If anyone tells you they were unsurprised at what came out of the speakers when they pressed play on this Feral Copse tape, you call them a liar right away, right to their face. (Unless of course that person is related to Chandor Glöomy, Paul Harrison, or Andy Jarvis, or they happen to work for sPLeeNCoFFiN, then it makes sense.) Give them a shove if you feel extra irritated – they probably deserve it. I had an absolutely rock solid idea of what this tape was going to sound like, so when it completely bent my mind in a totally unforeseen direction, I had to shove something. My office chair was closest.
See I, like probably most of you out there, misread the artist as Feral CORPSE, and as such was preparing to be obliterated by searing death metal (or at least a harsh noise wall). But, this being the “Experimental Tape Scene” and all, I probably should have known better, also because the j-card itself is quite nicely composed – there’s no metal font in tree roots or bones or razor slices. Instead, there’s a tranquil look about this thing, and from its reels, while not exactly TRANQUIL tranquil, sound emanates in the form of oscillations and field recordings and tape decay, blanketing your perception in a coating of postapocalyptic ash. Or snow, maybe – if you want to feel a little more at ease about it. Postapocalyptic snow.
The trio split the difference on two sidelong adventures, “Shroom shank” and “The crack in the sky was the signal we had waited for.” Creaks and pops, disembodied percussion, unidentified source material, intricate sonic details, all sidle up next to one another, press tighter and tighter as time passes, and merge into one thing via compression. Maybe it’s the gravity getting all extra oppressive as this thing rolls on, maybe it’s the atmosphere getting sucked out of the room, who knows. All I know is that I don’t have to brace myself for any blast beats or unholy shrieking before enjoying this one.
Anthony Saunders and J Soliday stop by to play our (fan favorite) Tape Label or Weed Strain quiz.
Shingles – I Want To Get High / Because I Got High (Baked Tapes)
Fuck Lungs – 2th (Already Dead)
Turner Williams Jr – Seasonal Séance: Vernal Equinox comp (Sweet Wreath)
Skunk Ape – Ground Hums (Drongo Tapes)
Hypertrophy – Sarcoplasmic / Myofibrillar (self released)
Nite Lite – Marlene (Stunned Records)
Personal Bandana – This Time It’s... (Woodford Halse)
Knox Mitchell – split w/ Interstates (Etc.) (Green Records and Tapes)
J Soliday – Garble Blox (Traced Objects)
João Orecchia & Sicker Man – Pluton/Neptune (Other Electricities)
Nate Trier + Encym – New Anight (self released)
Spring is here, which means a lil’ bit of rain in Southern California and an encroaching bloom of color. Anyways though, a couple months back I was going all hog wild on Hali Palombo’s Cylinder Loops — dark hauntological ambient music that conjured up all sorts of images on my Nakamichi dream machine/tape deck. I’ve been looking for a yin to that yang though, something that floats and glides the water with grace. Thus, it gives me immense pleasure to issue a Tabs Out certified AQUA JAZZ ALERT!for the following Astral Editions cassette release: Unity in Isolation.
Maybe you are not familiar with what an “AJA” is; buddy don’t look at me like I’m the expert! I just make the text bold on Google Docs and know it when I feel it. And what I’m feeling right now in an immense drifting sensation, lost in the trance of Landon Caldwell’s organ drone and synthesizer keys; it’s a deviously simple ambient core you can imagine. Completely ruling side A, the seventeen minute suite, “Ugly Connection,” finds Nick Yeck-Stuaffer swirling through the ambience with his otherworldly pocket trumpet blasts. The two Crazy Doberman members had some of the most notable moments on Illusory Expansion from last year — in fact, I’m quite certain Staffer’s trumpet is the opening note! Here though, they really chew the scenery and spread out like the ocean floor. Caldwell’s hypnotic keys try to stay locked into a reverent melody as Stauffer’s trumpet playing reaches its most punchdrunk at the suite’s climax. Nevertheless, there is a featherweight unison between the gentlemen.
Side B, featuring “Dispossessed” and the title track, are further experiments into the atmospherics of Caldwell’s soundscape from “Ugly Connection.” “Dispossessed” adds foggy cymbals that rustle and creep, as Stauffer’s effects on the trumpet push its sound to its most monolithic (reminding me of the uncanny ambience of Spirit of Eden). Never once though, does it completely dominate the piece. Caldwell’s simple key loops are the real center of gravity, dissolving away to reveal an ascendant organ drone in the outro. The title track is the lushiest of the three pieces, recalling the ghosts of the previous 25 minutes until Caldwell’s synths fizzle out and you are left with only isolation. But hey! Spring is right around the corner…
First pressing of 200 with artwork by Tiny Little Hammers available here.
Larry Wish – Comb Hair (Bumpy)
Jeff Gregory – Advanced MIDI Projects Vol.1 (Intensive Purposes)
Ancient Boreal Forest – A Relic From The Sands of Time (Out of Season)
Pedestrian Deposit – Debilitant • Erase • Stitching (Monorail Trespassing)
Ûkcheânsâlâwit – Alaskan Escape (Les Productions Hérétiques)
ZekeUltra – From Time (Utica Records)
Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe & Ariel Kalma – Notes Above Land (self released)
SR388 – Where No Clouds Go (Bonding)
Ben Varian – Cudighi Sampler Platter III comp
Equimanthorn – Nindinugga Nimshimshargal Enlillara (Les Fleurs du Mal Productions)
Chunyin – A Thousand Tones compilation (Elestial Sound)
Sometimes when you load up the Tabs Out tape blog webpage, you expect to receive a recommendation for the latest in sonic experimentation and cryptic otherworldly goodness. This is decidedly NOT that. In fact, today I’ve got three punk-adjacent tapes from across America. All of these have been driving me crazy over the last several months, and I gotta get them out of my system and perhaps pass them onto you, dear reader.
Sad Eyed Beatniks – Places of Interest
Paisley Shirt Records continues to carve out one of the most under appreciated niches in Bandcamp tapery. Their roster is stacked with honest-to-god California guitar pop gurus, cranking out melodic chords that channel perfect fresh grass smell from lawn mowers. Sad Eyed Beatniks’ latest, Places of Interest, is a shambolic pop nugget perfectly suited for a long spring day. Unvarnished and free-spirit, it channels a “Mekons type drum beat” alongside a collection of tape noise, voice memos, and odd call-outs for the ultimate third gen bootleg of the “Dunedin sound.” Tapes come with a map of San Francisco that detail lyrics and their reference point call outs!
Low Pass Killer – Crust Funk
The continuing adventures of Anthony Pandolfino’s science-funkified Low Pass Killer project led over to Spider Baby last fall, with a double A-sided C-30 pushing heavy into the red. Maximum crunch! Against all odds though, this crunch imparts a crispy, furious percussive blast across a litany of 70’s no-fi library instrumentals and gnarly hard-rock fuzz riffs. The Final Come Up” and “Dancefloor Crowd Scatterer” are amongst the perfect synthesis of these three together, with the crunch practically disintegrating and breaking apart as synth keys reach for the skies.
Now, don’t think that it’s all noise and games; Low Pass Killer is actually quite the king when it comes to making music for the bachelor pad, with a series of quick bops like “Halfway Home” and “Here a Wroagh There a Worh Everywhere A Wogahrohh” that dazzle with their synthpop atmospherics and wobbly EQ’ing. Needless to say, it has constantly slinked in and out of tape decks at the residence here!
Big Clown – Big Mad
The Memphis, TN quartet known as Big Clown used 2020 to stretch their CV with a rollicking Gonerfest 17 performance, in addition to pushing out two 20 tape runs of Big Mad. Coming in at an impressive 9 minutes and 36 seconds, Big Mad is a high octane, buckshot blast of inspiration that you find at the tail end of a fifth 5hr energy. Big Clown spokeswoman/kazoo-gal Lucy is a propulsive lyricist, wailing out simple demands like “gimme twenty bucks; i don’t give a fuck” and “I wanna eat my burger salad” against a laundry list of dipshits and yokels. Aided by Stephen (guitar), Jesse (guitar/echoplex), and the one-man rhythm section Zach (drums), Big Mad always teeters on the edge of collapse until it goes kablammo!
Perhaps their greatest nugget though is the recontextualization of Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap into “DDDDC.” With a meaty guitar riffs and Zach’s tenderized rhythm section, the track becomes a sort of rallying cry/wrestling anthem in its 55 blistering seconds of life. An automatic dive bar classic. Kudos to the band for a superb tape dub; never a moment that pushes into the red (talk about that live to 8-track mix!!), with the TABS LEFT IN, so you can dub more nonsense!
Best grab this bad boy before it disappears into the wild.
It is always thrilling to find an email from Bobby Power in your inbox! Geographic North, the label he co-runs, has been firing up their engines here in 2k21, steamrolling in with TWO entries into their long-running Sketch for Winter series: IX: Peralta and X: Immortal Word! Sketches for Winter has seen GN invite underground experimental celebs (like Pan American, Louise Bock, Moon Diagrams) and let them strike up their own idea of the sounds of winter. For this recent block of Sketches, Carmen Villain (IX: Peralta) and Jacober (X: Immortal Word) have entered the fray.
Now, if you have been following GN, then neither of these artists should be complete newbies. Villain’s a compilation veterean (having appeared on A Little Night Music in between making “Affection in a Time of Crisis” for Longform Editions) and Jacober’s 2015 tape is a foundation to the Geographic North sound. Thus, it would seem appropriate that both artists’ Sketches continue evolutions in their respective sounds.
Villain did not originally intend for Perlita to be a Sketch for Winter until Power and Farbod Kokabi both heard her tracks. Her adventures through longform ambient in 2020 led to a newfound tabula rasa, culminating in the compilation track “Dissolving Edges”. Focused on the minutia, the track meticulously stripped back the sound of ambient dub n’ drums, pushing synth textures to the foreground. Perlita does continue in the same vein as “Affection in a Time of Crisis”and “Dissolving Edges” with airy synths and slinking percussives grounding the tones of these tracks. Tethered together, they are practically a gust of fresh snow powder, gently landing on your whiskers from the start of “Everything Without Shadow”.
Complementing these sounds are the flute melodies of Johanna Scheie Orellana. Orellana is practically a commando, guiding these tracks and stretching the melodies towards grander depths; on “Agua Azula”, she practically waltzes across the step-stone beat. Besides the gorgeous fusion, Villain has also become more entangled with field recordings. The snippets range from an affirming coda (“Two Halves Touching”) repeated into existence to the sounds of platonic crowds (“Light in Phases”). “Things That Are Solid” is a particular standout, employing rhythmic strips of musique concrete as an epiphany between friends occurs in the background. It feels like a memory that would be archived on a scratchy acetate, from a future that could still be. For as brief as Perlita is, these moments give it a grand sense of character and location.
Jacober’s previous release on Geographic North, The Gray Man, took the Marimba sound and recast it as a part of ghostly American southern folklore. Immortal Word may not have a ghost story immediately tied to its sound, but Jacober’s Marimba is more spacious than ever. Incorporating chillwave-esque synths that give off an antsy haze, Immortal Word is a sonic postcard from that misbegotten carnival island your parents swore they were going to take you to for your fifth birthday! Opener “Four Horsemen” could easily be an enduring composition for the carousel, until reverb elongates his percussion into a hall of mirrors, impossible to untangle; “Toast” starts with a jubilant stride down the pier, slowly rendered to oblivion with pitch shifting echoes and an encroaching rainstorm.
Speaking of, rain, in all its variations, travels through Jacober’s tape (more than the stray showers on Perlita). If these effects spark your hauntological receptors, then just wait until you hear the sounds of a ship horn on the title track–which layers Marimba loops like bumper cars crashing into each other! Though the most suggestive qualities of hauntology are engaged with on “Universal Sign”. Cracked drums and vaporous stutters make it feel like one’s adrift in an eternal grey, as Jacober’s Marimba rumbles like a voice just out of reach. It is the most paranoid dub has sounded since Pan-American’s early days.
Both Villain and Jacober’s Sketches for Winter are subtle, yet complementary entries into the Sketches for Winter series. If you have been following the series, these releases might even strike you as the polar opposite of brooding sketches of the pre-pandemic winter. Even at their most isometric there are moments of light and grace on these tapes; invitations to somewhere that can be. It recalls a bit of John Hassell’s fourth world music–in their own idiosyncratic ways, that only Geographic North can curate.
Yes, Warm Climates continues to remain a finished project post their 2013 Sun Ark cassette. Although, main songwriter, Seth Kasselman, has continued to channel Warm Climates’ stoned frivilosity in his own approach to future music endeavors. Kasselman may not hang out on his blogger like he used to — he’s digging up lost sounds every first Saturday of the month at 10PM PST on Nett Nett radio — while his UR Sound label drops is the occasional homespun goody. Last December though, he logged back on with Anteroom in Birch, a web of four electronic synth pieces crossed with tape hissed music concrete.
You might be thinking that 4 pieces is enough to figure every trick that Kasselman has up his sleeve; it’s still quite tricky to pin down, as each track brims with an amalgamation of ideas that are ever-shifting; don’t expect one track to hold itself together for ya! Side A’s two tracks “Degrees Of Used To” and “Are Lemming”, both feature cavernous drum arenas that are mystical and foreboding, and Kasselman mends both soundscapes up to climb towards the heavens. For the former, it means leading into a blistering synth drone, while for the latter, it continues to build an angular and playful dash of electronic bleeping n’ blooping.
Track one of side b is where things go haywire. Worlds collapse and rebuild like sandpaper for the first half of “Roadmaster Stitches”. Yet, just when it all seems that the tape is about to explode and disentangle from the deck, Kasslman arrives at a plane of clarity…on what sounds like an unstable 32 KBps connection. Of course, it continues to build like a spire, rumbling until it bursts! That sound of an unstable connection encompasses the last track “Centipede Cathedral”, which sounds like the aftermath of watching a spire go kablammo–or web page after web page of pop up crunchfire. Expect this time, it finally reaches a semblance of genuine peace. For the last several minutes, the track floats on the water, without a care in the world.
You might remember Cudighi Records stopping by Tabs Out half a year ago to talk shop on a handful of their releases. A sampler platter if you will. Anyways, the label is hustling strong. You may have noticed “German House Muzik” dropped Bandcamp Friday, February edition. Although, I’ve been returning to a couple of ambient tapes released last fall on the label: Quiet (1999-2019) and Odes. If you have been looking for reflective zones to wander through, I implore you to follow!
Jet Jaguar – Quiet (1999-2019)
The Jet Jaguar (Michael Upton) catalog is intimate already, encompassing CDrs and personal Bandcamp sketches; of course though, twenty years is a lot to parse through. Yet, this close focus, emphasizing on how electronic dance “has been getting quieter over the years” offers a terrific gateway into Upton’s sonic universe. In between choice cuts and new mixes of old Bandcamp tracks, Upton revels in the changing relationship with his music upon this retrospect.
The electronic guru’s compilation centers around his most blissed out vibes: sparse loops and aqua tinged synths, with the occasional fickle string or vocal element coming in. It is a minimal template, although deviously easy to find yourself lost in. Those new mixes of old Bandcamp tracks subtly subdue the pulses of the bass (n’ sometimes drums!), letting vaporous keys move to the front and hold the sound steady. As Upton settles on the right snare or maraca, the elastic qualities of this ambience fills the sonic space like a streetlight. Bits of radio chatter provide a bit of urban psychedelia in the mix, but these tracks sound like the last vestige of a drug comedown; they are absolutely chill, I promise. For those nights when you really want to reach for hushed spaces, Quiet will take you there.
Dan Melchior – Odes
Dan Melchior dedicatedOdes in the memory of his late wife (and Ruby Falls vocalist/guitarist), Letha Rodman, who passed back in 2014. While Melchior’s garage rock and guitar work has been all over numerous underground labels, opening track “Louisiana Honeymoon” tips the scales. Downtempo, meditative zones that slowly unravel with Melchior adding small mesmerizing flourishes; it is a vivid sketch of what once was, but has been lost.
Recorded as if it was made under candlelight, Odes is stripped down to the bare essentials and feels like it was torn from a sonic journal. With just a “partially working 4 track… and karaoke machine that had very good reverb,” Melchior has fantastic control of this fragmented sonic space. Sometimes he summons vicious bolts of guitar noise on the track “Jaguar Girl” or stretches out how many hypnotic inklings can fit into the world of “Night Song.” Either way, these songs feel featherweight and I was left moved by the emotions of these pieces. They are truly intimate prayers; best experienced at the end of the day, when you can soak in the ebb and flow of these patient compositions.
A HausLive entry beyond the inaugural Sunwatchers Live at Cafe Mustache cassette has been long overdue–all things considered. Likewise, the same can be said to Good Willsmith! The brain terraforming trio of Doug Kaplan, Max Allison, and Natalie Chami have left a few breadcrumbs here and there beyond their 2016 release for Umor Rex. It was that release which acted as the culmination of their early cassettes, touchstones for what Hausu Mountain was to become. Thus, a “gen 1 bootleg” of their 4/25/2019 Sleeping Village concert is the perfect opportunity to return Good Willsmith to HausMo for the first time in over 5 years (!), check what they’ve been cooking up, and perhaps even welcome a newcomer like me into their cinematic universe.
Naysayers may complain that it’s a tad bit short with only 4 zones and a banter track (Tabs Out podcast soundboard, take notice). However, these are pristine on-the-spot-NO-OVERDUB sensations that further the band’s commitment to leaving no zone untouched. The free-flow of “Dolphin” goes between synthesizer squeals and a sick “Jerry Jam”; “Not Your Kids” sees Kaplan going into full bar rock mode, with a fantastic guitar wail taking center stage; “The Burning Orphanage Sidequest” lurks and falls collapses in real time, like an actual side mission gone awry; “Third Eyebrow” is perhaps the most playful of them all, with funk riffs, electro-clash ambient, and drums that’d make you swear you actually put in the OST for the boss stage of an unreleased Rareware platformer! That it ends with the promise of Guerilla Toss as it reaches the leader tape only left me savoring more.
I think the sound of Good Willsmith is very representative of what music we like to release on Hausu Mountain:
⭑ music performed live ⭑ based on noise and texture ⭑ diverse ⭑ hard to describe ⭑ changes in atmosphere and moves between different vibes very fast… ⭑ can be heavy, noisy, beautiful ⭑ combining electronics with non-electronic instruments ⭑ is improvised
Their HausLive 2 refreshes that template, with the most jam heavy badassery on HausMo in a hot sec. The ascendance of Good Willsmith is back, pushing towards territories unknown. And it may just have even given the HausLive series a possible modus operandus as a guide to the best improvs in Chicago. Well played, Good Willsmith! Best grab this before it disappears into the wild.
Edition of 100 available from wherever you acquire fine Hausu Mountain goods and services
