Shortness Of Breath – While No Blossoms Likely Will Be Left, There Will Be Entertainment (Tribe Tapes)
New duo consisting of John Grimaldi (Hand & Knee) and Scott Kindberg (She Walks Crooked, Silver Moult, BLJ).
Domestic field recordings, smashed glass, sudden cut-in bursts of noise. Despite the description sounding like it's a cut-up style tape, it ebbs and flows at a very even pace and has a live session feel to it.
There is careful consideration to building tension and momentum in new sounds and passages. Each member compliments the other very well and leaves enough space to stretch and play off of the previous sounds.
Absolutely love this tape. Will need a few more spins to absorb this fully.
Invagination – Artisanal Hymenoplastry (Freak Animal)
Very trippy! Right off the bat there is some fantastic stereo panning, psychedelic, and colorful synth work.
Immediately reached over to turn this up another notch. High energy. Blown out metal junk abuse mixes with the cosmic synth barrage.
This comes out of the gate so strong that I think this might top anything on the debut CD based off of memory. The debut CD is very good, but this leaves such an impression and has a sense of urgency to it. Immediate balls to the wall energy, very inspired sounding, and fun!
Also, I need to comment on how beautiful the jcard printing is on this one. Gold paper with green and red screen print style. I usually don't comment on typography, but even the font choice is perfect. A+ jcard design and layout.
Runnin' Blind – Sisters (World As Stage '97)
Max Eastman tape under the alias Runnin' Blind. Which makes sense, as the material is from the same session as Max's Runnin' Blind tape.
Like everything from Max. There is an enigmatic nature to this tape. It's harsh, but very muddy and lo-fi, and of course, the source material is highly abused.
The kind of abused sounds that make you wonder if your audio setup is functioning properly. Guess what... it is. The sounds are just that otherworldly and bizarre.
It sounds like Max recorded source material and processed it through a meat tenderizer and transmitted the frequencies through fried AM radio towers. Absolutely alien, or perhaps even, cave-dwelling troglodyte harsh noise.
This is the kind of tape that reminds me of why I love Max's work. At the start, I'm thoroughly confused about what is happening, if I even like it, and where his head was at making it. Then by the end, I'm thinking to myself, this mad lad has done it again. Always pushing boundaries, challenging preconceptions, and creating challenging but rewarding listens.
