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Fossils – Memory Box Vol.1
5.22.15 by Mike Haley

I’m sure no one owns the entire Fossils discography. The whacked Canadian unit has pumped out hundreds upon hundreds of cassettes, CDrs, lathes, and records over the past 10+ years, some with preposterously microscopic edition sizes. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if there is a Fossils 3xC92 with zine floating about that is limited to a single copy. “Memory Box Vol.1” isn’t THAT absurd, but at a dozen copies is still total Fossil-style.

What started out as a tongue in cheek “best of” collection morphed into Poor Little Music‘s (and eventual Fossils member) Rob Michalchuk digging through stacks of his own Fossils recordings. Ones he made himself with camcorders, tape decks, and cellphones. Over a few months Michalchuk combed through hours of material to come up with this “Memory Box Vol.1” anthology, which he refers to in the liner notes as recordings “seen from my perspective as a spectator and as a player in Fossils”. The overall fidelity is varied, as one could imagine, spread out over a 60 and a 92 minute long tape. That’s a hair over two and a half hours of moldy basement noise. The two tapes come packaged in a wooden box (splattered in paint, because duh) along with a bunch of inserts of photographs and show flyers.

Legit weirdos can order copies now from Poor Little Music. Sample the cut Greenebelt below.

Bookend Recordings Calls For Field Recordings
5.13.15 by Mike Haley

If you’re reading anything on this site, then chances are you’re a bit of a die hard cassette enthusiast. Meaning a wee bit of explanation is probably necessary… So, on the other side of that door is something people refer to as the “outside”. It’s like the inside, only different. It looks different (there aren’t tapes stacked up everywhere), it smells different (for better or worse, depending on where you live), and most importantly to what I’m about to tell you, it SOUNDS different. Tweeting is done by birds, sans character limits. Nature does what comes natural to it. Humans and non-humans scurry about. All constantly producing an audible array that through it’s repetition and routine goes unnoticed. But capture those everyday sounds with a recorder and play them back out of their element, and suddenly you hear previously ignored textures, buzz, and stillness. The charm of the field recording.

Tanner Garza knows what’s up. He’s currently putting together a field recording only cassette compilation on his Houston-based label Bookend Recordings and has an open call for submissions. Here are the details:

• All sources must be field recordings you have made yourself. No other sound sources, please.
• Light processing of sorts will be tolerated, but I ask that it be kept minimal. (Cut up techniques and physical manipulations if working with magnetic tape is absolutely fine)
• Tracks should be no longer than 7 minutes and in WAV format.
• Please have an artist name, track name, when, and where recorded specifically attached to track submitted.
• I will be accepting submissions for 1 ½ to 2 months.
• Everything will be listened to and artists that are chosen will be contacted.

Interested? You have about two months (around mid-July) to get your submission over to bookendrecordings@gmail.com. Godspeed.

Decoherence Enters The Cassette World
5.7.15 by Mike Haley

Brooklyn-based Decoherence Records is a damn fine label. It’s a relatively new operation that has released two killer LPs (by tape contortionists Form A Log and mind-zappers Mincemeat or Tenspeed) and a 7″ from label head MP Lockwood’s Radio Shock project. All are currently available. All are awesome sounding. All are awesome looking. Yes, all is awesome, but no tapes!? Why no tapes?! You fucking tell me why no tapes right fucking n… What’s that? Ahhhhhh, TAPES! And just like that Decoherence dips their big hairy toe into the pool of cassette peddlers. Up for order at this moment, officially “out” on the 12th of May, are Deco’s first two cassette releases by the underground/in the sewers acts Some Pepper and Sunk Heaven.

Some Pepper is a Philadelphia resident listed in the label description only as Daby (sorta like Cher or Beavis). My only taste testing of Daby’s work was a crazy good tape released a couple of years back on Refulgent Sepulchre where he/her/it belched out crude, unfurling electronics aplenty. The sampling offered up from this here “Nightshades” hour long cassette is very promising indeed. Using “busted consumer electronics and neglected sound gear” Some Pepper stacks and packs crumbly sounds that over stretches of time develop into confused rhythms and mutant melodies.

Sunk Heaven is the solo effort of Austin Julian, who’s name you may or may not recognize from The Sediment Club. Going down a similar road as batch-mate Some Pepper, Sunk Heaven mixes musicality with irrationality, but with a more of a creepy-crawly, trapped in the basement without clean water vibe. Gurgling “guitars”, moldy mics amplifying the environment/a perplexed voice, and random bursts are at the forefront on “Mirrored Confines”. I can’t tell if he is breaking things down or building them up, but I like it either way.

Like I said earlier, when you should have been paying attention, you can order both of these tapes now for seven bones a pop. Both pro-dubbed and lookin’ fine. Head on over to Decoherence and do so, okay!?

Bary Center – Endless High
4.28.15 by Mike Haley

With the exception of winning a round of Plinko on The Price Is Right, the simplest way to get a free weekend stay in La La Land is a deep listening sesh with some MJMJ Records releases. MJMJ, or Michael Jordan Michael Jordan, or TWO Michael Jordans (which is equal to 7.3 Scottie Pippens if you were wondering about the math) is an imprint out of Minnesota that peppers the world with rascally, techno-tinged, sanguine musics. They just put out a new stinger, so pack your brain bags, let’s take a trip.

The latest MJMJ offering comes from Bary Center. Bary Center, or Mark Williams as it says on official government documents, cruises through canorous canals of crisp BPMs on “Endless High”. Three tracks are portioned out over the half hour listening affair, with time allotted for both energetic joy rides and murky meandering. Remember Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? Ferris was so gosh darn stoked to be skipping school, chilling with his best mates. He, Sloane, and Cameron killed it all day at baseball games and museums and shit, pretending to be Sausage Kings of Chicago and what not. The world was their oyster. But then things got sorta grim, and Cameron booted his pop’s ’61 Ferrari GT out a window. That high-high-low situation is depicted fairly well on Rung, Falling Down, and lastly Endless High. I wonder if Bary Center has any of Bueller’s sick gear? Brisk buoyancy and determined snap keeps the party going for 19 or so minutes of minimal techno jamage until the title track brings things down to reality. A sparse sampling of vibey sound clips and vocals make brief appearances. Not unlike the brief appearance original Sonic Youth member Richard Edson made in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off as the parking garage attendant. #FunFact.

The five panel artwork, executed by Nico Stephou, is a rainbow of hell yeah. Seriously beautiful work. A brightly lit field of bubbly totems pattern the front, with a single piece canvasing the inside.

“Endless High” is available for the devilishly low price of $6.66.

New Batch: ((Cave)) Recordings
4.23.15 by Mike Haley

Cassette slingers ((Cave)) Recordings don’t go the bombardment route. Slowly and surely they dish out the goods, and when they do, it’s quality shit. Looks like that is once again the case for this damn fine Canadian label run by Robert Thurtle and Ben Seevers of The Ether Staircase with their first goodies of 2015. Three tapes, each pro dubbed in editions of 50 copies with ((classic)) ((Cave)) ((collage)) artwork, are now available for your listening enjoyment.

((Cave 31)) is a C46 by Winter Of The World, the duo of Ross Baker & Joaquin Rontxelius. “Coutie Tree” goes on a late-night nature walk, swirling mellow and organic elements. Field recordings, acoustic guitar, spoken word, and atmospheric crispness coalesce to get you mentally out in the elements. Bring an umbrella, some granola, plenty of water, and enough of the devil’s tobacco to get nice and cozy. WotW will handle the rest.

Sunny Dunes, a project I first heard through a dope 2013 tape on La Cohu who has been pumping out awesomeness ever since, brings 36 minutes of gliding synthesizer drills on over to the ((Cave)) crew. The samples from “Emmastaete” just hint at what is surely an animated brain buzzer, with bouncy arpeggios and seeping background interference.

A surreal lot of loops, breezy ambiance, and slow motion, reverb-submerged guitar wavering come together on the self titled C40 from Mahjoop. If you can’t feel the drift, then your head isn’t screwed on right. Get that checked out. All settings are tuned to “max relaxed” mode on this bottomless listen. Give in.

You can purchase the new ((Cave)) tapes from their store for an unreasonably cheap $5.00 (plus almost no postage). There is also a three tape deal for a cool $12, so get on that if you’re a smart shopper. I know you are.