Philadelphia-based lo-fi artist Graham Repulski just released two 10-minute tapes, both of which contain unique artwork for every copy, seemingly cut out from a book or magazine. Judging by the “Good bye” and “Good night” messages on their Bandcamp pages, these might be the end of the project? He doesn’t appear to have a Facebook page anymore. Anyway, Permission To Love is described on the artist’s Bandcamp page as “7 tracks of funky fun”. His music is a sort of fun, but not in an obvious, crowdpleasing way. This is extremely cryptic, lo-fi tape-collage rock, with big, tuneful melodies stretched out, obscured, distorted, and rearranged. He can very obviously write straightforward power pop songs if he wanted to, but other people do that, so he contorts them and screws them up. Songs that could be proper anthems are cut to shreds, cut off after a minute (the opening title track seems like an anthem in the making that was half taped over), howled under fuzz, and just otherwise fucked around with. The longest track is “Soft As Shit”, which opens side B and consists of 3 minutes of a simple piano pattern with stacks of raucous guitars dancing around. Sometimes lyrics are included on his Bandcamp page, but not for this one, so it’s mostly impossible to make out what he’s saying, but the melodies themselves are likely to stick in your head. Of the two new tapes he’s releasing, this one seems to be the more musical, and maybe the more humorous of the two (titles include “I’d Buy That For a Dollar” and “Malcolm’s Ex”), but the music itself doesn’t contain any obvious jokes or punchlines. But at the same time, it feels like some sort of absurdist performance art, and it’s hard not to find some sort of humor in it.
Graham Repulski: Negative Highlight Reel tape
Negative Highlight Reel is definitely the more experimental of the two tapes. There’s hints of melodies and some rocking out (especially the title track), but lots of abstraction and obscurity. “Staring At Zero” is soft singing and faint strumming masked by abrasive backwards loops. The entire second side seems like the decayed, dried out remains of rock songs, with no discernible lyrics or hooks. “Bad Mop” is entirely backwards, and “Eureka Slink” is just a faint shred of a tune sung over what sounds like the worst phone connection ever, yet there’s a few other layers of beats and background noise patched together. Then “Kimp Notch” is a hair-raising coda of guitar feedback and yowling. This almost seems like a miniature version of Jandek’s “The Electric End”, and if this really is the end, there’s no more fitting way for this project to go out. But then, “The Electric End” wasn’t the end of Jandek, so who can tell, maybe I’m just projecting here. We’ll see!
Hour 1
2:02 am Profligate ~ “Somewhere Else” ~ Somewhere Else (new) ~ Wharf Cat Records ~ 2018
2:10 am Godspeed You! Black Emperor ~ “BBF3” ~ Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada Kranky ~ 1999
2:29 am The ears on the trees ~ “Holidays I” ~ New beginnings (new) ~ Constellation Tatsu ~ 2017
2:35 am SCLT (local) ~ “Armature” ~ On Contradiction (new) ~ Life Like ~ 2017
2:42 am Ana & Ina ~ “Come In” ~ On Dockweiler Beach ~ Constellation Tatsu ~ 2017
2:50 am Koltay (local) ~ “Spring Patch (side A)” ~ untitled tape ~ Life Like ~ 2017
2:58 am Curved Light ~ “Dream Sequence” ~ Quartzsite (new) ~ Constellation Tatsu ~ 2017 Hour 2
3:06 am Utica (local) ~ “Isostatic Rebound” ~ untitled tape (new) ~ Life Like ~ 2017
3:21 am Canada Effervescent ~ “Ridin’ America II” ~ Ridin’ America (new) ~ Constellation Tatsu ~ 2017
3:27 am Forest Walker ~ “Saved Video of a Postcard” ~ UV Sea ~ Constellation Tatsu ~ 2017
3:33 am Soda Lite ~ “Senses” ~ In Eco ~ Constellation Tatsu ~ 2017
3:39 am 2814 ~ “2814スカイライン” ~ 2814 ~ Dream Catalogue ~ 2014
3:46 am Leyland Kirby ~ “Dig Deep March On” ~ We, So Tired Of All The Darkness In Our Lives (new) ~ History Always Favours The Winners ~ 2017
3:53 am Moth Cock ~ “The Flesh Shall Never Enter” ~ 0-100 At The Speed Of The Present (new) ~ Hausu Mountain ~ 2017
3:56 am Form a Log ~ “The Sizzler” ~ At A Festival (new) ~ Hausu Mountain ~ 2017 Hour 3
4:00 am Bullshit Market (local) ~ “Our Apologies to Matt Luczak” ~ split tape w/ Dental Work (new) ~ TRASHFUCK Records/Placenta Recordings ~ 2017
4:05 am Little Princess (local) ~ “Gold Dollar” ~ Punk House (digital bonus track) (new) ~ MOCAD ~ 2017
4:09 am Brett Naucke ~ “Hallucinations I – XVII” ~ Multiple Hallucinations (new) ~ Hausu Mountain ~ 2017
4:23 am Coil ~ “5-Methoxy-N,N-Dimethyl: (5-MeO-DMT)” ~ Time Machines ~ Dais ~ 1998
4:35 am Cygni ~ “untitled #4” ~ Gesto (new) ~ Line ~ 2017
4:37 am Emptyset ~ “Eye I” ~ Skin (new) ~ Thrill Jockey ~ 2017
4:42 am An Gella ~ “Bad Analogy” ~ Perma (new) ~ Anyines ~ 2017
4:46 am Build Buildings ~ “Honey Locust” ~ Glass EP (new) ~ Audiobulb ~ 2018
4:49 am Cid Rim ~ “The Material” ~ Material (new) ~ LuckyMe ~ 2017
4:53 am The Khan Jamal Creative Arts Ensemble ~ “Breath of Life” ~ Drum Dance to the Motherland ~ Eremite ~ 1973 Hour 4
5:00 am Golden Teacher ~ “What Fresh Hell Is This?” ~ No Luscious Life (new) ~ Golden Teacher ~ 2017
5:04 am Chimpo ~ “DidDieDoDat?” ~ single ~ ? ~ 2017
5:08 am Samiyam ~ “The Boat Can Leave Now” ~ Pizza Party (new) ~ Stones Throw ~ 2017
5:10 am Martial Canterel ~ “Astralize” ~ Lost At Sea (new) ~ Dais ~ 2017
5:14 am Stacian ~ “Telephony” ~ Person L (new) ~ Night School ~ 2017
5:18 am M.E.S.H. ~ “Inspired By True Story” ~ mp3 (new) ~ Soundcloud ~ 2018
5:24 am Fret ~ “The Waiting Room” ~ Over Depth (new) ~ Karlrecords ~ 2017
5:31 am Steve Reich + So Percussion ~ “Drumming, Part Three” ~ Drumming Live ~ Dog W/ A Bone ~ 2013
5:36 am Anna Burch (local) ~ “2 Cool 2 Care” ~ Party (new) ~ Life Like ~ 2017
5:40 am Shells (local) ~ “Recollection” ~ 2 (new) ~ Ginkgo Records ~ 2017
5:43 am Yves Tumor ~ “Synecdoche” ~ Experiencing the Deposit of Faith (new) ~ self-released ~ 2017
5:47 am DJ Python ~ “Todo Era Azul (Versiòn Afuera)” ~ Dulce Compañia (new) ~ Incienso ~ 2017
5:53 am Sun Ra ~ “Neptune” ~ Discipline 27-II ~ El Saturn Records ~ 1972
For the third year in a row, I participated in AllMusic’s year-end polls. Here’s the individual staff writers’ lists (mine included): AllMusic Loves 2017
My Spotify playlist.
Also, I helped whittle down the Favorite Electronic Albums list, and I wrote about 75% of these reviews.
Angel 1’s first tape on CTatsu in 4 years, following acclaimed releases on 1080p and Beer on the Rug, plays like a series of subconscious DJ sets, with lengthy, slow-moving tracks drifting through various moods, beats, and samples. “Speed” is not fast at all, progressing through steady yet vaporous beats and a submerged Kanye sample. “Volunteering” begins in a sort of interstellar spa, with a bizarre growling/wailing sample interrupting an otherwise peaceful session, and eventually it heats up into a thumping, bubbling house track. “The German Idea of Freedom” is bursting with fuzzy lo-fi guitars and another screamy sample which is looped rhythmically, along with laughter and trippy voices, ending with a much more smoothed-out ending section. “Humanitarianism” continues with the sly playfulness of earlier tracks, with silly recurring samples and elementary piano notes setting the pace, ending up with the sounds of slurping, gushing waters (field recordings? digital approximations? a mix of both?) and resonating metal bowls. “Karaoke” is another lush, leisurely rainforest cruise, with a harmonica-like melody and sporadic voices whispering the word “passion”. This tape doesn’t have the unexpected harsh drum’n’bass moments of previous Angel 1 releases, but there’s still plenty of surprise and mirth to it. Tape/DL available from CTatsu’s Bandcamp.
Fresh off a Not Not Fun tape and directly preceding a digital album called Sleep Better (very much looking forward to testing this out as a sleeping aid), Denis Tremblay’s Constellation Tatsu release is a new age healing session disguised as a cross-country road trip. Very easy-going, rolling organs and back-porch guitar licks, with a few lapses into trippy effects and crystalline chiming. On its most engaging tracks, it achieves a sense of traveling without a steady rhythm, or at least without the usage of drums, and it sounds relaxed and at ease yet playful, but not in a cartoonish, over-excited way.
For fans of drone and ambient music who follow the cassette/Bandcamp scene, Curved Light was one of the breakout artists of 2017, with tapes on labels like Field Hymns, HoloDeck, and CTatsu in addition to extensive touring. Peter Tran’s warm, enveloping analog synth drones match perfectly with Deirdre Smith’s kaleidoscopic visuals in a live setting, and the music is just as transportive while listening at home. On this tape, opener “Dream Sequence” demonstrates the project’s range, progressing through rhythmic patterns which dance excitedly, ending up with an intense shower of delay-induced noise. “Routine Simulation” is more agitated, with finnicky noises and glitches and rapidly flashing sequences, verging on some sort of restless IDM kosmische. “Dive 2501” is a more straightforward burst of starry arpeggios, and “Chromakey” does something similar but more expansive and complex. The release was recorded over the course of four years in four different cities, and shows how much the project has grown since then. Very highly recommended. Tape/DL available at CTatsu’s Bandcamp.
The seven pieces on this tape consist of very simple notes repeated endlessly, often sounding like small, expanding bubbles or buttercups in bloom. The patterns do transform, however, and on some tracks (esp. “Holidays I”), they end up sounding a bit decayed or warped, and there’s also field recordings and nature sounds (splashing water, children playing) behind some of them. Nothing complicated at all, but it somehow avoids sounding simple or normal or formulaic. Very refreshing. Tape/name your price DL available at Constellation Tatsu’s Bandcamp.
Danish producer Aske Zidore debuts his An Gella project with this album of suspenseful sound sorcery. There’s broken glass sounds and finely detailed sound design, and attention paid to various facets of current experimental club music, but it’s not quite rhythmic itself to really fit into such a category. There’s lengthy pauses and drifts, only to snap into a sharp rhythm, sometimes accompanied by indiscernible manipulated/robotic vocals. Some tracks lead into bursts of abject horror or pulverizing attacks, while gentle flamenco guitar guides “Ur Not Alone” and “Zen Cell” has a more hopeful trance-esque ecstasy-pulse to it. The acute, choppy digital explosions and pitched-up voices of “Non Spoken” make the track seem equally playful and threatening. It’s a strange and wondrous album, and it’s never clear what direction it’s going to take, but it’s always riveting, the arrangements and production are never less than jaw-dropping.
Following a bracing album made from self-created instruments, Emptyset go acoustic on their latest EP. It sounds like they’re banging on some sort of drastically detuned hammer dulcimers, or otherwise something with lots of vibrating resonance and a heavy twang. Most of the tracks get lost in deeply immersive rhythms, with slow kicking drums and sweeps anchoring the thrashing and buzzing of the instruments. “Skin II” is shorter, softer, and more delicate, but the others build up into acoustic doom mantras. The duo reach some deep frequencies without the use of amplification, and even if these pieces aren’t quite as granulated as their digitally-created ones, they’re just as immense.
Leyland Kirby: We, So Tired Of All The Darkness In Our Lives
Taking a break from the Caretaker’s dementia-themed final project, Leyland Kirby’s latest pay-as-you-wish release, which seems to have escaped the typical shower of acclaim his work usually receives, consists of an hour and a half of slow, shadowy rhythms and cracking drums. It’s slow and stretched out, but not in a lazy, meandering way. There’s echoes of rave melodies and pianos, but transformed and drained of their ecstasy. It’s comforting, but also brittle and unsettling. Tracks such as the glorious “Dig Deep, March On” contain positive, encouraging messages even though they seem weary, exhausted, and trudging on. I’m sure fans of 2814 and other Dream Catalogue artists are all well aware of Kirby’s work, but in case they aren’t, this album provides a similar aesthetic, more so than the usual Kirby recording. The last track is called “Back in the Game”, but Kirby never left, and he arguably created it in the first place.
The Answer Is In The Beat 