The Answer Is In The Beat

Iguana Moonlight: Wild Palms tape (Not Not Fun, 2017)

July 30, 2017 at 7:02 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

This enchanting tape features synth tones surrounding by lots of rushing waves and squawking seagulls. The synths sound lonely but also a tiny bit playful, especially in how some of the notes swoop a bit, and they bring to mind Fumio Miyashita’s early ’80s material. There’s nothing harsh or even really dark about this album, but somehow it doesn’t seem very new age. It doesn’t seem like meditation or healing music. It sounds like, well, being stuck on an island, and feeling both free and trapped. It’s celebratory but also a little scared. It’s fun overall, though.

The Spookfish: Black Hole (Fire Talk, 2017)

July 29, 2017 at 12:55 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

The mysterious Spookfish has been haunting the tape underground for years now, and this is his debut CD release. Detached, fragmentary electro-acoustic lo-fi pop which drifts in an out of lyrics and song structures. Three of the songs are included in two versions each; the acoustic verison of “Black Hole”, all lonesome Microphones-y strumming, chirping crickets, and bummed out Lou Barlow vocals, opens the album before segueing into the proper version of the song. Here, it ends up being a frazzled collage of woozy beats, bitcrunched explosions, and wayward drifting. The contrast provides a startling, fascinating look into the artist’s creative process. “Moon Viewing Road” is also preceded by an acoustic version, which takes the form of a dusty drone, before crunchy beats and gelatinous synths are added for the main version. Following the short acoustic ballad “Everything is Moving So Fast”, “Car Horn (Extended)” is a John Fahey-like solo acoustic journey which shows that this guy isn’t just about weird lo-fi indie pop. “Black Ghost with Red Eyes” is forest-dwelling indie folk with a hint of tape corrosion and minimal keyboards.

Andy Haas: Taballah II (Resonantmusic, 2017)

July 23, 2017 at 9:04 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

I honestly don’t know much about Andy Haas other than that he was in Martha and the Muffins and he’s worked with several prominent downtown NYC folk. And that he also plays the didgeridoo, but not on this album. This one has saxophone and taal tarang (an electronic tabla) as well as lots of hissy, fuzzy electronic processing. The pulsating electronics remind me of Muslimgauze a bit, but the saxophone drifts off into a different space. There’s some intense sputtering and transforming with the electronic effects here, yet it doesn’t disrupt the saxophone journeying. Sort of space-age, sort of fourth-world, even a tiny bit industrial, but definitely not like anything else.

Landing: Taeppe EP (Vast Arc Hues, 2017)

July 23, 2017 at 8:27 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Landing toured recently, but I had to miss their stop at UFO Factory because I was doing radio that night. At the very least, I can review their new EP. It’s called Taeppe, which looks like a play on “tape”, and while it is available on cassette, the title is actually Danish for blanket, and it’s it’s a suitably fuzzy, comforting mass of sound. “Page After Page” takes up the first side, and it seems to transform into a different song once the drums join the rustling guitars and billowing synths halfway through. “Tape” is a bit more ethereal, with soft vocals floating over the wistful guitar melodies. “Together” is more of a jangling (but spacey) indie rock song, bringing the elements of the group’s sound into a catchy, delightful tune.

Metria: Excession 12″ EP (Void Tactical Media, 2017)

July 23, 2017 at 8:08 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

This is the audio from a live set which took place in late 2011 in an unheated space somewhere in Detroit. I was actually at this show, and while it was super cold and uncomfortable, the music was fantastic, and unfortunately seemed like one of the final relatively big moments in the Detroit breakcore scene. At least from what I’ve seen since I moved to Michigan in 2009. Anyway, this is 20 continuous minutes of steady, lurching industrial beats and blown-out samples, which eventually get faster and more hammering. And then even more so. It never releases or backs down, it just keeps building up and getting more intense until it crashes into the wall at the end.

Canada Effervescent: Crystalline tape (Not Not Fun, 2017)

July 23, 2017 at 7:46 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Denis Tremblay’s first Not Not Fun release is richly textured new age which starts out somewhat in the Laraaji/Alice Coltrane orbit, due to its harp-like sounds, but then it progresses into more liquid, cascading synth tones, as well as field recordings. Obviously this is the entire point, but this is really relaxing, healing music. But even with that description, it seems a bit more “other” than standard new age revival. None of the tracks sound alike, and they range from brief interludes to the 10-minute cyber-rainforest which ends the album.

Christoph De Babalon: Grim Zenith 12″ EP (V I S, 2017)

July 23, 2017 at 7:06 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

The man behind DHR’s all-time greatest album is still putting out powerful music, long after his contemporaries have faded from relevance or left this planet. This isn’t quite as unrelentingly bleak or heavy as his ’90s work, and definitely not as lo-fi. High quality sound design, with choppy drums which don’t settle into predictable patterns, and churning, vibrating bass. The other atmospheric elements don’t just float by or drone, they’re central to the compositions. There’s also a crucial element of space, so that the bass and drums hit hard and nothing overcrowds anything else. “Luxury of Sadness” has eerie strings and jazzy drum breaks, maybe coming close to “doomjazz” (I’m not 100% certain what that really is, if it is a thing at all), and it seems to sum up everything about what he’s going for with this EP. Very impressive.

Rick Weaver: The Secular Arm tape (Hausu Mountain)

July 23, 2017 at 6:39 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Rick Weaver of Form a Log released this solo tape on Hausu Mountain recently, and it’s somewhere between a demented cartoon soundtrack and a really loony minimal synth album. I guess you could probably throw prog-rock in that list of descriptors as well. Lots of clattering drum machines, jovial melodies, and a short attention span approach to composition, especially the brief “Historical Music #1-4”, which seems to flip channels every 10 seconds. The second side switches between noisy guitar feedback and loungey crooning, ending with the dark, dreamy “Lie Detector”. Equally zany and suspenseful.