Tabs Out

cassette podcast focusing on noise & experimental sounds
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Tabs Out | Sfyria Trio – Rockefeller Concert

Sfyria Trio – Rockefeller Concert

10.25.19 by Ryan Masteller

Sam Decker, Charlie Kirchen, and Matt Carroll did NOT play Rockefeller Center at Christmastime, because that’s what I thought too. Rockefeller CHAPEL (all caps for emphasis because Mike won’t learn how to do italics) is in Chicago, Illinois, because that’s also the city where the members of the trio happen to be based. In this chapel, on May 30, 2017 (wow, that long ago?), Decker, Kirchen, and Carroll opened instrument cases containing tenor sax, bass, and drums (respectively), and set themselves up for a tense and tempestuous improv session. Obviously it took a little time to set up the kit; the sax and bass were pretty much ready to go. (Insert joke about drummers here, amiright???)

But “Rockefeller Concert” is no joke, no laughing matter. It has no room for mirth or levity, because once the Trio got down to business, they locked themselves IN. Maybe feeling the solemnity of the location, they don’t explode in a flurry of jazz virtuosity, instead contenting themselves to work around the edges, dotting the sonic landscape with well-chosen notes and beats that leaves much for the imagination to fill in. Acting as guides through the venue space, the Sfyria boys highlight specific moments and constructions, hovering at intervals like hummingbirds at a feeder before sprinting to the next location, then hovering there as well for a bit. Intricate exploration is a strength for the group, and they fuss over the finer details they pinpoint until something else catches their ear. There’s no rush, though: everybody takes their time until their satisfied, and this invites us to get closer and explore right along with them.

“Rockefeller Concert” comes in an edition of 175 from Astral Spirits. Get one IMMEDIATELY. (All caps again, SMH.)

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Tabs Out | Non Photo Blue – Crawling into Tomorrow

Non Photo Blue – Crawling into Tomorrow

10.24.19 by Ryan Masteller

Look, this is just what we’re all doing at this point, aren’t we? “Crawling into Tomorrow.” We can’t walk anymore, our backs broken from the persistent and massive weight of unease and expectation. We are fully on the ground, groveling, squirming along like wounded snakes, just hoping for enough to get by for at least one more day. That’s it. That’s all we’re looking for. Survival at a lowest-common-denominator level.

That’s an ominous vibe, isn’t it? Sorry. Sometimes you just feel it – the load bearing the full force of gravity as it encumbers your every movement, physical or metaphorical. Daniel Donchov, aka Non Photo Blue, has borne that load. He has also realized that the burden we bear can make us who we are, can shape us, and can guide us upon a path that may actually better us. It’s true! Take “Crawling into Tomorrow,” for example, a heady concoction of ambient synthesizer and ethereal atmospherics, loaded with meaning and importance. Every second is a moment to contemplate the state of yourself and your history, your current situation, your future. It’s a serious, sad moment for most of us as we realize our lot in life, but it’s also freeing: think about those dissipating expectations and the onrushing of self-worth once you’ve jettisoned those emotional burdens. Think about the time you do have, and what you can do with it, who you can spend it with, how you can help.

Maybe after “Crawling into Tomorrow” you’re just about ready to stand up, dust yourself off, and move forward with your head held high. That’s sort of how I feel after it – yeah, Non Photo Blue’s made me feel pretty good after all. Who would have thought that the melancholy soundtrack for sleepless, wandering nights and exhausted, gray dawns would be so fulfilling? It’s like chill northern air, morning mist, and fleeting sunbeams through clouds in aural form: sneakily invigorating.

Amek Collective’s done it again! Only five of the original run of fifty left from the label.

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Tabs Out | XI-N – Pulsar

XI-N – Pulsar

10.23.19 by Ryan Masteller

This one looks like math. There are axes (an x axis and a y axis) and an origin where they intersect. Quadrants. Geometry. Physics. Space talk. I’m bad at math.

XI-N sounds like a math thing, like a supercomputer or NASA probe. It is not – it is an entity called Dovlet Shyhmyradov, but Dovlet Shyhmyradov is not doing itself any favors by calling its tape “Pulsar” and then acting like a pulsar, what with the beams of electromagnetic radiation emanating out of its magnetic poles. It feels like I have to get down and dirty with the math just to parse these signals that are coming out of my speakers, and I’ve stated my position on my own math skills. I also wonder if XI-N realized it was way further advanced technologically as a being before releasing “Pulsar” on cassette tape? This thing should be strictly ESP waves. It’s obvious that XI-N is from a place where brain-to-brain communication is much more commonplace.

Well, you might say, this is all well and good, and actually rather interesting from a scientific and even maybe a lay standpoint, but if “Pulsar” ain’t good, I’m turning it off. Friend! Don’t touch that stop button. There are recordings that make you want to scan the night sky through a high-powered, government-funded mountaintop telescope, and “Pulsar” is in the upper echelon of those. The glistening synthesizer work and soft rhythmic touches form the perfect soundtrack to fuel curiosity beyond this lonely blue marble. XI-N makes atmospheric soundscapes that actually make you feel like you’re not a human anymore, like you’re an enormous nebula or rushing supernova or some crazy undiscovered anomaly that physics hasn’t accounted for yet. And you’re those things and observing everything that’s going on around you, for light years in every direction. Can you imagine that? It’s super hard to. Our brains are small.

XI-N is trying to help us expand them. Good for you, XI-N!

These gorgeous tapes are available in a batch of 50 from Bulgaria’s Amek Collective. Did I mention “Pulsar” is the first tape in Amek’s “EXPERIENCE” series, “which presents and preserves live recordings captured during Amek Collective events”? I didn’t? Well, now you know. Get in on the ground floor.