Tabs Out | A Look at the Strategic Tape Reserve

A Look at the Strategic Tape Reserve
2.18.18 by Mike Haley

In 2003 Eamon Hamill left behind New Jersey and it’s 29 turnpike exits and headed for Prague to teach English. By 2012 Hamill was living in Cologne, Germany where he started the “non-aligned, secular organization” Strategic Tape Reserve. STR is a confusing lil’ joy that sometimes feels more like a moving box full of basement-lived VHS tapes than a cassette label. Even their logo has control track damage. The tapes look like they smell mossy and are described with ceremonial chunkiness: “In full compliance with most international regulations in relation to the trafficking of ferrous materials,” Hamill wrote of the label’s first release “the Strategic Tape Reserve is now able to disseminate its inaugural commercial offering, The Modern Door Live cassette album.”

The micro-cryptic presentation makes it reasonable to wonder what, if anything, are dubbed on these incredibly small editions. Which isn’t an accident of course. “I kind of want [Strategic Tape Reserve] to be disparate and surprising and maybe even sometimes not always likeable (though, hopefully, usually likeable).” Hamill said of the purposeful blurriness. “Also, I guess I sometimes try to present STR with a somewhat boring and sinister authoritarian vibe, just because that sort of comes out and I find it funny.”

The Strategic Tape Reserve guardedly presents the recordings from our recreation of the Efficient Processes for Synthetic Funk clinical trials. EPfSF was a Cold War-era research project which attempted to standardize low-input production methods for generating asymmetrical rhythms with military applications.

Full Efficient Processes for Synthetic Funk research paper:
www.strategictapereserve.de/p/blog-page.html

In addition to releases that include The Modern DoormoduS ponY, and Mr. & Mrs. Chip Perkins, Eamon Hamill uses STR as an outlet for his own work as Emerging Industries of Wuppertal and VLK. “Avril and Sean in Camden,” a C57 from VLK released in 2017, is a torturous tiny slab made exclusively out of processed Avril Lavigne and Sean Hannity samples. “The Avril and Sean tape was a cathartic soul cleansing some 15 years after being stuck in a car in Camden listening to nothing but Avril Lavigne and Sean Hannity.” This all reminds me: Hannity never came through with his promise to be waterboarded. Someone remind him.

In the summer of 2004, VLK undertook temporary employment which primarily involved being a passenger in a car that was driven around Camden, New Jersey. Though the job description was undemanding, it arose that a key responsibility for this role was to engage the driver/employer in conversation, thus enhancing the work environment (a Toyota Camry). Regretfully, it became soon evident to both parties that this personal objective would not be achieved, and the driver, activating his contingency plan, put into use his preferred auditory stimuli, i.e. conservative talk radio broadcasts and the glove compartment’s lone compact disk, Avril Lavigne’s Let’s Go. In Camden, the birthplace of modern convenience food, the home of the first Church of Scientology, a city beset by the poverty and crime not uncommon in post-industrial American small cities, VLK spent two months in silent shotgun, bombarded with the pleas from Lavigne and Hannity for simple answers to the increasingly complicated world outside of the Camry’s windows.

Strategic Tape Reserve can and should be found on the dotcom, Bandcamp, and Twitter.

Tabs Out | Max Eilbacher’s Strange Electronic Music Valentine

Max Eilbacher’s Strange Electronic Music Valentine
2.14.18 by Mike Haley

Valentine’s Day is a day for doing romance, and snuggles, and smooches, and synth scrambles, and – WAIT, WHAT!? Synth scrambles?! On Valentine’s Day!? That doesn’t sound right. Who would do that?

Well, it’s this Max Eilbacher character. Max Eilbacher isn’t interested in warm cuddles by the Netflix fireplace. On this, the Feast of Saint Valentine, Max announced a “self released” electronic music tape called *let me check my notes* “Electronic Music Tape.” A grating, hour-long loner experience recorded in 2016 and 2017 “at various studios, green rooms, the back of a few tour vans throughout Europe and my parent’s basement.” Max can make a synth sound like a worn down strip of leather or outlawed bleach cleaners, and he spends 60 raw minutes procrastinating between those options on this savage and strange Valentine’s gift.

Roses are red.
Kevin Spacey was in K-PAX.
There will be 50 copies made.
Preorder one direct from Max.

Tabs Out | Fabrica’s “Idle Chatter” Series Plows On with Second Installment

Fabrica’s “Idle Chatter” Series Plows On with Second Installment
2.9.18 by Mike Haley

 

Fabrica Records kicked off their Idle Chatter series in 2016 with a triple cassette featuring Gambletron, NaEE RoBErts, and Wren Turco called “Transparens.” The idea was to have an artist – in this case Wren Turco – choose two other artist to share the release with. Wren Turco described her thinking behind the curation:

“For this series, I chose powerful, diverse, female contributions by artists producing interdisciplinary work in the fields of audio and visual composition. Gambletron and NaEE RoBErts are two individuals that I feel are breaking boundaries in these fields and I am so honored to be working with them. The artwork was created from a sequence of transparent sculptural projections that gradually mutate in motion. The three images used were taken from a current project I’m working on entitled, ‘Jelly Sins.”

Preorders are up now for the second installment, “Held There, Beside The Signified.” Mkl Anderson handles the draft this time around and contributes under his long-haul moniker Drekka. Drekka recordings go back to the late 90’s and have been released on labels like Dais, Auris Apothecary, and his own Bluesanct operation. Anderson went with Pillars And Tongues and Skrei to round out this haunting triple tape. Samples suggest an uphill battle, one that requires stamina and dedication. Plenty of nagging echos and knee-deep mud slides happening during these long-playing tracks. Drekka, for example, lays out 3 dozen minutes of “sound palindromes.” Coupling that with Mark Trecka, Evan Hydzik, Ben Babbitt and Beth Remis’ panoramic Pillars And Tongues work and Giuseppe Capriglione abrasive ambiance as Skrei makes Idle Chatter a marathon, not a jog.

100 copies will be made. Preorders are up now with a release show scheduled for 2/25 @ Trans Pecos in NYC (aka “Big Apples”).

Tabs Out | Shedding – Plod and Play, Vol.2

Shedding – Plod and Play, Vol.2
2.7.18 by Mike Haley

“The library investigator’s name is actually Bookman?”
“It’s true.”
“That’s amazing. That’s like an ice cream man named Cone.”

-Kramer and the Librarian, in “The Library

My goodness what I would give for Kramer to BURST into my house while listening to Shedding’s “Plod and Play, Vol.2” on Obsolete Staircase. We’d probably start off with a classic back and forth about what an obsolete staircase could possibly be. That would naturally segue to his plans for levels (you know, like ancient Egypt). But the award winning chatter would come when I was asked what tape was playing…

“It’s called Shedding.”
“Shedding? Who is that?”
“Connor Bell.”
“Connor Bell!? The person who is conjuring bells here is actually named Connor Bell?”
“It’s true.”
“That’s amazing. That’s like a harsh noise man named Wall.”

We’d have so many freakin’ laughs, us two, but Kramer would have made a decent point. “Plod and Play, Vol.2” is a god damn, full-on cornucopia of bells! An errant gravy of small to tall, softly hewed, and slightly rusty bells that make magic *pops* and deeeeep doooooown *plooooooms* with crypto precision. Oh how they plod and play! Shedding shows no shortage when it comes to bells – There are bushy-tailed ones, straight out of the factory, yet to experience stress or strain. With swagger they go by church steeples, pointing and giggling as they sound off with their perky byte-sized bursts. Clunky old timers show up, too. All stout and tired. They mostly make dusty echos and pretend that their flaccid clappers are capable of more than barely chafing their mouths. It’s pathetic to witness, but makes for an excellent backdrop of sound. I think the Liberty Bell even makes an appearance towards the last few minutes of each side. Poor bastard.

The bells may not be real bells, but the tones are, and they’re spectacular. Connor Bell puts these tones through impressive drills. I don’t think Seinfeld ever did an episode about bells, but if they ever do – “Plod and Play, Vol.2” should replace the between-scenes music. Go get a copy!!

Tabs Out | New Batch – Constellation Tatsu

New Batch – Constellation Tatsu
2.5.18 by Mike Haley

The levels of chill Constellation Tatsu‘s winter batch enjoy are, quite frankly, dangerous and irresponsible. This amount of chill could terrorize a small town of simple folk. Hell, it could probably sway a decently populated country (let’s say Latvia) to switch it’s currency to crystals, or the national anthem to a Terry Riley VHS. C.Tatsu doesn’t care though. They’ve done this sort of thing before, and surely will do it again. Unabashed they released their winter batch of four tapes. So, Latvians, say goodbye to singing Dievs, svētī Latviju.

Rose and Hakobune, who both sweat out watercolor on their tapes like they are wringing towels, are returning members to the Tatsu catalog, as are Celer and Forest Management, who collaborate this time around on the immersive narrative “Landmarks.” A description of the recording reads:

“Collaborating for the first time, Will Long and John Daniel combine their methods using tape machines, loops, and computers to score a reimagining of Peter Weir’s film and Paul Theroux’s novel “The Mosquito Coast”. Sourcing inspiration from a view of the film and book as a historical pendulum, the musicians found that these reinterpretations left them nostalgic for a different time, something that’s only partly imagined, and without the defined predictions about the life cycles of mass culture based on our limited understanding of current events.”

Memorygarden禅 puts a plastic beach chair into full recline with their Tatsu debut “districtアトランティス.” I’m sure the rest of the batch would love to raz the newcomer, but who has the energy for that???

“Can the chill be TOO CHILL!?” he asked, holding back tears. Find out: The winter batch is only $16ppd (!!!) and you’d be the most unchill idiot if you didn’t buy them all right now.

Tabs Out | The Anti-Cassettes of Auris Apothecary

The Anti-Cassettes of Auris Apothecary
2.1.18 by Mike Haley

Generally speaking a desired feature with cassette tapes is that they are easily playable. A dowsing of variants exist, but ideally someone producing a cassette would use high grade magnetic tape, employ real-time or professional duplication, and pack that sucker in a fresh Norelco case. Nowhere during that process would rotten meat or sand make an appearance. Those materials are far from industry standards (I checked). The cassette industry newsletter must have went straight to Auris Apothecary‘s spam folder. Ooops! The Indiana-based label has a long and strong catalog traversing the freeway of possible formats: vinyl, CDr, runs of NES OST tapes, floppy discs, reel-to-reels, etc… They also have a reputation of taking the exit ramp and voyaging the roads far less traveled. The ones paved with rotten meat and sand. I’m talking about anti-cassettes.

Traditionally, anti-cassettes are tapes designed to be impossible to play, or at the very least, a major fucking chore. Auris Apothecary did not invent the format, but have most definitely matured it into a thoughtful art/mind/music experimentation. “Anti-cassettes to us represent a way to implement tangible manifestations of abstract concepts.” said label guru Dante Augustus Scarlatti. “Multiple layers of ideas are embedded into every facet of them, from the audio content and the title, to the artwork and the alteration. Almost every piece of anti-releases are cohesively created and directly tied into one another, rather than simply being a collection of new songs or a random musical object that’s been senselessly destroyed.”

Luckily their plans to use spoiled meat as packaging got canned, along with other bonker blueprints like an ant farm anti-cassette. Sand got the green light in 2010 with AA’s inaugural anti-cassettes Unholy Triforce’s ‎”Sandin’ Yr Vagina.” The plugged-up tapes were filled to the brim with sand, labeled with a vintage label maker, and packaged in an emery clothe (basically sand paper) Ocard. “To this day it’s our most destructive release, musically and conceptually, as it can destroy the machine it’s played in and makes a mess wherever it goes.” If you ask me, anyone attempting to play a tape full of sand deserves to have their deck gnarled up. Dante Augustus Scarlatti has a rosier view. “We very much want people to figure out a way to play back the music contained on our anti-releases. We meticulously test for and can guarantee the salvageability of the audio content for every copy, despite how they may appear.”

Standards are just shy of using a cleanroom and wearing one of those full-body suits (booties to hood style) for their anti-cassette process. While working on “Siberiliszt Inferno” by Unholy Triforce in 2015, a cassette that was literally melted – Melted! – caution was taken not to touch the tape reels. Imagine getting a molten ball of tape and thinking “Let me make sure no one touched the reels!” Up to 71 people may have done that.

Prototypes for the “Baptism” anti-cassette C30 by Rob Funkhouser ran into a unique snag when the water that the tapes were submerged in became cloudy from rust. “We removed the metal and felt pieces” Dante said of the solution, noting an attempt to avoid “compromising the magnetic materials.” That helicopter parenting is what sections off Auris Apothecary’s anti-cassettes from something like “Wind Licked Dirt” by The Haters, an anti-cassette released by Hanson that is played by rubbing it in dirt. Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

“Some are harder than others to play back, but none of them are impossible, and they all contain unique music written for the release. Viewing them as “art objects” and never listening is like owning a book for the cover art but never reading it.” The level of difficulty ranges from beginner to expert. If you only feel comfortable toweling off hot sauce and unfurling 50 square feet of aluminum foil, you’re in luck. Maybe you want to tackle a sonic-welded (no screws) tape with toothless spools. Go for it! Or just put the entire damn thing together yourself.

A full archive of Auris Apothecary’s anti-cassettes can be accessed through this anti-link: L#-_I}}][}{\N.k

Tabs Out | First Terrace Records releases the multifaceted stunner “Compilation 2”

First Terrace Records releases the multifaceted stunner “Compilation 2”
1.26.18 by Mike Haley

Let’s say a friend is telling you a story about, I don’t know, going to Whole Foods for avocado water or whatever. If during that story they offhandedly mention that Huey Lewis was there shopping for chestnut kefir spread I would call them out for burying the lede. The avocado water story, no matter how interesting, becomes meaningless when The News (lol) is now 100% Huey.

First Terrace Records buried the lede with “Compilation 2.” And boy did they pile the dirt on.

The image above shows off the compilation’s exceptional packaging and contents. The gold embossed box with prints and a zine looks like something you would see attached to the article “Woman discovers original Basquiat journal in cigar box.” The curation is flawless. You can stream all thirteen tracks if you don’t trust me for some reason. Even if you do trust me, listen to them anyway for a frothy lathering of damaged energy and a hard-won out of body bubble bath.

BUT the real story here: The runtime of “Compilation 2” is 68 minutes long. Just one minute shy of a very VERY funny number of minutes. Start off with that, then get into how fucking amazing this thing is. That tip is free for First Terrace. The tape will cost you, but it’s worth it.

Tabs Out | Cinchel – A Sad Study in Temporal Dissonance

Cinchel – A Sad Study in Temporal Dissonance
1.23.18 by Mike Haley

I’m onto you Cinchel. *cracks knuckles*
I’ve figured out your little game. *cracks neck*
I see what you’re trying to do. *cracks all seven Chakras*

“A Sad Study in Temporal Dissonance,” Cinchel’s latest for the Patient Sounds label, is a trap. A sunken trench covered in fall leaves, misleading young lovers, hikers, and cassette reviewers to early termination with the assurance of radiant golds and magentas. The nine track subterfuge (which clocks in at a hour btw) starts off with bells. BELLS! It seems obvious now, gazing up to the light from the bottom of a deep ditch Cinchel has dug, that the bells were pure enticement. Why would the sound of ceremonious bells even be wafting about like an unignorable aroma anyways? But, you know what they say – hindsight is 4/20. Now I’m trapped in a pit.

Every song on “A Sad Study” doesn’t begin sugary sweet only to dilate into a ravine of darkness, but it would be good form to assume that the next gum up of good times is always on it’s way. The smooth sailing guitar, electronics, and BELLS! It all crumbles with time. I guess that’s just life though; A sequence of attempting not to fall in ditches mixed with falling in ditches.

I managed to get a message out to Cinchel asking him to explain his intentions with this devious shit, and to please send supplies. His response:

“The tape is meant to mimic the arc of life: birth to death. Each song explores how events in a life are in a constant balance between happy/sad, optimism/pessimism.”

No supplies were included.

I applaud Cinchel for his work on this tape. The angelic avalanches and cruel certainty are like oil and water, end-to-end saturating the recording. Cinchel is one of the few “drone people” (if that means anything?) that refuses to bore and “A Sad Study in Temporal Dissonance” is an excellent sounding/looking tape. I just wish he would help me out of this hole… Maybe you’ll join me!?

Tabs Out | Norelco Mori announces preorder for “Compilation 001”

Norelco Mori announces preorder for “Compilation 001”
1.19.18 by Mike Haley

Well, well, well. What in the hell do we have here? It looks like the Tabs Out archenemy, rival cassette podcast Norelco BORI, has done cooked themselves up a niiiiice looking cassette compilation for the new Norelco Mori Limited label. Wouldn’t it be a shame if something nasty were to happen to it? Something like, I don’t know, a REAL COOL cassette podcast pulling a huge prank and dubbing over all 100 copies with Donkey Lips sound clips just as Ted ButTler finished dubbing them in real time on chrome cassettes. I’m not saying it’s gonna happen, I’m just saying it COULD happen. Yeah, dub right over all 11 tracks from b.lind, øjeRum, Desroi, Grozny Penthouse, Head Dress, Lower Tar, Con Cetta, Tom Hall, Sleep Clinic, Grøn, and even this little ditty by Sequences.

That would be hilarious. And to be honest, people would probably like “Compilation 001″even more with a zany twist like that. And can we talk about the name?! “Compilation 001” is what you’re going with? That’s it? Here’s some low hanging fruit to bite into, Ted: “Compilation 069.” You taste those juices? That’s a name like that will drive these preorders through the friggin ROOF. So heads up, Head Dress. Get your act together.

Tabs Out | Sport3000- Clearance Sale

Sport3000- Clearance Sale
1.17.18 by Mike Haley

The Swiss financial services holding company Credit Suisse has predicted that upwards of 25% of US malls (roughly 275 shopping centers) will close in the next five years. That is on top of the landscape of skeletal boxes, or dead malls, currently rotting across the country. For every 100 Americans there are 2,353 square feet of shopping center space, which makes less and less sense in a reality where a person can grab bacon, lasers, and DJ equipment for their cat all from the comfort of a sad, but convenient couch.

I was talking with my dad not long ago and the conversation, of course, went to his youth. Nothing is more special to a boomer than a boomer’s coming of age… Beatles and shit. He’s going on about how there used to be stores around the neighborhood. “People could walk to all the local stores and get whatever they needed, but not anymore, they’re all gone.” Yeah, you did that. You replaced the local Main or Market or whatever the street was in that particular town with standardized zones of acquisition. Don’t get me wrong, malls were stone cold cool to hang out at as a kid, shiiiiii.  But that’s probably it for em, huh? In use for but a few decades, malls are now essentially time capsules. The cities remain dry and malls are downgraded to museums of spent neon and plastic trees from the worst era of plastic trees. Pretty cool, right? Perhaps one day they’ll become capitols for the various post-nuclear survivor factions who use expired Kohl’s Cash as currency. Here is an artist rendering of what that might look like:

Sport3000, who does something silly with the font of course, is a person, or people, or line of code with a bad case of mall-brain. The blurry-eyed lounge drip of “Clearance Sale” goes thirteen tracks deep, setting out to narrate the life and death of a department store, and absolutely nailing that objective. The opener,30,000 Square Meters, is fresh and welcoming -The floors are buffed so well they look like you could ice skate on them. Piles of sweaters and husky boy slacks are displayed in precise piles like a Navy man folded them. Generally, the first half of the tape is extremely chill. The security cameras are still running, all the registers are working, etc…  Each track on the front end walks us through another department, Cosmetics & Beauty sounding particularly popping, even visiting a restaurant on the top floor. How fancy. With majorly impressive form, Sport3000 vacuumed the DNA of a fictional high-end shopping mall and it’s decline. Speaking of the decline… By the time we reach the title track Clearance Sale there is a guy holding a huge arrow sign outside. “80% off!” “Final Day!” Not only does the malsoft vibe begin to languish into depression, buffering glitches and long moments of silence stick the the back end tracks. Carl the guard isn’t monitoring the security footage anymore. Hell, the cameras haven’t worked in months. Lollipops from Halloween promotions stick to every possible surface, including the mannequins, who can even feel the end coming. Everything must go!

Closed Forever.

Adhesive Sounds only made 25 copies of this tape! Hurry up and buy one from them or Burlington Coat Factory.