Copley Medal "Impersonal Attraction" CS (Hanson)
Some guy from New York who apparently runs the Robert & Leopold label, named Ryan Martin. I like stuff from that label and had never made the connection when ordering from them. Anyway, this sort of low-key project is like the 80's Maurizio Bianchi of today – it's not just minimal industrial tape-whatever, it actually sounds almost exactly like Maurizio Bianchi. Well, maybe a little more diversity in terms of tone and texture, but the label description is something like "reverberated, echoed patterns like old '80's M.B.," and that is certainly accurate. Pretty busy at times but still could be described as "minimal," with several layers usually moving at once and at least two of them drenched in that clunky, metallic "old school" reverb sound. It's definitely "industrial" in that it has this vague, angular-but-dulled sharp ring/resonance to it with a sort of machine-like structure. The first side has a lot of movement and a seemingly wider array of sounds, and at one point reaches some cascading forward momentum. The entire track is saturated to the point of harshness, but in an ear-scraping, blown-out way unlike any harsh noise or similarly-textured music of today. The second side is a subtly evolving variation on one pattern of bleep-bloop 1-2 (in a good way) layered with an echoed glissando and some really detailed, grainy noise that shifts around slowly and gives way to the background patterns while the dominant ones morph and recede. I could see how many who weren't impressed with M.B. would skip over this (project), but judging by this and some Soundcloud samples, I'll definitely hunt things down as best I can. Recommended to fellow tape nerds! Similar, I guess, to Burried Machine?
Mercury Hall "Civilization Year" CS (Second Sleep)
Label description says something like "late-night electronics for smokers." Well, I hate to be crass, but I'm sure they ain't talking about a Cuban cigar. Seems about right for its stated purposes/audience, and not at all in a bad way. Rather than some spraypainted semi-random collage of some stoner's experiment, this is serious tape music for the indulgent, I suppose. Absolutely relaxing stuff, devoid of any pensive or dwelling atmosphere that seems driven by very repetitive (in a good sense – "hypnotic") loops of single-key piano, indistinguishable "stolen conversations," and resonant thwacking, clanking tinny metal sound. The loops seem to be both "traditional" cassette loops as well as reel-to-reel loops, judging by the clear quality and stereo panning of some in contrast to the bassier, mono heaviness of others that have a more degraded tone. I recall some interesting electronics detail at some points but I'm writing this review from memory and not while listening like I sometimes do, so I could be wrong. In all, this is pretty damned top-notch and "serious" tape music that seems to have a wide range of appeal. I was a little late in getting this but at the moment, a box set called "Library's Bells" (tape nerds, again, anyone? Nothing wrong with that) is apparently readily available and looks pretty tempting. Will be getting that later in the month.
