a groove of a different stripe that still enthralls the vict … er, listener. “Telly Attire,” while half the length of the “New Omens,” finds a blues riff that Sir Hiss from Disney’s “Robin Hood” would surely employ to mesmerize the tyrannical and infantile Prince John. Or me. Or whoever.

Point is, the cobra, or the kobra, is king here on “Kobra Quartet,” a cold-blooded monarch with mischief on its mind. And that’s OK when you’re the object of the “Kobra’s” pursuit, its prey. What’ll it do to you when it catches you, when it decides that the time is right to strike? Probably just hit a dissonant chord on a downbeat before moving on to the next thing on its mind.

Edition of 175 from Astral Spirits! Preorder now.