a little heads up, i'm back to working full-time hours at my real job, so expect reviews to happen mainly during the weekend... because i have no life.

born in a lake c30
[2009, 905 tapes]

clerics (not to be confused with the clerics) is the meeting of prominent label runners sal giorgi (peasant magik) and 905 tapes' own mike haley (wether, big china & little trouble, blown doors, deerstalker). after becoming well acquainted with peasant magik, this is the first musical project that i've gotten to check out from sal himself, though he does have a few other things kicking around out there, too: gleam, belegost, pillars of heaven and the vellum kid.
these guys waste precious little time in letting us know that born in a lake is going to center around drones as they introduce multiple layers of them. the primary of those is a great monotone humming, under which reside two (related) layers that would drone, had they not been manipulated into constantly shuffling waves. just before two minutes, clerics provide us with, in my mind, the cassette's most shining highlight: a fantastic call and response between a dark, vibrating drone and a short, pleasant tonal loop. the random flourishes that are added are fine enough touches, but ultimately auxiliary in comparison to the sloshing base and that tone / drone relationship. when that finally tapers off, after six minutes or so, more drones will be added to the mix. i appreciate how, despite the track's flux, they'll retain that shuffling foundation. it's nice to have that feeling of familiarity, especially once they do away with the terrific melody. once things start to settle down, in the latter minutes, i find myself really drawn to the whirling background drones, particularly the conflicting speed of their flutters. clerics will build off of this dynamic with a heavier constant buzzing as well as marginally playful synth tones. they'll also manage to conjure up one last memorable drone, before closing out the side with unaccompanied clamor.
the other track will appear to carry over a few elements from its predecessor, chiefly, the thin fluctuations and distorted buzz, though they'll take a bit of care towards various manipulations of the latter in the early going. they'll also pepper the piece with unexpected shrill outbursts, which provide a nice offset to their lulling backdrop. eventually the noise will clear out for a skipping foundation that i'd liken to a record being played backwards. this will then be paired with a submerged synth line that gradually becomes clearer, and sounds angelic amidst the distorted rustling and light howling tones. just as things had reached a wonderful groove, there's a sudden shift into minimal watery ambiance, with a complimentary humming drone. shortly thereafter they'll add a couple of piercing whines (somewhat buried, as to not be too harsh); one continually trembling, the other occurring in drawn out waves. the interaction between these tones is brilliant. more drones will come to join the fray, as well as a melodic synth pattern, every so often. initially, it all feels pretty anti-climactic, considering what preceded it, but the more that i listen to it, the more endeared i am to its subtleties, as well as the overall tranquil sway, which culminates with a beautiful seventeen second conclusion.

taking into account who's involved in this, i had no doubt that born in a lake would be anything other than good, but, turns out it's a hell of a lot better than merely good. killer tape. this is the follow up to 2006's orange blue sky ep, which giorgi released, and i hope, for the benefit of my ears, that there's more to come.

Born in a Lake Side B excerpt (from 0:00 to 5:00)

Cool blog!

Since we write about similar thing, would you be interested in exchanging links with my blog (http://beautifulnoise.wordpress.com/)?

Let me know.

Thank you!

hey Ilya, thanks for the checking out the blog. link exchange sounds good to me.