Uncategorized

Top 200 Tapes of 2019

12.20.19 by Tabs Out Crew

1 101 Notes On Jazz (Suite 309)

​
Can one justify awarding thee most prestigious designation in the cassette community to 101 Notes On Jazz?

No​pe.​​​​​

Luckily I don’t need to justify it.​ I can just sorta do it.​ ​But maybe I’ll try to convince you a little bit? Maybe you’ll agree with me that this tape from Suite 309 feels like no other tape feels. Sure, mountains of ferric oxide ​were inscribed this year with LUSH drones, HARSH walls, and RARE synthesizers, but only one includes tips on buying hat feathers or “the horseless taffy alternative” and it’s 101 Notes On Jazz. Only one presents itself like an inside joke that no one is in on and it’s 101 Notes On Jazz.

Raymond C. Scott III​’s​ bogus ​radio ​bumpers​ are delivered casually and at a steady clip, all anchored in an AM jazz station zone​. H​is diction could not be more sincere as he rattles ​the absurd collection off.​ I hesitate to use a reductive Tim & Eric comparison here, even though that may be pretty spot on. You feel it hard during moments of Raymond announcing a ​shoe left behind at the hot dog roast​​ and his bad relationship with tap dancing​, and with his buttery, Wareheim-like voice, but​ a focused listen to 101 Notes (as silly as that sounds) finds something more.

An excerpt from the 40-second track New Duck Whistlers unwinds ​”That was Melt Me Tender​​ by The New Duck Whistlers. Tommy Duckson on the trap kit. That’s Kit Tenderloin in the drum pit, and it was basically a drum bonanza on that one. Brett “Bandana” Shandling on the triangle.​” ​The word flow of Duck to Duckson, kit to Kit to pit, bonanza to Bandana hits hard. This isn’t just yuk-yuk funny, it’s DIFFICULT LISTENING! True outsider shit. It’s also the best tape of 2019 and I refuse to convince you any more. Go throw butter at the ducks.

---

2 V/A – ShopLand World: Music for a Discovery Park of Miniature Supermarkets (Strategic Tape Reserve)

Commerce. It’s stupid and I hate it. More to the point, I don’t like leaving my house, and online shopping is for jerks. Plus, in transactions of commerce, money is exchanged, and I don’t have much of that, or any. In addition to these data points, I’m a terrible grump about virtually everything. keep reading at Tiny Mix Tapes

---

3 Fire-Toolz – Field Whispers (Into the Crystal Palace) (Orange Milk)

It was proven, it remains proven, that we are all electric narratives covered in varieties of skin, and that perfect sound can forever connect us to the infinite possibilities of being. keep reading at Tiny Mix Tapes

---

4 Robedoor – Negative Legacy (Deathbomb Arc)

5 Magic From Space – 🎶 4 HSP ć ASMR vol. 2 (Ingrown Records) +

6 Buck Young – Buck II: Where Do You Want It? (No Rent Records)

7 Budokan Boys – Dad Is Bad (Baba Vanga)

8 Laura Luna Castillo – Folksonomies (Cudighi)

9 V/A – Doom Mix Vol. III (Doom Trip) +

10 Bastian Void – Acreage (Muzan Editions)

---

11 Storyteller – Project R.O.Y. (ADAADAT)

12 Bonnie Baxter – AXIS (Hausu Mountain)

13 Dinky Mirage – 005 (Traced Objects) +

14 Curved Light – Airs of Modality (Unifactor)

15 Gwasg Gelert – Y Côd Da Vinci (Strategic Tape Reserve)

16 Moth Cock – If Beggars Were Horses Wishes Would Ride (Hausu Mountain)

17 Adderall Canyonly – Give Me Room Under the Fire of the Sun (Orb Tapes)

18 Bending Spirit – Flowermoon (Boudoir)

19 Nihiloxica – Biiri (Nyege Nyege Tapes)

20 George Chen – ord Origami [Deluxe] (Deathbomb Arc)

21 Savage Cult / German Army – split (NEN)

22 Marsha Fisher – Inverted (Bad Cake)

23 Mukqs – SD Biomix (Orange Milk)

24 Crazy Doberman – Synth Tidings Vol. II (Not Quite Archaic)

25 Ditto – Bookjum (Cudighi)

26 Oariana – A Pear on the Wind (Ingrown Records) +

27 Beyt Al Tapes – De Gendt (Beartown)

28 Shadows – Sin | Sionis (Polar Envy)

29 Brin – Loose Leaf (Leaving Records)

30 Former_Airline – Rewritten by the Future (Moss Archive)

31 Wes Tirey – No Winners in the Blues (Patient Sounds)

32 Tim Barnes – s/t (Obsolete Staircases) +

33 Jadapod – Art (Next Age)

34 somesurprises / supercandy – Some Candy (Crash Symbols)

35 Sophiaaaahjkl;8901 – Fiber​​-​​Optic Fur & 3D​​-​​Printed Bones (Suite 309)

36 Satin Spar – Grey Fox Dreamwalk (Shadowtrash Tape Group)

37 Ron Thomas and John Swana – Serenity (Galtta) +

38 Fuck Lungs – 2th (Already Dead) +

39 Hippies Wearing Muzzles – Euler Haze (Moon Villain)

40 Nicholas Langley – Nicholas Langley Plays the Vitamin B12 (Strategic Tape Reserve) +

41 German Army – Salary Of Stagnation (Cønjuntø Vacíø) +

42 Dos Monos – Dos City (Deathbomb Arc)

43 Life Education – Guru Overlord (Specious)

44 Adderall Canyonly – Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said (Bibliotapes) +

45 Bath Consolidated – Narryer Gneiss Terrane (Orange Milk) +

46 V/A – Sounds from the Black Lodge: A Tribute to Twin Peaks (No Problema)

47 Severino Pfifferling – Musik für Spülmaschine und Synthesizer (Strategic Tape Reserve) +

48 Vague Voices – Гробник (Amek Collective) +

49 Dave Public – More Than This (Hot Releases)

50 Synth Sisters / Nikmis – split (Muzan Editions)

51 Body Image Corporation – s/t (Skrot Up)

52 Tereshkova – Chunks of Monochrome Rainbows (Astral Spirits) +

53 Mitchell W. Feldstein – Pretty Boss (Flag Day)

54 Dean Leininger – Unmoved, Unspoken (SDM)

55 ASPS – Master was not perturbed (Mayonnaise Glaze)

56 Wasteland Jazz Unit – Session to Nothing (Oxen)

57 Kymatic Ensemble – Split Series Vol. 4 (Sean McCann / Seth Graham) (Orange Milk)

58 Hylopath – Driverless-Human (ADAADAT) +

59 V/A – Infinite Futures (Full Spectrum)

60 Endurance / PJS – split (Crash Symbols)

61 The Holy Circle – Sick With Love (Deathbomb Arc)

62 Hasufel – Manifestations of the Spirit (El Tule)

63 Goblintropp – Physical Walking Among Unquiet Trees (Lighten Up Sounds)

64 Regular Music – Online Summer (Never Anything)

65 Storm Ross – Home (Already Dead)

66 Dutch Courage – The Lounge Era (Bezirk)

67 Curved Light – Flow and Return (Constellation Tatsu) +

68 Post Moves – No Dignity in Haste (Obsolete Staircases)

69 Tiger Village – Modern Drummer (Hausu Mountain)

70 Elizabeth Joan Kelly – Departure 2019 (self released)

71 MAbH – On Being Pollinated (Third Kind)

72 German Army – Year of Solitude (Castle Bravo)

73 LXV – Payload (Anòmia)

74 3 Cherries – S/T (Terry Tapes) +

75 Chad Munson – Surface Tension (Muzan Editions)

76 M. Sage – Bias Folklore (Patient Sounds)

77 V/A – Splixtape (Hypnic Jerk)

78 Devin Bateson (with Manolis) – Conversational Relaxation (self released)

79 j. b. glazer – Compact Break (Them There)

80 Nonlocal Forecast – Bubble Universe! (Hausu Mountain)

81 Khaki Blazer – Optikk (Hausu Mountain)

82 Reinartz – Interactions (Jollies) +

83 moduS ponY / VLK – split (Strategic Tape Reserve) +

84 Nicholas Langley – Nix Six New Plus Two (Third Kind Records)

85 BBJr – Junior Nuclear (Lurker Bias) +

86 Revenge Technician – Problem Addict (Head Destroyer)

87 Margraff & Yantis – Ohne Eile (Patient Sounds)

88 CDX – Lion Cuts (Doom Trip)

89 Joseph Allred – Aspirant (Garden Portal) +

90 Sleepland / Nakayama Munetoshi – split (Muzan Editions)

91 Wobbly – Monitress (Hausu Mountain)

92 The Blue Tapes House Band – Vol. 3: Chase Me Before The Plague (Blue Tapes)

93 royallen – Cassette Tape (Permanent Nostalgia)

94 HRNS – Naomi (Warm Winters)

95 Carey – The Driver (Already Dead)

96 Sugar Pills Bone – Lumb (Orb Tapes) +

97 Machine Listener – Colurbrid (Hausu Mountain) +

98 Clone 334 – Tac (self released)

99 Hainbach & My Panda Shall Fly – Borrowed Water (Muzan Editions)

100 Chefkirk / Mossy Throats – split (Moon Myst Music)

101 Skyminds – s/t (Auasca) +

102 Space Heater – Full Blast (Terry Tapes) +

105 Tyresta – Circles Back Around (Obsolete Staircases) +

103 Autophonia – nolite te bastardes carborundorum (Scioto Records) +

104 German Army – No No Boy (Phormix)

106 メトロノリ Metoronori – “​?​” letter (Cudighi)

107 Mrs Dink – Death by Misadventure (Crash Symbols)

108 Valance Drakes – An Angel in Alliance with Falsehood (Amek Collective) +

109 Új Bála – Diacritical Marks And Angels (Baba Vanga) +

110 New Injuries – Make Techno Black Again (Obsolete Staircases)

111 Yves Malone – Beyond the Before (Never Anything) +

112 HOTT MT – Earth on Heaven (Doom Trip)

113 Günter Schlienz – Island (Feathered Coyote) +

114 Whettman Chelmets – Giant Eyes & Infant Steps (Girly Girl Musik) +

115 Granchio Pinocchio – kNN (Dinzu Artefacts)

116 Matt LaJoie – Happy to Help (Flower Room)

117 Kitty Wang – Filter_Romp_v1​.​4 (Tone Burst)

118 Madteo – Burn Brightly in the Night Then Disintegrate Wit Delight (Origin Peoples)

119 The Hell Hole Store – Three the Hard Way (Already Dead)

120 Günter Schlienz – The Icelandic Tapes (Hangover Central Station) +

121 Euglossine – Coriolis (Hausu Mountain) +

122 Ruined Spirit – Black Metal’s Redemptive Arc (Display)

123 qualchan. – Goodbye to All That (Houdini Mansions)

124 Neil Campbell – Mirror Mania Ersatz Chamber (self released)

125 The Tuesday Night Machines – Roof Tent Rhythms (Strategic Tape Reserve) +

126 Hasufel – Decrepit (Plush Organics)

127 Final Cop – A Struture of Violence (Clan Destine)

128 Shredded Nerve – Attempting An Exit (Thousands of Dead Gods)

129 Aghnie & Seqta – House of Spleen (Crash Symbols)

130 Flower Power Synth and Woodwind Ensemble – Titanic II (Obsolete Staircases) +

131 Somnambulists – From the Field to the Factory (Zum Audio) +

132 Sparkling Wide Pressure – Yowling Seers (Lillerne)

133 Veio Abiungo – The Dregs (Lost Tribe Sound)

134 Frank Hurricane – Hurricanes of Love (Crash Symbols)

135 Bloor – Drolleries (Astral Spirits) +

136 Seth Graham – Hint (Mondoj)

137 Adderall Canyonly – Influenza 10 (Personal Archives) +

138 Debby Friday – Death Drive (Deathbomb Arc)

139 Among the Rocks and Roots – Raga (Orb Tapes)

140 Jen Kutler – The Ways We Wait (Flag Day) +

141 Soda Lite – Vale & Stone (Inner Islands)

142 V/A – Sampler Platter Vol. I (Cudighi)

143 type/token – Still. (Traced Objects) +

144 Lärmschutz / The Howl Ensemble – Faux Amis Vol. 6 (Faux Amis)

145 Gut Fauna – Magicicada (Ingrown Records) +

146 Sharkula x Mukqs – Prune City (Hausu Mountain)

147 South City Hardware – Redirected Midi (Third Kind Records)

148 Giuseppe Falivene – Air Chronicles (Amek Collective)

149 Treru / Modrian Loop – Grey/Yellow (Outward Records) +

150 Plake 64 and the Hexagrams – All Hail Yeah (Nullzone) +

151 Will Guthrie – Some Nasty (Hasana Editions) +

152 M.T. Hall – NV (Pale Master)

153 Nik – Nik – Era One (Sanzimat International)

154 Fletcher Pratt – Rituals for Magnetic Vol. 1 (Never Anything)

155 C. Olivia Valenza – Noumena/Bruises (FTAM Productions)

156 Brin – Hug Sway (Patient Sounds)

157 Mukqs – Jaki Crush (No Rent)

158 V/A – In Chiaroscuro (Polar Envy)

159 Jordan Anderson – Hand of Fear (Outward Recrds) +

160 Burnt Probe – Corresponding Exits (Madriguera) +

161 Blaine Todd – Every Road is a Good Road (Debacle/Full Spectrum)

162 Regarding the Muisc of Others – Shank William (Patient Sounds)

163 Dere Moans – Inglorious Deathsounds Mixtape (Bad Cake)

164 Arian Shafiee – Arabic Voices (Unifactor) +

165 Jordan Reyes – A Night With My Aunt’s Dolls (Heavy Days) +

166 Amirtha Kidambi & Lea Bertucci – Phase Eclipse (Astral Spirits)

167 V/A – The Mondrians (Hotham Sound) +

168 Paranoid Time – Gruesome Mutilation (No Rent)

169 Peter Kris – Mandan / Moroni (OTA) +

170 Bang! Bros – Big BANG! Theory (Parts One & Two) (Hausu Mountain)

171 V/A – Alone in the Dark (Hot Releases)

172 New Age Dad (Origin Peoples)

173 Gateway – Summed​-​Up​-​Sounds In Process (Round Bale Recordings)

174 TRUPA TRUPA / Suspirians – split (Whited Sepulchre)

175 Larry Wish & His Guys – Fable Table Cloth (Bumpy)

176 Cool Person – Weird Person (Permanent Nostalgia)

177 Space-Saver – Exponential Bummer (Hiccup Records)

178 Acid Parenting – Vision Wrecker Service (self released)

179 Billington/ Shippy/ Wyche – The Eventual Warp Cat (No Index)

180 Kudler / Gerycz – Kapteyn B (Dove Cove)

181 G.S. Sultan – Jeremy (Mondoj)

182 Crank Sturgeon – high-fibre-dire (Tingo Tongo Tapes)

183 Moon RA – mUSICA iN dIFFERENT iNUTILI sERVICES Vol​.​1 (Unifactor) +

184 Church Shuttle – Mind Leash (Anathema Archive) +

185 Lena Tsibizova – 3rd Track (Baba Vanga) +

186 Xentone – Forensic Beats (Degenerate Trifecta) +

187 Bani Haykal – This is You Glitching My Death (Hasana Editions)

188 Eternal Showers – s/t (Moss Archive)

189 Endurance & Kris Keogh – Processed Modular Works (Obsolete Staircases)

190 Sunwatchers – HausuLive 1: 4/13/2019 at Cafe Mustache (Hausu Mountain)

191 Aaron Oppenheim – Cumberland County (Full Spectrum)

192 Bridges of Königsberg – Considered Parallel to Borders (Or Dividers) (Flag Day Recordings) +

193 Morgan Garrett / Sunk Heaven – split (Hot Releases)

194 Concrete Colored Paint – Free Association (Park 70) +

195 Marsha Fisher – Chain Whisperer (Gay Hippie Vampire) +

196 Atariame – Voiceless (Not Not Fun)

197 Pulse Emitter – Calming Winds (Muzan Editions)

198 Whettman Chelmets – Doesn’t Remember… (Strategic Tape Reserve)

199 øjeRum – The Eyeless Sea (Vaagner)

200 Crazy Doberman – Weight Testing On Rotten Load Bearings (Baked Tapes)

The Tuesday Night Machines – Roof Tent Rhythms

12.17.19 by Ryan Masteller

I feel like we’re an official mouthpiece for Strategic Tape Reserve at this point, but it’s not unwarranted. The Cologne-based label is one of the most consistently interesting purveyors of fine cassette-taped goods, and receiving a new STR release in the mail is always an exciting moment – some might even refer to such instances as “events.” I would go so far to say that STR currently sits at or near the top of my favorite labels going at the moment. Never a dull moment with these rascals.

The Tuesday Night Machines is somewhat of a label staple – this is the third release by the enigmatic producer that’s come out on the label, following last year’s “Hawaiian Yurt Music” (which I happen to have also loved).* That tape came housed in burlap. This new one – “Roof Tent Rhythms” – is packaged all up in a piece of hand-cut and folded tarp, held together with a glued-on Velcro tab. It’s … unusual. But so was the burlap.

Here’s the why behind the tarp: TNM made these tunes after packing up “a tiny car with a big tent strapped to its roof, 18 carefully selected second-hand music CDs, an old battery-powered Akai MPC 500 sampling workstation and only a vague idea of a destination.” This sounds great, but when you realize that “Roof Tent Rhythms” was crafted exclusively from samples of early STR releases (and “various free online drum sample collections”), it becomes even more of a labor of love. Awesomely, this “downtempo beat tape” perfectly encapsulates the STR an TNM aesthetics, serving as an overarching reminder of the greatness of the artist and the label, as well as other artists on the label (which is essentially just saying “the label” again, but props where props are due).

Unsurprisingly, the tarp the tape is folded up in is “a piece of the very same tarp which kept the rain from running into the camping vehicle on that fateful day in Montenegro, when glow worms ate our cheesecake.” Seems like a battery-powered Akai MPC 500 is perfect for working on tunes in the wilderness (or wherever there isn’t a plug), and apparently glow worms like cheesecake. Who knew? There’s a song dedicated to that even, track 1. So grab your own cheesecake, lean back in your favorite sleeping bag, pop on some headphones, and drift off into the plunderphonic delights of “Roof Tent Rhythms.” Edition of 25.

* TNM also recently self-released a tape called “Waever.” 

Sum Say – Another View

12.11.19 by Ryan Masteller

I’m right in the middle of going through the Top 200 tapes of 2019 with Mike, but he must have stepped away from the computer because he’s not responding to me in the chat window. That’s cool, I’ll just take this time to do even more work for him – like write another one of these tape reviews. I mean, let’s face it – somebody’s gotta do it, and it sure ain’t gonna be Dave Doyen. It’s gonna be me.

Already Dead has had a pretty fantastic 2019 if you ask me, and Sum Say’s “Another View” is like a cherry on top of that calendar cake. But in this instance, the cake is also quite moody, as if it were rained on while being hauled from the car to the table, and the whipped frosting has started wilting, and when you cut into it you realize it’s mostly still batter anyway because the oven burnt out halfway through and ISN’T THAT JUST LIKE LIFE, well I bought you this cake, you better eat it. And even if I didn’t just zone out there in a fit of regret and remorse, “Another View” would still be just as moody and you’d still have to get through it.

Because it’s still intensely enjoyable.

Sum Say is gloomy instrumental hip hop, the kind that DJ Shadow does (used to do?), the kind that shows up on Planet Mu, the kind where the static of the samples sounds like a steady rainstorm outside your window. A dank, dreary energy permeates the tape, its languid pace picking up its own steam and making a steady go of it. This is not music for sunny days. This is music you can curl up and drink some tea to. And if you’re like me, that sounds like maybe one of the best things ever, something you’ve waited the whole year for (because it’s perfect for autumn), something you just can’t wait to get yourself in the middle of. I’m exactly like that. Doesn’t matter if the tea cake’s wet or not.

Also, the j-card image is the exact opposite of the mood contained within. A sly prank?

Edition of 100 available from Already Dead. 

New Batch – Ingrown Records

11.26.19 by Ryan Masteller

I don’t wanna be the bearer of bad news, but it seems like Ingrown Records might not be around for much longer. In fact, next year’s going to be their last in operation, unless of course they feel the tug of nostalgia to open up their doors again somewhere down the line – let’s set the over/under to 10.5 years. Was this news officially announced somewhere? Who knows. Maybe I’m telling tales out of school, and I apologize if I’ve hurt your feelings, but all good things must end. Entropy and so on. Death. Decay. 

Sigh.

But let’s do like they do at funerals and celebrate a life, OK? Let’s celebrate the life of Ingrown, which has released countless (you can probably count them) tapes and records, etc., by a wide variety of crazy experimental artists, all pushing the limits of composition and utility, all meeting at some central point where awe meets delight. If it weren’t for Ingrown, I wouldn’t have discovered Meme Vivaldi, Plake 64 and the Hexagrams, Corsica Annex, or Marc Aubele, not to mention the four artists releasing tapes this fine autumn of 2019. Thanks to Ingrown, we’re allowed to have this special treat. In fact, I offered my son the choice between this new Magic from Space tape and some of his Halloween candy that’s still somehow sitting around. He chose the candy. But still!

MAGIC FROM SPACE – 🎶 4 HSP ć ASMR vol. 2

It is made clear at the outset that the tracklist for Magic from Space’s “🎶 4 HSP ć ASMR vol. 2” is NOT in alphabetical order like vol. 1 was (not to mention those old Pixies live sets!). Doesn’t matter – we wouldn’t get it anyway. When I waxed rhapsodic about that previous tape I mentioned Chevy Malibus and Everlasting Gobstoppers and Chuck E Cheese ball pits (aka disease factories) and extraterrestrial intelligence, but all cloaked in the guise of “magic” from “space” because understanding anything that we can’t stumble against or fumble with or drop things on is just too much for us modern humans. Enter MAGIC FROM SPACE (all-caps added by me), the grooviest MIDI popster(s) this side of an Andy Loebs release, ready to wow us all with glowing, fluorescent, beeping funk bombs that we can’t possibly turn our attention from. We like shiny glowing things, we drooling humans, our intellect and capacity for understanding the abstract a massive disappointment to not only whatever Magic from Space really is but also to us ourselves, because, again, we can’t be bothered to understand tricky phenomena without plastering it with terms like “magic” or “fantasy,” or “demonic.” What we CAN do is move in spastic activity, our arms, legs, and heads jostling to rhythms as they pulse through the floor we’re slouching on, the involuntariness of it all an actual frightening phenomenon as treble notes arrange themselves like candy to our earholes. Magic from Space has us right where they want us: in a dazed thrall so they can conquer us. And we deserve it!

OARIANA – A Pear on the Wind

A pear on the wind goes “splat” at some point, once it hits an immovable object or loses its energy as it resistance takes its toll. “A Pear on the Wind,” on the other hand, soars continuously, like the musical equivalent of a perpetual motion machine, and somewhere Newton turns over in his grave and also does a little jig to the sauce that Oariana’s slinglin’. Perpetual motion machine! We will NOT be suggesting that the hallowed laws of thermodynamics are threatened here, but gang, Devin LeCroy is a friggin’ madman. This fractured one-person synth-prog opus is a study in a baroque synthesizer mastery, one where Bach made his way back through Bill and Ted’s phone booth and got locked in the Moog lab at Cornell. Wouldn’t that have been something! Or maybe he just cruised San Dimas with Socrates and Napoleon and the rest of them, and went bowling and ate ice cream and found a piano store. At any rate, “A Pear on the Wind” is a melodic treat, a light and airy confection that belies the density of its composition. It sounds like its j-card cover: colorful, full of shapes, going in crazy directions, not really from this planet. In other words, a perfect Ingrown release.

GUT FAUNA – Magicicada

If there’s any fauna in my gut, it’s of the hamburger variety, am I right? High five! Seriously though, Gut Fauna’s a somber affair. It starts out like that “samurai movie where the samurai kills a guy and then figures out he has a cat and falls in love with it and is holding the cat while he fights guys all the time. It’s a very fun movie with a name I forget. I’m also playing the new Star Wars video game.” So says my friend John, who was discussing the first episode of “The Mandalorian” with me via text. But it was all happening simultaneously, while I was listening to “Alexa Daydream” open up this sucker, this “Magicicada,” which, I hope, is NOT in my gut, because who wants a magicicada buzzing around down there when you’re interviewing for that dream job at Capitol Records? Not me. I don’t even want it down there while I’m sitting here on the couch with a computer on my lap. But the eastern vibe of “Alexa Daydream” spreads out to encompass much more, like the afrobeat-meets-Space Needle vibe of “Original Sin Forgiver” and the surprise acoustic folk number “Hesitation Blues” (the traditional tune). The freak folk flags continue to fly through static and synths and samples, but all grounded in an earthiness and that acoustic guitar. Gut Fauna’s got toes and thumbs and heads shoved all up and in so many various genres and inspirations that it’s virtually impossible to pin them down. Fortunately, there’s no need to when the music’s as vibrant and interesting at a constant clip – you just ride along with it and don’t care about that categorization stuff after a while. Now, when’s episode 3 of “The Mandalorian” out again?

J HAMILTON ISAACS – Circumzenithal Arc

Oh thank god! I’m so glad I’m not the only one who thinks about light when they’re listening to (or contemplating or composing) music, wondering how it interacts with each note as if the music itself was a physical construct that could, indeed, actually interact with light. J Hamilton Isaacs “became fixated on an atmospheric optical phenomenon known as Sun Dogs. You’ll see them when there are ice crystals in the upper atmosphere and light from the sun is reflected and bent to form a halo at 22º. At the top sometimes an arc of light that looks like an upside down rainbow is visible. This is called the circumzenithal arc.” Sometimes you just gotta calls em like you sees em, and J-Ham does a mighty find job calling it for all of us. The synthesizer blazes an arpeggiated path for twelve minutes, leaving you hanging on the edge of your seat as everything around you converts into energy and energy converts into matter and vice/vice versa, all up until the point where the narrative completely changes. Which it does. The second half of the tape consists of “musical interpretations to 5 large outdoor sculptures selected from [the Denver Botanical Gardens’] Spring 2019 exhibit entitled Human Nature.” Equally compelling, these short passages are self-contained sonic structures interpreting every nuance of the physical construction they’re meant to represent. As such you can almost see the electricity of the music flit around in 3D space and suggest geometric forms as you listen. Do those forms look like the outdoor sculptures? Who knows, but somebody better get cooking on making whatever it is I’m seeing in my head right now – it’s glorious!

Wobbly – Monitress (Hausu Mountain)
Moth Cock – If Beggars Were Horses Wishes Would Ride (Hausu Mountain)
Dinky Mirage – 005 (Traced Objects)
Deathwish Jazz Octet (Jazz Hole Limited)
Eternal Showers – s/t (Moss Archive)
Magic From Space – 4 HSP ć ASMR vol. 2 (Ingrown)
Ahmedou Ahmed Lowla – Terrouzi (Sahel Sounds)
C. Lavender – Alone in the Dark compilation (Hot Releases)
Moon B – Live @ Modern Funk Fest 2019 (Hoop Sound)
Robedoor – Negative Legacy (Deathbomb Arc)
Maitre’d – Green (77 Rise Recordings)
Oariana – A Pear on the Wind (Ingrown)
Mu Vonz – Trouble Land (Already Dead)
Charles Bronson – Youth Attack! (No Label Records)