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Tabs Out | Mori Lucrum / Upward – split

Mori Lucrum / Upward – split

3.20.19 by Ryan Masteller

I don’t want to scare you guys too much, but this split on Turlin out of Dorset (that’s the UK) is really spooky. Mori Lucrum, which sounds like an incantation during the darkest part of a séance and means either “die profit” or “death profit,” builds synthesizer drones from the lowest frequencies. They creep up on you as you listen, gradually building in volume and crossing the threshold of more audible tones (my hearing ain’t what it used to be, that’s for sure). Then, they flash into bright grays like flaring magnesium through an old TV set. Also birdsong, to break the tension I guess. Tension should always be broken by birdsong – it’s just how we’re wired to cope.

That actually doesn’t sound so scary after all, and maybe my ears, damaged from all those years of experimental guitar feedback sculpting (I have a degree in it), are simply not able to parse the details. Tinnitus turns out to be the scariest monster of all. Joke’s on the Head Editor at Tabs Out.

Just kidding… I was a folkie.

My web of lies brings us to side B (or maybe it’s A, who knows with this crazy tape), where an artist called Upward, who is impossible to search for online because “Upward Bandcamp” returns this completely irritating link, ditches electronics for the ol’ seven-string, or so I’m told. But Upward is the real spook here, the real ghoul, the real poltergeist. The one haunting the old house where all the murders happened (why do people keep buying that house?). The mood is tense throughout, and distraught human voices even punctuate the mix, none more so than on final track “Anxious.” Here, we get the full-on internal crisis full force, a deluge of misunderstanding and predicament. It’s torture. But it’s gripping.

Do you buy tapes for their j-card stock sometimes? This one’s a super winner, “2 panel 300gsm conqueror laid j-card, [plus] on body decals and white Norelco case.” So thick, so tactile. “C30 superferro tape housed insdie a white screwed shell. Individually home dubbed in real time on an Akai GXC-710D.” You nerds are going to love this. Edition of 25. Seven left as of this writing.

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Tabs Out | Temporal Movement – 118

Temporal Movement – 118

3.18.19 by Tony Lien

According to the Reserve Matinee (a Chicago label established in 2018 that boasts a shockingly wide variety of releases to date), the man behind Temporal Movement (David Wesley Sutton) has been releasing experimental noise music since 2004.

It pains me to think of the absolute shit I was listening to back then during my freshman year of high school. But don’t worry — we’re not going to pry open that barrel of partially decayed noxious waste right now. Instead, we’re going to discuss Sutton’s brief yet engaging album “118”.

The entirety of the tape contains a Steve Reich sort of devotion to ever-evolving minimalist repetition. In this, the tracks are almost automotive in the way they are pushed forward through auditory space. In the opening title track, major stabs (which I perceive to be effected field recordings) soaked in reverb drive the ten minute composition through a misty haze of oscillating ambience to an eerie, jumbled crescendo — the journey taken as a whole reminding me of a car ride that starts in the middle of nowhere and ends up in the heart of an unfamiliar city. The final track “Mound” contains a similar notion of movement, but is augmented by bouncy violin passages that harken back to some of Moondog’s more contemplative compositions.

That being said, there’s a modern-classical element to Sutton’s noise — which is not something you hear on a regular basis. This is not so much due to instrumentation or the overall sound of the album, but rather by the apparent underlying mastery of arrangement techniques employed by Sutton throughout the tape’s duration.

As of writing this, there are 4 copies of “Temporal Movement” remaining on Reserve Matinee‘s Bandcamp. I’d pick one up while you can. This is one of those albums where, like a good Charlie Kaufman movie, you will notice something new hidden in its layers every time you sit down to experience it.

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Tabs Out | Discordless – Nelocuit

Discordless – Nelocuit

3.15.19 by Ryan Masteller

I’ve had it up to here with all these Aphex Twin logos showing up on blimps and Starbucks takeaway cups and NASCAR hoods – why can’t that guy market his comeback albums like a normal person? Take Discordless, aka Marius Costache, for example – he hadn’t released anything under that name in nine years, and now all of a sudden he’s back on Bulgarian label Amek Collective with a new tape of jittery techno, tense ambient, and noisy, atom-smashed electro with nary a peep from a “marketing team” getting “the brand” “back out there”? I don’t know about you, but I’ll take that approach from my “underground” producers any day. Like Linus said about the Great Pumpkin, and which we can reference here without fear of lawsuit, “It’s all about sincerity, punk ass.”

Discordless is all about sincerity on “Nelocuit,” which is Romanian for “uninhabited” (Costache is Romanian, which makes sense if you’re wondering why he’s using Romanian words). If we’re talking “uninhabited” wastes or woodlands or tundras or Mike Haley’s conscience, then “Nelocuit” is your new soundtrack, its dense blasts of digital shrapnel whipping like harsh winter winds. There’s nothing between you and “Nelocuit,” your soul is laid bare in front of it, and it penetrates your mind to scour it of pretense. It is the electronic tape equivalent of Linus’s dream pumpkin patch. The Great Pumpkin … er, the Great Consumer will surely rise out of this humble tangle of magnetic tape and purchase a copy with great reverence.

Who am I kidding – this mess of tangled patch-cord magic and digital programming is simply a dang treat to listen to. It’s a post-hypnotism warp zone of corroded delight that mesmerizes as it pummels. Whether it resembles an ice sheet as thick as a house or a hailstorm at 60mph, “Nelocuit” maxes out any comparisons of technology to natural phenomena, blurring them as they hit critical mass (*wink*) and velocity.

Don’t miss it.

Although released a mere three months ago, “Nelocuit” is sold out from the label, so start scouring Discogs you slathering mongrels. There’s actually one for sale!

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Tabs Out | New Batch – Constellation Tatsu

New Batch – Constellation Tatsu

3.14.19 by Gray Lee

Four more stars are added to the ever growing constellation of Tatsu, continuing a growing tradition of elegantly produced free-form, ambient works from a variety of artists all over the globe. Yeah that’s right – I said globe – as in ROUND. Don’t expect these elemental wanderings to impress your flat-earthing uncle, who is likely still jamming the Eagles’ greatest hits while painting anti-vax protest signs – these four well-curated tapes full of meditative abstractions and flowing ideas are great for getting into another headspace and exploring the uncharted reaches of your inner self.


Curved Light – Flow and Return

The key word here is ‘return,’ as this is a follow up to “Quartzsite,” the straight-up amazing release Curved Light dropped in 2017 on Tatsu. Abstract sound artist Peter Tran takes us into an endless sky of clouds and sunsets, accented with glitched time lapse photography audio poems that draw upon unusual and unexpected shapes and patterns, with synths that curl and dissipate like wisps of windblown mist high above the realm of men. Melodies convolute in and out of ambient walls of bliss, sometimes resembling terrestrial instruments such as the flute or the bagpipe – but in a distinctly weightless way. Prepare for next-level out-of-body travel on this one, tape heads.


Chris Otchy – Subterranean Landscapes

Chris Otchy neatly boxes us into his concept with the title of this piece. A bubbling brook of organic synths flows over angular rock formations in shadowed places only lit by glowing flora. Bright notes glint like gemstones, while looping low tones carry the listener through the labyrinthine corridors of stone. The distinct sound Subterranean Landscapes is built from is much like a system of caves, with one central composition as the main entranceway, and each individual track a branching path. Provocative titles like “The Day after the Banquet” or “Pets or Children” produce more questions than answers. This journey through an unreal kingdom of stone is detailed, steady, and transformative – perfect for your nighttime reveries.


Jordan Christoff – Enveloped

My first question was “Enveloped by what?” but it immediately became clear. As we have already visited places both high above the sky, and deep below the ground, it seems only natural now to move beneath the billowing waves of the ocean. Longform ambient works that evoke an undersea world full of wonder and tranquility mark this debut release from the artist. These compositions are monumental in their oceanic scale, moving in graceful arcs through the open seas, beholden only to the magnetism and mystical energy of the natural world. Peaceful jets of ambient undercurrent pull the listener effortlessly through meditative periods of shimmering reflection.


Rose – Night Places

After a day of exploring the wonders of the great, round earth we live upon, Rose brings the batch to a close with the darkened rooms and pulsating rhythms of ‘Night Places.’ Return to altogether human settings for an evening in town, cruising through a dimly lit urban landscape from one exclusive, underground club to another. Three ultra-smooth ambient house tracks offer a delightfully grimy mixture of the sacred and profane perfect for your next vampire gathering, or gothic make-out in the parking garage against the limousine. 


Despite what your intolerable uncle thinks, the Constellation Tatsu Winter 2019 batch is one of the label’s best to date – and it’s available right here.

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Tabs Out | Seth Cooke – Weigh the Word

Seth Cooke – Weigh the Word

3.12.19 by Ryan Masteller

That was a great Bible study – I’m really glad we were all able to meet and really dive into the Word and pray with each other. I don’t know what I’d do without my small group – I really feel like I can open up to them about all the things I’m going through, all the issues at work, all the financial strains I’m shouldering from putting two kids through private school, all the marital stressors that pop up here and there. But mostly we work through these things by reading the Bible, consulting God’s Word for holy answers. And it works for guiding us through these troubled times, too – some social ills are so clearly condemned that we can help guide those who can’t understand that toward the path of righteousness. The Bible is Truth. God is Love. GOD IS SO GOOD.

Oh, what’s this? “S. Cooke teaching tape,” eh, “Weigh the Word”? Don’t mind if I do, thanks – I’m on a pretty good spiritual high right now that I could use some “Personal Ministry” guidance through the “Pathways in the Prophetic.” Just have to press Play…

Oh God! Jesus! Heavenly Father in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, and help me! What are these words emanating from this tape, and these sounds? Are they a test, O Lord? Are they a sign of the end times – is the Rapture upon us? This is SO not a “Personal Ministry” tape, it sounds instead like the unholy gibberish and warped physics of the demonic plane! I’m terrified, here comes a spiritual crisis… These voices mock me, they make sense to themselves but not to me. Now would be a good time to allow me to interpret these tongues, Lord! Maybe I’ll check InfoWars to see if they have anything on this S. Cooke …

Jackpot! InfoWars linked me to this great interview with We Need No Swords (sounds like a lefty peacenik organization if you ask me), and you can truly get a glimpse into the process this Cooke guy (S. stands for “Seth”), but you’re going to have to scroll pretty far down to do it. Turns out he grew up in a Christian environment, and he got his hands on some tapes his dad had put together NOT for artistic abuse, and there’s some text-to-speech programming involved (whatever that is), and Cooke doesn’t even believe in God even though he can recite Bible verses! I simply cannot fathom it – it all reeks of blasphemy. It even SOUNDS like blasphemy, all these warped readings, sometimes in unfathomable languages, interspersed with what sounds like a VHS tape getting eaten alive. Hymns become swarms of bees! I don’t even know anymore.

You heathens are gonna love this, but I’m going burn it along with some Eminem and Jerky Boys CDs… Edition of 77 from Satan’s buddy Cooke himself.

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Tabs Out | Patrick Shiroshi and Arturo Ibarra – LA Blues

Patrick Shiroshi and Arturo Ibarra – LA Blues

3.11.19 by Ryan Masteller

When I first heard that Patrick Shiroshi and Arturo Ibarra were going to mash together my two favorite songs by The Doors – “LA Woman” and “Roadhouse Blues” – I couldn’t believe my luck: instead of having to listen to TWO songs, I’d get a single tune with all the best parts of each. I wouldn’t have to wait for one track to end for the other to begin.

Imagine my surprise, then, when “LA Blues” began to play and it wasn’t even REMOTELY what I thought it was going to be. However, instead of giving in to the brief flare of white hot rage that passed like an energy cloud across my consciousness, my humors quickly abated as if they were hit by a sudden cold front as I decided to give this a chance, regardless of how easily my foolish and completely misguided expectations had been dashed. The urge to chuck my cassette deck out of the second-floor window disappeared before I had the chance to yank it out of the wall.

That’s not to say the music I was hearing wasn’t white hot. “Loosely inspired by the forms of Japanese guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi,” “LA Blues” from the get-go rends physical space like a swiftly fissioning star, finding alto saxophonist Shiroshi and guitarist Ibarra swirling about each other like primordial starstuff, their notes atoms trying to form bonds at velocities approaching light speed. Dangerous, dangerous stuff, and something you don’t want to get too close to if you find such things disturbing! Tracks 1 and 4, “Projection 8” and “Projection 58,” respectively, are “‘mass projections,’ marked by bombast, intensity, and a total disregard for anything approaching conventional melody or structure.” The Doors, or the idea of listening to them at this specific time, turned into Huxley’s actual “Doors of Perception” and flung themselves wide to welcome me into cosmic embrace of chaotic functionality.

These performances masquerading as neutron bombs sandwich “Projection 14” and “Projection 3,” in which Shiroshi and Ibarra’s considered interplay is more readily apparent. But neither is a break or a reprieve, just a slower eruption of plasmic materials. The duo’s live takes are physical workouts, as if the players’ are lifting weights with their lips and fingers or running a marathon with their lips and fingers. Regardless, they probably have to sit down after a while to recuperate, let their lips and fingers slowly regain feeling again after all that energy expulsion. Not unlike Ray Manzarek after “The End.”

Edition of 100 from Eh?/Public Eyesore. Not a lot left…

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Tabs Out | Episode #140

Shadows – Sin | Sionis (Polar Envy)
E. Whatevski – Cult Classics (Hand’Solo)
Gabor Bonzo – Wad (Terry Tapes)
Bloor – Drolleries (Astral Spirits)
Curved Light – Airs of Modality (Unifactor)
Dry Bath – s/t (Flag Day Recordings)
Amulet – home copy
Stephan Haluska – Empty Room (Constellation Tatsu)
Neil Campbell – Mirror Mania Ersatz Chamber (self released)
Sharkula x Mukqs – Prune City (Hausu Mountain)
Plake 64 & The Hexgrams – Crossing the Great Stream (20/20)
Wasteland Jazz Unit – Session to Nothing (Oxen)

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Tabs Out | Life Education – New Earth Assembly

Life Education – New Earth Assembly

3.8.19 by Tony Lien

The cover art for Life Education’s “New Earth Assembly” boasts a Bob Ross-style pastoral landscape which is further accented by what seems to be THE biggest, happiest tree reaching up into the stratosphere in the far-off distance. Could this be meant to represent a larger-than-life dream of a beautiful (and possibly human-less) world in the not-so-far-off future? Maybe I’m looking into it too much. All I know is that these days — especially after getting lost in the Twitter feed or network news reports — I tend towards rooting for nature and its eventual retaking of the Earth.

I don’t necessarily get that particular vibe when listening to “New Earth Assembly” though. Instead, I’m exposed to a plethora of emotions that stand in strangely harmonic juxtaposition to each other. Peaceful yet melancholic. Safe in the present moment but aware of an impending storm in the visible distance. An otherworldly vastness that feels all too familiar in our own society’s ecological/sociological climate. Overall there’s a mysterious and inquisitive quality to the compositions that invite both forward thinking and thoughtful retrospection.

Genre-wise, “New Earth Assembly” exists in numerous realms. Mainly, the subdued nature of its percussive elements place it somewhat in the ambient downtempo IDM camp — while the hovering, ever-shifting crispness of its digital synth passages hint at the hyperreal nu-world sound exploited by the likes of those such as HCMJ or [D A T A B U R S T]. This blending of similar yet respectively distinctive sub-genres creates a lush environment for these compositions to thrive and grow.

The standout track — to me — is the official album closer (not counting the bonus tracks, of course — which include an outtake version of this same track) “Pale Heart”. Throughout its nine minute tenure, Life Education manages to incorporate shimmering acoustic guitar with mesmerizing, fluctuating synth work in such a way that the composition itself feels alive — like a network of vines slowly overtaking an ornate stone structure that sits alone in a valley in some nameless countryside expanse.

This tape is one of three equally rad albums available in bundle form on the Katuktu Collective Bandcamp page. As of writing this, there are only two bundles left — so if I were you I’d make like a tree and grab one of them a-SAP.

Man, sorry about that. Instant apology.

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Tabs Out | Asher Graieg-Morrison – Hereditatem Pt. II

Asher Graieg-Morrison – Hereditatem Pt. II

3.5.19 by Ryan Masteller

“The ‘Hereditatem’ series is a reflection on the physical and immaterial influences of a country upon a person,” which I was going to totally deep-dive into until I realized that Asher Graieg-Morrison is from Sydney, Australia, and not the United States like me. But it can’t be all that different – Australia’s got some pretty shady history, and we’re dealing the hell with ours. So maybe let’s call it an exploration of the entirety of the Global North and its subdivisions (countries) and their influence on their own populations. Yeah, let’s view it through that lens.

There’s nothing like cold-ass instrumental (for the most part) post-rock to illuminate the utter wrongness of political machinations. Compositions weigh heavy on their composers’ hearts, which in turn burden equally frustrated listeners with a moral imperative to act: you have received your marching orders, now go. Certainly this emanates more from the GY!BE camp than anywhere else, but that’s the rap that post-rock gets, fairly or not, and Asher Graieg-Morrison treats that rap like a birthright. This isn’t to say that heavy-handedness is unnecessary or even unpleasant. Quite the opposite – we all need a good swift kick in the pants every once in a while, and now’s as good a time as any.

“Hereditatem Pt. II” shares many similarities with some of the electronic-tinged post-rock of mid-aughts netlabels, most specifically Lost Children, a favorite of mine back in the day. Sweeping instrumentals, each with its own manifesto of sorts, fill the tape, such as this for opening track “Quick!”: “Everything is so QUICK! Speed, agility, wealth. Things to accomplish. Binge-resting, bargain-hunting.” One can almost TASTE the cynicism leavening these thoughts, cynicism that is not misplaced. Then there’s this missive, which I almost mistook for a funny Tabs Out tweet for a second, at least until I got about halfway through it: “Why do we make BROKEN/SYSTEMS? Please limit yourself. Be subject to the other. Go without. Create systems that bring life.”

Not without good reason do these tracks follow a melancholy path, with trip-hop/shoegaze rhythms undercutting the dense sheets of synthesizer and/or guitar feedback (depending on what the heck Graieg-Morrison is doing in that studio of his). Everything serves to drench the tunes in maximum dismay, and we are made better by being called out ourselves to start somewhere – be aware of our surroundings, maybe? Treat each other a little nicer? Yep, that’s a GREAT place to start.

“Hereditatem Pt. II” is available now – RIGHT NOW – from Flag Day Recordings.

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Tabs Out | Held – 8.20

Held – 8.20

3.5.19 by Ryan Masteller

Kid Smpl – um, a pseudonym for a pseudonym – is Held, and also runs Display out of Seattle, and it seems as though he was going for a Masonic number here but didn’t quite get how that whole thing works. That’s OK – we here at Tabs Out are here to help with some handy tips: First, subtract 4 from 8.20. Second, enjoy your Masonic number.

But what do I know, maybe “8.20” is for something else, a different sort of pagan code entirely. Who knows what those Display artists get up to in the Pacific Northwest, what with their twin peaks and their owl caves and their log ladies. But whatever it is they’re channeling, we the listeners are the beneficiaries, as the sounds trickle down across the country to Delaware and Florida, to Philadelphia and … that’s it. Actually, it’s a broader area than that I’m sure. I just can’t prove anything.

Held’s laser focused on something, though, something dreary and overcast and laden heavily with fog and meaning. Spanning four long-form tracks, none lasting less than ten minutes and no more than 12:32 ON THE NOSE, “8.20” hangs in the air, ambient, soft, lush, synthesizers quietly and gradually joining more atmospheric sounds. By track three, “The Hatch,” though, a decidedly delicate melody emerges, repeating itself through the haze like it’s a lone shoegaze sample caught in a steady downpour, before retreating to strict clinical electroacoustic noise. This aesthetic runs through the end of the tape, taking on weirdly sinister vibes as it progresses. Pagan indeed! What do they DO in those woods?

Kid Simpl as Held leads us down paths to obscure sound-worlds with “8.20,” each of its “quadrants” illuminating some strange and unusual behavior. It’s easy to get lost down these paths, but don’t get too lost! It’s dangerous out there in the real world – you never know what’s going to happen next.

Edition of 50; the shebang includes the following: orange C30, ink imprint, printed j-card, black Norelco case, labeled black bag, and sticker.