PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[John Cagefight]

Incipientium - Untitled
self released - 2024
This release went out in a short run of 13 copies to be distributed at a performance at Discreet Music shop just over a year ago. It's very excellent kosmiche sounds that fits right in with the rest of the artist's catalog of highly narrative works and follows a similar pattern where more abstract or droning sections give rise to wholly excellent melodic reliefs. Side A features a series of synthesizer test tones sustained, twinkling, breathing, and overlapping until they give rise to a reverb-soaked feedback and chord swell finale. Side B opens with a room recording of muffled voices and gong tones that move into a brief passage of meditative om-chanting. This gives way to the cassette's crescendo of highly epic melodic guitar riffing that escalates into a pitch bending, feedback, and tape squeal triumph. As the cassette winds down I can only think "Its impossible for me to listen to Incipientium and not think about Popol Vuh."

Tahma - II
Satatuhatta - 2025
I'll confess this is the first Tahma release I've taken in, and my oh my does it hit all the right notes for me. I'm quite excited to go back and find a copy of the self-titled cassette on Satatuhatta from the year prior. Distinctly dirty, stop-start noise that gives me deep empathy for the Stop and Play buttons on the artists Walkman. Some particularly melty tape warble sections that pepper the on and off frenzy help instill a real swampy aura across the affair, and occasionally the pacing of the manic scramble will yield for some very brief moments of lingering electronic sustain to give the listener a chance to hang their coat on something - but never for any length of time. Nothing sits or rides for more than say 5-10 seconds, always cutting to the next series of hiccups and stalls. If I space out enough I can imagine the pacing of a high-tempo free jazz percussionist wailing on his kit - but its all anonymous mid range scrape and pummel. Massively appealing in every capacity and works distinctly well in the 3" length / format.

[Tribe Tapes]

Awenydd - Untitled K7 (August 2025, Not On Label)
Initially keyed as a "weird PE" project Awenydd has continued growth into something new on every release, the idea I'm given now is that of an auteur crafting each tape with a different approach yet fitting into the same canon and aesthetic established since the start. Side A starts in komische territory before ramping up into a spiritual aggression, this is augmented by a more prominent use of vocals and percussive elements as the tape trudges forward.

Ineffable Slime - Deep And Desperate Fictions CD (2025, Virtues)
There is not anything quite like Ineffable in the contemporary landscape, a high-fidelity barrage of noise that echoes Worth's brightest moments yet proudly incorporates his esoteric influences as part of the sound instead of merely style. Again it's a high-fidelity effort, but broken through immense digital clipping and samples that are ten times louder than anything else in the mix. In lesser hands this would strike as amateur, but the artist wisely uses these idiosyncrasies to craft a hallucinatory mass.

Outdoor Horse Shrine / Euronet K7 (2026, Absurd Exposition)
OHS delivering another bout of well-tuned gnashing. Euronet is a name I've been hearing praised for a while but haven't been able to acquire any releases until now, it's common to be underwhelmed in such a case but their track here I greatly enjoyed. Harsh that complements OHS well but with distinct detours into more unrecognizable, strange sound sources. I'd hope to see a more widely-available release from this project soon, a CD would be an instant buy.