FH050 Sad Horse – ‘Purple On Purple Makes Purple’
RIYL: early Pavement, Pussy Galore, a controlled sense of fuckall & abandon. On this Cassette Store Day 2014, it brings us great fucking pleasure to release on tape for the first time a favorite record of ours and hopefully a future jammer for you as well. The mighty two-piece of Sad Horse is a mainstay of Portland, Oregon and has been at times compared to “The Stooges on ritalin” and “Sleater-Kinney with a sense of humor” but these are all just words. Buy this album and crank it up.
FH049 Strategy – ‘Cerebral Hut AKA Off The Grid’
RIYL: Table top electronics, the plulsing of liquid circuits, sleepover party with the Daleks. Strategy is not generally known for his ambient work, but the genre provides a window to the many disparate influences marking his talent. This skill-set is showcased in these live manipulations from the Cerebral Hut installation in Los Angeles. These compositions sound like the subdermal whirring of the guts of LA, and provide a fascinating peek into the mind of an artist in his prime
FH048 Portopia ’81 – ‘Stardust Memory’
RIYL: library music, swinging organ, the warm smell of tubes and cigarette smoke. The project Portopia ’81 is named after an expo in Kobe from that year but its heart is more bound to 1961. Mizuhiro’s vision of a space-bound humanity reaching the stars via silver needles and fired though rainbow washes of nebulae is translated though the analog pops of organ drum machines and wedded to the calming voices of vintage synthesizers – a perfect soundtrack to a future that wasn’t.
FH047 Conrad Wedde – ‘Space World’
RIYL: Subtropical meridians, Peter Gabriel’s better moods, a nice stoned dawn. Recorded in a small room in Dunedin, New Zealand, SPACE WORLD encompasses the breadth of the southern hemisphere in its brief span of 27 minutes. The texture of bamboo & the blinding reflection of the setting sun scored like a love scene from an older Michael Mann movie – this is visual audio done at its finest, reminiscent of Eno’s 80’s output but done with heart. One of the finest approximations of our younger summers, high and on the beach, we’ve run across yet.