By now we know Tingo Tongo Tapes as the upstarts, the disruptors, the game-changers in this underground world of outsider music. Mike even took some heavy stock in them at one point. But TTT is nothing if not a fun bunch, and you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get with any one of their releases. That’s the exciting part – what’s gonna happen next? What fringe act are they gonna rip to tape before said fringe act disappears back into the ether? Are they gonna print the cover art upside down on the jcard? Are they gonna get the track order right?
The answers to all four questions are, we’ll find out here, JRM, yes, no. TTT today stands for Tingo Tongo techno, as shadow act JRM deals in propulsive longform microhouse on “Clock,” a charming full-length release and one of my favorites that the label has released. Over the course of an hour, the shady shaman serves up what SHOULD be a batch of electronic standards, dark club classics that pulse through PAs and seep into your bones, causing you to wiggle and jiggle, but in like a blacklit, robotic, German way. I don’t know what that means either, but I do know it’s a lot of fun. And I’m the kind of person who goes to bed at 10 p.m. and STAYS THE HELL AWAY FROM ANY CLUBS.
Kids these days.
You can buy JRM’s “Clock” from Tingo Tongo Tapes, but only by emailing them! Have at it: tingotongotapes at gmail dot com. I don’t know how many they’ve got left, it’s all a friggin’ mystery.
Oooooowww when I catch wind of new Unifactor Tapes [licks lips]!! Ooooooowwwweeee I go batty [licks lips even harder and wetter]!! I start sucking theoretical BBQ sauce off my fingers. Why? Because Unifactor is a bulls-eye clearing house for OG midwestern kush and beyond. They employ a different artist to tackle graphic design for each batch, and have done so since their start in 2016. From set to set the look of their tapes ping pongs from googly-eyed birds to juicy cartoons to 3D wizardry and is always so very on point. [hardest, wettest lip licking ever].
Now imagine how I felt upon hearing of their upcoming batch of tapes, slated for mid-February. It’s so very 😋 and probably the most soothing trio from the label yet: Curved Light, Endurance, and Kyle Landstra. You want a taste? Sure you do. I see you licking those lips. Check out these ₮Ɽł₱₱Ɏ videos!
UF027: Curved Light – Airs of Modality
Heavy on both bristling uneasiness and a more demented rendering of new age tones, Airs of Modality captures Curved Light in a live rescoring of Hoichi the Earless, the third section of the Japanese horror anthology Kwaidan. Embodying the ominous ceremonial intensity and slow moving dread of the film, this re-envisioned soundtrack hovers with all the tension of the best horror soundtracks, detuning an ancient ghost story and even it’s 1965 film counterpart into something more sinister, plastic and panic inducing.
UF028: Endurance – We Can Sleep Now
“We Can Now Sleep” sees Joshua Stefane balancing a complex entanglement of modular synths and processed tapes, arranging a switchboard of destroyed voices and alien sounds with solid beams of tonal melody. The eight pieces wander various wastelands, quietly kicking at fossilized remnants of decayed cities. Throughout, there’s a grasp for memories that are out of reach, impressions that are now mostly dust or shed data. It’s unclear if the echoes of unfamiliar days are even real or just errant crackles rushing by in the emptiness, but the layers of obscured fragments and dark sonics blur into a compelling whole, zoning in from a place of deep isolation somewhere after time.
UF029: Kyle Landstra – Bloom Lake
Migrating to the Pacific Northwest after years in Chicago brought new light to Kyle Landstra’s crystalline sounds. Bloom Lake represents some of the first deeply devised sounds made by Landstra in his new environment, and while it’s not a dramatic reaction to some conceptually new life, you can’t help but hear some clouds clearing all the same. Recorded in real time, these two side long pieces slowly braid strands of reflection and acceptance. Drifting but bright, “Love In A Mist” stirs with a kind of restrained excitement that comes at the beginning of promising times. The title track communicates a darker side of the same excitement, but in a way that again suggests understanding more than fear, growth more than foreboding.
