Tabs Out

New Batch – \\NULL|ZONE//
11.14.18 by Ryan Masteller

You turn your back for one second – ONE SECOND – and they’re at it again. Those damn kids, throwing stuff at your house, messing it all up. Like those \\NULL|Z0NE// kids – throwing carefully packaged cassette tapes at our open mailboxes like we’re targets or something. Targets! I mean, it was not one month previous that those whippersnappers tossed an M80 of a tape batch into the ol’ mail slot, and I was helpless to not write about it. You were helpless to not read about it, and you continue to be so as you click on this link and read it again. Well, I for one am not going to take this sitting down.

I’m actually going to take this reclining on my couch, if that’s cool.

Be forewarned – this is actually two batches rather than one, they just came out within close proximity to each other. \\NULL|Z0NE// is almost as prolific a label as I am a writer! (Actually, it’s not close.)

 

ADDERALL CANYONLY – Lucid in a Wasted Way
My favorite Adderall Canyonly tunes are the ones slathered in rich pink synthesizer goo and smeared as far as the eye can see in all directions across the landscape, changing the soil composition and the DNA of all the trees and plants and stuff it happens to coat. Weird then that “Lucid in a Wasted Way” begins with some lonely guitar, a portent of things to come? Yeah, there’s lots of geetar on here, but not to the exclusion of the fabulous synths. “Lucid in a Wasted Way” simmers along in a sort of melancholy futurism, the inevitability of science-fiction damage to our way of life a mere fact of pushing forward from one day to the next. The somewhat paradoxical idea evoked by the title fittingly describes the AC outlook: so sober and focused that everything seems like drunken blur because of its sheer irrationality.

 

LIFE EDUCATION – Psychic Yeoman
My favorite Patrick R. Pärk tunes are the ones that blast you so far into space you don’t know what hit you – all you can see are stars… either from the initial impact or because your trajectory has you on a collision course with the center of a galaxy. Weird then that “Psychic Yeoman” seems so inward looking, a portent of things to come? … What am I doing, parroting the AC review? Enough – this is low-key kraut of the highest caliber, introspective propulsion through the center of your being, pulsing ESP from one entity to the next. Pärk (and the Pärk Family Orchestre) trade outer space for innerspace, and “Psychic Yeoman” is a multicolored mind trip of major tie-dyed prog proportions. You only have to release your grip on conscious expectation to fully embrace the power of the eternal mind. So … just do it already.

 

GERMAN ARMY – Kowloon Walled City
My favorite German Army tracks are the ones that hammer home dank atmospheres with electronic tribal rhythms… No, no, what did I say before? I’m not doing that. Even though that thought’s completely true, I promised not to do that anymore, and I intend to stick to it. Now, where was I? “Kowloon Walled City” follows the German Army template, even finding ways to stretch out further and plumb heretofore unrealized depths of mood. They need it too – Kowloon Walled City was a fucked-up segment of Hong Kong. Just look at it! What the hell, man? People lived there, until demolition began on it in 1993. Not gonna lie, crime was pretty rampant. So yeah, creepy, otherworldly electronics, anime rhythms, eerie ambience, and industrial shudders mark this paean to a weird, unnatural place. Perfect for the German Army oeuvre.

 

SHANE PARISH – Child Asleep in the Rain
I … don’t have any preconceptions about a Shane Parish release, as this is my introduction to his work. Let’s all take a moment then to revel in the novelty of a newly unearthed artist, the adrenalized anticipation of discovery as you pop in that artist’s cassette for the first time. And let’s also rejoice at sheer attention “Child Asleep in the Rain” demands from you, its utter ability to block out any and all distraction as it lays itself on thick and magnificent. Parish, a guitarist from Asheville, North Carolina (and once a member of Aleuchatistas), allows “intuition” and “feeling” to “guide [his] work,” and the idea of letting go and allowing the composition to happen naturally gives the results a free and visceral feel. Parish states, “There is one infinite resource passing through seven billion finite filters of subjectivity,” and Parish-the-filter, from my point of view, channels it brilliantly.

New Batch – Unifactor
11.13.18 by Ryan Masteller

I guess by this point you couldn’t pin down Cleveland label Unifactor if you tried. Long a bastion for outsider oddities – warped electronica (Moltar, Prostitutes), friggin noise (Skin Graft, Sick Llama), celestial kraut (Brett Naucke, Dominic Coppola), ghastly performance art (Headlights, Marcia Custer), whatever it is Mukqs does, and that tape where Liz Roberts and Henry Ross destroyed a car – Unifactor takes a decided turn here on batch 8 toward the “non-weird.” However, in doing so, they end up dodging any sort of easy definition one might try to stick to them. Unifactor is one slippery fish!

Batch 8 is filled to overflowing with guitar music, from the new hard folk of New Hard Folk to the nocturnal explorations of High Aura’d to the shimmering sunbeams of Shells. These kindred spirits, at least in instrumentation, steer their compositions down paths completely distinct from one another. Although the guitar is the common denominator on these releases, it’s treated so differently that the tapes themselves are mini-batches within the larger batch 8. And although that doesn’t really make any sense, I implore you to go along with it.

 

New Hard Folk – s/t
This is something else. New Hard Folk is a duo composed of Rob Frye (CAVE, Bitchin Bajas, Flux Bikes Sueñolas) and Matt Schneider (Moon Bros.), and haha, the only synthesizer piece on here is called “Moon Bikes,” presumably giving Frye and Schneider fits of giggles. OK, it’s not that funny, but it is a little weird because these guys are acoustic guitar maestros with an ear for their American primitive forbears. I don’t think John Fahey ever played a synthesizer. All beside the point, though! The New Hard Folkers conjure superior mesmerisms with their expansive playing, transifying you and opening up the vistas and scenery of our great nation within your mind. This is the romantic notion of early America, full of promise and beauty, all waiting to be tamed. The land, that is, not the indigenous peoples. Let’s all remember the indigenous Americans when we sit down in the near future to our Thanksgiving dinners. We accepted the kindness of Tisquantum and Massasoit and brutally steamrolled the legacy of their people, and all the people to the west. So, yeah – New Hard Folk has a bit of melancholy in their DNA, too, if not for these exact reasons, then at least the spirit of them.

 

High Aura’d – If I’m Walking in the Dark, I’m Whispering
The A-side, “If I’m Walking in the Dark,” opens with a mysterious drone for a few minutes before John Kolodij’s guitar appears in obvious timbre, setting the scene for the two-part exploration. The name of the game here is space, as in the absence of physical in a location, through which you can wander and contemplate and lose yourself in thought. Kolodij, aka High Aura’d, doesn’t meander, though – instead, he builds on his droning instrument and allows it to crest to heady climax, the sound filling the space with crisp chords and patterns, blazing a nocturnal nature trail to a distinct destination. The path peters out in a clearing, and you can lie there on your back and watch, unimpeded by light pollution, the movement of the galaxy. The B-side, “I’m Whispering,” breathes through ten minutes of piano before the guitar returns, wistful, clean, clear, understood. A clarity of purpose, of direction? A certainty of identity of self-actualization? Maybe – I sent a gif of Tobias Fünke wearing cutoffs to my brother just now, but that’s only because he interrupted my train of thought. Does that count?

 

Shells – Another Time
Shelley Salant (Shells! I get it) has performed with bands such as Tyvek, Saturday Looks Good to Me, and Swimsuit, and she also appears here with two explorative guitar tracks split over two cassette sides. Shelley plugs her guitar into some excellent effects pedals here, though, preferring lots of reverb and delay, a little bit of distortion, and lots of skyward smiles in sunshine. That’s right, you feel REAL GOOD listening to “Another Time,” a delicious solo guitar adventure through your favorite Peavey practice amp. What makes “Another Time” so compelling is the personality injected into the playing – Shells strums and bends, twists and tucks through a litany of adventurous progressions, barely pausing to catch her breath. In the end, you feel like you’ve scampered through fields on a cloudless day, breathless, warm, smelling of earth and grass. What a great way to end the day (and this batch!).