Graham Repulski: Re-Arranged At Hotel Strange/Contaminated Man/Boy Lung 3 tape box
The Philadelphia-based electric worrier is back with a triple cassette box of blown-out fragmentary noise-freak-pop. As with everything he does, there’s an unmistakable Guided By Voices influence, but it goes beyond mere worship. Many of the tracks push the treble and static far into the red, often burying the vocals behind walls of impenetrable fuzz. Most of the tracks are incredibly short, sometimes barely even resembling an entire verse or chorus, and even if some of them just sound like brief half-thoughts caught on tape, they’re not all cut from the same cloth. There’s different levels of coherence, different combinations of tunefulness and noise, different states of development. Taken as a whole, though, it all flows into a strange, delicious mess. Deformed power-pop anthems sit beside backwards drum experiments and it all sounds bizarre and incredible. These 3 albums are basically all EP length and could probably fit on one tape just fine, but the fact that he separates them out into three distinct works shows that there’s more of a purpose to what he’s doing than just hemorrhaging out as many songs as possible. It’s hard to really determine a specific theme between each tape but they seem to have some sort of common thread. Contaminated Man is easily one of the most out-there recordings Repulski’s ever released, filled with lots of short sound experiments (one track just seems to be a faucet dripping) along with the other-dimension pop hits. “Instrumental Scott Lucas” starts out fairly strummy before ending up a torrential storm of multi-tracked, sometimes reversed gliding riffs. “The Next Great Cake” ends the tape, starting out calmly before erupting into a dramatic, drunken sing-along. Re-Arranged At Hotel Strange is a brief burst of shorted-out energy, with only one song (the ultra-catchy cardboard box thud “Dick Kicker”) exceeding 2 minutes. Boy Lung has the highest track count (16) but almost all of them are around a minute or less. It has some more sentimental moments as well as some moments of true bugged-out weirdness, such as the tape collage “Radio Surgery Hour”. “Wolfington’s War Memorabilia, Pt. I” has some sort of heart-on-sleeve ’80s radio rock melody smothered in cruddy, bashed-out drumming. This is an immense collection of strange music/sounds, and easily one of Graham’s best to date.
All of these tracks (each titled “FUCK * [#]”) were recorded in various closets or crawlspaces during the early 2000s using a memory-overloaded Yamaha sequencer. Completely off-the-wall lo-fi trashcore somewhat similar to what people like Davros and Unibomber were making on Amigas, but not quite focused on gabber kicks. Really messy and chaotic, and sometimes quite cartoonish, with sloppy sound effects and garish MIDI instrumentation. Some of it sounds like blindly stumbling around in a dungeon. It all sounds far too sporadic and un-quantized and queasy to have been made entirely on a sequencer, but it was often recorded directly to tape with the machine malfunctioning. Really creative chaos which absolutely nobody knew about at the time. On Bandcamp.
This was a free tape given away at some noise show at Far House, I can’t even remember who played the show. I don’t think any of the artists on this tape were playing, so I’m not sure how the tape got there. It took me a while to get around to listening, but it’s pretty decent. It’s somewhere between a collaboration and a compilation, side A is titled “Icarus” and side B is “Daedalus”, and each section is created by different artists. There’s some pauses in between sections, but it mostly flows pretty smoothly, so it feels like a complete work. There’s a lot of range here, a lot of it certainly fits under the category of “noise” but there’s some more suspenseful melodic droning along with the harsh noise wall, with plenty of frayed static, and some moments where vocals or instruments seem to bleed through. I can’t really decide which side I like better. Not familiar with any of the artists, but their names include Fault Worship, Absolute Hell, and Tu|pa. Available at Bandcamp.
Circles were a German band from the ’80s who put out 3 obscure albums which didn’t make much of an impact. This is a collection of unreleased material from the second half of the ’80s. It’s pretty spacey, there aren’t really drums or too much in the way of vocals. Guitar and synth drones, but it’s melodic and feels like the work of a band. “Target” has some chanting in the background, reminiscent of Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares. “Track II” is a shorter, brighter, guitar piece. “Frog Factory Magic” is a long, minimal piece for organ and some atmospheric guitars. “Digger” is probably the weirdest one, it’s god didgeridoos and free jazz horns and backwards sounds. “Slam” is a long, hypnotic piece with rattling percussion. “Nice Place” is more of a transcendent see-the-light drone. Not quite a lost classic, but it’s still pretty unique.
Sounds really promising, doesn’t it? This one seems to have disappointment and inadequacy written all over it, from the artist name to the slowed down, bummed out beats and busted out home-recorded sounds cobbled together. The beats constantly sound like they would be pretty heavy and forceful if they didn’t seem to be played off an old tape recorder which should’ve gotten a fresh change of batteries a long time ago. “Thizz Could Be Your Lucky Year (Haunted Gauntlet Mix)” is noisier and has faster, glitchy beats which almost approach drum’n’bass, but under the beats there’s a seemingly unrelated layer of clanging and crashing. The entire B-side seems like a field recording of a day spent at home chopping up sounds on the computer and playing several tapes at slow speeds, while the news and porn are playing in the background. This one’s all about that bored, bizarre Midwestern life. If that makes any sense to you, it might be worth checking this out on Bandcamp.
Hour 1
2:03 am Lubomyr Melnyk ~ “Sunset” ~ Illirion (new) ~ Sony Classical ~ 2016
2:06 am Marielle V Jakobsons ~ “The Beginning Is The End” ~ Star Core (new) ~ Thrill Jockey ~ 2016
2:11 am The Space Where She Was ~ “Stoned In Forest Park” ~ PDX (new) ~ self-released ~ 2016
2:16 am Kohwi (local) ~ “Dreams of New Zealand” ~ mp3 (new) ~ Stadiums & Shrines ~ 2016
2:24 am VHVL ~ “0008” ~ Evn (new) ~ Leaving Records ~ 2016
2:30 am Odd Nosdam ~ “Whole, Living” ~ Music For Raising (new) ~ Burnco Recs/BARO Records ~ 2016
2:37 am Wether ~ “side B” ~ Perception Shifts (new) ~ White Reeves Productions ~ 2016
2:51 am D/P/I ~ “Pattern/WAYTA?” ~ Composer (new) ~ Shelter Press ~ 2016
2:57 am Rian Treanor ~ “A1” ~ A Rational Triangle ~ The Death of Rave ~ 2015 Hour 2
3:01 am Jlin ~ “Malkina (Re-Edit)” ~ mp3 (new) ~ Soundcloud ~ 2016
3:05 am Totems ~ “The Dream is Over” ~ The Dream is Over ~ Bandcamp ~ 2014
3:11 am Career Girls ~ “Apex 45” ~ Still Hard ~ Kerosene Comic Book ~ 2015
3:15 am Mirror Fears/Solypsis ~ “Barbarella’s Hyperactive Intestines (Mirror Fears Remix)” ~ Mirror Fears // Solypsis (new) ~ tape ~ Datach’i “Omni 2” System (new) Timesig 2016
3:20 am Datach’i ~ “Omni 2” ~ System (new) ~ Timesig ~ 2016
3:23 am Anodyne ~ “The Churel” ~ Restarter-Hazard X ~ Skam ~ 2015
3:28 am Live ~ “I Alone (2x speed via YouTube)” ~ Throwing Crapper ~ Shit Towne Records ~ 1994
3:30 am Doormouse ~ “Glutecore 1 (WTW Theme)” ~ mp3 (new) ~ Bandcamp ~ 2016
3:35 am WWWINGS ft. Imaabs & Lao ~ “Pyro” ~ Phoenixxx (new) ~ Planet Mu ~ 2016
3:39 am These Hidden Hands ~ “Angkor” ~ Vicarious Memories (new) ~ Hidden Hundred ~ 2016
3:44 am FP-Oner ~ “Reap Love” ~ 6 (new) ~ Mule Musiq ~ 2016
3:51 am My Disco ~ “Our Decade (Regis Remix)” ~ 12″ (new) ~ Temporary Residence Ltd./Downwards ~ 2016
3:56 am Delroy Edwards ~ “Brothers in Arms” ~ Hangin’ At the Beach (new) ~ L.A. Club Resource ~ 2016 Hour 3
4:00 am Steven Halpern ~ “Deep Theta 6 Hz (Pt 8)” ~ Deep Theta ~ Halpern Inner Peace Music ~ 2011
4:05 am Graham Repulski ~ “side B” ~ Boy Lung (new) ~ Shorter Recordings ~ 2016
4:13 am Turnip King ~ “Dead Flowers” ~ Laika (new) ~ Fire Talk ~ 2016
4:19 am Metal Urbain ~ “Train Vrs 2” ~ Anarchy in Paris! ~ Acute Records ~ 1979
4:22 am Negative Gemini ~ “Don’t Worry Bout the Fuck I’m Doing” ~ Body Work (new) ~ 100% Electronica ~ 2016
4:27 am Steve Roach ~ “Shadow of Time” ~ Shadow of Time (new) ~ Projekt ~ 2016
4:33 am Delroy Edwards ~ “4 Club Use Only” ~ 4 Club Use Only ~ L.I.E.S. ~ 2012
4:41 am Andy Stott ~ “Numb” ~ Luxury Problems ~ Modern Love ~ 2012
4:48 am Andy Stott ~ “Damage” ~ Faith in Strangers ~ Modern Love ~ 2014
4:52 am Demdike Stare ~ “We Have Already Died” ~ Elemental ~ Modern Love ~ 2012 Hour 4
5:00 am Mala ~ “Take Flight” ~ Mirrors (new) ~ Brownswood Recordings ~ 2016
5:03 am Circles ~ “Target” ~ Structures (new) ~ Bureau B ~ 2016
5:08 am Motion Graphics ~ “Brass Mechanics” ~ 7″ (new) ~ Future Times ~ 2016
5:12 am The Body ~ “Empty Hearth” ~ All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood ~ At a Loss ~ 2010
5:16 am Whitehouse ~ “Princess Disease” ~ The Sound of Being Alive ~ Susan Lawly ~ 2001
5:19 am Khost/Justin K. Broadrick ~ “Inversion” ~ Needles Into the Ground: Deconstructed and Reconstructed by Godflesh (new) ~ Cold Spring ~ 2016
5:26 am The Dead C ~ “Four” ~ Trouble (new) ~ Ba Da Bing ~ 2016
5:31 am Echospace Plays Michael Mantra ~ “Sea Shell City” ~ Sea Shell City (new) ~ Echospace ~ 2016
5:37 am Russian Circles ~ “Mota” ~ Guidance (new) ~ Sargent House ~ 2016
5:43 am Thee Oh Sees ~ “Plastic Plant” ~ A Weird Exits (new) ~ Castle Face ~ 2016
5:49 am Exploded View ~ “One Too Many” ~ Exploded View (new) ~ Sacred Bones ~ 2016
5:54 am Ian William Craig ~ “An Ocean Only You Could See” ~ Centres (new) ~ 130701/FatCat ~ 2016
Pretty recently, I saw Solypsis play a show in Ann Arbor with a few touring artists and Watabou. At first I had no clue it was actually the Solypsis I thought it was (the one who started Digital Vomit and co-founded Couch Fort Records, and has associations with V/Vm and Goulburn Poultry Fanciers Society) because he was mistakenly billed as Solypsis Solypsis. His set was hard noisy glitchy industrial techno, and it slayed. This tape features Solypsis and fellow Denver artist Mirror Fears remixing each others’ tracks, and it is also pretty remarkable. It has its distorted beat-heavy moments, and it’s somewhat glitchy/static-y, but it’s clearly not anything approaching noise or breakcore or gabber (usually). There’s captured sounds and isolated voices, there’s louder tracks with more technoid rhythms, and there’s a few calmer, drifty pieces. There’s moments of harsh wreckage, like “First Period Gangsta Diametrics”. “Barbarella’s Hyperactive Intestines” captures a bit of loopy ’90s Millsian techno and adds lots of frayed static and a few bursts of crashing drums. “Endless Fuschia Balloon” seems like an obvious Boards of Canada homage/parody title, but the track ends up merging a stoned, jazzy drum loop with some pretty unsettling sliding synths and it ends up being uneasier than expected. Not sure if the tape’s still available but the audio is on Bandcamp.
Best known for creating an astonishing amount of breakcore and industrial techno as Bombardier, the 13th Hour, Kamphetamine, and many other names, this is Jason Snell’s venture into sparse, spacious ambient and downtempo. A little bit of a surprise considering how dark and pummeling (and often dense) most of his work is, but what isn’t really a surprise is how incredible it sounds. It equally embraces dark and light, hope and sadness. Some of it could almost fit on a Kompakt Pop Ambient compilation, but it might be the bleakest track on there. And yet it’s nothing like “dark ambient”. Whatever it is, it’s a stunning meditation on loss. (Happy birthday Jason!)
I reviewed a Wether tape for Foxy Digitalis a long time ago, and I think it remember it being pretty noisy. This isn’t really noise at all, it’s some form of synth exploration. Both sides are 15 minutes of continuous audio. It sort of ripples into rhythms, but it’s more of a controlled flow than anything close to a beat. Likewise, it’s sort of melodic, but it also seems to hint at melodies rather than explicitly playing them. It’s kind of like being inside some cool sort of Enterprise-like spaceship, and it’s under attack, but you’re too distracted by all the shiny, futuristic things inside to really be concerned. Just when it starts to get really heavy and chaotic, it switches to a slowed-down soul party. Available on Bandcamp.
The Answer Is In The Beat 