[. . (].: s/t tape (Chained Library, 2014) + Co-Habitant: s/t tape (Chained Library, 2014)

December 3, 2014 at 10:45 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

[. . (].: s/t tape

From the ashes of now-defunct Chicago label Tailings comes the first two tapes on its founder’s new label Chained Library. The first one has an ever-so-cryptic unpronounceable moniker, and starts mid-seance with a brief eerie synth intro. After that, the tape features a series of hypnotic synth patterns which loop endlessly and only change ever-so-slightly. The first one has a staccato, almost harpsichord-like feel to it, and the others are more spiraling and shadowy. The fifth track is a pair of overlapping arpeggios which are slightly out of phase with each other, reminiscent of Lorenzo Senni’s “pointillist trance” experiments. The B-side opens with an eerie echo-heavy organ loop that can’t help but remind me of Dr. Octagon’s “Waiting List”, but minus the beats and with even more of a low-budget horror feel, so that’s totally awesome. After that is another series of haunting echo-covered patterns, with B4 sounding probably the most like a potential horror movie theme. The tape ends with kind of a sour sadface loop, bringing an incredible tape to a morose end.

Co-Habitant: s/t tape

The other tape (also by the label’s founder) comes to us under the name Co-Habitant. This one has more eerie minimalist horror-theme loops, and at first there seems to be a bit more variation in the notes, but then it seems to get more repetitive. The first side only has 3 tracks, and the last one is a long BoC-ish synth sound. The second side has some crackly, grainy loops, alternating between shorter bits and longer loops, for 4 tracks in total.

Leave a Comment »

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

The Answer Is In The Beat