here's a cd-r (in the truest sense of the word) sent to me by jacob deraadt from fort collins, colorado's basement tapes.

bad toasting for concrete
[2007, basement tapes]

judging by what i've seen jacob saying about the release, it seems like sterile garden is primarily his solo endeavor. bad toasting for concrete sees him joined by denver denizens justin kinnett (man//beast) as well as travis egedy (pictureplane).
sterile garden is working with a nice mixture of sounds with this outing. at first, it seemed as though they had a tendency to try and flood everything with an invasive layer of distortion, but the more that i absorb the initial half of the disc, the more that i can appreciate the sonic juxtapositions. the first few tracks spit forth psychedelic drones, vocal ambiance / noise along with bull in a china shop drumming. the third cut, though, does feature some less hectic percussion. i enjoy the fact that their song lengths are manageable; six total, clocking in at twenty-seven minutes, but i wish that the first three works ran together more, instead of abruptly cutting off at the end, and then fading back in, since they all have a pretty similar feel. the fourth track changes gears for a bit, revolving around a sputtering motor-sound, chimes in the background, real light and sporadic cymbal work by justin, along with isolating ambiance. oh, and there's no layer of static this time to thinly veil the group's efforts. i dig this track; the deliberateness of it pushes the emphasis towards a cold mood and, for me, seemed very well suiting of the project's name. i also liked the brief bit of matther bower-esque (think hototogisu) vocal wailing towards the end. the fifth track carries over the stuttering foundation from the prior piece and throws in some terrific feedback. it's pretty low-key, but the sporadic emissions of said feedback will keep you from turning it up too high, at least until the latter portion, when the noise adopts a muffled distortion sound, paired with really good wavy drones. the last piece of noise on the disc is just a shade under fifty seconds. as has been the recurrent theme throughout bad toasting for concrete, it'll carry over sounds previously heard. it takes the noisier elements from its predecessor, but eschews the feedback. over too soon.

i haven't had a lot of exposure to the denver-fort collins noise scene, but the few that i have heard: other peoples children, weak sisters and dude war have been impressive. after hearing this cd-r, i can add sterile garden to what's sure to be a growing list. keep your eyes and ears on these guys. bad toasting for concrete is only three bucks, too. myspace is here.

Bad Toasting For Concrete #5

different and worse c15
[2007, monorail trespassing]

nashville, tennessee's ren schofield is god willing. ren also runs the i just live here label. speaking of which, if you find that you have more money than intelligence, ren's selling a twenty-four track reel to reel of dynasty's stray marks for the moderate sum of one thousand dollars. i just did the dr. evil thing right after i said that. seriously though, it's in an edition of one, you should get it and upload it onto slsk. anyway, previously, you might've seen schofield drumming for gang wizard, or if you live in los angeles, shredding with deep jew.
what we've got in different and worse is a nice little cassette of interestingly presented dense electronics. the first track will start off with a thick base and then soon integrate a slightly shriller noise, which finds itself choked by the oppressive density. i liked the bassy rumbles being combined with, comparatively, higher pitched tones. the noisier conclusion also segues perfectly into the next track. there's a lot more happening in this one. relying once again on a distorted foundation, ren will generate some terrific electronic squeals and static rips. the noise being made from schofield's affected vocals ranks as my highlight.

the opening track for the second side sees god willing take a return to less involved noise. dense as usual; i'm getting a good foot massage by way of my subwoofer right now. while that main layer is in its perpetual rumble, there's a wavy background sound that i find myself drawn to. on top of everything else there's a strangled layer of distortion, sputtering to no avail. the tonework at the end of the track served well to break up the stasis. initially, those tones were kind of pulsating, but ended up being sustained. the final track is just thirty seconds of more pure noise, made good by piercing squeaks.
i liked this tape. i really appreciated the fact that ren opted for shorter track lengths, since this was of the dense variety of noise. some tracks were more sonically interesting than others, especially that great second one, but i found different and worse enjoyable on the whole.

Different and Worse A2

god willing in oakland

book / c20
[2007, bread and animals]

who exactly are the family thinkers? while i haven't found anything to support this claim, i'm positive that it's bread and animals' own lieven martens. the similarities between this tape and the wildlife tape / portal jams double cassette from his dolphins into the future project are too noticeable for it to be anyone else. plus, if i had someone who copied my distinct style, i sure as hell wouldn't turn around and release them on my own label. fellow belgian bart sloow (bart de paepe) should be a familiar name because of his sloow tapes label.
sloow's contribution to this release is strictly in the visual department. the cassette came housed in a sixteen page booklet of artwork by him. if you've seen his tape covers before, expect more of the same. if you haven't had the pleasure, check out sloow tapes website. the colorful, abstract, artwork is very much in the style of john clyde evans and voice of the seven woods' recent covers. i'd imagine that this is probably really good shit to look at when you're on acid. hippies. the black and white illustrations are lovely as well.

family thinkers will burn through ten tracks in roughly seventeen minutes, and the bulk of those will come by way of the a side. what i dig the most about this tape is how unpretentious it all is. this tape isn't about mood, complex composition, fancy production, being purposely opaque, nor is it about testing your patience with a bunch of pointless meandering. these tracks are concise, and much like the afforementioned wildlife tapes / portal jams release, they just sound fucking nice.the cassette as a whole is amiable, but there are some highlights. almost all of those highlights come by way of the album's five longer songs (that is to say, the ones that are more than thirty-five seconds in length). after starting off with a hazy, hallucinogenic opener, things will get a bit more blissful for the next track. this is a very warm piece which centers around sustained keyboard tones amidst swirling, head-in-the-clouds, atmospherics. it's beautiful, and you'll miss it when it's over. fortunately, that flips into another heavenly number. while i feel lame for referencing the skaters twice in back to back reviews, i can't help the fact that this really reminds me of a happier vodka soap (one of james ferraro's innumerable solo projects); very enchanting. after that, it's on into a collagey series of five tracks which are all near thirty seconds in length. the most interesting of which is the sixth track on side a which features a weird noise that sounds a good deal like a dolphin. that piece is another reason why i think lieven is the mastermind behind this. dude loves him some dolphins. the b side closer takes up a quarter of the entire cassette's running time and is a bit more toned down than his previous offerings. over a windy backdrop, it's pretty much entirely synthesizer. it'll start out as just odd little pulses, but will soon turn into a pleasing, repetitious warble. eventually, that sound will succumb to various forms of manipulation as it fades out of audibility.

Side A, Track #3

lieven martens (as pulsating in the eyes of vision) @ the student

temple of self decapitation c30
[2007, dreamtime taped sounds]

those of you who are into the not not fun family should know that the three members of quintana roo: amanda and britt brown, and roy tatum comprise a nice chunk of bands on that label: knitwitch, robedoor, pocahaunted, barrabarracuda and changeling. then outside of the label there's tatum's empty vessel and black monk projects. i find it interesting that on that barometer of popularity, last.fm, quintana roo has the least amount of plays out of any of their projects. as an example, robedoor's been listened to a respectable 3962 times. quintana roo, 58. this seems weird to me. sure, robedoor has a lot more releases, but only 58 listens? c'mon, people.

if there was ever a time to wake up and smell the psych, it's with temple of self decapitation. the title is a bit darker than the actual music, but it's not hard to pick up on a ritualistic vibe. the slightly muffled dreamy atmosphere brings to mind blues control, while the soft, chant-like vocal moans and drones are more evocative of the skaters. that's really the only thing that this band shares with either of those. beneath the swell of vocals on side a's young eclipse is a very solid and entrancing drum beat being laid out. it's very simple, but that's all it needs to be to hold your attention while everything else floats around you. once young eclipse hits the ten minute mark, that's when all of the elements come together. all of a sudden the drumming is pushed up to the front, the vocals adopt a catchier, more melodic tone, and the electric guitar is playing a series of chords as opposed to just supplying background sound. real nice.blood of kings begins with guitar wails that sound like they're from the depths of a cavern. great fucking wails. once again, the drums are pushed back pretty far, but this time they'll take on a tribal quality. slowly, the rumbles of a second guitar come into play as someone's still going to town off in the distance. there's some good little interplay between the second guitar and drums as the original one sounds like it's moving farther and farther away from us. then at about the seven minute mark, quintana roo will revive the guitar riff from the second half of young eclipse, sounding a lot cleaner in its reincarnation. that's mostly due to the fact that there's not all the vocal noise and loud percussion to mask it. a few minutes later they'll start jamming as the drums now appear to be where they should in the mix. i love the fact that it's pretty much just drum hit, cymbal crash, drum hit, cymbal crash, repeated over and over. not only does it sound great, but it keeps me bobbing my head right along with it. oh, did i mention that the first guitar never stopped its howls and drones? this was a killer cassette of primitive, smoked out, cave jams.

Young Eclipse

christ, to prove how busy i've been lately, i actually bought this twelve inch last month and have just now gotten to taking it out of the plastic. when i don't even get around to listening to things i actually spend money on, that's no good.

make like a fetus and abort / extract, behold 12"
[2007, ecstatic peace!]

both of these projects had their roots in columbus, ohio, but have found them supplanted elsewhere recently. sixteen bitch pile-up landed in san francisco, and shiflet moved way the fuck out of dodge and ended up in japan. it does seem like mike's moved back to columbus as of july of this year. currently, sixteen bitch-pile up is a three piece, they lost two members somewhere down the line. right now it looks like this: shannon walter and the two sarahs, bernat (whom put out a split / collaborative cassette with shiflet, previously) and cathers. as for shiflet, he runs gameboy records, is in scenic railroads with joe panzner and was in noumena with aaron hibbs (sword heaven).

while the tracks from both artists are from a few years back (give or take), sixteen bitch pile-up's contribution is one that i've heard before; it was originally a cd on their own triple sss imprint. i love the fact that it came in a plastic bag and had symbolic drips of red paint on the cd. now that's classy. i'm glad that this track is seeing a larger scale release because it is really fucking good. it very much adheres to the group's menacing, terrortronics style of experimental noise. this is the audio equivalent of that dead chick crawling out of those televisions in the movie the ring. fan-tastic. it starts off with haunting ambiance in the background mixed with some thunderous sounds, whirly synths and great turntable manipulations. shortly thereafter, things will calm down a little bit, as the background booms and ambiance are highlighted. there's this real nice layer in the back that sounds like an unholy groan, and it really ups the creep factor. most of the busier noisework is done in the first ten minutes, but that won't signal a decline in the quality of music. not at all. 16bpu will rely on mood and texturing, two things which they excel at. eventually, once the actual noise knocks off, a couple of distinct supporting layers of synth tones will reveal themselves and both are subtly, fucking great. it's actually pretty melodic, while still managing to be harrowing. the consistent panning of a fainter percussive sound and sample are great additions. i loved this piece of music as a whole, but everything that they're doing in the latter half of this is absolutely perfect.mike shiflet's side b is just shiflet doing what he does best: ddddrrrroooonnnnnnnnee. he's definitely a personal favorite, and his extract, behold does fine by me. there's multiple layers of drone, the more dominant of the two has a slightly warmer tone. the other one sounds like it's delayed a little, giving it a bit of a stuttery, echoing sound. both of these are met by a firm track of static distortion. in a rather nuanced manner, the drones will change their shape. a more notable change comes by way of the static's increase in amplitude. as it gets nearer to the end of track, that main wavy drone will either fade away completely, or drop in volume as the static is further highlighted. both drones will fall off for a distortion-centric conclusion. lovely.

Mike Shiflet - Extract, Behold

16 bitch pile-up @ high 5; columbus, ohio 9/28/05


*the album cover scan is segmented because i had to take two separate scans and mash 'em together.

since i've owed anarchymoon's bob bellerue a few reviews for awhile now, i'll push his recent package to me up towards the top of the queue.

the smell remains the same (singles '90-'95) 12"
[2007, anarchymoon]

smegma is a seminal experimental group currently operating out of portland, oregon. they've been around since 1973, and have had more than a handful of members pass through their ranks. their current line-up is amazon bambi, oblivia (aka rock'n'roll jackie), dr. id, burned mind, ju suk reet meate, borneo jimmy (richard meltzer) and vibraband. seeing as how this record captures a five year period in the band's thirty-four year existence, i doubt that that was the personnel for these recordings. i think meltzer joined the band in the latter part of the '90s. oblivia, bambi, dr. id and meate were definitely involved, that much i know thanks to david morgan's overview / review included on the lp's sleeve.

the smell remains the same is a compilation of smegma's seven inch releases from, you guessed it! 1990-1995. one of the things that i found pretty fucking cool (and a little odd) is that a few of these singles were originally released by the long running (and rad) sympathy for the record industry. sftri, in the red and damaged goods are easily my favorite garage rock oriented labels.

bands like sun city girls, caroliner and smegma are ones where it takes someone sending me something of theirs for me to actually listen. this is despite the fact that i have numerous albums from all three on my hard drive. they're attributed with being "weird" or "difficult", and musically schizophrenic. not only that, but they have rather sizable discographies. if they refuse to settle into one easily identifiable music genre, i'm not really sure which releases to start with, and would rather not listen to anything then have to wade through a bunch of stuff that i might not like (admittedly, i'm pretty fucking picky) in order to get to the albums that i would. too time consuming. so, i'm really happy that bob sent this to me. it's the perfect wake-up call.

the music contained on these ten tracks are a pleasing mixture of structured rock, freer experimentation and dadaist blather. for the most part these are pretty disjointed, though there's definitely some cross-over between the latter two. as for the rock songs, first up is swamp dick. killer fucking southern, erm, swamp rock. jackie's lazy drawl syncing up perfectly with the bassline. i particularly liked the stop and start rhythm of it. musically, it's not hard to picture this track coming from the cramps or the gun club. lyrically, it's story-telling. instead of your basic verse chorus verse, the catchiness of the music itself is the hook. the next rocker won't come until the eighth track, walkie talkie, but it's a great one. this is essentially a three and a half minute jammer. there's some nice, but not domineering, caterwauling from one of the ladies, which wonderfully compliments the occasional guitar squeals from ju suk reet meate. the closer, thicket, also has a southern fried flavor to it. that's aided by rooster samples in the beginning, but the male singing is in an bible belt-like manner, which has something to do with the lyrics, but i pay more attention to the music and the sound of the vocals than i do to what's actually being said. it's less air-guitar worthy; slower, more evenly keeled and features another good bassline along with some twangy and looser guitar playing. i absolutely love those galloping guitar licks.now, on to the experimental stuff. l.s.d. bomb implements a repeating sample of "marijuana is the flame, heroin is the fuse, lsd is the bomb". this will become more and more manipulated as the track plays on until it gets affected into oblivion. afterwards, other samples will pop up. along with this, there's saxophone playing, light electronic accompaniment, and screechy instrumentation. it's these improvised tracks, sans vocals, that i liked the most, out of the non-rock set. fish story, again uses samples. i'm digging this one a bit more, mostly because of the panned, repetitious electronics and background synth drone. jackie's turntable manipulations are a nice touch as well. the structured base worked nicely with the freer instrumentation and made me think of crawlspace, a little bit. yes your majesty will combine sampling with repetitious bass guitar chords, unobtrusive guitar noise and random metal tinkling sounds, which provide the only percussion. boils and carbuncles is the last of the less weird experimental pieces. here, i really like the organic instrumentation, particularly from the drummer. the sample that they've chosen is of a more musical variety (delightfully catchy, and not overused) and suits smegma's music perfectly. this one has discernible vocals. they're pretty nonsensical, but didn't detract from my enjoyment of the music.

the more experimental tracks which feature vocals: change me and vox, are my least favorite on the album. musically, change me isn't too far removed from any of the other pieces. there's sparse instrumentation as well as good multi-channel usage, but i can't get into the lyrics with an adult woman talking about having her diapers changed. supposedly, there's a double meaning having to do with religion, but i'm not much for veiled metaphors. with vox, as you can gather from the title, the focus is on people using their voices. it sounds like everyone's talking and making sounds with their mouth at the same time. meh. some experiments in sound are more successful than others. this one's just a bit to inane for me.

listening to the smell remains the same, it's clear that these guys (and gals) were pushing the proverbial envelope, but my favorite aspect of this band has to be the fact that when they choose to play rock music, they're fucking great. granted, the lyrics and "singing" style are still unconventional, but you can't take anything away from their musical talent. conversely, when they want to be weird, they can be fucking weird. it's really the best of both worlds. while i can't say that i was a fan of everything that they were doing on these tracks, i can say that what i did like makes me want to seek out more of their material. i'm won over.

Swamp Dick

smegma @ no fun fest; brooklyn, ny 2006

untitled c10
[2007, negation is freedom]

apparently, this anonymous two-piece didn't follow math-rock in the late '90s. otherwise they might've known that there was already a band called storm & stress (featuring members of don caballero, battles, talibam!, etc.). originally, storm and stress was the name given to a brief literary period in germany, which occurred from 1767 - 1786. it was named after a friedrich maximilian klinger drama, sturm und drang. that's your useless trivia fact for today.just like the other tape that i received from nif, this is in the field of power electronics. unfortunately, it's not as good as the white heterosexuals' tape. this sounds like someone was super stoked on slogun's murder usa. the noise is predominately static-based. at times there's a denser sound, but nothing so forceful as to detract from the vocals. speaking of which, the vocals are stereotypically confrontational and are delivered quite slogunly, which is why i brought him up in the first place. those are the tracks that i don't mind as much: hubris, shame and cast aside. that last track is easily the best on the cassette, mostly because of the screaming towards the end, but the noise is also more memorable. that's followed by the a side closer, moral fibre. what sinks this, for me, is the inclusion of guttural vocals along with the normal ones. i hate, hate, hate gutturals. outside of that, it was alright. the closer for the second side, der lehsatz von krieger (joy of life), also features odd vocals, this time due to affecting. it kind of sounds like satan if he had emphysema. i did enjoy the repetitious industrialesque noise, though.
your enjoyment of this cassette really depends on how into pe you are. i find the genre to be too overwrought, but i can still listen to quite a bit of it. what's most important is that there's something going on with the sound to make me want to listen to someone's vitriol. to that effect, storm & stress didn't quite come through, but they did have some promising moments.

Cast Aside

split c32
[2007, jk tapes]

this next cassette from jk tapes has some pacific northwest love, via portland, oregon, specifically. acre's [pictured] someone whom i'm familiar with (i bought the split tape that he did with pulse emitter on cherried out merch), but haven't been able to find very much info about.

honed bastion is nicholas bittakis, possibly better known as dead/bird. he also has a screen printing company in seizure palace.

despite the fact that honed bastion's name is first on the cover of the tape, side a belongs to acre. this did confuse me for a minute. there's some very lovely drone right here. while there's a wash of complimentary static (white noise) in the background, i liked how it was amplified more in the left channel. the auditory effect that it creates in conjunction with the warm, undulating drones is fantastic. my sole complaint is that there's a bit of an issue with a popping noise, like there was something wrong with the master tape. it's not that big of a deal, but because the music is of a more serene nature, it becomes noticeable. musically, though, acre's side is great.

Acre - Untitled
honed bastion is on some murky, brooding shit for his first contribution. slow, stuttering synth noises get paired with a darker, ghostly minimal foundation. nick makes excellent use of both channels throughout, preferring to do his most involved work in the right channel, especially in the latter half. the second track will play to his noisier tendencies. now the mood is no longer key, as his sound starts to get a little denser. this time both speakers are employing their own distinct sounds; working with, as well as against, each other. it's a fucking shame that it cuts out after a two minute tease.

awesome tape by both artists. i'm a little bummed about the audio issues with acre's side, since it's nice autumnal music, but honed bastion's sounded perfectly fine.

honed bastion @ jasper's barn; salem, oregon 6/01/07

descending coma c34
[2007, monorail trespassing]

evenings is miles haney from kalamazoo, michigan. as far as other musical endeavors go, haney's also in taliban with joel rakowski and wigwam with kelly ginger. i've had taliban's american lynchings 3" cd-r for awhile, but i'm just now finding out who's in it. turns out writing reviews is useful for me as well. oh, miles also heads up the rad tapeworm tapes label.

while i haven't managed to snag every single evenings release that comes my way, i do have quite a few, and one thing i've noticed is a rather drastic decrease in dynamics over the past three years. the audiobot releases from 2005: crypt swellings and earthen moons were much more volatile. 2006's nocturnes integrated the slower dense sonics that are evident in miles' newer work, yet it still maintained a semblance of his dissonant leanings. flash forward to this year and, voilà, no more harshness.descending coma's interesting in the fact that it could be wall noise... if there was some noise. what you have is a nice base of a powerful rumble and then just the slightest crackles of distortion, which is about as obtrusive as the various pops you'd get from an old record. there is a distinct level of tension within these four tracks as you're convinced that it could break out and get really loud at any minute, but it'll never make good on its threats. side b will graciously make some overtures towards a dynamic sound and will even get a little noisy for the closing seconds of the third piece. the fourth track will see the rumble shaped a little differently; slightly less forceful as the distortion will attempt to break through, but it can't quite escape the strangulating restraints that are placed upon it. this particular track brings to my mind a less noisy version of the latter half of side a from roxanne jean polise's let's chase euphoria up your arm.
for the first side of this tape, i'd like to christen the term dense ambient. side b was a bit more interesting, though. ultimately, i'd recommend any of the other releases by evenings that i mentioned, as a starting point. if you already dig miles' work with this project, especially in its current form, there's no reason that you wouldn't like this one as well. as for me, i'd prefer to listen to wigwam's maritime disasters. good shit.

Descending Coma #3