Crush Collision 11/29/18

November 30, 2018 at 9:12 am | Posted in Crush Collision | Leave a comment

10:00 pm Black Noi$e ~ Sunrize
10:05 pm Shorelights ~ Lighthouses
10:11 pm DJ Guy ~ Oct 1993 METAL XR Tape Side A Track 7
10:14 pm Julien Dyne ~ P.F Mogul
10:19 pm Mathias Schaffhäuser ~ Kim Raver
10:22 pm SCB ~ Test Tubes (Hammer Remix)
10:29 pm Cassy x Pete Moss ~ You Said (Marquis Hawkes Remix)
10:32 pm Facechain ~ Ivan R.
10:41 pm Lawrence ~ Illusion
10:48 pm Soukie & Windish ~ Undercover Cat
10:54 pm Throwing Snow ~ Trébucher
10:58 pm Paul Kalkbrenner ~ Sagte Der Solarbar (Extended)
11:02 pm Appleblim ~ Astral Light Highway
11:08 pm Addison Groove & Bim Sanga Present Bags Inc. ~ Bashton Valed
11:12 pm Waajeed ~ From the Dirt
11:17 pm Fort Romeau ~ Empire
11:23 pm VXO ~ Alcanzarme
11:26 pm Marie Davidson ~ So Right (Extended)
11:32 pm AceMo ~ Speedn N Smokin
11:37 pm Juan Atkins ~ Flash Flood
11:42 pm Shinedoe ~ M-Plant
11:48 pm Ellen Allien ~ Take a Stand
11:55 pm object blue ~ Act Like It Then

c.Kostra: Parallel Murderverse + Parallel Partyverse (Pytch Records, 2018)

November 29, 2018 at 6:46 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

c.Kostra: Parallel Murderverse

c.Kostra (Ryan Olcott) is behind the dreamy, tape-smudged sound of Devata Daun‘s magnificent music. His solo material is just as woozy and trippy, but he masks his singing with vocoders and glitches, and there’s perhaps a bit more touch of Prince to the home-baked chillwave funk of his 2016 debut, Now I Feel It. He’s released two EPs this fall, both of which are similar in tone but vastly different in mood. Parallel Murderverse (which came out on Halloween) is the devil over his shoulder, coaxing out his darkest impulses. It’s still danceable, but it’s creepy and sinister, sort of in between twitchy electro-funk and Tobacco. The few comprehensible lyrics are paranoid and haunted, but still a bit tongue-in-cheek (just check the gleefully vicious “Psychosis On the Playground”). Throughout, ultra-compressed shoegaze guitars blare out from the carefully crafted rhythms. The EP’s final song, “Barely See Me At All”, nails an early-’80s goth/minimal wave sound, but with the producer’s ghostly vocoders intact.

c.Kostra: Parallel Partyverse

Parallel Partyverse is perhaps the angel to Murderverse‘s devil, but more accurately, it’s a surrealist party record with a heavy dose of romanticism. “Holiday Music Stream” loops found samples into a fantastically blown-out, half-melted disco jam. “It’s the Way I Feel” sounds even more scrambled, yet the sentiment is strong enough that it can’t totally be obscured. A brief snippet of a “bad take” of “Holiday Music Stream” provides a tiny behind-the-scenes glimpse of the process behind his tape-warped sound. It all ends with the squishy slow jam “Candlelight”.

Devata Daun: Pye Luis (Pytch Records, 2018)

November 28, 2018 at 10:35 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Devata Daun: Pye Luis

Devata Daun’s first album, L o o k, was one of my favorite out-of-nowhere surprises of 2016, and one of the best lo-fi pop releases in recent memory. I wrote up a review of it for Decoder, but that site seems to be down indefinitely, so I can’t link to it, but the album is a must-hear (and a name-your-price DL on Bandcamp). Pye Luis is the follow-up EP, and it retains the distinctive warbling-tape sound, but the vocals are clearer, and there’s more slow jams. Songs like “Mademosielle” have warped textures and haunting melodies, but an undeniable R&B/pop core. “Weakening” is just magical, and the lyrics capture that restless crush feeling. The last two songs even include saxophone, for that extra romantic touch. Also available from Bandcamp.

Cross-country vacation, October 2018

November 25, 2018 at 4:29 pm | Posted in Photos | Leave a comment

I drove to Los Angeles and back by myself again. I took the most direct there, going through Iowa, Colorado, Nevada, etc., but on the way back I improvised and ended up going through locations such as Joshua Tree, Arizona, Santa Fe, and Kansas City. Here’s some of the most interesting things I saw.

rest stop in Iowa


rest stop in Iowa


rest stop in Colorado, I think


waking up in Colorado after a snowstorm


still driving west








I arrived in Los Angeles one of the few times in year that it rained. From the roof of my sister’s apartment


walking around North Hollywood


courtyard view from the patio of my sister’s apartment


farmer’s market in Hollywood


subway station near my sister’s apartment


Tessa playing with Lambchop


vegan food truck fair


more walking around Hollywood




California Institute of Abnormalities


fountain at restaurant me and my cousin ate brunch at


driving east, wind turbines everywhere


Joshua Tree!




































Cholla cactus garden














Kingman, Arizona


Kingman, Arizona


Slide Rock State Park, Sedona, Arizona




























downtown Santa Fe


downtown Santa Fe


Santa Fe Art Museum






more scenes from downtown Santa Fe



small record store in downtown Santa Fe




Rio Grande






Kansas City




sculpture outside jazz museum


Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art


Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art


Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art


Josey Records


Josey Records (R.I.P. Phife)


Barney in an alley


Revolution Records



Anna Burch/Fred Thomas: split 7″ (Polyvinyl, 2018)

November 24, 2018 at 7:24 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Anna Burch/Fred Thomas: split 7″

Anna and Fred both released fantastic albums this year, and they recently toured and put out this tour-only single. Anna’s side is a steady, lovely tune with lots of snowy echo over the vocals, and a general easygoing tone but typically cutting lyrics (“said a little Irish prayer, when all I wanted was for you to care”). Fred’s side is in the vein of his recent albums, pairing hooky indie rock with wordy narratives about touring, avoiding cops, and more importantly, the thoughts, feelings, and realizations surrounding all of these, eventually arriving at the point that “you could be happy”.

Bonnie Baxter: Ask Me How Satan Started tape (Hausu Mountain, 2018)

November 24, 2018 at 7:15 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Bonnie Baxter: Ask Me How Satan Started tape

Kill Alters’ Bonnie Baxter goes solo with this astounding tape of overloaded rhythms and fractured vocals. This one builds gigantic boulders of thunderous, speaker-ripping beats, all polyrhythmic and constantly building and mutating, amalgamating juke, industrial, techno, and punk. The distortion on this album is just absolutely delicious. “Vivid” is the hair-raising centerpiece, and a glorious nightmare that I never want to end. At a couple points throughout the album, excerpts of a childhood conversation where Baxter asks her mom to, yes, “ask me how Satan started” pop up, balancing innocence with evil. The first three tracks on the second side stand alone as their own majestic hell-suite, and the tape ends with “Satan’s Angels”, a frightening yet somehow soothing collage of an evangelism broadcast, ethereal cooing, and hazy industrial droning. A very fresh, original take on rhythmic noise, and a flat-out exciting release.

Show #465 – 11/24/18

November 24, 2018 at 3:46 pm | Posted in The Answer Is In The Beat | Leave a comment

2:00 am Shorelights (local) ~ Late Summer Rain ~ Ancient Lights (new) ~ Subwax BCN ~ 2018
2:11 am Christoph De Babalon ~ Broken Land ~ In Death’s Dream Kingdom (new) ~ Houndstooth ~ 2018
2:16 am Brecon ~ Scarp (Om Unit Remix) ~ Cairn Remixes (new) ~ Mesh ~ 2018
2:20 am Crypticz ~ Lost One ~ The Path (new) ~ Cosmic Bridge ~ 2018
2:26 am Etch ~ Black Rainbow ~ Ups & Downs (new) ~ Sneaker Social Club ~ 2018
2:32 am Delia Derbyshire Appreciation Society ~ She Brought the Sun ~ Wow and Flutter (new) ~ Six Degrees ~ 2018
2:40 am redHat ~ Ry ~ Lost.In (new) ~ Sick Broken Brothers Records ~ 2018
2:45 am Laxenanchaos ~ Mahoroba ~ Bipolar Order (new) ~ Cock Rock Disco ~ 2018
2:52 am WORKFLOWW ~ Turbo ~ Never Normal Soundsystem Singles (new) ~ Never Normal ~ 2018
2:54 am Local Group ~ Laser Dome (Dexorcist Remix) ~ Laser Dome EP (new) ~ Ritual Poison ~ 2018
3:00 am Deapmash ~ Halcyon (VIP) ~ Halcyon EP ~ Leisure Sisyem ~ 2017
3:05 am Aaron Spectre ~ Respect This Sound ~ Destroy Oh Boy #2 (new) ~ Destroy Oh Boy ~ 2018
3:09 am Dev/Null ~ This Isn’t LA ~ mp3 (new) ~ Soundcloud ~ 2018
3:11 am Christoph De Babalon ~ Harakiri ~ Hectic Shakes (new) ~ Alter ~ 2019
3:17 am Bamba Pana ~ Kusini ~ Poaa (new) ~ Nyege Nyege Tapes ~ 2018
3:21 am VXO ~ Alcanzarme ~ VXO EP (new) ~ Vanity Press Records ~ 2018
3:25 am Niagara 40 ~ Apologia (new) ~ Príncipe ~ 2018
3:29 am Black Noi$e (local) ~ Oizo ~ Illusions (new) ~ Vanity Press Records ~ 2018
3:33 am Suzi Analogue ~ Real 2Gether ~ Chills + Thrills ~ Never Normal ~ 2014
3:36 am Britney Stoney (local) ~ Stay Down ~ Native EP ~ self-released ~ 2015
3:38 am MIKE w/ Cheikhuana Bamba Fall ~ Of Home ~ Black Soap (new) ~ Lex ~ 2018
3:41 am Bonnie Baxter ~ Vivid ~ Ask Me How Satan Started (new) ~ Hausu Mountain ~ 2018
3:47 am Sense Fracture ~ War You Mirror ~ In My Escape I Look For A Weapon (new) ~ Haunter Records ~ 2018
3:51 am iZueL_ ~ Es Ist Auch Schon Jemand Zu Vermissen ~ We Will Never Be So Cool (new) ~ Degenerate Trifecta ~ 2018
3:56 am I-LP-ON ~ Poble Dub ~ Äänet (new) ~ Editions Mego ~ 2018
4:00 am Bliss Signal ~ Bliss Signal ~ Bliss Signal (new) ~ Profound Lore ~ 2018
4:02 am Author & Punisher ~ Night Terror ~ Beastland (new) ~ Relapse ~ 2018
4:08 am Colin Self ~ Research Sister ~ Siblings (new) ~ Rvng Intl ~ 2018
4:14 am Vessel ~ Argo (For Maggie) ~ Queen Of Golden Dogs (new) ~ Tri Angle ~ 2018
4:19 am Max Cooper ~ Platonic ~ One Hundred Billion Sparks (new) ~ Mesh ~ 2018
4:25 am I Am Robot And Proud ~ A Dot In Air ~ Lucky Static (new) ~ Darla ~ 2018
4:29 am Tangent ~ Confinement ~ Approaching Complexity (new) ~ n5MD ~ 2018
4:36 am Longmont Potion Castle ~ Electric Talk ~ Where In The Hell Is The Lavender House? Original Soundtrack (new) ~ Burger Records ~ 2018
4:42 am Pepper Mill Rondo ~ Garmin Universe ~ E.D.M. (new) ~ Hausu Mountain ~ 2018
4:45 am Objekt ~ Silica ~ Cocoon Crush (new) ~ Pan ~ 2018
4:48 am Bernard Parmegiani ~ Versailles​.​.​.​ Peut​-​être I ~ Mémoire Magnétique, Vol​ 1. (new) ~ Transversales Disques ~ 2018
4:52 am Nunu ft. DJH ~ SCUM 6 ~ SCUM (new) ~ Astral Plane ~ 2018
4:55 am Secundus ~ Morningstar ~ Secundus (new) ~ Car Crash Set ~ 2018
4:58 am Silkie ~ Don’t DJ For Free ~ single (new) ~ Pretty Weird Records ~ 2018
5:04 am Ouri ~ Escape ~ We Share Our Blood (new) ~ Ghostly International ~ 2018
5:07 am Little Dragon ~ Timothy ~ Lover Chanting EP (new) ~ Ninja Tune ~ 2018
5:11 am Amber Mark ~ High On Your Love ~ 12″ (new) ~ W Records ~ 2018
5:14 am Spontaneous Overthrow ~ Overthrow Groove ~ All About Money ~ Numero Group ~ 1984
5:20 am Axis: Sova ~ New Disguise ~ Shampoo You (new) ~ God? ~ 2018
5:23 am Shnabubula ~ Aqua Fever ~ Game Genie ~ Hausu Mountain ~ 2011
5:29 am Stray Theories ~ Challenge ~ All That Was Lost (new) ~ n5MD ~ 2018
5:35 am System ~ Plus ~ Plus (new) ~ Morr Music ~ 2018
5:46 am Lapalux ~ BELOW ~ ABOVE_BETWEEN_BELOW (new) ~ Brainfeeder ~ 2018
5:51 am Less Bells ~ Golden Storm ~ Solifuge (new) ~ Kranky ~ 2018
5:55 am Heinali ~ Starling Reprise II ~ Iridescent (new) ~ Injazero ~ 2018

Don Fiorino/Andy Haas: American Nocturne (Resonantmusic, 2018)

November 23, 2018 at 10:06 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Don Fiorino/Andy Haas: American Nocturne

This album captures live, overdub-free improvisations between guitarist Don Fiorino and Andy Haas, who plays sax, electronics, and drum machines. Fiorino plays lap steel and “glissentar”, so there’s a slippery, fluid, weeping tone to much of his playing, and Haas often sounds like he’s playing digital tablas or scratching turntables, in addition to layering blankets of sax on the title track. There’s never a locked-in rhythm here, it all sounds fuzzy, gelatinous, and malleable. Lots of pitch-bending and flipping and stretching, yet it doesn’t sound as blasted or druggy as, say, Black Dice/Eric Copeland. Fiorino’s playing still has an earthy quality to it, sometimes veering towards country while floating closer to desert blues on the epic “Days of Jackals”. Other times, it’s more of a detached downtown skronk. The sounds contrast, but they never really feel like they’re clashing, even if they rarely seem like they’re trying to interact with each other. It’s somewhat challenging to listen to, but instead of seeming confrontational, it invites you to join in somehow, and following the individual sounds becomes an adventure.

Shnabubula: Game Genie tape (Ubiktune, 2011/reissued by Hausu Mountain, 2018)

November 23, 2018 at 9:08 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Shnabubula: Game Genie tape

How on earth did it take this long for Hausu Mountain to release a chiptune album?! Unless I’m forgetting something. But considering how the label’s visual aesthetic is heavily based on pixelated artwork (as well as, well, millions of other things), one might initially think they’re closely related to the chip scene. This is the first (AFAIK) cassette release from scene veteran Samuel Ascher-Weiss, who contributed to the infamous/controversial Miles Davis tribute Kind of Bloop nearly a decade ago. This album, originally released on Bandcamp in 2011, owes equally to 16-bit video game compositions, jazz fusion, prog-rock, and J-pop. It’s filled with complex time signatures, virtuosic playing, and an overall sense of embarking on a grand quest, but with an undying sense of optimism and glee. It is, without mincing words, a pure joy to listen to. While always sounding like it’s emanating from a vintage console, the music always bursts with excitement, and so much passion is put into the arrangements. “Aqua Fever” is the most “live”-sounding track, with acoustic-sounding drums and fluid bass soloing, while the title track is arguably the most overwhelming and complex (although really, all of this is). I must admit that even though I’ve always had an enormous amount of love and respect for the chiptune scene, I haven’t paid much attention to it since I moved from New York in 2009. This tape reissue is a reminder of how creative the scene can be at its best, and Game Genie was entirely worth digging up and presenting to a new audience.

Pepper Mill Rondo: E.D.M. tape (Hausu Mountain, 2018)

November 23, 2018 at 8:01 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Pepper Mill Rondo: A.T.M. tape

Where to even start with this one. This is 100 minutes of Good Willsmith’s Doug and Max collating the entire contents of the internet and spewing it out in jagged, irregularly shaped chunks. A long time ago, there was this website someone told me about that I posted a link to in the Secret Stash section of Foxy Digitalis, that was called something like “Neverending Glitch,” and was something along those lines, somehow harnessing all the websites and live streams and feeds and everything else online and producing a mutated ever-shifting audio-visual glob of everything. I assume it’s long gone, I had it bookmarked once but I assume I got rid of it when the site wasn’t active anymore, but it would make a perfect accompaniment to listening to this tape. It’s an overwhelmingly intense barrage of media soundbites, shreds of everything on the radio or on TV, and lots of drunken karaoke sessions, all supremely glitched and splattered. It’s not entirely random, however. “I’m Sitting In A Room” reconstructs the text of Alvin Lucier’s legendary avant-garde piece using lyrics from pop songs. Some collages focus on specific genres (“I’m A Guy That Makes Classical Music Collages” is self-explanatory, “Pepperoni Stick Is Bout 2 Breakup” regurgitates nu-metal). “Lesser Artists Borrow, Great Artists Vape” is a painstaking, mind-numbing montage of rapidfire references to all things aesthetic, Eccojams, Floral Shoppe, and vape pens. “NO MORE FAN MAIL” steamrollers over the Beatles, and “Subscribe or Die” mines videos from Patreon pages, boiling the internet down to a bunch of loud voices begging for your money. Describing something as “everything” is such an over-used cliche, but in this case, not doing so would be selling it short. Doug’s glorious solo effort These Magical Numbers, consisting entirely of YouTubed renditions of the national anthem played at the same time, was American patriotism at its most purely obnoxious blown up into a harsh noise wall. E.D.M. (here standing for “Ecstatic Dissonant Mashup”) is another logic-obliterating reflection of our current times. Totally essential.

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