Tabs Out

Ethan W.L. – The Pink House

1.5.22 by Matty McPherson

It’s early January and new things are afloat everywhere. We turn our attention to Seattle, WA, headquarters of the esteemed Drongo Tapes operation setting up for their 47th release and 1st of the 2023 season. What’s this? They’re asking us to turn our attention to the Green Mountain State, Vermont, for a selection and smattering of selections from a film entitled the Inventor Crazybrains and the Girl Called Bird, aka “The Pink House?” Color me intrigued, Drongo, color me intrigued.

Ethan W.L. is a sizable portion of “the big nest” recording project, although Ethan set out for Vermont in 2021 to help film and compose a score for an independent feature. And lo and behold, he brings a series of riches and “film appropriate” American primitive guitar finger picking back not just for the silver screen, but for our own home listening. No such thing exists in the big nest catalog, partially because Ethan really had not pivoted with such devotion into playing acoustic guitar. The acoustic was acquired last year at a thrift shop, and that which became a catalyst for a series of sonic explorations deeper into folk, bluegrass, and blues music that the big nest catalog has yet to feature.

The Pink House does have function as the film soundtrack it was composed for; in particular humongous pieces like Bird that seemed designed for room tone droning and Nora’s House, which has rustle and bustle, is reminiscent of the ambient dread that Marble Hornets had tapped into over a decade back. As well as his first two pieces, “I Will Rise” and “The Pink House” that amply build off Traditional Melodies, while checking the boxes of someone creating motif-oriented, thematic musics. “Ompompanoosuc” is a piano piece that lets its notes often breath and reverberate as a balance from the guitar, while also serving to highlight an emotionally broad moment. Yet, the decision to provide these pieces, especially in their placement, gives Ethan’s exploration more resonance. It feels as much a document of personal discovery and tribulation to a tradition that found him, begets over an hour of jams and fingerpicking that could become your own winter delight. And therein lies what makes this sudden shocker of a release, only seven days into the year mind you, such a delight.

The few big nest-esque moments come near the end, and leading to them is a humongous trove of stunners. And without traditional percussive, Ethan’s ability to pull tenacious thumps out of the guitar give each track robustly rudimentary pace and melody. character that savors long after the campfire. The harmonic razor-fingery loops of “Mad River Lament” present one such dance. Meanwhile, rustic blues that peek through the chords of “Appalachian Gap”. The yearning, steadfast run of “Indian Love Call” that paces itself in adding small surprises and a tempo kick that feels of it is detailing a small tumble. The process is often similar between the cuts, but the change in tuning and reference points give a flair.

Perhaps it’s best documented and captured on White River Rag’s. The dilatory pacing harkens to a sweet spot between High Aura’d’s works for Unifactor and Astral Editions, as much as the blues traditions that 75 Dollar Bill can be tethered to. The tracks incorporates a spectral drone that hits akin to a low winter sun coming through beams in the house, before finding a galloping pace that giddies-up with finesse. It still drops out of a shock, coming back in more ragged glory during its finale. And there, I’m left more curious than ever as to when the big nest is incorporating acoustic guitar into its field of vision.

Edition of 75 available at Drongo Tapes’ Bandcamp

A Few 2022 Tapes from PJS

1.3.23 by Matty McPherson

Patrick Dique & Jordan Christoff have been in it for awhile. The duo’s work as PJS has followed from Aural Canyon to Crash Symbols; Leaving Records to Muzan Editions. Stable utilitarian zones for the plant enthusiast, the birdwatcher, the skyscraper designer, and so on and so forth. What defines a PJS release is its ability to engross a baseline atmosphere and from there, handedly either explore haptic textures, chill out room synths, or impart an undercurrent of movement and droning trance; the kind that endears them closer to raw Environments or field recording tapes than often given credit, as well as still having imaginative qualities towards sensing and creating one’s own future and spaces within. A trio of tapes across 2022 have been graciously picking at these threads and expanding PJS’ capacity for texture and endearingly nice spatial music; each slight deviation tailored to a specific moment or mood or possible time of PJS.

Origin Stories

Origin Stories was released on Strategic Tape Reserve in Spring of 2022, and well…it does date back to some of the earliest archived material of their time working together. As a C60, it’s a hefty display of their sound systematical approach. What the tape lacks in motion, it makes up for in the amalgamation of sounds that pass through; an absolute spa of glimmers and quips that reveal why Dique and Christoff’s project has had an endearing longevity for the two chaps. I kept coming back to the tape over several evenings because I felt as if they had crafted such a pleasing snapshot of a time and place; I felt as if I was in a future looking outside the window of an apartment, watching flying automobiles and neon-light advertisements whiz by. To chill out and take in the vaporous surroundings of that timeline, more or less, could be a story enough for any brave dweller.

Time?

Back in November, the burgeoning and charitable Distant Bloom welcomed PJS into their small roster of maverick underground talents for “Time?” C50. Two longforms of near-equal length maintain the same flavor of Origin Stories, more or less. Yet, the cuts themselves are spacier and haptic-oriented. Myriads (Meridians), features slight percussive markers chewing the scenery, as a whimsy of analog effects tickle by like UFOs in the sky, as well as what appears to be somewhat processed field recordings in the mix. What’s clear as the piece goes on, is the depthless bounty of their low-end. It truly feels of a levitation that creeps up on you; an acid test in real time lighting up. Pyramids (Labyrinths) carries the same open-ended optimism of old VHS tapes on NASA rocket launches. The baseline synths create that feeling of a grand rocket launch, as all sorts of windy-synthesizer harmonics and bubbling crescendoes graciously floats and glides about the space. It’s never intense per se, but it carries all the nervous jubilance of those moments before a huge rocket launch.

MALAHAT

梅レコード, aka Umé Records, is putting out a late December edition of PJS’ zones with the MALAHAT cassette and its two gigantic “real time, no computer, no overdubs” approach. Nautrales in indeed, the most naturalistic recording the duo has of all their 2022 era recordings. Plant life aquatic spa vibes, glistening and basking in the glow over 50 endearing minutes. Side A’s Natures often features a liquidity flowing through its choices of textures, as if rain was moving down wind chimes or into small puddles. Echoes of aberrations or cryptids stop in, but never blow the delicate and coruscating nature of this piece. Meanwhile, Nebulas is a more astrally inclined longform. The harmonics of the piece give off faint traces of white dwarf half-lifes or starry romps aboard a slow-orbiting space station above a heavenly body. There’s a weightlessness across its 25 minutes, and the duo are careful not to try and speed the peace towards an escape velocity, instead letting glimmers and woodwind-esque textures pass like friendly space debris. It chills hard, and with majesty.