mike

Introducing Bumpy
6.5.18 by Mike Haley

Bumpy! Bumpy! Bumpy!

The goblin communities absolute favorite warped-crooner, Larry Wish, has taken his batty and twisted stylings to labels Orange Milk, Field Hymns, and Moon Glyph in the past. He’s sat in their storefront display cases, mixing Neil Hamburger and Sinatra and rejected demos sent to K record in the 90’s, melting away in the hot summer’s sun. In 2018 Larry Wish (real name Adam Werven) is prepared to open his own shoppe.

Bumpy! Bumpy! Bumpy!

GRAND OPENING! Soooooo what’s for sale? Werven has opened up the personal vaults and dusted cobwebs off some golden oldies. Three different monikers, all him (what a prank!). Here’s what we got…

 

Bumpy 01: “The Mouth is the Most Promising” ~ Larry Wish & His Guys

Bumpy No. 1 is “The Mouth is the Most Promising”, the 2nd album by Larry Wish & His Guys. Originally recorded in 2012 in the basement of the Organ Haus in Minneapolis, MN by producer/engineer Steve Earnest, this album showcases Larry Wish & His Guys at their most playful and erratic. These songs are often a strange blend of lulling calm & frenetic energy with the band expressing humor and dramatic emotion around each twist and turn. For this special reissue, “The Mouth is the Most Promising” has been remastered and pro-dubbed in a limited run of 100 high-bias chrome cassettes. Bumpy is excited to have “The Mouth is the Most Promising” as the very first in our catalogue!

 

Bumpy 02: “Kiosk” ~ Used Condo

Bumpy No. 2 is a truly bizarre work indeed. “Kiosk” by Used Condo is the soundtrack to a fictional video game of the same name. In “Kiosk”, one explores an abandoned shopping mall that happens to be under the duress of demonic oppression. The soundtrack reflects the overwhelming nature of this concept as a constantly swirling tapestry of popular music samples, tape loops, electronic gurgles, and plenty of other sounds that never seem to sit still. We are proud to offer “Kiosk” on high bias chrome cassettes for optimum quality listening.

 

Bumpy 03: “Humanoid Humanoid Humanoid Humanoid, Four Humanoids” ~ mangoSleeves

Bumpy No 3. is “Humanoid Humanoid Humanoid Humanoid, Four Humanoids” by mangoSleeves, which was an alias used by Adam Werven before choosing the name Larry Wish. “Four Humanoids” is a progressive bedroom pop album originally recorded in 2008 and can be considered as the first Larry Wish album. This fledgling release comes with a big range. On one end, there are light moments that breathe easy in simple and lulling melody. On the other end, there are dark moments of intensity where one is left wondering if there is light at the end of the tunnel. There is a recurring theme of searching on this final mangoSleeves album; searching for home, love, & identity. We are excited to have remastered this special gem, and are proud to present it to you in an edition of 100 pro-dubbed high-bias chrome cassettes.

 

Wow, it’s like a genie granted us all three Larry Wishes. All tapes are pro-dubbed, all tapes are editions of 100, all tapes are basically necessary unless you want to feel like a fool. You don’t want to feel like a fool, do you? Not in front of BUMPY! Head on over to their HQ and buy.

Tape Label or Weed Strain?
4.20.18 by Mike Haley

If you’re one of these turkeys that listens to “experimental musics” cassette tapes then you must be a real figgin’ outsider – A true WEIRDO living on the god damn fringes of society. Being such a deviant, you must also be POUNDING one-hitters of that primo wacky-green to the dome on the daily. Reeeeeeeal sticky stuff. But are you so far gone that you can’t even friggin’ distinguish between cassettes and cannabis anymore!? Take our annual 4/20 Tape Label or Weed Strain quiz and find out.

[WpProQuiz 6]

Tingo Tongo: What We Know
4.9.18 by Mike Haley

Zingo Zongo, Vingo Vongo, Tingo Tongo. On the surface it all seems like nonsense, but pick a bit at the scab and get deeper down in there. You’ll see that it’s all still mostly nonsense… Let’s leave the Zingo and the Zongo and the Vingo and the Vongo be for the moment and focus on Tingo Tongo. What do we know?

Tingo Tongo appears to be a cassette label, but one that issues tapes the way a blender without it’s lid issues smoothies. They are, in a very real sense, a mess. A very specific mess operating totally below any known radar with the elegance and attitude of a wet sloppy joe. Their awkwardness is, of course, extremely lovable. Tingo exists in the rawest of zones. One where on-point techno and the audio from Freddy Got Fingered get issued in one swoop. With a MS Paint designed logo and tapes that are sometimes vacuum sealed Tingo Tongo have a hefty catalog while sporting a single-entry Discogs page (aka: barely a Discogs page). They also received this handsome review from Cassette Gods.

Who runs the label?
Mike Meanstreetz
Zack Vidal
NAME

Where are they from?
Southern California

“We like to make things difficult.” Zack Vidal said of the operation. “In the day and age of the computer life it’s pretty easy to find the complex emotional expressions and the painfully personal subjective obscurities of our modern society. With something like tapes, and DIY experimentation – to buy/consume media in the physical, to hunt and search the racks, dig through the crates, finding something that screams at you – that is part of the ephemera which fuels this growing interest in the experimental .”

Their Bandcamp page is sparse, as if everyone forgot the password for it (try “password69”) and couldn’t get new releases up, but it’s still loaded with goodies. Poopdood (think about that name for a minute) and Igor Amokian split a tape that sounds like a collection of beats that ate bad rest stop fish. Like, landlocked rest stop fish.

Who are some of the artist they have released tapes by?

BagLady
Bobby London
Bonus Beast
Burnt Dot
BUTTMUNCH
CMMZMMMG
Conrad Burnham
D.O.T.W.C.
Fenkoff
Igor Amokian
JESSOP & CO.
Joanna Swan
Johnny Baxter
k^ren
Name
Nothing Band
Parallax Beach
PRESENT
Psychic Eyeclix
poopdood
Squim
STADIUM
Teeth Gnashers
TENDHER
Unoperator
WHEREAS

Their Bandcamp may be somewhat trim, but the Soundcloud is burstin’ at the seams, clocking in at 167 tracks of tapes, live tracks, mixes, and who-knows-whats. Oh, and I’ve found out how to buy these tapes! And it’s super simple. Here are the instructions listed on their Soundcloud page:

BUY SOME TAPES BUY SOME TAPES BUY SOME TAPES BUY SOME TAPES BUY SOME TAPES BUY SOME TAPES BUY SOME TAPES BUY SOME TAPES BUY SOME TAPES BUY SOME TAPES BUY SOME TAPES BUY SOME TAPES TINGOTONGOTAPES@GMAIL.COM

So there. Email them I guess? Perhaps the mood will strike you and you’ll want to BUY SOME of this here War Hippy tape!? Give it a shot.

A swell place to land this puppy is the Tingo Tongo Youtube page where you’ll find a few music vidz. But the real money there is the animation that rivals the classic Skull Trumpet thing. Void of audio and only a few seconds long… promos I guess? I don’t know, but it’s just occurring to me now that Tingo Tongo IS the Skull Trumpet thing. They entertain and don’t give a fuck. That is what we know. Vingo Viva Tingo Tongo!

MSHR share new video/tape/universe
4.6.18 by Mike Haley

With mediums and methods that pin prick reality, Brenna Murphy and Birch Cooper have been building virtual worlds of sounds and visuals, specifically under the name MSHR, for seven years. In addition to immersive VR situations, MSHR make circuit-burning analog noise. Some of which will be on a cassette titled “Phased Trance Constructions,” released 4/20 (ya know, the weed day!) via Unifactor.

Murphy and Cooper have produced a video featuring their unique 3D modeling for the track Wave Guide Edifice. Structures and items that appear to have been forged from glass candy rotate with a mesmerizing purpose. Pinning down their intended use is impossible – decoration? shelter? mind control? ALL THREE!? Either way, the sounds embrace the visuals, the visuals embrace the sounds, and the user is sucked in. Watch the vid above and see what I’m saying…

Preorders for “Phased Trance Constructions” are up now, along with new jams by Christian Mirande and Headband. Each an edition of 100 copies.

 

Cartoon Forest – self-titled
3.22.18 by Mike Haley

At the age of nine or so I decided that I must know what was inside of an Etch-A-Sketch. I quickly devised a brilliant plan: I would smash it with a hammer. To dull the sound I covered the Etch-A-Sketch with a cushion from my parents couch and BAM! Whacked the sucker, heard it crack, gangbusters. Turns out it was filled with aluminum powder. Also turns out that aluminum powder set free from it’s protective case is like dealing with loose spray paint. The cushion looked like a unicorn did a runny silver diarrhea on it. I disposed of the broken Etch-A-Sketch, put the cushion back on the couch, explosion side down, and the stain was never mentioned. Ever.

We don’t get off so easy with Cartoon Forest. Instead of an Etch-A-Sketch, Wooly Willy has been ruptured. It clearly states on the packaging that Wooly’s magnetic dust is to be used to draw three things:

• Whiskers
• Hair
• Eyebrows

Those rules are not being followed here. From the sounds of it, the magnetic dust is experimenting with digestion for the first time. A dangerous move, considering Wooly Willy hasn’t had a body since being created in 1955. Instead of uni brows and mustaches it’s forming ascending colons and gallbladders. Heavy chunks of noise protein break into amino acids as loops degrade. Dilloway devotees know this zone well — A haunting series of celiac cycles closing in on you. The feeling of wearing a bug’s shell. Cartoon Forest ooze right into those degenerative duties. I’m not a detective, but I think it’s safe to assume that plenty of tape manipulation was going down in Edinboro, PA the night this was all recorded.

Who is Cartoon Forest you may or may not have asked?

Ryan Emmett – Co-zoner for White Reeves Productions. His old band, Hunted Creatures, used to send me cute Xmas cards and I suspect he “inhales” if you catch my drift.

Eric Messerall – I don’t know who this is, but if you google their name the Twitter acct @fartsarejazz comes up.

Michael Skz – In addition to Cartoon Forest Michael put out a tape under the name Earth/Vessel. Also his last name has no vowels.

I don’t know who is the Whiskers, Hair, and Eyebrows of the group, but I hope to find out one day.

Cartoon Forest is for ages 5 thru adult. Buy a copy before they are bye-bye.