2.22.13: Tape Of The Month – February 2013

ARTIST: Belarisk

TITLE: On Amorphous Dawn

LABEL: NNA Tapes

LENGTH: C36

DUBBED: Home

EDITION: 100

 

 

 

 

I scoped a gaggle of solid cassettes since January’s Tape Of The Month feature (ie: bangers on SicSic, The Centipede Farm, Fabrica, etc…), but the stand out in the crowd was definitely this 36 minute crusher on NNA Tapes by Belarisk. I’ve seen the name Belarisk in my journeys, but “On Amorphous Dawn” is my intro to Lee Edward Tindall’s work. Yes, he uses his full name. A choice that I feel is only appropriate for serial killers and Presidential assassins, but I’m gonna let Ledward (I’m calling him Ledward) slide because this cassette certainly does “kill it” as the kids say.

Belarisk, who resides in the lovely state of Rhode Island, is self-described “feelings” music. If the sounds that were constructed to formulate this cassette are a representation of Tindall’s feelings, then the dude must’ve been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. (Note to the artst: I mean that figuratively. If you really are bipolar, don’t take that personally and go into one of those bipolar rages on me). Laser-focused mood swings are the theme here as the cuts on “On Amorphous Dawn” undulate through an ocean of ideas. The jarring opening track “Portal Play” sounds like Mort Garson’s modem dialing up. Then, after a couple minutes of crunchy, rhythmic pulses, some harsh explosions, and an ambient soundscape or two, you’re jamming some new-agey hypnosis zones with panning squibbles (it’s a word, trust me) poking from left to right. This tape is seriously an eclectic mind fuck for the entire ride. Or, as Dave said on Episode #20 when we played it, “a nice grab bag of goodies”.

I wondered what gear Mr. TIndall used to create this nice grab bag of goodies. So I ask him. Here is what he had to say:

“For Belarisk, my setup has generally always been the same. For “On Amorphous Dawn”, I was composing on a slightly functional Ensoniq ESQ1, building sequences. Then I would run midi to my Akai AX80 as it is fully functional. Those would then combine as a stereo out running through a chain of delays/reverb & through a Jomox T.resonator. Firewire in to this hulking mass of a desktop computer I built a few years back. I used the computer more on this recording to compose the digital debris on ‘Portal Play’ & some of the wave editing/filtering/sequencing of the tracks. The program I used to record is one that I’ve used since I got a cracked full version back in the late 90’s. Can’t clue you in on it, but its VERY CLOSELY associated with Audition, now. There were some rogue reel to reel loops and cassette recorder loops used as well, the Rat pedal, old EHX flanger etc.”

One thing I adore about NNA Tapes (or Nu New Age Tapes if you’re nasty) is their commitment to aesthetics. I picked up the first couple of their releases at a gig I played with label heads Matt (A Snake In The Garden) and Toby (part of Oak) in Emmaus, PA when they first dropped. The half-circle images on the cover, color-matched artist names on the spines and NNA logo on the back flap. The hand painted labels on the shells that rounded out the whole package. It was all so sick. Now, was the Sun Circle / Pregnant Moon C40 blank? Yeah. Yeah, it was. But they replaced it and there hasn’t been a hiccup with this label yet. And they are still rocking that style five years later. The cover for this Belarisk tape didn’t catch my eye at first, but after listening to it a few times, it has definitely grown on me like a fungus. The circle artwork is split into two spheres. The top is a duo of mustard yellows with lines and scratches while the bottom is black and white squiggly lines that sorta look like a close of up John Olson’s text that you can’t really read right away. It’s sort of a great ying-and-yang, night-and-day, juxtaposition that makes awesome sense after you soak in the sounds. An accompanying insert, folded in half, contains all of the info. Another standard with NNA releases.

Check out “Cup of False Halogen”, the 2nd track on Side A

You can still grab this cassette direct from NNA Tapes for seven bones. While you are there be sure to peruse the back catalog, because you’ll find releases by Howard Stelzer, Hex Breaker Quartet, Rale, Drainolith, Doglady, Pulse Emitter, Caboladies/Oneohtrix Point Never,… I’ll be here all fucking day if I go on. Just get to it. I could be wrong, but it would seem that Belarisk only has two other releases out; “Untitled I” (C35, Fadeaway) and “Untitled II” (C34, Semata). Holy shit! It just occurred to me that Belarisk releases are 34, 35, and 36 minutes long. That MUST be on purpose, right? Either way, I think I like this cassette a little bit more now.

You can purchase a copy of Belarisk “On Amorphous Dawn” from NNA Tapes.

You can hear a track on Episode #20 of Tabs Out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.13.13: An Honest Bag

Imagine for a moment that you are a rodeo enthusiast with a sweet tooth. Or maybe you really are such a person, I don’t know your personal shit. Either way, under those circumstances, fantasize stumbling across a website deep down in the internet that reviews barrel races, and bronc busting, and shit where poor defenseless animals are tied up (or whatever those assholes do) AND it has pictures of mouth watering, medical grade donuts. You’d lose your mind, right? Yes, you would. Exactly. And that is what happened on my end when my browser ended up on the Blogspot known as Honest Bag. Honest Bag, conveniently run by Honest Bagger, is a review site of noise and experimental music, found mainly on cassette tapes. They also match up each review with a snapshot of a particularly succulent bud, courtesy of Humboldt Relief or Canni Corner. I don’t remember, but I think the Honest Bag site was introduced to me by Kevin Greenspon while he was on that super-extensive tour during the fall last year. I checked it out and immediately scanned back through all of the older posts, catching up on all the stuff I missed. The site seemed relatively young, but how it was never brought to my attention before is baffling and just proves that I have horrible friends. Obviously I would be way into this.

In a world of totally endless review blogs, most of which are stems and seeds, this Pittsburgh, PA based operation is one of the very few I frequent on a regular basis now. Does it have something to do with the fact that I love to stare at cassettes and weed?? I don’t really know, and I’m way too stoned to attempt to figure it out.  Plus, this isn’t about me. This is all about the Honest one, who was every-so kind enough to answer a few quick questions I had for him.

Tabs Out: How long have you been doing Honest Bag for now?
Honest Bag: I started Honest Bag one late night in November of 2011. It’s been running strong ever since!

Tabs Out: Was it just natural for you to pair up the tapes with weed, because that is what you were doing anyway? Or was there a process of figuring out something different to do?
Honest Bag: For years I wanted to write about music, but I’m an introverted person. Finally, I found the courage to start a site. I love music and herb, so I thought it was kind of natural to couple them. The name Honest Bag is derived from a conversation years ago with my good buddy. He once said to me, “Mike, I’ve never purchased an honest bag of drugs in my life.” The name Honest Bag was stuck in my head from that point.

Tabs Out: That’s rad. I love when names for projects have a good story/reference behind them.
Honest Bag: Thanks, man!

Tabs Out: How do you go about matching up the buds with tapes?
Honest Bag: Good indicas induce an all-body effect, which I think goes well with ambient music and noise. A lot of my favorite psych releases seem to work well with sativas. Hehe. I guess one can’t go wrong when pairing the sweet leaf with the beautiful vibes of music.

Tabs Out: I may be looking WAY too into this, but do aesthetics ever play a part? For example, the Innercity tape on Sloow and the Popeye bud you paired up look like they are supposed to be packaged together. Is something like that serendipitous or calculated?
Honest Bag: That was more serendipitous. Sometimes aesthetics play a part, but I think it is more about the feeling of the music and pairing it with a nice bud that gels with the music. Overall, I would say the feeling of the music dictates the type of bud with which it is paired.

Tabs Out: I notice you pretty much only review jams you’re into. Ever toy around with the idea of reviewing something you didn’t like and pairing it with some super dank, dirty weed?
Honest Bag: Hehe. I have thought about it. Due to time restrictions, I can only review 2 to 3 things per week. Therefore, I like to write about things that bring me great joy. Music that I would like to share with others.

It should be known that Honest Bag is not just some sort of novelty. One should not check it out expecting to see animated gifs of Rasta aliens with dreadlocks and sunglasses, surfing and giving a peace sign. The reviews are not sentence fragments, wingdings, and lines like “Aw, dude. Dude, guy… This tape is sick! This tape is so sick. Dude. Wait, what? #YOLO”. There are nice pictures of all the releases featured, inside and out. Covers, inserts, and the cassettes themselves are all well documented. The writing is to the point and interesting and a sound/video sample is almost always made available to scope. You can usually tell when someone throws up a blog because they basically just want people to send them free shit in the mail. They spew out a few sentences about how harsh something is or isn’t and slap a 2 out of 4 stars type system at the end. That isn’t the case here. As the man said/admitted “I acknowledge that I’m certainly not a professional writer or music critic. As I once told John Kolodij, ‘I may not be the best music critic, but I am deeply passionate about music’. I guess that is the thing I try to communicate in the reviews. The best part of starting this blog has been meeting people and sharing music”. In fact, barbequing the Devil’s lettuce doesn’t even play as major of a role as you would think.

Tabs Out: Is getting stoned a part of the process? Do you like to be high before you listen to/write about something?
Honest Bag: I guess the best answer is that sometime I’m stoned and other times not. Hehe… Usually later in the day is the best time for me. And I do not need to smoke before listening/writing. Sometimes it does happen, but the majority of the time I’m just listening to music. The reviews take a long time to compose. I usually listen to something at least 4-5 times before I begin a draft. I’m constantly taking notes, doing research. Given the abundance of sweet-leaf and herbisms that permeate the site I can understand that thought. The site is definitely influenced, heavily, by herb and consumption, but when I wake up, music is already moving through the room… And I’m not much of a waker and baker.

Baked or not, the dude is doing a sweet job talking about solid jams and introducing folks to left-field weirdness that may have gotten lost all up in the noise sauce. New labels and projects are constantly popping up at light-speed rates. And not just fly-by-night whammy’s, but truly unique, incredible imprints and jammers. Honest Bag is a helpful road map to get through it all, and a kind reminder that getting stoned and listening to tapes is a worthwhile past time. I asked him for a few recommendations.

Tabs Out: If you had to pick just ONE cassette label that has been killing it lately, who would it be?
Honest Bag: That’s a tough one because there are a bunch that are really lighting up the sky. Guess if I had to choose one, I would select Cosmic Winnetou. With each batch Guenter blows me away. From his second batch of tapes which were released last year the Sylvia Monnier tape was one of my favorite releases of 2012. And, already, the Kyle Landstra tape from the recent batch will feature on my end of year list. The Lunar Miasma tape from that batch, which is a reissue, is also incredible.

Tabs Out: How about busting a list of some highlights of the year for you so far?
Honest Bag: Sure!! I would be delighted!

Stinging Nettle – untitled – Tabernacle Tapes – c54 one-sided tape
MV & EE w/ the Golden Smokehound – Helderberg Haze – Tape Drift – c60
Datashock – LiveLoveData$ – Eiderdown Records – c30
Kyle Landstra – Sage – Cosmic Winnetou – c32
Chapels/Parashi – split – House of Alchemy
Fluorescent Heights – Tidal Motions – Constellation Tatsu
Jake Blanchard – Archaic Practices – Feathered Coyote Records
Mortuus Auris and the Black Hand – Transit of Venus – Skell Records – c40
Von Himmel – Florid Pagoda – Donkey Disk – c34
Felicia Atkinson – A River – Space Slave – c40
Grant Evans – Dragging Alabaster – House of Sun – c40

Honest Bag recommends reading this article with the company of Bubba OG if at all possible. Be sure to check out the blog and follow him on Twitter. – MH

 

1.27.13: Tape Of The Month – January 2013

ARTIST: Lafidki

TITLE: Absynthax

LABEL: Orange Milk Records

LENGTH: C30

DUBBED: Pro

EDITION: 100

 

 

 

 

This year started off with a fucking bang as far as cassette releases go. Some great sounding and looking jams dropped right off the bat from labels like Tranquility, Rano, Cae-Sur-A, Rocket Machine, NNA, Baked and a bunch of others keeping the subject line “You sent a payment” littering my Gmail inbox. The label that really caught my attention though was Brooklyn-based Orange Milk Records. I have a small grip of Orange Milk in the collection, but the heavy scaffolding was put up for these latest guys, bringing shit to a whole new level. The entire OM batch is sick and includes tapes from Henry Dawson, Dozens, Piper Spray, Foodman, Weather Exposed, and the first ever Tabs Out Tape Of The Month: Lafidki “Absynthax” C30.

Ladfiki, the moniker of Saphy Vong, is not a name that I am familiar with at all. I’ve never seen it while perusing through online distros, review blogs, message boards, or any general dicking around on the internet when I should be doing more important things. That may be because “Absynthax” is apparently Lafidki first cassette release with a split LP with Orphan I Oliver and three compact discs being his only other output since 2008.

“Absythax” is a pro-dubbed C30 with five tracks. Each jam has multiple layers of arpeggiated synth lines, tropical warmth, and splenetic drum machine beats. The beats tend to come in out of nowhere, sounding totally raw, and juxtaposing fucking tightly with the smoothness gliding and pinging throughout the tracks My favorite cut on this tape has to be the second on Side A, a collaboration with Dustin Wong titled “Vong Wong”. Not just because the name of the track is fucking genius, but because of the “this will be music from one of the underwater levels of Super Mario Bros. in about 10 years” part about a minute in. It’s so intense I think I peed a little bit the first time I heard it. The jamage is well constructed to say the least.

The artwork was handled by Keith Rankin (1/2 of the Orange Milk crew along with Seth Graham) and reminds me of something from Superjail!, that cartoon that is on from like 3:07am – 3:14am on Adult Swim. Or maybe a way psychedelic Woodist illustration… Something along those lines. The inside where all the track titles and various credits are listed looks like a rave flyer from the mid 90’s with a font that I’m sure is called Bubble Boy Thick or something. That font makes an appearance throughout most of the cassettes in Orange Milk’s latest batch and that’s probably the only place where it works. It’s totally one of those “so bad it’s good” sorta fonts. Dave Doyen described the background image on the inside as a menu screen from Tetris when we played this tape on the podcast. That makes for two NES references on a tape that is far from 8-bit. Hmmm? The shell itself is lilac with silver printing and has a sorta Stunned Records feel to it (RIP). Sick color combo for sure. One of those tapes you just wanna stare at for an inappropriate amount of time. As of right now it’s still available from Orange Milk for $6 ($8 international) so grab it while you can!

You can purchase a copy of Lafidki “Absynthax” from Orange Milk Records.

You can hear the track “Vong Wong” on Episode #19 of Tabs Out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.16.13: A Few Words Regarding The NO KINGS Process & A Downloadable Sampler
In addition to cassette tapes another (healthy, in my opinion) obsession that I have is printing. I went to a trade school where I studied offset/letterpress printing,  a shop that was mainly filled with dudes and dudettes who just wanted to smoke poopy, high-school grade weed in the darkroom and get an easy A from the old Polish dude who had been “teaching” the class since the school opened in 1970. The dude basically clocked-out a decade before I arrived but was still hanging around making inappropriate jokes to teenagers, sleeping in the ink closet, and listening to Willy Nelson on the regular. While pretty much everyone else could care less, I was straight consumed by every process in the printing world. A mega-light bulb could just burn an image onto some weird sheet of metal?!? And then ink sticks to it?!? Yeah right. It was alien shit, and you could do with it whatever you pleased. When I was a senior in high school and working in bindery at a print shop in the area I chopped off a chunk of my index finger on a gnarly dinosaur of a paper cutter. A machine that’s only safety feature was a sticker that had a picture of a hand under a blade with a line going through it (so don’t do that). It wasn’t exactly the worst injury in the world, but after it happened I still wanted to get back into the game. The next print shop gig I got was at a family-owned joint that worked with gear from a bygone era with serial numbers in the triple digits. It was all so primal, I loved it. (Fun Fact: The 905 Tapes logo is a scan of some linotype from that shop) All of that classic shit -The numbering machines that relied on gears and looked like they were made by Daleks. The huge spools of wire that ended up being staples that could go right through a cow’s tongue. Bars of iron that were melted down to make tiny backwards letters – it’s a dead scene. Today everything is mega-digital, way hands-off, and handled by a dude at Kinkos who doesn’t give a shit about shit except smoking weed in the break room (a dark… room??? what?). Then there is No Kings. No Kings is the polar opposite of that modern day mindset. When I first heard about this label, now operating out of LA by way of Tennessee (with a brief layover in NYC), I was drawn to them not just by the insane list of artists on the roster but the covers for their releases. The label is run by Lee Noble with help from a loose group of people back in Nashville. Lee did an internship at UNO in Koreatown, A letterpress print shop that focuses on spreading the the joy that is hands-on printing techniques. That’s where he cut his teeth on the letterpress and other classic print shop equipment and made the covers for early No Kings releases.

Without getting too bogged down in the process, letterpress printing is basically done by taking metal blocks with letters and/or images on them, locking them in place, inking them up, and then pressing or rolling paper against them. The pressure applied creates an end product that is totally unique. You can literally feel when something is done on a letterpress.  When you combine that with Lee’s amazing design work, well.. It’s fucking amazing. His art is an intense mixture of color and cosmic feelings with mid-20th century craft vibes. Even when it’s stripped down to the basics it’s still dazzling as hell. One tape in particular I’ve always loved is No Kings #16, a C38 from Andreas Brandal called “Realizing The Transparent”. It’s a jam with pink and green ink on a light weight, light blue paper with simple text surrounded by stock linotype. The kind of stuff that clogs up typeset drawers and is rarely used anymore. Lee said they were “a bunch of metal dingbats blocked up. The studio had purchased a random collection of type from someone a while ago that was in disrepair”. Stars, circles, bars, dancers, leaves, bugs, flowers, a “Postage Will Be Paid by Addressee” notification… Blocks most people would consider garbage and just toss out without even thinking about it, re-purposed to make a noise tape that doesn’t look like any noise tape I own. That is fucking poetry, man. And if you don’t agree then you’re pretty much wrong. Allow me to correct you. You’re wrong.

Another solid one is the cover for the Air Sign “In Search Of…” C52 (NK14) from 2011. It’s just a list of random words in even rows. A standard, unimpressive font with nothing else but a little speckling of yellow petals in the corner. Doesn’t sound like much, but if you could just feel it. Just get it in your hands on it and give it a rub down. I mean, I don’t want to come across as a weirdo, but holy shit. Somehow it’s perfect, and possibly the only tape in my collection that says “NAZI PLUNDER”, “DRACULA”, and “D.B COOPER” on the cover. What am I saying “possibly”? It’s 100% the only nugget I have that lists those words. And nobody else is EVER going to do it again. You might as well go to the boardwalk and get a “It’s a No Kings thing. You wouldn’t understand” sticker and slap it on that shit.

“I started doing the label again basically because I had access to letterpress and thought that would be a pretty unique option for a tape label. I can’t offer a ton of exposure to artists I release or any money or even tons of artist copies. Just try and have a really finished final item. That’s what i offer.” I gotta say it. With that quote Lee Noble is being a straight up modest-ass mother fucker. The attention to detail with No Kings, who’s name comes from some iron letters spelling out “NO KINGS RIB MEN” Lee and a friend found in a closed-down factory in Franklin TN, is about as absurd as finding  some iron letters that spell out “NO KINGS RIB MEN”. And when the dude say’s that he is into doing this, that it’s not just a hobby or passing phase sorta deal, I totally trust him. I get stoked that he is so stoked about the details. I asked him if he nerded out on things like paper and ink and he responded “I love that stuff. Looking at samples! Swatches!” This mother fucker said “samples! swatches!” Exclamation points noted. Now I’m not saying that you have to be in love with looking at blank paper and imaging what it can be, but if you do, if you are that kind of person, what you get is a resume like No Kings.

After leaving the letterpress studio Lee Noble did what is every red-blooded American’s duty to do. He made an impulse buy off of Craigslist. In late 2011 he purchased a risograph machine that now hangs out in his apartment and is used to make covers for No Kings releases, along with various poster and zine output with his lady friend Amy Fortunato. “I had no idea how to work it when i got it…” Noble said “…I had heard about the machines, and seen some printing so I knew the result was cool but never operated one. Emailed the dude and said “I’m interested”, and then I was going to meet him to look at it and then I was handing him money!” Without knowing how much green Lee dished out for the risograph I’m gonna say it was a solid deal! While Lee, to some degree, took his finger out of the letterpress pie he’s now baking that shit up in his apartment! It’s a level of DIY that would make Ian MacKaye blush if MacKaye possessed the part of the brain that explained how to blush (I think his is overloaded with scowling instructions). I asked Lee if doing this hella DIY as he does it is important to him or something that just sorta happens. He responded “It’s pretty much the entire point for me” which actually seemed pretty fucking obvious after he said it. I feel kind of stupid for even asking. We’re all presented with so many easy ways to do things anymore and usually take the easy way out. There isn’t anything necessarily wrong with that. Why would I snag this Gung-ho laserdisc out of the sleeve, plop it in the player, knowing I’ll have to flip it soon. And it may fucking skip or just stop all together. Instant viewing it on NetFlix is a few clicks away, right? So getting to the level No Kings is jamming shit at, that doesn’t just happen. You have to set out with purpose and passion, especially when you plan on sticking to your guns year after year as Noble does it up.

The imagery with the new setup is still brilliant and continues the classic letterpress look. The risograph process is similar to that of a mimeograph. The colors lay on top of each other rather than inks blending together as they do with other methods.  A nice example of this is the Derek Rogers / Sparkling Wide Pressure split (NK41). Four different designs were made for this tape and I’m just gong on the two that I have seen so let’s just assume the other two are just as killer, okay? Okay. The pink ink that lays on top of the green has a slight transparency to it. It’s a sweet zone to nerd out to if you’re into nerding out to such zones. The corners of the images are rounded on this one, but some of the actual covers get the round corner treatment throughout the No Kings catalog. There was a round cornering machine at UNO. That is one of the bonus gems of being around physical equipment on the regular that doesn’t present itself when you’re just plopped in front of a laptop. No matter how many Photoshop tutorials you watch on YouTube , even if they are like 12 minutes long and take forever to get to the point (disclaimer: they are ALL like that), you aren’t going to come across a hidden treasure of mushroom linotype or a machine that was made with the sole purpose of rounding off corners. It’s another world and I’m stoked that No Kings is living in it. It’s downright refreshing.

No Kingers have a habit of flying out the door so you gotta be quick. Seeing “SOLD OUT” on their site is pretty much commonplace. I’ve slept on stuff before and learned a lesson more than once. So I guess I didn’t learn a lesson…  A quick glance on the discography will show you that No Kings has dropped a cassette version of Leslie Keffer’s “Finally, Caves!”, shit from Afterlife, Hobbledeions, Virgin Spirit, Soothsayer, Trailing, Clearing, Ophibre, and of course Lee’s own solo material. Does it go without saying that I’m honored as shit NK released a Wether tape for me? If it doesn’t, consider me saying it now. 2013 Looks just as brutal with tapes from Inez Lightfoot and Motion Sickness Of Time Travel among those on deck. Stay tuned.

Lee was kind enough to put together a No Kings sampler to download featuring Hobbledeions, K-Lub, Stephen Molyneux, Talk West, Aerial Jungle, Clearing, Andreas Brandal, Coupler, Dusted Lux, Sugar Sk*-*lls, Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier, Soothsayer, Rambutan, Tim Coster, and Virgin Spirit. CLICK HERE TO GRIP IT! – MH

currently reworking the site. stay tuned