Guardian Alien – ‘Space>Drums>Jam’ CS
THE band of 2012 and beyond, here in an earlier incarnation from the beginning of 2011, featuring turner “ramble tamble” williams on japanese lap guitar, greg fox (ex-drummer of liturgy) on percussion, and alex drewchin on what can very loosely be defined as vocals. retains a remarkable cohesion despite the fact that all three are completely shredding from the start to finish of each jam, and their recordings do a surprisingly stellar job of capturing the spirit of their infamous live performaces. anyone who has fantasized about a teaming up of flower-corsano with magik markers, up your alley. close to an hour in length, limited to 125 red cassettes.
Magic Eye – ‘Shreddin’ on Heaven’s Floor’ CS
ive been smitten by this edinburgh quartet since the first notes i heard of theirs several months ago, although it was bittersweet since at that time they only had two recorded two songs. needing to hear more, i was worried i’d have to book a flight to the uk to catch a show, but fortunately they were already in the studio and in no time at all had laid out a full album of total gems, which has been on constant repeat ever since. not sure what it is about urban scotland that leads one to create glistening interlocking guitar parts (a la glasgow’s tangles) but magic eye’s guitar players alex and bek are in total synchronicity, taking their melodies to new heavenly heights and letting each line swim through the track like nessie herself. the guitar parts brilliantly compliment roma’s bewitching warm-summer-night vocals reminiscent of julee cruise imploring you to “tell your heart that i’m the one…” while all the while francis holds things in orbit with his sparse, smart, direct beats that echo crisply and cooly throughout magic eye’s youthful sonic space. my favorite aspect of this tape is the way you can hear the love they have for each other and the fun and freedom they feel when playing the songs. hope you feel it too! equally honored to present inimitable j-card art by brooklyn’s rob chabebe of eye bodega.
Lockbox – ‘Archangel Heat’ CS
very very excited to present a new lockbox tape, following up the now sold out “hypersecret” tape we did with him earlier in the year. this one is slightly more structured, but still has a pretty free flowing and unpredictable feel from one track to the next, without losing the cohesion of a full statement. so it’s a little different from hypersecret but still is loaded with flourishes that make this project really special. tracks range from danceable speed numbers to slow burners to footwork skrews and emotive sludge pop. all in all a really exciting new collection of tracks from one of my favorite artists to emerge in the past year. this tape was inspired by and was recorded immediately preceding his high school graduation.
Chaos Through Programming – ‘Books About the Internet’ CS
“books about the internet” is a cassette reissue of what i consider to be massively underrated album from the massively underrated label “push the button” ran by rasmus emannuel svensson in the mid 00s. he dropped this album with a zine first as a 34-minute single-track cdr through PTB, and it was instantly on heavy rotation. it’s gotten better with age and we at AIS wanted to hopefully give it a wider audience in tape form. books about the internet is the first and best hyphy chopped n screwed swedish club mix, oscillating delightfully and effortlessly between genres and tempos. sounds like it could be a radio collage culled from the satellite transmissions of some plur culture on a distant star… svensson also plays in smycken which released a tape on AIS in 2009, as well as other stuff through night people and release the bats. full color fold-out art by darren goins.
Cosmic Letters – ‘Cosmic Letters’ CS
three of stockholm’s most stellar new artists, karl (aka silverarken), mattias (aka ekolali) and martin (aka sand circles) get together here on a collaborative effort of two intricate side long pieces. the instrumentation (two synths and guitar) is inevitably going to draw comparisons to emeralds, which is not totally unwarranted, but to which i would add add a much more driving trance-kraut feel, placed more in the vein of their european contemporaries such as hans dens or stefan kushima. perfect soundtrack to look out the window on crystal clear nights aboard the high-speed rail. outside, the weather is warm but the snow has not yet melted. mylar-bejewelled art by taraka larson.