Tabs Out

Drawl – Swingsets

4.7.22 by Matty McPherson

The piano is a ghostly, lonely instrument; one that demonstrates itself as such an apparition in those moments of lonely housesitting. its how Drawl’s Swingsets found me a couple weekends back. The eight recordings are not entirely piano focused, although the opening track sets quite a definitive, darkly brooding tone for this state of affairs. Often though, you’ll find Drawl playing with a minimal bass (like on the bloodshot clamors of “Possessed Object”) or a swinging kick drum (on the aptly titled “What A Lot I Will Buy From You”). Sounds feel found, dislocated, and unruly. It’s a palette that’s oft the inverse of your grandfather’s 78 rpms, brilliantly swerving in its own crooked step, especially as its side A culminates in unnerved thrashing noise bout (“Who Among Us Is Not”).

Now Elliot home-dubs the tapes at Drongo HQ, so a fair amount of silence is to be expected at the end of side A. This is inherently fantastic, as you may need a moment to reset yourself for side B’s bag of ghostly tricks n’ treats. Long For the World reintroduces us to piercing harmonics–this time of stringed variety. From Sight, a nearly 10 minute endeavor, recalls early Serpent Season, lingering with guitar chords in the midst of great blown-out debris before feedback promises to swallow it whole. Provision of Service follows next, blowing out trip hop acoustics for massive industrial scuzz n’ fuzz, before we finally come down to a new normal with Lapsed. Swingsets has been a steady Drongo team player, but this latest release feels more precise and uncanny; yeah it may start ghostly, but it quickly peckers up into a monolithic tower of raw sonic power.

Edition of 50 Available from Drongo Tapes on Bandcamp

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Matt Jencik – Matt and Lyra

4.6.22 by Matty McPherson

The facility I work in doesn’t have a functional AC. It just pushes the outside air inside. Thus, on cold days, it’s fecking cold. On “Now to be Expected February Santa Ana Days,” it nearly boils. Yet, the thing to know about a “Santa Ana” is that if you’re in the right patch of shade on a lunch break, it can be pleasurable to feel those wind gusts. Moments like that practically beg for a melting, gelatinous drone tape.

It’s been rather hard to confirm if Matt Jencik had Santa Ana winds on his mind while in Chicago recording “Matt and Lyra.” The noted basshead (he did a very good job on Don Cab 2) and alum of Kranky (he was an Imploder) just seems to genuinely enjoy exploring hardware. The Lyra of the titular release is a Russian Lyra-8 synthesizer that Jencik was more inclined to utilize for personal usage; he’s a huge proponent of those “fuzzy frequencies.” Yet, he quickly changed course and ended with a collection of five pieces for sharing. They teeter between open-armed sound baths and oozy drone metal. Fortunately, none of this is scary stuff, as all the pieces have titles that are very funny and will make you spill milk out of your nose.

If you’ve been following Park 70’s Labradfordian experiments and low-ground hums, then it is rather likely Jencik’s tonal displays will be heady grippers. The five pieces are often less about the buildup, either quickly dropping you en media res to the middle of a storm or quickly bringing in to the picture a windy gust. On “Yes Pussyfooting” (funny title), it’s the former, actively maintaining ominous, monolithic chills that combat Santa Ana winds. Black & White Striped Tights is the latter, quickly fading into a dreamy “all time stops here right now” metallic slab. Of course though, Side A’s quick sketches are no match for a mighty Side B longform. Clandestine Half Pipe evokes strong womb to tomb energy. Beginning with a most lovely jangle (shoegaze ‘95 vintage stuff!), it quickly stills itself into a stone that lets in a fuzzy low end to glide down stream. As that low end synth takes over the composition, my mind started to load up the credits of The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth… and the Santa Ana winds suddenly seemed to dissipate.

Limited Cassette  housed in custom JCard art designed by illustrator Paul Clark & includes the Explorers Series slip cover available at the Trouble in Mind Bandcamp Page

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