Animal Psi

Awful Plaza – ‘Dream Fix’ C30
Somewhere in an apartment with boarded up windows, under the breeze of a broken fan, a grotesque naked man is spitting on his cock and waiting for earth to collide with nibiru. Hardcore, recently torrented, Japanese porno movies play at loud volumes from a computer, an old analog TV set is tuned to a bad midday movie, and the ice addict neighbors beat on the wall, frustrated by the cacophony of guttural moans, and alien drones. Comes in 8 different colors! With one-of-a-kind liners! and housed in a delightfully creepy little envelope! Edition of 40.

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I can’t say that I had some grand idea of what the Haute Magie sound would be, but what I can say is that I was way off.  Reaching for release no. twenty with this pair of tapes from PAN (#16) and Michum (#19), the young label is clearly a serious endeavor (see the sophisticated website and professionalism in production), with forays into cassettes, CDs, and vinyl.  Still, there has yet to gel a sense of aesthetic from these precious fragments, the visual, textual, and most important, sonic.  But I’m getting ahead of themselves, and their emergent roster of artists.

The first of this pair of mysteries is the latest from PAN, a C60 of seven tracks evoking that frontier of bedside postrock charted by Excavacations and Warm Climate on Stunned, or the Tristeza one-offs on Sanity Muffin.  I’ve got nothing but good things to say about this development, and yet I am entirely grateful that figures like PAN approach the terrain with care, mindful of those core tenants of ambience and melody.  Forsaking the institution of ‘the song’ in the name of ‘the hook’ and ‘the texture,’ tunes like “Rae” evoke the philosopher Geoff Barrow: conjure a media space, not a composition; get the sound, not the instrument; and sing something you both want to hear, not “what comes next”.  It’s the logical progression of the remix, without an original.  Though guitar and voice thread throughout the album, neither is essential, nor primary.  Chords and syllables throb as brazenly as tape licks, treated to a perfection of glossy metal or hammered fabric; the onset of static wash turns the tone – in many ways, all there is – and there is no pretense of some narrative being “troubled” or complicated.  Beat, too, is reconstructed: no longer a grid to which the form snaps, the manifestation of rhythm permeates plods, but also guitar, voice, effects on “Beahr.”  The effect is ethereal, optimistic – that is, after the initial eeriness of “Breath” – think Tortoise and Do Make Say Think.  Best summarized in the recurrent plumb of “Roots”, with its grafted Growing riff and hotly-decayed odes, PAN reaches the stratospheric distance of a noble discography, all from the modern convenience of the cassette’s sleeping bag warmth.  Cassette comes labeled with a J-card, edition of 125 copies.  Recommended!

And then there’s the debut by Michum: evoking a similar return to the fin de siècle North American Midwest (with stops in London and NYC), the unnamed artist disarms us with 17 tracks in an LP’s duration.  Yet he or she (probably he) pursues the inverse, sequencing a decade of recorded sounds into a (home) studio hip hop straight out of early, drizzly Thrill Jockey and the likes of Ui, Fridge, and yes, Tortoise.  The sound selection is warm, jazz-informed, pre-millennial without a doubt; most have a trip-hop patina, increasingly a sense of self-enclosure rather than technological futurism (ala Barrow).  The effect is irreversibly nostalgic, and pitch-perfect.  The tracks fade in, out with the measured regularity of edits off a sampler, but at the same time disabuses us of the notion that there is something more we’re not getting.  In this sense, Michum works in an older grammar than labelmate PAN, producing a modular modernism still thriving regardless of (and not because of) the cassette which assembles it.  Similarly would it be indifferent to vinyl, MP3, VHS, ringtone, whatever.  The media is its carrying capacity, nothing more.  But how else you gonna get it in your Tercel?  Edition of 50 C48s with pro-pressed cassettes and beautifully-screened covers.

Haute Magie cassette
$6
HERE 

GOD 10 Winfried Ritsch – ‘Woodscratcher’ picture LP
The woodscratcher is a composition and sound generating machine, which cuts a 2-5 cm thick disk of a wooden trunk in a circular line along the growth rings of the wood. The disc is recorded with 4 pickup-microphones on 4 sides. The movement of the cutting tool,like an over-sized record player needle made of tool steel, is an allusion the production of records as well as playing them.The woodscratcher pretends to extract and play the information which resides in the piece of woodcutting it in an excessive performance. The cutting in the wood is heard as acoustic material with inhomogeneities annual rings by superimposing a loops of the cutting process.With the progression of the cutting process the sounds evolves of the pieces in more and more rubbing and squeezing sounds. The audio signal filter functions of the wood is heard like repeatedly changing formants as a kind of mantra, almost imaging voices in the noise. The composition: With this performances not only the machine as performer is broached as an issue, also the exploration of unknown material is an artistic statement and is also defining the structure and timing of the piece. The aesthetics lies in the excessive performance beyond feasible by a human actor or musician. There are also many possible associations and associative links to the world of music performance: One of them is the sound, the usage of “noise” of experimental music pieces since the 70s. Another link points to the ideas of Herbert Bruen’s computer music project “sawdust”, where the rejection of oscillators as a tone generator for free definition of single small events, repeating with little advances, as a liberation of note-oriented Music generation. With the transition of algorithmic composition to the composition of process as an instrument, this live composition is expanded to the construction of a mechanical machine and an wooden slice,which are a kind the live composer. The cutting process executes the composing and the machine is composed for executing the process of extracting the piece out of the disc of wood while destroying it and defining the audible result of the piece. So composer shifts to a mechanical engineer and inventor of machines and as musician the operator as machinist.

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Bathaus – ‘|Bastien’ CS
Like the tale of Alighieri’s descent to the deepest recesses of Hell, Bathaus’ “|Bastien” begins and ends in fire. Quite literally, opener “Inferno” bakes and breathes life into lungs born of ash. Twisting beams of netherworld light know and find their footing very well in these barreling passages. Disarranged voices cut through pounding beats set to a blazing rhythm and ascend to the mouth of an unseen cavern… the air is heavy and choked. Reborn in a format suited for this album’s underlying warmth, |Bastien delivers its own nine circles (plus one), and BATHAUS is our Virgil. Throughout the ten tracks sewn into this tape’s creaking folds, a chill begins to slowly set in. Distant beats chop away at a sea of icy synthesisers and slowburn samples, leaving waves of acidic feedback in their wake. With remixes, a collaboration, and obvious standalone singles, |Bastien is clearly a whirlwind of sounds from various planes of the musical spectrum, and yet BATHAUS manages to precisely craft them so as to allow each one its own rightful passage, and still blend every track into a cohesive ebb and flow of barren, nostalgic sequences. To the very last step of this cathartic journey, the ever-present hand of the Guide follows and flows ahead. |Bastien is a song and a dance, a light in the darkness, and a shelf for tender thoughts. Cloaked in tape fuzz, synthesised notes sparkle with hesitant, dark desire, shimmering over beats that pound, envelope, and crawl underneath… this cycle of newborn repeats will have no trouble finding a permanent home in one’s own layers, whether they be 9 strong or infinite.

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CULTUS SABBATI – ‘ASGARDSREIA’
On December 21st the third and final part of the trilogy of albums that began with Beyond the Walls of Layla and continued to the Hagiography of Baba Yaga concludes with this ritual enactment of the ancient legend of the Wild Hunt – Asgardsreia. 53 minutes of ear blistering whispers, sludge born riffs and walls of trance inducing noise documenting all that howls in the winter night and celebrates darkness. The teeth of the winter wind cuts deep through these sonic forests, blanketed in blood stained snow. Despite rumors of internal strife Cultus Sabbati continue to create genre defying music on the edge of black metal, power electronics and psychedelic drone. Asgardsreia has been released in full as a free digital download as part of the band’s continued support of open music and their fans.

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Thegntlmn – ‘Earbuds Vol 1 & 2’ C44 $6
Thegntlmn is a well known member of the Dusted Wax netlabel. Bringing forth both the original Earbuds and the latest Vol 2 all on one tape. Featuring jazz-influenced beats and found sound clips. Laced piano pieces, turntablism, and straight up beats that jingle and flow in a classical style of experimental instrumentals. The artwork compliments the smooth feel of this album like a late night city street. Self-proclaimed ear candy joints and it’s a pure instrumental hip-hop gem full of addictive crackling dusty jazzy samples and drum breaks. Limited to 100 on purple tapes. Mp3 download with purchase.

Walter Gross – ‘Megametalmixxx’ C62 $7
Sometime in 2005 Walter Gross constructed a blend of beats and heavy metal samples to create his Megametalmixxx. Released as a rare find of a self-released CDr and later as a digital download on this label… in an attempt to archive the greatest sounds, ihaa has finally brought this release to tape. Limited to 25 copies, spanning 60 minutes, this crushing and relentless tape follows the history of Walter Gross at his earliest prime, producing an array of heaviness that his fans will be able to cherish. Smokey tint tapes limited to 25. Mp3 download with purchase.

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Keep Sheila On Acid – ‘You Will Be The Same Tomorrow As You Were Yesterday’ £5/$8 C60
Chrome Cassette Tape; Limited Edition of 25. The second release from the small experimental label Rano, Keep Sheila On Acid brings an eccentric complexity of audio syntax that drowns in the chaos of an electronic bloodbath.

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KEVIN DRUMM – ‘Tannenbaum’ 2CD+2CS box
Kevin Drumm returns to Hospital Productions with a double album of malign electronic ambient music. Drumm’s subtle work with dynamic roving drones keeps the pace and tempo moving with Hitchcockian tension while details of a story emerge with swells and fades as other sequences are lost in the clatter of chambers of isolation adorned with the trimmings of pagan beauties. In time for the holiday season and all that entails. This special edition of the forthcoming double album includes both discs and two additional cassettes packaged in a hand painted box set. edition of 49. standard edition and digital version forthcoming.

DUAL ACTION – ‘auto body’ CS
Despite years of involvement with the label and New York noise, Matt from K.P. presents his first solo cassette release for Hospital Productions. Dual Action combines the eerie atmospheric sound collage of crowded chinatown streets with the deafening silence of a new apartment and the hard industrial beats of subways and freeways. A dynamic, physical autonomism. Body complete. c30 with 16 page full color booklet in oversized package. Edition of 42.

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Black Eagle Child – ‘Two Moods’ C30 $7(US)/$8(CAN)/$10(WORLD)
Hazy memories of warm forages and moonlit boogie downs. Type II 30 minute cassette. Space Slave 11. Ed 75.

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LY011 Ranger – ‘Heritage’
Hailing from New Albany, IN – Ranger brings forth some of the most incredible, well-written and structured music I’ve heard in a while. Blending bluesy elements with indie rock undertones, Ranger has crafted a sound of their own, and proves that even the simplistic melodies, are the most powerful. FFO: Vampire Weekend, Grizzly Bear & Local Natives.

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