Out on Ireland’s KantCope comes Dan Walsh’s “Fixity.” Dan’s the drummer of Great Balloon Race and the tape is his latest foray into production and composition. Released in summer 2016, the jazzy improvised and experimental tape is perfect for these flashes of winter we’re experiencing now in March. Sit by a fire, gaze out of the window, and let Dan’s controlled chaos warm you up and take you away.
With five songs on side A, there is a lot going on. The tape breaks open with “Hungry Clouds,” which gives the feeling of the calm before the storm. A mysterious bass line and rolling drums drive the song along, picking up low murmurings of lyrics and a plucked guitar along the way. We get to relax a bit with the following track “stigmatostigmata,” a meandering and calming track, breathing softly through improvisations and jazzy tones. Every track shows the pure artistry of the instrumentalists, crashing together and pulling apart, feeling highly improvised but at the same time, like the musicians have played together for years. Dan on the drums is the backbone of each track, with bass, guitar, and saxophone building up and around the sound, pushing each song further into contained pandemonium. The last track on the side, “Blue Paint,” is a more than eight minute jam, sure to raise your heart rate and pull your attention from anything else in the room. An ethereal chorus hums life into the song, sounding like angels from on high while the drums quicken. The song breaks down into the pops and crackles of electrical feedback before buzzing out completely. Were we just in heaven or hell?
Side B is just two songs, opening with “damagedgood.” A sweetly strum guitar holds the tune while fuzzy droning swarms behind it. Dan has brought us to the bottom of the ocean and we’re staring up through the clear water to the sunshine above. We’re floating and drifting along, aware of the inherent danger of the open ocean, an anxiety communicated in the background of the song. It comes to the forefront with buzzing growing increasingly louder and more prominent, competing with our trusty guitar, soon overtaking it, the screeching alone closing out the song. “Song for Tree” brings us back to land, grounding us in bass and enveloping us in reverberation. The track is warm and comforting and ends with sparkling tones that fade to silence.
This tape is for fans of experimental music, sure, but also for fans of jazz. It’s chaos coming together in a beautiful way. Pick up the tape now.
Look At These Tapes is a monthly roundup of our favorites in recent cassette artwork and packaging, along with short, stream-of-thought blurbs. Whatever pops into our heads when we look at/hold them. Selections by Jesse DeRosa, Mike Haley, and Scott Scholz.
Art by DAS
Auris Apothecary are no strangers to the struggle. They apologize to no one ('we exist because fuck you' is their slogan after all). Their anti-cassette releases have come filled with sand, covered in glass, impaled with nails, and on several occasions only provided the tape itself, free from the confines of spools or shells. They have even gone as far to paint the playside of records to require your stylus to slowly chip away the elaborate art, sacrificing an external beauty to access the beauty buried deep in the screened grooves. The charred remains of Unholy Triforces's "Siberiliszt Inferno" tape follows suit, entombing 3-minutes of sheer bleakness in the ceremoniously seared remains of a sonic-welded shell, requiring some serious consideration to access the treasure within.
Darko the Super - Apocalyptic Bastard (Already Dead)
Art by Joshua Tabbia
As we've seen with Unholy Triforce, some folks do the anticassette work for you. But if you're up for rolling your own, Already Dead Tapes brings us the Apocalyptic Bastard survival kit, full of playful raps like a young tiger that might decide to take your head off any minute. It's presented in a custom box printed in imitation of a matchbox, and each tape comes with its own match. Make your own anticassette or start the revolution: the choice is yours. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
Complainer - Flood Plan (Already Dead)
Art by Curtis Tinsley
I don't know what universe these brightly-colored goobers live on, or what bungled event led them eyeball deep in water, but I am positive whose fault it was. It was obviously the globe-looking sucker with the frowny face. That thing is about to say, in it's patented annoying voice, "Looks like we're all wet!" and then the snake thing is gonna eat him. Good riddance.
Doom Tickler - Spirit Fingers (Pleasence)
Art by Alicia Nauta
There is a strong ritualistic feel going on with artwork for "Spirit Fingers," with it's black/gold color scheme, candle burning on a crescent holder, and 10-pointed stars peppered about. It's a very clean, well designed cover, but the knock out punch is the shell design. Quite the package.
Splice Girls - Spliceworld (Suite 309)
Art by Tim Thornton
The year was 1997 and Tim Thornton (also known as TIM! around these parts) had a full-blown case of Spicemania. Long before Pinterest, Tim had cut up hundreds (some say thousands) of issues of Teen Beat, Teen Cosmo and Teen Washington Post, to assemble the inspiration board to end all inspiration boards, a shrine to his favorite spice, Scooter Spice. In the decades since, he's moved on to electronic music, kickin' beats and shreddin' names, but has kept his coveted shrine alive, in secret, buried, protected, awaiting a time when the cosmos would align again to unlock the great pyramids and the world would once again depend on their glorious return to redeem the human race from uncertain fate. That time is now. That uncertain fate is your warbling tape deck. That world is Spliceworld.
Sun Rad - No Cover (Property Materials)
Art by no one
The purpose of this feature is to hype awesome cassette art. This tape has no art. BUT it makes it to Look At These Tapes anyway for discovering a genius loophole. Sun Rad has titled their latest release "No Cover," thereby sidestepping the rule that tapes with no covers are inherently awful by making the very fact that it has no cover part of the concept. *slow clap* It comes inside a black pleatherish pouch, making the reveal all the more pleasing.
V/A - No Workers Paradise (Chthonic Streams)
Envisioned & Assembled by Derek Rush
Serving as both soundtrack to, and criticism of, the standard American 8 hour workday, No Workers Paradise delivers an hourly shift each from Gnawed, The Vomit Arsonist, Compactor, Existence In Decline, Filth, Blsphm, Redrot and Work/Death. Housed in a sturdy black toolbox for listening on the go, this box houses all 8 tapes along with a 12-page saddle-stitched booklet of art, info, and an essay (to be reviewed during your union-mandated lunch and bathroom breaks only). A perfect antidote to a case of the perpetual Mondays. Hammer for smashing down the corporate patriarchy not included.
Hans Appelqvist - Swimming Pool (Orange Milk)
Art by Hans Appelqvist
I don't know what that mommy and daddy are doing in the water, but it sure is making that floating orb upset.
Monte Burrows - Sawtooth (Castle Bravo)
Art by Castle Bravo
Castle Bravo have done these box sets before (German Army, Head Dress) and they are the cat's pajamas, which is a phrase that i *think* means really good. Inside the silk screened cardboard box you'll find a tshirt and cassette with designs that match the printed texture, plus a hand-cut sawtooth pendant which is gonna make you look like a BAD. MOTHER. FUCKER. Shut your mouth.
Prana Crafter - MindStreamBlessing (Eiderdown)
Art by Max Clotfelter
The always rad Eiderdown Records is back with a new batch, featuring art by Max Clotfelter. This new Prana Crafter jam features one of the more bewildering scenes you're ever likely to imagine. On the cover itself, you find what might be a funeral pyre/sky burial scene, with a slug-dinosaur bereaved by various creatures who walk their own fine lines between vegetable and animal worlds. But when you fold this screen-printed goodness out, it turns out that the slug-dinosaur and his tree friend are embarking on a wild adventure via palanquin...
