Tabs Out | Expedient Self – Body Man/Facist Game Show
Expedient Self – Body Man/Facist Game Show
1.20.22 by Matty McPherson
Honestly, I love a good “proof-of-concept” tape. The kind that is purposely put in cardboard instead of the norelco, left with only a singular “cassingle” level message to bear that belts out across a C15. And Expedient Self has managed that without too much trouble on the Body Man/Facist Game Show quickie we have here today. The Brighton, UK based one-piece is just noodling with guitars, yet seems to have quickly grabbed attention with a keen ear towards a balance of melody and noisy that would fit at the local farmer’s market during the witching hour. Sonically, it’s not too far removed from a twisted Astral Spirits release or Kevin Levine’s glass-shards style playing that brought noir aesthetics to PiL eons ago.
Side A’s Body Man twists and turns with detuned, jazzy guitar slinkery. A motif, what I’ll refer to as a consistent pang, pops like one of ‘em cartoon characters whose eyes just went all AWOOGA on another hot cartoon character. It never leaves the fray, yet Expedient Self is quick to layer it on top of cantankerous noise, warm overdubs, and multi-layered strings that quickly become a murderous cacophony. It’s twisted yet sugary, suggesingt a timeline not too far removed from those early days when you could buy Factory Records out of the back of a car (or so I’m told). Side B’s Facist Game Show continues the finger picking odyssey, but is more content to stretch itself out and just see what happens when feedback is introduced. Throw the chap a fiver, won’t you?
Limited Edition professionally pressed and printed cassette tape, Shrink-wrapped (😢), now available at the Expedient Self Bandcamp page
1.12.22 by Matty McPherson
Tabs Out | Fumbata – Actuation
Fumbata – Actuation
1.12.22 by Matty McPherson
Eternal Search sprung to life as a tape label in 2020. They’ve quickly found a knack for spotlighting various ongoing electronic sounds through a compilation here and one-off singles there. Although it was in 2021 that we started to see them spread out. Nothing splashy, but a couple of tapes in translucent shells with minimal design are always going to deserve a microscopic look. It’s an honest way of telegraphing that the emphasis is really about the sounds inside the tape.
Fumbata (Anderson Chimutu) is one of the first acts to pass through the label, with the release Actuation. Chimutu has been using the moniker throughout a series of 2021 releases found through the Bandcamp sphere. Each one is an expansion upon his mastery of DAW-tinged techno and its various lineages and sonic parallels. Chimutu has mentioned desire to project “conga and reggae” influences within these granular techno deconstructione. In their own ways, the six tracks imagine an admirable middle ground between Congotronics and Ngeye Ngeye Tapes’ expansive electronic compilations.
Chimutu’s tracks switch between bubbly bouncers and airy freakouts. Rubbery, bouncy techno pulses dominate the first side, especially on the title track. Here, it’s a general base to launch out a litany of arhythmic drum melodies and synth flutters that prevent the piece from staying reserved for too long, sidestepping and stuttering through the space in a technicolor spectacle. Still, that emphasis on a minimalist palette keeps pieces reserved and cohesive, oftentimes transitioning from one track to the next is a breeze. Although never think that one piece’s lucidity won’t turn up ruptured by the end of a track, with enough cryptic melodies really calling the shots. Side B closer Perle operates in this manner, with a litany of multilayered patterns all fighting for the center of a track like a hackathon gone off the fritz.
Edition of 50 available from the Eternal Search Bandcamp Page