You may be familiar with Chris Donofrio from his solo work as Reviver, or as a member of the duo Arabian Blade. For his debut cassette under the moniker Interlaken, Donofrio has traded in nightmare crunch for marshmallowy patience. “Versaux,” a C30 which is also the debut release for German label Seil, is glazed over with this newfound ambiance, a slow-swishing liquid of sound.
Side A is the calmer of the two. The handful of tracks that make it up maintain a fleecy flow over their 15 minutes. Cashmere patterns layer and web together with a relaxed consensus. No shimmer or gleam attempts to outdo another. They are all total buds that really want to share space on the magic carpet that is being weaved. Side B leans slightly into a zone of more spirited maneuvers, but remains absolutely chill. It opens with a sound mandala swirling around persevering thumps before offering up a an extra crispy synth fantasy, full of illuminated sequences and bassy, jutting tones. While those two cuts don’t exactly sport the same waxy patina as the earlier songs, they still feel right at home. A foggy, evaporated soundscape, as if someone dubbed a dub of a dub of a slowed down version of the Twin Peaks theme song, takes us out of the Interlaken experience. And here we are, left wanting more.
copies of “Versaux” were dubbed up and available from Seil Records.
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Tabs Out #16: Sam Gas Can & Friends “King Zolo” C30
Edition of 75. Massive Mass weirdo SGC retools Super NES songs, then invites pals to retool those retoolings. Create your own artwork for maximum pleasure.
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Tabs Out #15: Sound Out Light “Hanglyder” C30
Edition of 75. Synth Magic by Dave Doyen recorded live while hang gliding in a no fly zone at exactly midnight.
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.
V/A - Lives Through Magic (Lives Through Magic)
Art by Keith Rankin & Juli Odomo
The packaging for this double cassette comp could easily be confused for the How To Be The Perfect Psychic kit that you ordered. "Lives Through Magic" does not come with the brushed nickel ball and curious cards pictured on the cover, you'll have to supply those yourself, but with proper concentration and dedication you'll have that marble floating in no time.
Yves Malone - Moonday Tides (Data Airlines)
Art by Tiny Little Hammers
The most famous screensaver from the 1989 After Dark software series was, without a doubt, the iconic Flying Toasters module, which showcased a collection of top-of-the-line 1940's-style chrome bread-warmers cascading your screen with bird-like wings and colliding with pieces of projectile toast. A slider in the Flying Toasters peripherals enabled users to adjust the bread's darkness and an updated Flying Toasters Pro module added a choice of music - either Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries or a Flying Toaster Anthem with optional karaoke lyrics. Seems like someone spiked the kool-aid here and cranked the slider wayyyyy up, burning the toast, and setting the vintage hardware ablaze in the process. Too scary.
Cabo Boing - Blob On A Grid (Haord)
Art by ?
I assume Blob On A Grid was a public access children's show from the 80's that was FAR too damaged to be a show for children (or anyone for that matter) that lasted nearly one full episode. The main character, Cobo Boing, was an alien made out of pool noodles and olives who encouraged children through song to ♫ Explore! Your parent's medicine! Explore! The sewers with homeless men! ♫. Thankfully copies of cassettes featuring the show's best music survived.
Mr. & Mrs. Chip Perkins - Very Warm Regards (Strategic Tape Reserve)
Art by ?
In the perfect visual tribute to music tracked in the home studio of an old Victorian the ever-industrious Perkins couple have created a design that recalls the very early beginnings of cassette culture. While rarely discussed today, in the 1800s, j-cards were made of light fabric remnants and executed by hand in needlepoint.
Art by Rez & ArtFluids
Brøderbund is a company from Oregon responsible for educational software and 8-bit games for the Apple II computer. Spoofin' that classic 80's and 90's computer software artwork is cheap way to tickle me from shoulder pads to toe nails, I'm a fucking sucker for it, so you got me here. Actually, I don't even know if this is a spoof. This could be the original artwork for some reading, thinking, math, and science skills improvement shit. Either way, bravo.
Dennis Young - 12/31/1982 (Stimulus Progression)
Art by Dennis Young
Dennis Young, or Dennis Andrews if you nasty, was a founding member of Liquid Liquid and dropped a serious run of private-press solo synthesizer tapes in the 80's under the latter pseudonym. '12/31/1982' offers a peak into a late night session tape of free improv in Edison, NJ as Young jammed solo in his home studio through the New Year. Little known fact, but January 1st, 1983 saw the final migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP officially completed, and is considered to be the actual beginning of the true Internet as we know it today. This, as a result, may be the last vestige of pre-internet synth-melters. 9 days later Fraggle Rock was also aired for the first time. I was conceived somewhere between these two events.
Alain Lefebvre - We Are the Way We Are Because Nature Will Allow It (Jeunesse Cosmique)
Art by Gabrielle
You might have read the clickbait-ish article about Brazilian college student Bruno Borges who recently disappeared, leaving behind a room whose walls are covered with strange ciphers and symbols. Here we find what appear to be some related mysterious symbols, resting nervously atop what appears to be a closeup of of one mystic/shredder/friend-of-aliens Steve Vai's extra-string-enhanced guitars. Obviously this brings the whole mystery to light, and the secret of the universe is
Astral Spirits - batch 12
Art by Mase Man
Sometimes it's the little things that grab your attention. If you recall back to the third edition of Look At These Tapes, Astral Spirits had made a subtle-but powerful shift in their j-card designs, featuring the familiar series of evolving shapes on textured backgrounds by Mase Man instead of the starker flat backgrounds their first 10 batches employed. Batch 12 mostly continues along this textured path for art and design, but incrementally shifts the overall conception slightly again with cassette shells in a variety of colorways instead of the all-black tapes of previous batches. Same great sounds and even more color!
Stratocastors - Autre Regard (OJC Recordings)
Art by Stratocastors
This is one of those album cover photo sessions that just came together perfectly: Intense paisley backdrop? Check. Interesting chair with the perfect amount of damaged veneer to show the passage of time? Right this way. Make Me Pretty Talking Barbie styled to the peak of New/No-Wave? Check. Color fade Slinky as hair accessory? Damn straight. Copy of "Sonic Seasonings" by Wendy Carlos to tie everything together? On it. Lights, camera, action!
Paco Sala - The Silent Season (Field Hymns)
Art by Tiny Little Hammers
The trippy, tense moments that make up "The Silent Season" are perfectly captured visually in this killer j-card by Tiny Little Hammers. Looking positively 3-dimensional in person, one can only wonder what bizarre situation is playing out in this red-lit room. It all feels a little like an outtake from that creepy underground "Sad Satan" video game, with electric pulses tracking along the walls and doors mysteriously materializing. With music featuring low-fi loops of someone saying phrases like "are you my angel" over and over, strap in and hang on.
V/A - Lives Through Magic (Lives Through Magic)
Art by Keith Rankin & Juli Odomo
The packaging for this double cassette comp could easily be confused for the How To Be The Perfect Psychic kit that you ordered. "Lives Through Magic" does not come with the brushed nickel ball and curious cards pictured on the cover, you'll have to supply those yourself, but with proper concentration and dedication you'll have that marble floating in no time.
Yves Malone - Moonday Tides (Data Airlines)
Art by Tiny Little Hammers
The most famous screensaver from the 1989 After Dark software series was, without a doubt, the iconic Flying Toasters module, which showcased a collection of top-of-the-line 1940's-style chrome bread-warmers cascading your screen with bird-like wings and colliding with pieces of projectile toast. A slider in the Flying Toasters peripherals enabled users to adjust the bread's darkness and an updated Flying Toasters Pro module added a choice of music - either Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries or a Flying Toaster Anthem with optional karaoke lyrics. Seems like someone spiked the kool-aid here and cranked the slider wayyyyy up, burning the toast, and setting the vintage hardware ablaze in the process. Too scary.
Cabo Boing - Blob On A Grid (Haord)
Art by ?
I assume Blob On A Grid was a public access children's show from the 80's that was FAR too damaged to be a show for children (or anyone for that matter) that lasted nearly one full episode. The main character, Cobo Boing, was an alien made out of pool noodles and olives who encouraged children through song to ♫ Explore! Your parent's medicine! Explore! The sewers with homeless men! ♫. Thankfully copies of cassettes featuring the show's best music survived.
Mr. & Mrs. Chip Perkins - Very Warm Regards (Strategic Tape Reserve)
Art by ?
In the perfect visual tribute to music tracked in the home studio of an old Victorian the ever-industrious Perkins couple have created a design that recalls the very early beginnings of cassette culture. While rarely discussed today, in the 1800s, j-cards were made of light fabric remnants and executed by hand in needlepoint.
Art by Rez & ArtFluids
Brøderbund is a company from Oregon responsible for educational software and 8-bit games for the Apple II computer. Spoofin' that classic 80's and 90's computer software artwork is cheap way to tickle me from shoulder pads to toe nails, I'm a fucking sucker for it, so you got me here. Actually, I don't even know if this is a spoof. This could be the original artwork for some reading, thinking, math, and science skills improvement shit. Either way, bravo.
Dennis Young - 12/31/1982 (Stimulus Progression)
Art by Dennis Young
Dennis Young, or Dennis Andrews if you nasty, was a founding member of Liquid Liquid and dropped a serious run of private-press solo synthesizer tapes in the 80's under the latter pseudonym. '12/31/1982' offers a peak into a late night session tape of free improv in Edison, NJ as Young jammed solo in his home studio through the New Year. Little known fact, but January 1st, 1983 saw the final migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP officially completed, and is considered to be the actual beginning of the true Internet as we know it today. This, as a result, may be the last vestige of pre-internet synth-melters. 9 days later Fraggle Rock was also aired for the first time. I was conceived somewhere between these two events.
Alain Lefebvre - We Are the Way We Are Because Nature Will Allow It (Jeunesse Cosmique)
Art by Gabrielle
You might have read the clickbait-ish article about Brazilian college student Bruno Borges who recently disappeared, leaving behind a room whose walls are covered with strange ciphers and symbols. Here we find what appear to be some related mysterious symbols, resting nervously atop what appears to be a closeup of of one mystic/shredder/friend-of-aliens Steve Vai's extra-string-enhanced guitars. Obviously this brings the whole mystery to light, and the secret of the universe is
Astral Spirits - batch 12
Art by Mase Man
Sometimes it's the little things that grab your attention. If you recall back to the third edition of Look At These Tapes, Astral Spirits had made a subtle-but powerful shift in their j-card designs, featuring the familiar series of evolving shapes on textured backgrounds by Mase Man instead of the starker flat backgrounds their first 10 batches employed. Batch 12 mostly continues along this textured path for art and design, but incrementally shifts the overall conception slightly again with cassette shells in a variety of colorways instead of the all-black tapes of previous batches. Same great sounds and even more color!
Stratocastors - Autre Regard (OJC Recordings)
Art by Stratocastors
This is one of those album cover photo sessions that just came together perfectly: Intense paisley backdrop? Check. Interesting chair with the perfect amount of damaged veneer to show the passage of time? Right this way. Make Me Pretty Talking Barbie styled to the peak of New/No-Wave? Check. Color fade Slinky as hair accessory? Damn straight. Copy of "Sonic Seasonings" by Wendy Carlos to tie everything together? On it. Lights, camera, action!
Paco Sala - The Silent Season (Field Hymns)
Art by Tiny Little Hammers
The trippy, tense moments that make up "The Silent Season" are perfectly captured visually in this killer j-card by Tiny Little Hammers. Looking positively 3-dimensional in person, one can only wonder what bizarre situation is playing out in this red-lit room. It all feels a little like an outtake from that creepy underground "Sad Satan" video game, with electric pulses tracking along the walls and doors mysteriously materializing. With music featuring low-fi loops of someone saying phrases like "are you my angel" over and over, strap in and hang on.
Supervolcano’s “The Vault” is a fascinating, mysterious album. It occurred to me that the point of emphasis here is distance and spacing. The distance here comes into play in a few ways. The final product here, the recording, is quite removed from its original sound source. A meme, of all things, came to mind while listening: in the exploding mind meme, the most “enlightened” approach was a musician creating a tape “by holding a Walkman up to the computer speakers.” While I’m sure that’s not the approach here, the joke raises a question: do we take the recording at face value, or do we simultaneously, subsequently, whatever, consider what methods were used to create the recording, how it sounded before the final treatment?
This is important on “The Vault.” Because, behind the distance between the mics and what was recorded (or the artificially produced distance), under the Gaussian blur, there are instruments. There are rooms. And none of these things sound quite like they sound on this tape. Much like the recent output from the equally mysterious Korea Undok Group, we have what can be appreciated as, when removing context, as what one might imagine a time capsule recording to sound like. It’s decayed, the loops are organic in a way the might indicate degradation and technical failure. Indeed, as the tape progresses, these qualities become increasingly prominent.
If not for the fact that the digital version sounds practically identical to the tape one, it would be possible to consider it possible that the approach in the above meme produced this tape. But these were intentional choices. The aesthetic, rife with obfuscation, patient, and pregnant with hallways and spaces, collapses in upon itself – we were meant to listen because it was released, and yet the alienation is certainly purposeful, if not overwhelming. Outside of the Korea Undok Group output, I can’t think of an album that I immediately reconsidered if I had even paid attention to it (as that’s how fleeting and ephemeral is tries to be), and yet was haunted by it well after its completion.
Flusnoix, a Montevallo, Alabama-based group of musicians, was founded by Jess Marie Walker and her need to connect drawing and making music. The group’s improvisations were recorded in March 2016 at the Kewahatchee Lounge in Birmingham. Using flusdrawxing and flusvoxing in other performances and art installations lead to the creation of Flusnoix.
It’s hard to tell what’s on the scratchy black and white photo of the cover; we might be in a cave, we might be in a field, and if you stare hard enough, you can make out the shape of a woman in a flowing skirt standing rigidly in the space. The tape opens in the same mysterious way, with sparse tones weaving through space. Gentle plucks and chirps over tones reminiscent of cars driving past an open window fill the air. The next track, “it ran” ramps up the energy, and we do feel we’re on the run, bobbing through quirky needling sounds, like a guitar being played underwater. Put on “into” while getting ready for your next date; it’s a sexy and relaxing track that’ll give you confidence and calmness.
To see these musicians perform together must be quite an experience, as their pieces fit together in the most natural way, as though they’ve been playing together since the dawn of time. To know they’re an improvisational group is to understand the level of talent they have. The more-than-nine-minute track “the garden” is an incredible work, with soft guitar chords picked over sounds straight from outer space. Soft clanking keeps the track out of the anxiety-inducing realm of deep space and firmly grounded. With alien blips and a deep bassline, “harborin” takes us on a wild ride through time. The tape closes with “mur mur in,” a sweet, almost tropical sounding tune that closes on a high note.
The whole tape is perfect, relaxing music. With mysterious tones and easy-to-listen to experimentation, this should be your choice of sunny day listening. Get a copy of yours from the Sweet Wreath Bandcamp.
I was really excited to check out this tape by Montreal’s Phern after finding out a member of Each Other was involved. I absolutely loved their “Being Elastic” album from 2k14. The story goes that an unemployed Hélène Barbier (who also plays in the excellent Moss Lime) invited Ben Lalonde over one afternoon to see what they could jam out. They invited a veritable who’s who of Montreal weirdo rock to round out the arsenal and created a supergroup greater than it’s individual bands.
“Cool Coma” is a wonderfully off kilter pop record full of angular DC hooks and slack art rock quirkiness. You’ll hear influences of Deerhoof, Rapider Than Horsepower, Ulysses Hellier, or any of the lineup’s daytime bands. Phern recorded the album over the course of a year, and the songs appear in the order in which they were written. Opening with the insanely catchy Excavator, “Cool Coma” immediately makes it’s agenda known with Curtians-esque guitar lines lazily chiming, allowing ample room for Hélène’s surrealist poetry to run rampant. The track Moving Boxes pulls in Elephant 6 sensibilities, refracted through Dischord-iscisms. One of my favorite songs on here is Crosswalk Talk, exuding 5rc cool with it’s fractured poly-rhythms & nods to the dancefloor. The whole album is a fantastically fun record and gets me really excited about what these cats will put out in the future.
Cloaked in low-res black & white conceptual imagery, with perhaps a small visual nod to “Pulse Demon” by Merzbow, comes “Exotics.” This seven cut C30ish by Korean Jade acts like a medicated liniment. It’s flexible drones and swerving patterns rub on like a lotion, but with enough coarseness to cause friction and heat when applied. I don’t know who is behind the Korean Jade name, but whether they were going for beauty trapped in crud, or crud trapped in beauty, they got there. Like the artwork, the sounds on “Exotics” also have a low resolution, lending a satisfying matte finish to the overall production. The occasional scaly tail of mutant techno will take a swipe at ya here and there, but it’s bread and butter is synths bending and blinking in a thick fog. Don’t fear! It’s reassuring fog. Not a too scary fog like from that movie The Children I watched when I was far too young.
A white shell with a single black smudge of black paint rounds out the colorless presence of “Exotics,” a more than decent offering of crisp ambiance awash in graininess. Grip one of the 30 copies dubbed from Plush Organics.
Unguent – Simulation Of A Bat Engulfed In Acid 3.30.17 by Mike Haley
I haven’t watched an episode of Fraggle Rock in a few decades, so I had to hit up MuppetWiki for a reminder of what those tiny green worker things were called. My guess was Goobers, but I knew that wasn’t right. Doozers is what they are called. In case you need a refresher, or have never seen Fraggle Rock before, Doozers are an all-work/no-play race of 6″ tall creatures heavily invested in the field of construction. They spend their days building structures out of Doozer Sticks (thin, transparent rods made of radish dust) that the Fraggles can’t control themselves from eating, which is a total dick move when you think about it for a split second.
I bring that up because “Simulation Of A Bat Engulfed In Acid”, the new C40 by Unguent on Refulgent Sepulchre, sounds like it was made by Doozers. Getting past the clear shell, obviously fashioned from Doozer Sticks, the sounds are totally Doozerish. You’re immediately nudged and pricked by a shoveling of pint-sized zaps, most of which existing only to sting your tush then belly flop back into the couch cushions. At times it’s almost a menacing experience, like… Why is this tape doing this to me? Basically a random splurge of circuit shoving that sometimes sounds like the tape is shaving itself into ribbon. The only breather from that pixel blast is when the bloops and screeps gang up to create spurts of gummy patterns; Doozer dance-off’s possibly? I don’t know, but I like it a good deal.
It should be noted that this tape was NOT created by Doozers, but instead a Philadelphian by the name of Lance who also runs Refulgent Sepulchre. Lance was kind enough to make 100 copies of “Simulation Of A Bat Engulfed In Acid” and a few other killer releases, all available here.
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.
