Tabs Out

Thee Reps – Minimal Surface

8.13.19 by Ryan Masteller

New York pranksters Thee Reps start with weird little noodles and expand upon them, using the repetition of certain passages as building blocks to create intricate structures of sound.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

“Rep” is slang for “reputation,” as in the Fresh Prince of Bel Air song “You’re only sixteen, you don’t have a rep yet!” But here it’s slang for “repetition,” meaning repeated passages. (This has been mentioned.) “Thee” is biblical for “The,” and so there may or may not be religious connotations in the music. However, since the music is instrumental, I’m going to go with “No,” although there’s a song called “Qumran” which is really close to “Qur’an.” So there’s that.

The quintet of Dave Ruder, Karen Waltuch, Jeff Tobias, Sam Morrison, and Max Jaffe fall somewhere on the spectrum between Pattern Is Movement (remember them?) and Cave, which is to say, neo-Neu! jammage run through a time signature ringer. Mathy yet delicate, krauty yet complex, “Minimal Surface” allows the band to expand while staying completely crouched and compact wherever they happen to be placed in time and space. It’s easy to picture them this way as there isn’t much in the way of explosive release, but the configurations exude a comfort you can sense in both composition and execution. You can play spot the influence all day too – I just heard some Tortoise and some Rachel’s in there. Good company.

So head over to Gold Bolus and grab a copy. You can check out a stream of the album from Cassauna below.

Ron Thomas and John Swana – Serenity

8.12.19 by Ryan Masteller

This Galtta stuff, am I right? You just never know what they’re going to release, but you can be almost 100% certain that it’s gonna get under your skin in the most pleasant and affective ways possible. Sometimes it’ll be the most amazing soft rock this side of Seals and Crofts. Other times it’ll be something like “Serenity,” which takes cues from Tangerine Dream and Cluster and Eno but also has kindred-spirit Galtta releases in Energy ☆ and Purelle. That’s what Ron Thomas (not Rob Thomas from Matchbox 20) and John Swana are slingin’.

As much as you’re like me and want to shout “Serenity now!” at the top of your lungs or start watching the “Firefly” episodes over again, this kind of “Serenity” is this kind of serenity, a little relaxation music with a psychedelic edge. In fact, whatever that thing is on the cover of the tape looks a little like a serpent-y version of the alien life forms encountered far under the sea in “The Abyss” – but a little more weird and wild and maaaaybe less willing to help. In fact, listening to “Serenity” will give you the vibe of being in some kind of extraterrestrial terrarium, a sealed environment in which you’re interacting with a controlled ecosystem, but one that you’ve never encountered before.

But safe! It’s all very above-the-board, and there’s no way you can really get hurt here. In fact, you’re left to observe life as it happens as Thomas and Swana fill the atmosphere with bubbling pockets of energy, swirls of ambience so appropriate that you’ll swear you’re breathing them rather than listening to them. And that’s probably intentional – actual living DNA seems to be encoded in the DNA of these tracks, lending them an incredibly tactile quality despite their ethereality. The full effect is one of equal comfort and disorientation, like you’re tripping balls or something with your best friends in somebody’s parents’ swimming pool in the middle of the night.

Or so I assume that’s what it would feel like. Gulp!

Anyway, hey – this is a hot one. Grab it from Galtta while you can! Edition of 125.