Uncategorized

Daniel Wyche – The Fire in the Lacquer House
1.21.15 by Mike Haley

This time last year (this exact day, actually) Pretty All Right Records released Daniel Wyche’s “The Fire in the Lacquer House”, a C20 where Wyche brought life to scores by Jonathan Lang and Ted Gordon. The side long tracks were mega-plush drifters, juxtaposed overly relaxed vibes with coarse guitar encounters, and (up until this week) ungripable on tape format. Thanks to Lillerne Tapes, 50 more heads will get a chance to hover in the ether with these zoners, by way of magnetic tape. The second edition sports new artwork (with a dude straight up throwing an elephant) but the same sounds. Sounds that will have you taking up residence in a hazy, twenty minute dream sequence as gnat sized sound bugs do a creepy crawl through your ear canal. Don’t worry, you wont mind they are in there. The title track on side A, “The Fire in the Lacquer House” (that’s the Lang piece) has a stream of blanketed guitar (and possibly synthesizer) parts shifting and braiding together, consistently keeping their cool, and being way interesting. The same style heats up the B side’s “The Burning of the Khandava Forest” (The Gordon piece), eventually transforming into a heavily compacted, stormy session.

Get your booty on over to Lillerne’s Bandcamp and dish over the moola ($5 + postage) for “The Fire in the Lacquer House”. A new cassette by solar chillers Glass House is also available. You can check out the entire Wyche joint below.

Open Call From Metaphysical Circuits
1.19.15 by Mike Haley

To celebrate his 100th cassette release (400th including all formats) over numerous labels, Christian Kann will be releasing a cassette compilation on his currently active imprint, Metaphysical Circuits. The dropage of his next batch of four tapes will bring Kann’s tape harvest to 99. Specifically one cassette on Art Is A Joke, 43 on Beard Of Snails, and 55 on Metaphysical Circuits. Let’s see, 55 plus 1, then add 43, carry the 7… Yup, the math checks out.

Kann has been responsible for some hella-dope releases over the years with stunning artwork and preposterously compelling sounds by the likes of Lee Noble, Motion Sickness Of Time Travel, Guenter Schlienz, and horde of other jammers. Now is the time to get your name on the roster. The (possibly multiple) cassette compilation is an open submission situation. Here is the criteria:

→ One track per artist
→ Must not be previously released or available for download elsewhere (…yet)
→ Nothing longer than 8 minutes (shorter is better)
→ ‘Metaphysical Circuits-esque’ music is desired – but I won’t be as open to ambient, drone, noise, or minimalist synth as previously; let’s hear something new, fresh, different… I’m especially into “songs” lately (human voice + hi and/or lo technology)
→ People I’ve worked with in the past / people I haven’t never connected with – all are welcome
→ Send your WAV or FLAC – plus any info you want written on the cover – through WeTransfer (or your preferred method) to metaphysicalcircuits(at)gmail(dotcom)
→ Submission deadline is February 14, 2015

And that’s it. Simple enough. So get busy jamming, buy some Beard Of Snails and Metaphysical Circuits swag, and enjoy some personal faves below.

Phinery Winter Batch
1.16.15 by Mike Haley

With the ever-expanding front lines of the War on Christmas, Facebook posts about how it’s snowing and/or cold outside, and year-end-listsanity, it’s easy for late December releases to get lost in the proverbial sauce. It would be a crime, and frankly irresponsible, if I didn’t bring some much-deserved attention Phinery‘s way. The Denmark concern, who didn’t exist prior to 2014, pretty much nailed it with tape output by Head Dress, Karl Fousek, Demonstration Synthesis, and others earlier in the year. Their final batch of the year, released on December 22nd, consists of some hyper-splendid matter.

Lortica, the project of one Alister Hill, chaperons the listener on a foggy journey deep, deep down into sink holes of sound. “Mialle Tapes” (ph013, co-released w/ Feral Media) is austere in it’s movements, processing found sounds over ten modest tracks. The pastoral floaters partner up with artwork by Tim Ferson, are cased in a clear red Norelco case, and limited to 75 physical copies.

Daniel James Laznoff continues his tenacious outpouring of mesmerizing tones as Demonstration Synthesis, this being his 15th cassette under the name. I’ve heard a lot of DS over the last few months, and this is, without a doubt, my favorite DS out of all the DS I have heard. Not that the other DS is BS. Far from it. “DS15” (ph014) is just a delight is all. A legion of varying ideas whirl around each other on this C40 in a keyboard fantasy land. PS: The blue norelco cases are beauties.

“1409-1” (ph015), a six-cut fizzling feast, is a straight up necessity. Japanese sound sculptor Takahiro Mukai trots out surface after surface of tiny, concentrated buzzes, loops, and electronic taunts, nonchalantly simulating a world taken over by minicomputers and microchips. Some tracks find Takahiro spilling sounds at random, while other beat-involved jams come across as more prepared. Both styles are insane, so grip before all 50 copies are spoken for.

Rounding out the batch is handsome sounding, and looking, cassette from Ondness titled “Filho Do Dono” (ph016), which either translates to “Filo Dough? I don’t know!” OR “The owner’s son”. You’ve got Google (and a brain), so I think you can figure it out. Bruno Silva, who is behind the controls here, has dished out Ondness on labels like Metaphysical Circuits, Fort Evil Fruit, and others, so maybe you are familiar with his cloud of amorphous drone slithering. If not, get with the program. The side-long burners here squirm through a forest, leaves crunching under feet. Moans panning behind the trees. It’s a macabre scene, but what are you even doing out in the forest at night?

You can pick up each of these heavy hitters on their own, or in a batch deal, from Phinery. Supplies are getting low, so do not delay.

Shell Shocked
1.10.15 by Mike Haley

So there I was. Sipping on some coffee and dicking around on the internet, as I’m known to do most mornings, when I saw a photo of a cassette tape. Sounds like nothing out of the ordinary, since 84.8% of my interneting involves cassette tapes. But this was different. This particular cassette was rather flashy and unlike any tape I had ever seen. I felt a warm liquid streaming from my ear, confirmation that my mind had been blown.

The cassette shell (above) was white with swirls of pink and blue rolling through it. The way the colors dipped around the contours, and covered the entirety of the shell,  made it obvious it wasn’t an imprint, but some sort of tape tie dying job. And there were more like it! The wizards responsible for these amazing creations are Eyetooth Collective, a company out of Canton, Ohio run by Zachary Kern. That’s the “who” and “where”. Obtaining the “how” is a bit more tricky. Currently, Eyetooth are the only people conjuring up this eye candy, and they aren’t saying much about how they do it. Magic!? Paint!? BOTH!?! All I know is they look fucking sensational. Kern estimates that he has fashioned 3,000+ cassettes in 2014 for the likes of Burger Records, Lost Tape Collective, Grimoire Cassettes, and a host of DIY units. And, awesomely enough, one can order blanks if desired.

Here’s a sampling of some of Eyetooth’s work. Go grab a bib, or some other drool guard, then scroll on down!

In addition to these custom shell jobs, Eyetooth handles duplication, printing, custom packaging, and more. Check them out at eyetoothcollective.tumblr.com.

Front & Centre
1.3.15 by Mike Haley

Okay, I guess I’ve been sleeping blindfolded under a rock or some shit, because I’ve been completely unaware of Centre. Ladies and gentlemen, I am awake now. My eyes are open. I’m… On top of rocks? What I’m trying to say is that Centre, an imprint operated by Sam Goldberg that apparently dropped (among a few others gems) a cassette version of the s/t Forma album four years ago, is now on my radar thanks to the release of new tapes by Radio People, Brett Naucke, and Colored Mushroom & The Medicine Rocks. Each release is pro-dubbed and limited to 100 copies.

For those even more ignorant than I, Radio People is the smooth-sailing synth project of Mr. Goldberg, now a duo with Adam Miller who (maybe?) ran (runs?) the absurdly crucial Cylindrical Habitat Modules. You may be wondering “If you don’t know that Miller ran that label for sure, why mention it at all”? Well, I got a hunch and always follow my hunches. That’s why. Brett Naucke (pronounced like the dumpling I am told) is the Catholic Tapes guru with an arsenal of unreal sounds at his disposal. And last, but not least, is the ex-Emerald named Elliott, along with cohorts Charles Szerzen and Sandra Serio, with a flash flood of skin-melting prog reverie.

Straight from the Centre’s mouth:

Centre 05 – Radio People “Fall on Mars” Cassette
“Fall on Mars” was completed by Samuel Goldberg and Adam Miller in the Fall of 2014 in Cleveland, Ohio at his home studio. The title-track serves well as a reintroduction to the project since last year’s “Night Club” on Treasure. It begins as a slow release of scattery synthesizer bop that builds to spill out echoes of fluorescent pads and minimal sequences. From there, the tape continues to loosen up and casts off into rich zones of rhythms and field recordings. Like many Radio People releases, present are the blankets of neon sound and emotive progressions of organ and synthesizer. “Fall on Mars” points outwardly to the planets while remaining in the real and present of a Midwest autumn. The Mars One team will be reaching their destination in 2025, enjoy a preview to what fall on Mars could feel like.

Centre 06 – Brett Naucke “Pitch Documents” Cassette
Brett Naucke is an electronic musician living in Chicago, Illinois. His past works, such as “The Visitor” on NIHILIST and “Seed” on Spectrum Spools introduced many listeners to his unique scope. He brings humanistic qualities and a keen sense of minimalism to a synthesizer system with infinite sounds. These tracks are documents of a constantly tinkering musician at his home studio; exploring music to share it with listeners, but more importantly to move forward in a deeply personal journey. Dig in to his beautifully arching modular synthesizers compositions and join him. These works stretch with elasticity and are somehow also tightly wound. The pieces are fluid and glued with rhythms and pulses that propel and take rests beautifully and naturally. His work here presents itself like a sea of galaxies loosely simplified and then neatly folded onto the head of a pin.

Centre 07 – Colored Mushroom & The Medicine Rocks – ” TheGold Manor Eclipse” Cassette
Colored Mushroom & The Medicine Rocks are an electronic music group which is currently producing music and living in Cleveland, Ohio. These works were created in Cleveland and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Listen closely and perhaps you can hear the two different atmospheres’ reflections in the sound. “The Gold Manor Eclipse” is a concise release made up of treasure-like progressions and clouds of breathtaking mellotron. Colored Mushroom present a unique take on synthesizer prog that glows with glossy hi-hat snaps and deep drum patterns. The locked in drum machines are balanced by synthesizers and electronics that never agree to go straight down the middle. Similar to (the ensemble’s maestro) John Elliott’s work as Outer Space and Imaginary Softwoods, the songs move forward but remain hardly predictable. The songs are packed with charging movements and space to breathe. Breathe to them, move to them, and let them move you.

Perhaps some of my facts are fuzzy, but who gives a shit. Just listen to these baller sound clips then grip up these joints for $8.50 a pop, $22.50 for the gang from Centre. Baby, baby!

2014 Cassette Snapshots
1.1.15 by Mike Haley

So that’s it. 2014 is kaput. Like last year, I made an open call for labels to send over photos of all the cassette they graced us with over the past 365 days. Enjoy a small sampling of cassette life, 2014.

 

5CM Recordings

2:00AM Tapes

905 Tapes

Adhesive Sounds

Arachnidiscs Recordings

Baba Vanga

Baked Tapes

Bonding Tapes

The Centipede Farm

Constellation Tatsu

Crash Symbols

Deserted Village

DumpsterScore Home Recordings

Feathered Coyote

Field Hymns

Fort Evil Fruit

Geology Records

Gleauxing Records

Green Records And Tapes

Hacktivism Records

Hare Akedod

Hausu Mountain

Hornbuckle Records

Insufferable Sounds

Invisible City Records

Kerchow! Records

La Cohu

Lillerne Tapes

Lily Tapes & Discs

Live God Collective

Magnetic Purely

Moss Archive

No Visible Scars

Obsolete Units

Old Bicycle Records

Orange Milk

Otherworldly Mystics

Oxtail Recordings

Passive Aggressive Tapes

Patient Sounds

Phinery

Popnihil

Power Moves Label

Reckno

Shaking Box Music

SicSic Tapes

Spring Break Tapes!

Suite 309

Tape Drift

Track And Field

Tranquility Tapes

Umor Rex

Unit Structure Sound Recordings

Vwyrd Wurd

Wood Between Worlds

Wounded Knife Records

Merry TuscoMas!
12.25.14 by Mike Haley

Ho! Ho! Ho! It’s that time of the year, ya’ll. The annual War on Chirstmas™, complete with thick nog, racist relatives, and the latest Tusco/Embassy’s Christmas compilation cassette! All available today! The lineup for these suckers are always sick, and this year is no exception. Darksmith, Outer Space, Headboggle, Relay For Death, David Russell Snake, Greg Gorlan, Collin McKelvey, Horaflora, and a maniac crowd of others all stuffing your stocking on this one, packaged with a silver screened Jcard in one of those triple tall norelco cases. Hop on Santa’s lap and pony up $16.50 for this one now now now now now! Only 50 copies!

This is where I’ll put any sound clipage, if I find any. Until then, Merry TuscoMas!

Black Horizons For Bergman
12.22.14 by Ian Franklin

The holiday season can be a joyous time of year. But for all the Clark Griswold’s out there who’ve had quite enough merriment and are ready to settle into the long winter road ahead, San Francisco based label Black Horizons delivered a 3xC40 compilation of dark and bleak zones to accompany some of the classic films of Ingmar Bergman. “Frozen in Time II: Music To Accompany the Films of Ingmar Bergman” (a follow up to last year’s first volume) groups tracks from a nice range of artists including German Army, Micromelancolie + Sindre Bjerga, L’Acephale, Head Dress, Spettro Family, and Night Worship. The tracks are set to and compliment films including Passion of Anna, Seventh Seal, and with two tracks appearing for Cries and Whispers and Hour of The Wolf each, playing off this compilation’s predecessor Frozen In Time I which included soundtracks to the films Persona, Face to Face, Wild Strawberries, From the Life of the Marionettes, The Serpent’s Egg, and Summer with Monika.

December 13th saw a release party at Vacation Vinyl in L.A. with viewings of Cries and Whispers and Seventh Seal with clips of the comp and a live performance from Head Dress.

This 3CS black monolith comes in an edition of 200 on black tapes with silver labels laced with a 4-panel j card of silver offset printing on black linen paper with beautiful detail and art panels. Pick up a copy of Frozen in Time II from Black Horizons website ($23 in the US/more elsewhere), rent some Bergman flicks on the interweb, draw the blinds closed, and dip your toes in to the wadding pool of existential anxiety.

Serenity Now From Fort Evil Fruit
11.28.14 by Mike Haley

“Serenity Now”. Thus spoke Costanza, though it did nothing to help him maintain a healthy blood pressure. Maybe, just maybe, he should have used one of those personal computers he and Lloyd Braun were trying to sell and surfed on over to Fort Evil Fruit to check out their new batch. There, old Frank would have been greeted by four cassettes, yielding 144 minutes of superlative serenity. The placid ambient sway from Claudio Cisterna’s Chiodata project slithering through eight tracks on “Dymensu”. A C38 recorded from 2012 – 2013 in Santiago, Chile. Ondness’ gallery of nebulous electronic warmth, moving snaillike over the “Surf e Performance” C36, as to not alarm poor Frank in his fragile state. He would surely have been delighted by the “Fractura de Miramientos” C22 by Rastrejo, a zoner that I believe Elaine would most definitely want to grip. The curious and colorful dance energy would have her shaking a leg in no time. “Who’s dancin’? Come on! Who’s dancin’!?” Maybe The Restless Dead & Bird People “Meet The Dervishes Of Khartoum In A Confluence-Of-The-Nile” would do the trick. Get Mr. Constanzo super chill. A C48 with a rather interesting story, summed up here by Chris Joynes:

“The source recordings for this project come from around 3 hours of field recordings made in November 2004 at the weekly Sufi Dervish ‘conference’ that takes place every Sunday in the centre of the main cemetery in Khartoum, Sudan, which rests near the point of confluence between the White Nile and Blue Nile. 

Trip Metal Alert! Spykes Ahead!
12.12.14 by Mike Haley

I was awoken in the wee hours of the night by a blasting tone and a cautioning voice blaring “Warning! Warning! Warning!”. It was my trusty Trip Metal Alarm. I made it a few months back with the parts of less important smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to warn me if Trip Metal levels get too high. The spewing of aggressively high TM fumes were due to the release of American Tapes #998: The Spykes “Winter Wonder” C90. And it wasn’t just one The Spykes “Winter Wonder” C90, not just two The Spykes “Winter Wonder” C90, but five versions of this Olson solo basement bologna banger, each limited to 30 copies. And it looks like it’s gonna be an ongoing series, lasting all winter, so be sure to collect ’em all for maximum inzanity. They promise a “Classic SPYKES sound spread” and rep hand drawn covers, which are basically some scribblin’, but would you have it any other way? These mugs are eight beans a pop, all available from AT’s Big Cartel, where the only info you’ll find is as follows…

“Its winter…long nights: can only skate three times a week with the crew: what are you going to do? DRAW AND RECORD. EVERYNIGHT. Here are the results. This is going to a long series, cause WINTER is LLOOOONG. Classic SPYKES sound spread out of marathon minutes and all sorts of instruments entanglements. Numbered edition of 30 with hand drawn covers.”

No samples are up from any of these marathon sessions, but here’s a live clip to get ya in the crude mood.