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Introducing Mended Dreams

5.5.21 by Matty McPherson

At this point, I don’t really know what Claire Rousay is gonna announce. After getting “emo-ambient” into the paper of record, she could literally reveal that we’re all on a plane hovering above the Bermuda Triangle or introduce us to her new line of barrel-aged Mexican lagers and I’d believe her! Fortunately though, Rousay has chosen a more enlightened path, announcing a new imprint nestled in the American Dreams multiverse entitled Mended Dreams (it even has its own HQ!)

What I do know is that it’s not everyday that you just suddenly decide to strike up your own label imprint for the second time in under a year. And Rousay is going hog wild, with a flush 3.5 hours of music to hit the Bandcamp this 5/7 (Bandcamp day). Out of the 3.5 hours of music hitting, Rousay has been kind enough to reserve a hefty chunk for the cassette format — her first releases on the format proper since December’s on Notice Recording! And these aren’t any reissuing of recent material — brand new zones chalk full of brand new art.

Claire Rousay – Twin Bed EP

Back in March, Rousay participated in Tone Glow’s live concert, lending a new audio/visual composition entitled Twin Bed. Even through the text and scroll of a Twitch chat, something must have been in the air when it transmitted through the internet as everyone sat struck. Through its 11 and a half minutes, Rousay’s typical haptic shabang become only a layer within her one-person piano slowcore-orchestration. It’s a heady piece, letting its length uncurl. I recommend it as you prep and take in the longest bowl of your life. This release is being issued here with a few other new tracks recorded throughout 2020.

Claire Rousay & Patrick Shiroishi – Now Am Found

It’s not hard to spot Patrick Shiroishi in my Bandcamp email feed as much as the Twitch chat using all caps to hype up Japanese whiskey. The local LA gentleman has been transmitting his essential sax sound and ethos on every cool cat’s project — seriously, do I need to stand up on the local mountain with my new yard sign that features Brad Rose’s tweet?

Last year, Patrick went for broke on (holy alone), his first major batch of field recordings for Never Content Records. For as much as it was a personal pandemic tape, it transcended space and time, transporting me back to a centrifugal space of the late 40s urban sprawl. Perhaps he’s looking to cast centripetal zones with Claire Rousay, over a tape of “Field Recordings, Guitar, Piano, Synth, Vocals.” Yeah that’s right, this is a no-sax zone! Both mavericks instead are working towards a “cocoon-like space where the mundane, the sacred, and the cherished become one and the same.” Take a listen to the tape closer “Brushed to Hard,” and you can garner a pretty good sense of the openness that they look to bring to the center of your soundsystem. I’ll be placing my copy in an open-air cloud-room-glass-room and letting ghost cars pass out of the boombox and straight onto the highway.

Tape Pre-Orders look like they are going up Friday 5/7; be there or be square.

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Pulse Emitter – Voids

4.22.21 by Matty McPherson

Pulse Emitter has conjured up an omnibus amount of zones over a fifteen plus year career. Yet, when he opened his proverbial Disney vault was anyone quite expecting Voids, a collection of 2008 material, as the result? Despite the fact that a release of this material may have fallen through at the time, good ‘ol Pulse Emitter has been keeping them on stand-by. Now, if the title, nor the image of astral craters seemed to imply it by now then I’ll say it: this album could (sonically) qualify as an answer to the Family Feud category “albums about stoned astronauts having a bad day.” 

Voids’ tense, subconscious blankness stem back to 2k8, the result of vinyl releases that fell through. Pulse Emitter stated on his bandcamp, “These are not scraps but the best material from that era,” and while I’m not one to hand out blue ribbons, I would at least argue that this material successively opts towards a desolation that none of the other sounds of Pulse Emitter’s 2k8 era invoke. That is not to say that, he was not dabbling in droned obliqueness– on the likes of Oppressive Nature’s “Oppressive Nature 3” and Decaying Ships’ “Decaying Ships 2,” both tracks are brimming with space, just as much but both of which are charged with shocking jolts of spine-shattering noise. Voids actively negates that, in favor of pure tonal space pleasure. 

Over Side A’s “Void Engine 1” and “2”, Pulse Emitter takes your ears (and by default your body!) and submerges you within one of those sensory deprivation floatation massage gizmos. It is a sublime kind of desolation; wave after wave of machine crescendo noise almost to hit the fritz, only instead for it to flatline, returning back to an even deeper, blanker state. As devious as it might seem though, it truly does suck you down. Plopping in Side B. Pulse Emitter opens up for the “Lunar Orbit/Lunar Surface”, a damn fine continuation of Side A. Around the 4 minute mark, a single, droning note is conjured that seems to push past the blank state and right down onto a moon crater! Still though, it never strikes as startling. Just an everyday cosmic occasion. “Remix” is a thankful addendum that is closer to the other 2k8 material, with less emphasis on complete submission to a singular tonal space. Using the ominous, roaring machines that rumble in and fade out throughout the tracks, the remix has a haunted quality to it, like you just found the black box from a space vessel that’s out in dead orbit.

Speaking of, tapes are going fast — might wanna grab one before it too hits out on a dead orbit.

Edition of 75 from NAC available at the Pulse Emitter bandcamp page!

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Landon Caldwell & Nick Yeck – Stauffer-Unity in Isolation

4.13.21 by Matty McPherson

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.

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Matty’s Punk Roundup

3.31.21 by Matty McPherson

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.

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Carmen Villain & Jacober – Sketch for Winter: IX & X

3.23.21 by Matty McPherson

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.

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