Uncategorized Archives | Page 39 of 133 |

June 24, 2020June 24, 2020

Tabs Out | R.E. Seraphin – Tiny Shapes

R.E. Seraphin – Tiny Shapes

The Paisley Shirt tape label out of San Francisco has quietly set up shop with a roster dedicated to an alternate history of post-punk where the Monochrome Set and Feelies got books written about them and everyone went to the beach for surf rock parties. (The label promises you’ll “get a good idea of what we’re about” by listening to this zany song)! It’s made for an ideal home documenting west-coast punk that is anything but hardcore. They’ve got songs your dad would love!

Thus it makes sense that R. E. Seraphin’s new solo album, Tiny Shapes, finds a nice home on the label. Already a veteran of making garage rock with the Talkies, Seraphin, with the original Talkies rhythm section, sets his sights on an 80s college rock sound with plenty of bar rock power pop. And yes, it is complete with those kick up drums and power chords that are so dear to the ears. The album wastes no time with the one-two punch of “Today Will Be Kind” and “The Score”, where the emphasis on a jangly, yet chunky sound triumphs over his lowkey, yet endearing vocal delivery.

It’s an endlessly relistenable power pop dirge fest, with raucous sing-a-longs fit for a pint of rustic saison on the first half AND slow dances for your lonely single-wet-hop IPA sipping nights on the back half! How Seraphin manages to balance the heartfelt, heartstruck, and heartworn energy of power pop is best summed up on Fortuna. Backed by shimmering jangle at the chorus, with a funky bass, Seraphin’s musty, muttering vocals daydream of “I want it all/Fortuna Falls”. When you’re staring at a blank wall with an empty pint glass, you too want Fortuna Falls.

At only the low, low price of $3, it’s an excellent excuse to go and pick up Paisley Shirt’s nearly sold-out lineup of tapes!

June 22, 2020June 22, 2020

Tabs Out | Various Artists – Doom Mix Vol. IV

Various Artists – Doom Mix Vol. IV

6.22.20 by Ryan Masteller

Isn’t it usually around the time of the fourth installment that franchises start to see a dip in quality? “Indiana Jones,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Halloween,” the Pearl Jam discography – nothing good lasts. Yet here we are, four years into the annual “Doom Mix” series from LA vampires Doom Trip Records, who, like clockwork, are celebrating the annual occurrence with a fourth cassette tape of the best the label has to offer. If you ask me, I’d say they’re playing with (gun)fire, spinning the chamber of their revolver in the Russian roulette game of quality musicianship, placing the barrel against their temple, and pulling the trigger.

I’m as terrified as you are.

But I’m also wildly intrigued, because the first three installments never suggested that quality would EVER be a problem, and, thus, the trigger clicks harmlessly and everybody goes back to what they were doing for another year. And here’s the real secret: there were never any bullets in the gun in the first place! It’s all quality, all the time for these Doom Trippers, and now that we’ve got that all out of the way it’s time to celebrate with sixteen more tracks of “freaking awesome.”

And they pretty much started this the way I would have started it if they had asked me my opinion on the tracklist. “Well, Doom Trip, I know this is a big ask, and I feel silly for even suggesting it, but is there any way you could start it with some Fire-Toolz? Angel Marcloid’s a pretty big deal right now, so that would be a guaranteed entry point for the uninitiated. Me? I’d be all over it. Then follow that up with some NMESH. (I know, right? Dreaming!)”

So “Doom Trip IV” starts off with some new Fire-Toolz and some new NMESH, just like nobody asked me but should’ve. So I can’t stay mad at Doom Trip, because, in the end, I got my way, and isn’t that just how it should be? “Volume IV” keeps rolling with new faces and old, but all of them welcome presences among themselves. Want the alums? You’ve got Pale Spring (watch out for “DUSK,” super soon!), Mukqs, Diamondstein and Sangam, Rangers, and Heejin Jang. Dntel’s up in here, Tamborello in the house! (Sorry.) Personal faves of mine Ki Oni and KWJAZ show up. N00bs include Infinity Knives (ft. Bobbi Rush and Tyler Moonlight), maral ft. A.B.E., Cruel Diagonals, Lighght, Nordra, and Pauline Lay.

So as usual, come for what you expect and get blown away by somebody you’ve never heard before. (Plus the Mukqs track here is kinda techno-y, which is awesome.)

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, did we break the curse of the fourth installment with “Doom Trip IV”? I think the answer is a resounding yes. Plus this tape’s dropping just in time for the summer, if you wanna blast it out your car stereo. (Which would be weird, I think, given the subdued nature of some of these tracks. Not that you’re going anywhere anyway with the COVID, unless you’re in Tennessee or Georgia or some other place where nobody cares whether people live or die.)

Good luck conjuring this already-sold-out nugget from the label! Use your dark magic on Discogs instead, or the black market.

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June 18, 2020June 19, 2020

Tabs Out | Episode #157

Skip Club Orchestra – groove 3 (Outlines)
Alex Cunningham & claire rousay – Specifically The Water (Astral Spirits)
Suko & Modus – Watch Your Step (Bumpy)
Rodent – Despair Procedure (Muzan Editions)
Snafu – Now This Is Happening (Specious Arts)
Sunk Heaven – Mirrored Confines (Decoherence)
JPEGMAFIA – Black Ben Carson (Deathbomb Arc)
Odd Person – The Flowers of Arcadia (Ingrown)
Superskin – Protrusions (Baba Vanga)

June 15, 2020June 15, 2020

Tabs Out | Reflex Condition – Unknown Restraints

Reflex Condition – Unknown Restraints

0.0.20 by Tony Lien

As far as UK labels go, it’s hard to talk about the experimental cassette scene without mentioning Third Kind Records. Going on seven years since its founding in 2013, owner/operator Nicholas Langley has continuously been able to curate a catalog that satisfies just about any taste – with releases ranging from thoughtful lo-fi folk music to avant-classical synthesizer work.

Something I’ve always personally enjoyed and respected about Langley’s curation is his devotion to certain artists and a willingness to work with them time and time again as the years go on – like Nikmis, or (the artist in question today) Reflex Condition.

“Unknown Restraints” is Reflex Condition’s third release on Third Kind (see 2014’s “Dashboard” and 2016’s “Witch Flower”). Though it’s surely a logical extension (style-wise) of these previous releases, there is an amplified essence of passion and (sounds cheesy but) adventure in these tracks. Honestly, as the moody, aggressive synth leads somehow become personified and rip through the speakers and bounce off of the driving, underlying beats like deep-space acrobats, I can’t help but feel that Neil deGrasse Tyson is going to come cruising in on his Cosmos ship and whisk me off to Titan or Europa or some nameless nebula far beyond the reaches of the known universe.

Besides the energetic instrumentation, the most idiosyncratic aspect of “Unknown Restraints” is the occasional inclusion of vocal passages. In the second track, an ethereal, synthetic voice – which almost seems like that of an artificially intelligent entity soon after achieving singularity – beckons us: “Come with me, it’s not so bad…” Though you can speculate as to what is meant by this, I prefer to see it as an invitation to truly immerse yourself in the remainder of the album. The voice is right, if that’s the case: it’s not so bad. In fact, it’s breathtaking (a little more necessary cheesiness for you).

There are still copies available on the Third Kind Bandcamp. Do your small part for the perpetuation of the human race and buy a tape. We’ll never get to space without embracing the spirit of interstellar adventure that defines Reflex Condition’s killer electronic compositions.

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June 12, 2020June 12, 2020

Tabs Out | New Standards Men – I Was a Starship

New Standards Men – I Was a Starship

6.12.20 by Ryan Masteller

We’re not going to have great ensemble music for a while, I reckon. What with self-isolation and social distancing, who’s gonna get together for band practice? Who’s gonna tour a full band around the country? Who’s gonna allow anybody in a studio? It’s all up in the air right now.

So we grasp what we can. Did I say “instant classic”? If not, New Standards Men’s “I Was a Starship” is an instant classic, a loaded t-shirt cannon aimed in the face of a superfan, and once that trigger’s pulled, there’s no amount of lawsuits or settlements that will make things go back to the way they were. In fact, just suggesting that you listen to this is going to probably set me up for multiple lawsuits. (I have no idea why I have lawsuits on the mind lately – I tend to be a sue-r, not a sue-ee [insert “Deliverance” joke here].)

That’s because “I Was a Starship” is road music for a series of fatal car crashes shot by Lost Highway–era David Lynch. It’s stoner metal and prog and the deepest, darkest lounge all smooshed together like auto wreckage in a trash compactor. Imagine Tonstartssbandht listening to a bunch of Bohren, or Explosions in the Sky getting their Sleep on. But all at once. AND WITH NO GALL-DANG VOCALS. What, you’re gonna mess up this mood with some jibber-jabber? I dare you to. I DARE you.

NSM is a quintet this time around, the core members of Drew Bissell and Jeremy Brashaw joined by Personal Archives’ own Bob Bucko Jr., Ike Turner, and Luke Tweedy (no, not THAT Ike Turner – he died in 2007). “I Was a Starship” is three tracks this time around (and forever), each an eleven-plus-minute jam sesh that finds the players in total kraut lockstep as they stretch and evolve ideas. And it’s loud – you can really crank this sucker up! So if you’re looking into your crystal ball and see a future bereft of awesome records from bands (my friend John: “Next year’s records are going to be the worst”), circle back to “I Was a Starship,” and flip 2021 right off (god, I can’t believe I’ve already given up on 2021 too).

Plus, the artwork. You see that octopus? *chef’s kiss* That’s courtesy of Daria Tessler/animalsleepstories.

Did I also mention that ol’ Warren Defever of His Name Is Alive fame mastered this thing at Third Man Pressing, home to human vampire bat Jack white of Edward Scissorhands fame? Now you know.

Edition of 100 out now on Personal Archives!

June 10, 2020June 11, 2020

Tabs Out | Bonus Episode: Jamie’s Discogs Tips

In an effort to educate and organize the people, Jamie Orlando offers up some tips for Discogs.

June 8, 2020June 8, 2020

Tabs Out | New Glue – The Electric Path

New Glue – The Electric Path

6.8.20 by Ryan Masteller

I was talking to someone just the other day (they will remain nameless – who knows what kinds of lawsuits might get thrown my way because of the internet), and we were both like, “Yeah, we need more of that ‘evaporated rhythm’ kosmische, because we’re not getting any calmer out here.” Lo and behold comes New Glue with not only a batch of back-to-basics kosmische tunes but also the kind that sounds like rhythm might once have stuck to it but has now gone as it’s dried out in the basement or the attic over time! I honestly don’t know how any part of a music can dry out, but New Glue does their dangdest to impart age on these compositions by suggesting something that was there but now isn’t.

In truth, and I have to be honest with you, there may have been rhythm at one point – the digital squirts on the title track are certainly in some sort of “time.” But “The Electric Path,” out (NOW) on Lighten Up Sounds, is by no means static or flat. It’s … wait for it … ELECTRIC.

So the person I was talking to was like, “Yeah, it’s not getting any calmer out there, everybody’s afraid of all the COVIDs. It’s time to take a collective chill pill.” Consider said chill pill delivered, ice cold, down the hatch, with “The Electric Path,” a self-stylized “soothing balm for burning brains.” New Glue is the duo of Jason Millard and Matthew Himes, who used to be Glue Clinic, but then put that aside for a while and came back with a new name and a new attitude. Lucky for us they’re putting on an ACTUAL, non-glue clinic here on “The Electric Path,” with synthesizers coming out the wazoo in order to produce “an eloquent ambience for these times of trauma.”

Down the hatch.

Maybe it’s all moot in the end, and the hawks will out-hawk each other and wipe themselves out and leave the rest of the place to us, the meek, those somehow promised an inheritance of the planet. But no – if New Glue is giving us any indication, it’s the knob-twiddlers that will inherit the Earth. Sure, it’s going to be a burned-out husk when they get their hands on it, but they’ll just twiddle more knobs and get us all to Zen out, ruling in a benevolent narcotic haze, like Bill and Ted’s holograms in the future, till the end swiftly comes.

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May 28, 2020May 28, 2020

Tabs Out | Body Image Corporation – s/t

Body Image Corporation – s/t

5.28.20 by Tony Lien

Few experimental nomads of the sprawling tape scene have a higher (and more diverse) creative yield than German Army – which is really a sort of umbrella moniker (designed around the philosophy of obscurity) that encapsulates various other music projects (such as Concrete Colored Paint, Germ Class, Final Cop, Burnt Probe, or Body Image Corporation – the subject of this particular review). Peter Kris (a name, yes – but likely not the individual’s actual name) is the founding (and most prominent) member, and you can find a quality interview with him here if you want to gain a deeper understanding of the GA legacy.

“Body Image Corporation” – available via Skrot Up – is a dark, sort of post-Vaporwave response to Internet culture – or specifically, via the Bandcamp description, “a limited edition cassette documenting the trash fire that is the Internet” (I like that better). Samples are strewn throughout the tracks, and many of them I am not able to readily identify. Due to their content (inspirational sport speeches, snippets from corporate productivity seminars, bizarre philosophical musings, re-pitched theme songs/deep cut pop rarities, etc.) and overall delivery, I feel it doesn’t really matter where they came from; it seems to me that we’re meant to feel as though we’re prisoners (maybe like Alex from A Clockwork Orange) being forced to experience the web through the dystopian lens BIC has chosen for us. Or perhaps the underlying implication is that, unlike Alex, we’re the ones in control of the onslaught of toxic, meaningless content; we just don’t have the discipline to get up and walk away. I don’t know. Whether or not that’s what BIC intended, beneath it all lurks subtle layers of lo-fi noise experimentation that really work to animate the eeriness of the scenario nonetheless.

I implore you to not only buy this tape, but also to read the interview I linked in the first paragraph. It’s a rare look behind GA audio content that highlights Peter Kris’ social conscience, musical history, and laudable commitment to artistry void of ego – all aspects that greatly enhance the listening experience.

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Obscurity And Escapism: Exploring German Army

May 26, 2020May 26, 2020

Tabs Out | Max Zuckerman – The Corner Office

Max Zuckerman – The Corner Office

5.26.20 by Ryan Masteller

We’re not going anywhere anymore. At least I’m not. I’m staying home. There’s germs out there, and by golly I’m not going to get any of em on me. Luckily, I work from home, so I don’t even have to worry about braving social spaces like a workplace environment – my corner office is literally the office in the corner of my house. No public transit, no elevators, no lunch counters or cocktail hours – all that stuff is FILTHY with the COVID.

Max Zuckerman probably doesn’t have to worry about public transit or lunch counters. He probably has an exclusive, personal elevator to his glass-walled “Corner Office,” one that looks out over Manhattan. Cocktail hours? Forget about it. Everything in his wet bar is imported and sanitized long before it’s in his presence. He doesn’t share any of that, either – that’s his own personal stash. Why sully his presence with other people? That’s just folly in this day and age.

So he whiles away his time presiding over his business empire, and also making some great Steely Dan–inspired soft rock on the side. “The Corner Office” is how it happens, where it happens, why it happens. Truly success makes the man, etc., and Zuckerman oozes success. And not just success, but confidence too – and why wouldn’t he exude cascading showers of self-worth? All this is pumped through the PA, the atrium absorbing “The Corner Office” and ricocheting it at the perfect volume for all to hear.

And so we’re left to ponder Zuckerman’s worldview, one where the most extravagant things are the norm and where a not-insignificant amount of money – say, $240 – can get blown on a trivial thing rather than on two weeks’ worth of groceries. It’s the penthouse life, and we can only dream of it. That’s what happens when you have Galtta cash.

Now, somebody get me $240 worth of pudding – I need to rub my silk-dinner-jacketed ass in it, just like Max Zuckerman does.

Available right now in an edition of 125 from Galtta.

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May 22, 2020May 22, 2020

Tabs Out | Butoh Sonics – Annihilate this Memory

Butoh Sonics – Annihilate this Memory

5.22.20 by Tony Lien

Check out this bio description from Bandcamp regarding music collective Butoh Sonics:

“Phantasmagoria of sound sculpture, electronics, guitar debris & dance theater. Post-futurist clangor, dada/ambient improvisions and enchromatic jazz. Throw off the yoke of anxiety and oppression, embrace sonic sensorial immersion! Join with the eternal Void as primal waveform.”

Am I even needed here? Do you even need to listen to the tape now?

Really though – despite that killer Bandcamp byline – Butoh Sonics truly is a hard group to describe. Not only do they veil themselves with stage names, but their sizable creative output is not unlike an ever-growing abstract expressionist canvas; their spatters and patterns cannot be predicted – nor easily categorized as one particular genre. Noise? Plunderphonics? Freak jazz? All I can say is that it’s fruitless to try and do the typical music person thing and neatly file them away in your internal music compartment; the music will wriggle and ooze its way out of the drawer and crawl off to do its own thing or end up stuck to the bottom of our shoe.

“Annihilate this Memory” – available from Buffalo, NY label Zazen Tapes – is a foreboding improvisational noise album comprised of experimental guitar work, extensive/cryptic samples, and various other instruments/machines that are hard to put a finger on (just the way I like it). The sounds constantly morph and twist around each other – sometimes knotting up, other times floating freely in a paradoxically vast and claustrophobic space. In the tape’s finest moments (really, the entire album is a choice bizarro audio extravaganza), it reminds me of wandering through a dilapidated fun house maintained by pissed off art school students.

It goes without saying that “Annihilate this Memory” is hardly forgettable. Add to that the fact that Zazen tapes doesn’t charge much (in relation to a great many labels out there) for their physical ephemera, and it would be a pretty nonsensical move for you to not trade them a few bucks for a genuine work of art that might as well be the official 30 minute anthem of one of the strangest years of our lives.

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