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July 6, 2020July 6, 2020

Tabs Out | The Tuesday Night Machines – Acid Tape

The Tuesday Night Machines – Acid Tape

Since I’m not getting anywhere close to Germany in this economy, I have to live out my acid house fantasies with The Tuesday Night Machines’ bluntly titled Acid Tape. A funny lil’ feller, TTNM was on quite the tear last year, making the rounds with a series of consistently shifting tapes that dabbled in drone, ambience, and natural sounds as longform playgrounds to explore the almighty power of modular synthesizers and sidrax organs. In a better economy, he’d be on the front cover of Ambient Monthly! But TTNM is craftier than pigeonholing himself into the ambient market and I’ve got the scoop-he’s pivoting to dance! Perhaps the tip-off came with TTNM’s meta-beat tape for Strategic Tape Reserve or the crunch of Super Dolomiti Crunch, but that’s only a sample of le’ Acid Tape. Armed with just two Cyclone Analogic TT-303 Bass Bots and a TT-606 Drum Drone, TTNM ventures into the fried crevices of acid house.

This is an estate that oozes futurism in neon green. The sound is focused upon a minimal, obsessive regiment comprised only of warped n’ giddy high-hats, laseresque bass wobbles, and on one track a good ‘ol fashion modular synth. Yet, TTNM’s DIY-mindset sees through the limits of that mindset, maintaining a lo-fi state of bliss. One like “Death Valley” might start with a simplistic beat before the regiment makes a sudden swap or a bass wobble uproots any stability, leading to greater speed and excitement. Others like “Un Dimanche à la Campagne” uphold a slow n’ steady BPM that is ready made for a beat tape, even though the wobbly yelps of a 303 are the real vocals. Acid Tape lets abstractions take over this regimented sound, turning what could have been a series of pleasant experiments into another rapid-fire ten track odyssey.

Does it lend itself to the dancefloor? Of all calibers including (but not limited to) analog boombox, mental mindset, and philosophical otherworldliness. Would it be wise to place it in my skateboard chase frenzy video? If you video has the budget, “Sloppy Accident” is the cut. Should TTNM be remixing all those DFA 7” from the “Great Dance Punk Frenzy of 2k3”? That’s just my headcanon.

Edition of 20 from TTNM’s personal bandcamp, complete with ACID sticker!

Tabs Out | Amek Drone Ensemble – Op. 1

Amek Drone Ensemble – Op. 1

7.3.20 by Ryan Masteller

So many things are getting canceled anyway, we may as well cancel 2020 in its entirety, am I right? Every public event, unless you live in the southern United States (which I do … sigh), is going right out the window, gatherings of people banned because we’re all disgusting petri dishes made of meat that live to sicken the others. This includes, among a vast array of other activities, sporting events, church picnics, hang gliding classes, and musical concerts. I’m here to rant about my newly hang-gliding-lesson-free calendar.

I kid! This site’s for music, not hang gliding.

Among the COVID-related event casualties was Sofia Drone Day 2020, and if you, like me, were like “That sounds awesome!” upon discovering of that day’s existence and then immediately crushed that (a) it was canceled and (b) Sofia is a city in Bulgaria and you weren’t going to make it anyway, you might be surprised and potentially thrilled that Bulgaria’s own Amek Collective has you covered. Sort of. See, the Amek Drone Ensemble, made up of label vets Linus Schrab (V I C I M), Angel Simitchiev (Mytrip, and Amek honcho), Margarit Aleksiev (OOHS!), Ivan Shentov (krāllār), and Maxim Mokdad (OOHS!), were probably planning a pretty sweet 2020 set when the cancellation occurred, so they had to react fast. And react they did, releasing their Sofia Drone Day 2019 set as the ADE on cassette to tide you over. Tide you over till what? Till everything gets back to normal, that’s what.

So now we have Op. 1, a thirty-minute improvised glowing, hovering, rippling sphere of synths, loops, guitar, etc. that morphs and re-forms itself over the course of its gestation. The players absorb the spirit of Drone Day like it was belief in some sort of dark wizard Santa Claus, translating that faith into wave upon wave of thickly defined sound. Listening to Op. 1 has me thinking that maybe the quintet has set their gear up somewhere near the event horizon of a black hole, but then I realize how silly that is, because none of that gear would sit still enough to play. Still, this is some heavy, heavy drone.

So don’t feel too bad that you missed out on Sofia Drone Day 2020 (because you were anyway); feel good that you can wrap your mind around Sofia Drone Day 2019, because, you know, drone is timeless that way.