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Tabs Out | WHEREAS – CMMZOZMM // Electronic Quartet

WHEREAS – CMMZOZMM – Electronic Quartet
2.3.17 by Mike Haley

20170203_115847

Cameron MacNair, Mike Meanstreetz, Omar Zubair, and Maneesh Madahar decided to burn all maps, pack a lunch (and some rando “instruments”), and just go explore their surroundings. For forty minutes they wandered about, stopping here and there, eventually returning with this stupid good tape on Tingo Tongo.

The cassette is one long track split up into two equal parts. While there’s totally a ton of room carved out for sticky, meditative improv, WHEREAS‘ no-edit circus “CMMZOZMM // Electronic Quartet” is highlighted by it’s wonderful micro agitations. Rogue chunks of detached, frustrated, and otherwise deviated sounds that band together to form freaked out, and rather unpredictable networks. It starts off with a low key vibration; a cool tremor that plods up your leg every so chill like. Then the itsy bitsies begin to skitter out. A miscellanea of buttoned down electronics, slightly out of place samples, and grisly guitar echo flashbomb the avocado-like rumble that is still working things out in the background. Created is a sonic jittering that can be unnerving, even when the quartet dips into their more casual jam territories. Don’t be surprised if your hand is shaking like you consumed one too many cups of coffee, even when virtually nothing is happening. That is the hectic residue of WHEREAS’ slimey patchwork still in your system. They serve it up thick, and aren’t afraid to bust out a run of pitched vocals over metallic clamor or some other weird mishmash.

An edition of 100 copies is available here. Go get one.

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Tabs Out | Colin Andrew Sheffield & James Eck Rippie – Essential Anatomies

Colin Andrew Sheffield & James Eck Rippie – Essential Anatomies
1.27.17 by Mike Haley

essential

Call me a old fashioned, but I think the use of full names should be reserved for people who have assassinated a public figure (or at least attempted to), shot up a shopping mall, or some other batty shit like that. But I’m willing to give Colin Andrew Sheffield & James Eck Rippie a pass. After listening to “Essential Anatomies” I think we will all agree that they deserve it. Not because they create frantic, unhinged environments. They do just the opposite. And they do it very, very well.

Colin and James are far from strangers when it comes to collaboration. The two have been working together for over a decade, with output that includes a tape with the same title as this 48-minute gem, also released on Elevator Bath in back in 2016. This edition, recorded in Austin, Texas last year, appears to be sides 3 and 4 of what may be an ongoing series? I guess we will have to sit back and see how far they go. Processing digital and analog samples the duo lurches forward, crystallizing lucid impressions with distended, vexing ambiance. Like running your fingers through the shag carpet in Grandma’s bedroom, James Eck Rippie’s turntable sampling is chalky and thick. As snippets of sound pass, they leave behind dust and tiny strands of hair under your nails. You can almost smell the mothballs. The digital samples, which both members provide, are a fierce juxtaposition. An analogue for the digital would be more like the original appliances Grandma still has in her kitchen; Brightly colored, all orange and yellow, with indiscriminate hiss and clicks scattered about. The 1950’s GE fridge runs loud, but sometimes slams off without notice, leaving a void that you didn’t even notice was being filled until it passes. The second hand on the oven’s clock still rotates, but it’s warped metal rubs as it rounds the 12, flinging free into a vibrating, cosmic spring-out. All of this agitation melts together into an awesome sci-noir scene.

Colin Andrew Sheffield, who runs the Elevator Bath label (what exactly is an “elevator bath” by the way??) knows James Eck Rippie well. And James Eck Rippie knows Colin Andrew Sheffield well. And it shows. They play off each other’s gnarly sample-contortions perfectly on volume 2 of “Essential Anatomies.” My advice: Take one of those pastel mints out of Grandma’s candy dish, place it on your tongue, push the button that reclines the old person chair, and enjoy the ride. Both sides stretch on for just under 25 minutes with no red lights or closed roads.

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Tabs Out | Pal+ – Pictorial

Pal+ – Pictorial
1.24.17 by Kat Harding

pal

Released in September 2016 on Os Tres Amigos (“The Three Friends”) label out of Portugal, Pal+’s “Pictorial” tape features melodic beats and vivid synth sounds for an upbeat and energizing listen. The cover art is a smattering of paint and crayon in vibrant blue, purple, pink, yellow, and black over the familiar blue lines of notebook paper, enclosing an off-white tape full of Fernando Silva’s recordings made between 2012 and 2016.

The hypnotizing “Aural Canvas” opens side A, a bright humming track that clocks in at just over two minutes. “Africa Eyes” picks up after a beat of silence with buoyant drum beats and simple, repetitive chanting over circuitous synth work. I really like “Morpheus,” which sounds like it could be found in a tiny club with strobe lights and everyone dancing and drinking colorful cocktails. Mysterious airy tones add lightness to the gripping track, which fades to a peaceful end. The industrial clanking and sinister synth at the start of “The Ice Palace” create an unsettling world building to a swell and ending with a heavy crash that reverberates through your skull. The silence ends and “Grand Canyon” begins, a Middle Eastern-esque track with soft wailing over a constant shaker and fast-moving percussion.

The first track on side B, “Mantra,” starts off with frantic, breathy sounds building over beats reminiscent of the opening of Netflix’s Stranger Things, evoking a sense of uneasiness that nearly tips over into full-blown fear. The longest song on the side, and the whole tape, the track often slows, pulling the tones down to a much deeper register before speeding back up again. “Motor City” is much less threatening than “Mantra,” and feels like a light relief after the panic of the former track. “The Emerald Hill” closes the tape, a roaming animated tune with alien synth sounds and a beat to move to.

Get your own copy of the tape on the OTA Bandcamp.

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Tabs Out | German Army – Mountain City

German Army – Mountain City
1.17.17 by Paul Banks

german army

Shockingly, there are still a few copies of “Mountain City” left on Phinery’s Bandcamp page. I say this in part because German Army’s name seems to lead to countless “Sold Out” red stamps on the site, and partly because I sat on this album for so many months. The truth was, I checked out this album out of curiosity more than anything. I walked the fine line between being fairly accused of pretending to like the mysterious group, and admiring what they do without getting much out of it.

The issue with German Army is they do many things quite well. Unlike much of tape culture’s obsessive branding (same person, different project, different name is the normal procedure), German Army tapes don’t indicate any length or genre. You might have a guess as to what you’ll get based on the label, and I took a shot at finding my entry point into their work through this tape, an association with the beloved Phinery. Phinery churns out so much good music, it’s easy to take it for granted, and yet my expectations were that whatever German Army I found here, it would be good. That bet paid off.

“Mountain City,” in my first passive listen, was somewhat conventional for the label. There weren’t DIY-Autechre squeals, noise, electroacoustics, or progressive electronics. Instead, surprisingly, what unfurled was songs. I don’t think I was ready to reach a conceptual common ground with this album at first. However, as the months passed, this record became infectious. Think of this album as existing thematically on similar turf as a Sublime Frequencies collection, but in a very different geographic setting. Here we have work songs, blues, that fine line between a collection of traditional songs, and a conceptual shell of field recordings capturing these works. It could be the work song, hillbilly version of Ekkehard Ehlers’ “A Life Without Fear,” or recent work by the Caretaker, its scratchy voices as distant as any reclaimed jazz.

Indeed, I think time gave this album even more importance. Throughout the election, we heard pleas to remake these forgotten towns, perhaps the source material for some of what’s here. And yet, because of prices, because of aging, because of a changing world, those towns will never come back. Their echoes have found their way into this tape; perhaps this will one day be a cherished relic in some collector’s home, the last resting place of these voices of toil.

And, to the music specifically, perhaps you can imagine what you’ll find, though the impact only really occurs with regular, late night listening. Traditional instruments, ever so slightly pitch shifted now and then, sometimes seemingly looped, scratchy and distant with a healthy dose of echo and reverb. The source material itself seems familiar, but German Army have worked to alienate things – this touch of distance allows enough dissociation to hear this music as native American (not Native American).

This is a reverent, masterful set, one that transports you to different times and places, places that perhaps don’t quite exist in the ways we’re remembering them, places that might not be fully content in their absence. Hurry over and grab a copy.

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Tabs Out | Mary Lattimore – Returned To Earth

Mary Lattimore – Returned To Earth
1.12.17 by Kat Harding

mary

Harpist Mary Lattimore has teamed up with Soap Library to release her latest cassette, “Returned To Earth.” The New York-based holistic tape label is offering Mary’s tape with hand-embossed artwork and a packet of heirloom orange zinnia seeds, ensuring the beauty of the outside matches the inside of the latest tracks.

Side A, “For Scott Kelly, Returned to Earth,” is Mary’s welcome home message to American astronaut Scott Kelly after his year spent in the International Space Station. After a fall left Mary with a broken jaw, wired shut and unable to speak, she channeled her feelings of isolation and loneliness into song. Scott’s frequent updating of his social media feeds, including the progress of his “space flower,” an orange zinnia and the first zinnia to be grown in space, kept him connected to Earth and served as inspiration to Mary. His beautiful posts of Earth’s wonder from afar was a small reward for his solitude, and Mary’s incorporated all of these feelings into a six-minute track, full of wandering chords. Picked strings seem to dance over gentle strumming, calling to mind Scott’s view of swirling clouds over our lonely planet and his whirlwind of a journey home. The trailer for the cassette, hand-drawn by John Andrews of indie band Quilt, features hyper-color crayon drawings, inspired by Scott’s time in space.

Side B, also just over six minutes long, is an improvisation from Mary and musician and artist Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, who met in the wonderland of Marfa, Texas, and recorded in New York City. Named after a tiny town in California, “Borrego Springs” features piano, guitar, and harp coming together to form peaceful melodies one might listen to while staring up at the stars in Borrego Springs, a town 55 miles away from any bright city lights, where astronomers flourish. The song quietly starts off, nearing a minute by the time the harp and piano have begun to fill the space of the silence. Gentle echoes and reverberation of guitar and piano alternate around the harp. It is not long enough, and the whole tape should immediately be played again.

Get a copy of the beautifully packaged cassette, or pick up the digital files, on her Bandcamp page. Every dollar of proceeds from Bandcamp will go to support the Sierra Club.

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Tabs Out | Starkey – Charting Stardust (Original Soundtrack)

Starkey – Charting Stardust (Original Soundtrack)
1.11.17 by Mike Haley

starkey

I’ll start off by admitting what initially, however juvenile, attracted me to this tape. The title. I don’t know if we are all pretending that the word “charting” doesn’t immediately make us think of “sharting”, but come on… Yeah, it does. And if we are continuing this facade of sophistication, as if nobody knows what I’m talking about, I’ll just lay it out: A shart, as defined by PoopingProblems.com, is “an involuntary defecation which occurs when one try’s to pass gas.” So the title “Charting Stardust” instantly made me think about pooping glitter. There, it’s been said. But, after a looksie at the simple but lavish design work of the Jcard, and noticing the tried-and-true Sacred Phrases logo slapped on the back, it was obvious that Starkey’s “Charting Stardust (Original Soundtrack)” was going to be more than just another flashy flatulent.

And I was right. It is WAY more. In line with classic outsider pioneers, Starkey creates fantasies, and is extremely generous when it comes to details. He sends feelers out into the far reaches, returning with a cache of polished sonic runs and ambient arrays that are eager to vibe out. Ideas are heavily layered and whirlpooled together, as if they are being finger-painted on an endless canvas. A magical swirl of hypnotism spills for days, but with individual parts that still fit together like puzzle pieces. As the pieces connect, a full image is formed. Like a magic eye painting coming into focus, you start to hear these micro worlds of side-scrolling future music. Tone follicles burrow into your skin as epic sound monuments erect and crumble. It’s all a very huge event. Tracks like Ecliptic stir senses with a more intrusive focus, relying on the repetition of throaty thuds to distract while gigantic schemes expand in the distance, eventually landing right on your face. Opposing views like Ticks and Seas, both second-to-last tracks on their side of the cassette, opt for a cerebral approach to life.

So it turns out that “charting” stardust (like mapping it out) is way more accurate than “sharting” stardust (like shitting your pants while trying to fart) when it comes to the zone of this here mind melter. That’s probably for the best. Pick it up from Sacred Phrases!

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Tabs Out | Wires Crossed – OTA vs OJC

Wires Crossed – OTA vs OJC
1.6.17 by Mike Haley

wires crossed

There is a legion of labels and weirdo jammers releasing cassette, with new names popping up every single day. With those staggering numbers it can be easy to mix em up, get confused, or form loose associations. Wires Crossed will take those Corey Haim/Corey Feldman and Oprah/Uma situations and figure out just how similar they are.

For the third installment I talked with Pedro & Mike of OTA and Augie & Luke of OJC who, along with the now defunct OSR, my brain insists on mentally cataloging together.

 

Without checking, what do you think OJC / OTA stands for?

OTA: OJC must stand for Orphan Joy Company.

OJC: Odd Tony’s Animals.

What do your label’s initials stand for?

OTA: Os Três Amigos – The Three Friends.

OJC: On the record, nothing. Off the record, something dumb.

Where were you born and where do you live now?

OTA: We were both born in Santarém, Portugal, in the same hospital. Pedro still lives in Lagos, Portugal. Miguel lives in Helsinki.

OJC: There are two of us. We both live in LA, Augie was born here and Luke grew up in New York.

What tape labels, if any, inspire your label?

OTA: (Miguel) I was more inspired by a blog called Mutant Sounds which collected all kinds of tapes and underground releases mostly from the 80s. It made me take notice of the sheer amount of creativity that is out there once you let yourself explore less obvious sources. OTA tries to take part of a similar energy. (Pedro) It’s the whole swarm that is inspiring! There’s this absurd resilience from people doing their best in the vacant lands of sounds and crafts. I empathize particularly with all the small nonprofit efforts going on, documenting stuff no one else would bother with.

OJC: Labels like Night People whose releases span a lot of different styles, and labels that have a home done, thrown together kinda feel like Fag Tapes.

When did you start your label?

OTA: We are newborns, babbling and fooling around since the 1st of April, 2016.

OJC: Late 2013 / early 2014.

OJC has released tapes by the artists No Data. OTA has released a tape by the artist Tape000. Both names imply a very minimalistic feeling. How does minimalism fit into your releases?

OTA: Tape000 is a fascinating, well traveled guy that I met when teaching Portuguese to his girlfriend. He was an instant perfect fit. Funnily enough, we actually have a OTA000 release. More than being truly minimalistic, we don’t reject simplicity, smallness, or even bluntness just for the sake of it. Saying this, we appreciate maximalistic jugglery as well. For the cassettes, we want the collaborators to feel free to shape the object as far as possible. We just make sure the logo is in the leaf and cassette and that’s it. Every release until now has had a passionate history of failures and imperfections. It is okay though, you just have to keep it real.

OJC: We like things simple and sloppy usually, we’ll say that. That’s minimalistic in some kinda way, right?

If your label was a Ghostbuster, which one would it be and why?

OTA: (M) Egon, because he knows how to calculate stuff like psycho-kinetic substances and he made the ectoplasm gun. (P) Ray, because he summoned the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

OJC: Kirsten Wig.

What was the last tape you bought?

OTA: (M) Richard Wagner, Also Sprach Zarathustra + Don Juan, by The Scottish National Orchestra (1987). (P) F_nt_sm_ – u_u_u – If You Feel Like Going To Scuba In A Tar Pool. It’s from Urubu Tapes, a small label from Portugal also born recently.

OJC: Augie got Jahari – Situations, from Peoples Potential Unlimited and Luke got Warthog – Discography, from Voices from Inside.

What is the worst song you like?

OTA: (M) La Bamba Triste by Pierre Billon. (P) The 69 song in Tabs Out. I enjoy it sometimes, I confess!

OJC: Do Yo Shit by Pretty Taking All Fades.

What color socks are you wearing?

OTA: (M) Dark blue, light blue, beige line down the middle. (P) White socks from my neighbor.

OJC: Grey.

If you could release a cassette tape by any cartoon character, who would it be and why?

OTA: Ren and Stimpy. And the log song wasn’t bad. It’s funny that the Ren and Stimpy’s Portuguese version had these incredibly expressive dubbed voices in portuguese. It was a disappointment when we stumbled over the original versions, later on. But yeah, this show was gory wicked. And it was for us, kids! It had a sinister pace, paranoid zooms and a great sound design. And just the most benign relationship between misfits.

OJC: Great question Mike, we’re a bit torn on this one. Augie says it would be that kid from Home Movies who loves to rock, because he has that Franz Kafka Song. Luke stands by Skeletor, in the hopes he would be into black metal. Either way it would be rocking.

How do you store your cassettes?

OTA: We try to keep them on the shelves but shoeboxes are useful.

OJC: OJC tapes? They live in dirty old boxes that get tucked out of the way.

Do you have any cassette pet peeves?

OTA: How easy it is to break cassette cases.

OJC: Short tapes and O cards. Cassingles are the worst.

Explain your logo.

logos

OTA: Our logo writes our initials with the least amount of lines possible. Once it was done, we realized it also looked like a take on the anarchy logo, but with cuddly intentions!

OJC: Our pal Aarum’s friend drew it on a piece of college grade ruled paper one time. It’s really good, thanks Tania.

Do you home or pro dub your releases?

OTA: We have done both. It depends on how much time we have available for home dubbing.

OJC: Home dubbing, all the way.

Star Wars or Star Trek?

OTA: Star Wars!

OJC: Star Wars.

What is the closest tape to you at this very second?

OTA: (M) Borra-Botas. (P) An old mix tape recorded from a Portuguese radio – Ferro Extra I.

OJC: Son of Salami – Bacon Street.

What is your average edition size?

OTA: Between 20 and 50.

OJC: 30.

The Ropal Jagnu/Rigel Magellin split on OJC has a television on the cover. The Joe & Man tape on OTA has a kid’s cassette player on the cover. Which do you own more of? TVs or tape players?

OTA: Tape players.

OJC: Tape players. Just can’t resist buying decks when we see em at Goodwill or wherever.

Finish this sentence: I’ll never buy a cassette tape that _______________.

OTA: I own.

OJC: costs more than 8 dollars, you know, unless it’s really good.

Sonic or Mario?

OTA: (M) Sonic. (P) Mario.

OJC: Mario.

First thing that comes to mind when you hear the following

OTA:
Hiss: (M) Snake (P) Sound
Bandcamp: (M) Paypal (P) Digital
Comp: (M) Elation (P) All
OCard: (M) Is that for a spherical tape? (P) Undies

OJC:
Hiss: Fine
Bandcamp: Stats
Comp: Fun
OCard: Bad

What was your favorite tape of 2016?

OTA: German Army – Mountain City.

OJC: There’s been so many good releases this year, but off the top our head it’d have to be “Router Space/Smashed Hits 100” by Hip Replacement on Unread and “Sorta Upset!” By Jake Tobin on Haord.

What do you have coming out in 2017?

OTA: We have a very exciting batch for the start of January. Most of the stuff brings good amounts of freshness from newcomers, but we will be blessed with a legend of old as well. We will try to have a new batch in April to celebrate OTA’s first birthday – some cassettes on the way for it too.

OJC: We have got a release from this project called Lärmschutz from the Netherlands. Real interesting stuff, kinda different from the typical OJC release. We make a Galaxie Deluxe tape once a year and put it out around March, so that’s comin up. We just recorded some stuff with Zach from Tingo Tongo Tapes, that’ll probably be coming out through us soon. Other than that we got some new Rigel Magellan stuff ready to roll, a new Shrink Ray tape, a new Ropal Jagnu tape, and lots of other stuff.

Pick a number between 0 and 100.

OTA: (M): Cause it’s you asking it has to be 69! But, true story, my shirt numbers for my volleyball and futsal teams are 96, only because I thought it would at least read 69 in the mirror. Turns out it doesn’t. Another true story… A few years ago there was a Christmas market in Helsinki, and there was only one church stand selling all kinds of paraphernalia, and guess which number stall they had. (P) 3.

OJC: 5

If you could only use one color cassette shell for every release what would it be?

OTA: White

OJC: Black

Describe the kind of sounds you release with a book title.

OTA: (M) The engineer of lost time. (P) The Three Friends.

OJC: Peaches a Plenty by Bobby S. Martin

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Tabs Out | Hantasi – SQUID

Hantasi – SQUID
1.4.17 by Ryan Durfee

hantasi

Hantasi is a [hard]vapo[u]rwave (ya never know how one might identify in 2k17) producer out of California who released “SQUID” on the always swell Bedlam Tapes earlier in 2016.

This was my first time listening to Hantasi. Much like bearded beat dudes, there are A LOT of vapo[u]r people out there, and it can be exhausting trying to keep up with every microniche that is happening on Twitter. While listening to this I’m reminded that the colossal squid is the largest invertebrate in the world, and it’s only only predator is the sperm whale [fun fact]. I’m pretty certain that the song SEA ♫࿏ CARNIVAL is about a big fin squid (which surprisingly have ten arms while all the others only have eight) [fun fact #2] robotriping it’s way through an underwater ball in the beautiful briny lagoon. A ball where a band of fish play to dapper chappies in bowler hats who dance upon the sun dappled sea floor, which turns into a nightmare when King Leonidas drags all of them out with a trawling net so he can sell some fishsticks to Iowa. The track ્ POISON ્ ્ WATER PARASOL sounds like swimming through a cloud of Heteroteuthis dispar’s cloud of inky light before being torn asunder by it’s beak, while ☭♣ CLUB HOUSE ☭♣ reminds me of listening to a skipping CD of Cameo blasting from my downstairs neighbors, who always play the same three things over & over again.

“SQUID” came out in a few different editions, all of which are sold out, but you can pick one up on Discogs 😉

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Tabs Out | Rags – Cipher Of The Infinite Moment

Rags – Cipher Of The Infinite Moment
1.3.17 by Kat Harding

rags

The 37th release from San Mateo, California’s ((Cave)) Recordings, Rags’ “Cipher of the Infinite Moment”, is James Seevers’ experimental journey through time and space. With each side-long, 16-minute track, it’s easy to put this on and get enveloped in the otherworldly echoes and reverberation.

Aptly titled “A Long Corridor,” the track is a long journey to the deep unknown and back to the surface. The track hums open with a buzzing guitar and underwater sounds swishing around, then moves to feature what sounds like the voice of the devil himself. Slow, low, and barely decipherable, it’s joined by a chorus of cave dwellers in an unsettling concert. Rattling bells follow, with clacking drumsticks and rolling thunder building to a swell. Around 5:30 in, simple guitar-picking echoes to near-silence while clacking and clanging continue. A pleasant electric guitar tune picks up midway through the song, with the disembodied and distorted voice coming in to strike fear in the lone listener. One can faintly make out “what are you doing?” or at least that is what I personally heard while keeping a panic attack at bay. With six minutes left of the song, Rags relapses underwater and comes up for air again. Bursting forth at almost 12 minutes in, bright reverberation screams forward, ebbing and flowing over the silence. Hurried, frantic guitar strumming comes in and suddenly Rags has the listener in a punk song. A beat of silence gives way to a clear, melancholy tune that plays the song out, ending abruptly in peace.

Where side A featured the devil, side B, “A Flickering Light,” opens with a chorus of angels, a litany of light voices finding a harmony together, soon petering out to the ramblings of a madman about movement, connection and energy, a frantic TedTalk from underground. With a buzzing behind it, the one-sided conversation continues, mentioning cosmic waves, motion, and information. By three minutes in, the track reaches sci-fi synths that then dissolve into a flamenco-inspired guitar stream. Faint voices weave in and out of the music, with reverb competing with the mysterious lecturer, this time going on about imagination and black holes. With about five minutes to go, the song is a melodic and thoughtful guitar track, with the faint choir joining in one more time. The preacher joins again, urging belief, but in what? A deep cello sound eventually ends the song, leaving the listener buzzing with existential questions.

Pick up a copy of the cassette on ((Cave)) Recordings’ Bandcamp.

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Tabs Out | Look At These Tapes #7

Look At These Tapes #7
1.1.16 by Tabs Out Crew

look at these tapes

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.

Instead of a normal installment, this is a look back at tapes from 2016. We made an open call for labels to send photos of all their releases from the year. Here is what we got, presented without comment.