Tabs Out

Serrater – s/t

1.13.21 by Ryan Masteller

I can’t friggin’ believe it!

Can you?

I can’t!

Serrater is a noise tape from none other than Michael Potter, who has made his fair share of “pretty guitar music” over the years by himself and in the Electric Nature and what have you. He runs the NULLZ0NE and Garden Portal tape labels, and he’s a fixture in the Athens, Georgia, underground scene. To say his music has been played around these parts* would probably be an understatement – it’s more accurate to say that his music has OFTEN been played around these parts. And that doesn’t even include the releases by other artists on his labels. Then we’re getting into more obsessive territory.

Can you believe Michael Potter’s made a noise tape? I can’t. And it’s a good one, and its presentation is striking. It’s not noise in the nuclear-blast-to-the-face-for-two-hours sense, but it’s still in the this-power-plant-is-outputting-some-serious-ampage one, a constant ripple of electromagnetic intensity. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it “soft noise wall,” but Potter himself has dropped the “dark ambient noise wall” hint for me to pick up on, and by “hint” I mean obvious categorical descriptor. I’m going to use it, because being in the presence of “Serrater” is like being in the presence of negative space, dark energy pulling you closer to its jagged knife’s edge. By the way, there’s lots of knife imagery on display here with this tape. It’s cool. It’s TOUGH.

It reminds me of a 1980s hard-R action movie poster. There’s even an “R” rating given to it on the inside of the j-card! This thing read my mind … So it’s not for kids, and that should come as no surprise. The rippling frequencies feel like liquid matter made sound that engulf you and leave you on the other end feeling … serrated? Certainly scoured, like I’ve been hollowed out, my innards replaced with black radioactive goop. I want to say the experience was difficult and painful, but … I liked it? Yeah, I sure did. I liked it.

Can you believe it?

This tape is already sold out from the source, Already Dead, and it just came out on December 11! But that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to find it. I know you’re a resourceful bunch.

*By “these parts” I mean my house, not the Tabs Out offices, although he’s probably been played there more than a few times as well. 

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R.E.E.L. – Music for Psychedelic Duelling

1.12.21 by Ryan Masteller

It’s a warzone, it really is. A wasteland. A bloodbath. R.E.E.L. – or Rapid Eye Electronics Limited – has been around for a while, so they’ve seen some really intense things, experienced firsthand the absolute carnage of the UK Psychedelic Duelling Wars of 1979–89. It was here, in the trenches, where they pitted their minds against the minds of other masters and fought for unbridled supremacy. Armed with $1.00 acid (just a guess – see j-card) and a vast amount of sound samples, they went toe to toe (or head to head) with other duelists in telekinetic battles to determine ultimate supremacy over their foes. That they’ve survived at all is a massive accomplishment – I’m feeling scathed just listening to this thing.

So “Music for Psychedelic Duelling” is both soundtrack to and arsenal in the titular struggle. It acts as a mind enhancer, to get yourself in the right headspace, to use as a battle tactic against your foes, to trip you out completely if you’re doing none of those things. What starts as warped kosmische ratchets down to seasick outer-space dub, and you can feel the third eye opening right in the middle of your forehead. (It’s not literally there – don’t be alarmed.) That eye sees all, perceives your opponent, targets their weaknesses. Then it unleashes a barrage of tribal techno that DARES anyone who goes against you to keep up with it. And that’s when you realize that “Music for Psychedelic Duelling” is two thirty-minute workouts – you can keep your foe going for a whole hour before having to figure out what to do next!

On the “Repose” side (side A is “Prayer”), the duelists pull back, allowing the synthetic atmosphere to fill the space while they recharge. Don’t allow yourself to be lulled into a stupor! You’ll lose the duel, and possibly become a total casualty of the war. As a rhythm slowly emerges to undergird your psychic renewal, the energy intensifies around you, until it’s ready to be unleashed in the direction of your opponent. I think this is what happens in Dragonball Z, maybe Mortal Kombat, but mentally. Once you win – you’ll obviously win – you can walk away from the conflict confident in your psychic warfare abilities. You’ll have to master this skill at some point – the twenty-first century depends on it. 

Edition of 50 from Zona Watusa – comes with A5 poster and a Zona Watusa sticker. All that cool stuff!

Tim Stine Trio – Fresh Demons

1.11.21 by Matty McPherson

My heart snapped in two when Mr. Stine of the Tim Stine Trio threw up a final copy of their 2016  Astral Spirits debut, BEFORE I could make it over to the Bandcamp. Rats! Back in late spring, the trio’s sophomore effort for Astral Spirits, Fresh Demons, appeared in a bundle along with big money players like Crazy Doberman and Otomo Yoshihide & Chris Pitsiokos. Assuredly stiff competition. Yet, Fresh Demons was unusually subtle as it was lucid; one of the rare times I could put an Astral Spirits release on and not be banished to the tool shed!

That Fresh Demons is having serendipitous repress gave me good reason to revisit the endeavors of their January 2018 studio session. The tape has a bit of a “wine drunk at the party” quality few in the AS can stand toe-to-toe with.  Perhaps you think it a fancy way of saying that the tape skirts those free noise elements that AS prides themself on. And yeah. Fresh Demons may forego noise, still packing an atmospheric tension-to the point I’ll listen listen though and literally burst out screaming, “Son of a dunn! Are they auditioning for a Spielberg reboot of The Third Man?!” 

Anton Hatwich on bass and Frank Rosaly on drums strike up the set for Mr. Stine up; their sound evokes bombed out WW2 city held in allied hands. One where all the good trades happen at an underground bazaar. Tim Stine then, is our brave detective with one modus operandus (a free-arm acoustic strum) and one objective (to root out those fresh demons! Stine’s style is fleet footed, always tumbling off of Hatwich and Rosaly’s drum n’ bass (no, not that one-the jazzy kind) that teeters on rubble collapsing, like on “VVVValley”

The downtempo tuning and airy mic’ing often sounds like Stine is caught in a real boiler of a chase. Just when you think he’ll give into a huge grandiose freakout, Stine cuts with a little sleight of hand. Finesse over sonic detour work in Fresh Demons’ favor, leaving behind 8 smooth tracks. When that focus aims for its most precise, it can arrive at a claustrophobic degree. Album closer, “FADS”, is practically the trio meeting in unison for an unnerving stranglehold on an unexpecting suspect.

So, if the criterion channel is still out of your budget and your library won’t let you peruse the noir section (“because you’re not a county resident”), I’d suggest set cracking open the vintage port, popping Fresh Demons in the hifi, and set up a fancy party for one.

Second pressing of 75 on RED cassette shells. Make yourself happy!

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