You'll definitely want to spool this at your dance party tonight.  Last CG review XXX
CHECK IT XXX

I can't wait to see this band at Savage Weekend XXX. I walked into the room after they played Raw Meet and there was blood and glass everywhere.  Their tape sounds fucked up. 

CONTORTIONIST JAZZ EXOTICA

This showed up today via Royal Mail, all the way from the UK
It is a cd and the cover/packaging art is awful
I don't review cds
Please don't send them to me.

RAGS - LISTEN XXX SLEEP FERN / THE ETHER STAIRCASE - really rad shit



RAINBOW VALLEY

CAVE RECORDINGS XXX

The history of home taping has a rich legacy of recordings from R. Stevie Moore to Martin Newell o Daniel Johnston to the folks at K Records (and many, many others of course) circulating and influencing people to follow the path of loners with 4-track machines. The influence of the shockingly brilliant few on the many unknown bedroom savants is both glorious and unfortunate. As someone who has filled sixty minutes worth of tape with garbage pail songs about boners, burritos, and blasphemous musings, I cherish the freedom relatively cheap home recording equipment affords even the most demented composer. One such DIY music maker is John Dydo. Dydo aka "The Johns" compiled three of his EPs, Apologies By John Dydo, Sketches of Paris, and Super Nature on one sixty minute tape and called it Level 2. This compilation is funny, intimate, and very rough - exactly what one would expect from a solo taper project. The songs range from the sorta pop, "Jimi Hendrix" to a stand-up comedy routine with lead guitar riffs, "Comedy Album" (which contains a few funny lines about R.E.M. by the way). Dydo's vocals will remind listeners of Calvin Johnson's off key baritone while the overall quality of the music will repel casual listeners leaving only devotees of the home studio aesthetic standing with ears wide open. If this is your cup o' tea, drink.
Mr. Dydo's packaging, if one could call it that, doesn't amount to very much. All he did was black sharpie over the commercial TDK j-card and wrote the credits with said sharpie.This is disappointing because, though no-fi no-budget stuff has a small level of charm, this collection could really benefit from some fun and/or clever artwork since the music features lots of jokes and silly material. I would love to see a brightly colored cartoon style accompany this tape in the future.
Listen and Buy HERE.

VERY pleased to have received in the mail from Providence, RI the first release by Matt Kattman as The Rainbow Body. Yr reviewer is currently constantly shuffling between bay cities and this tape has made for some very PLEASANT late-night drives over the bridge. Solo guitar/e-bow working 100% in the kosmiche-mode, for me at it's best when most contemplative and slow burning, there's some bubbly overdrive stuff sprinkled in on-top too, but my top-shelf moments were when things were at their most calm.

Stream it here - http://therainbowbody.bandcamp.com/
Released as an edition of 100, grab this for $5 before it's gone
 http://therainbowbody.bandcamp.com/


PS, this reviewer now has a car with a cassette deck, send along yr best driving tapes

Hey it's the early 90s!  There are all sorts of bands playing cool rock and roll again.  Speedy Ortiz is one of the better ones.  Less than a year old and already rocking it like it is the current year that it is: 1991.  I do not want any music that sounds like it comes from a year in the future like 2012, I want music only that sounds like it is 1991 or possibly a year in the future, like 1992.  Listen to this shit, it's really good rock and roll. LINK XXX

Fact: Babement exists

I received this tape a while back and if I remember correctly, it made its journey all the way from the UK. The metallic paint and feathers classily gooped on the front were certainly a sign of good things to come.
The first side titled "The Healing Power of Grief Athletes" works in three sections. The first is a kind of twisty, synth-drone bit built on a couple repetitive synth loops. However, the Athletes take every opportunity to whip blistered feedback all over the goddam place. The loops and feedback make an unnerving match as there's almost a shimmer to the synth but any hint of euphoria is smothered by the noise. The second section features echoing, scratchy percussion, whistling feedback and occasional synth bee-boopery. I probably prefer this slightly to the first section but I'm known to be partial basement scrapping. The third section is nice too, with a short bass loop and quietly undulating feedback initially, the band gets a little rougher before too long. There are a lot of cool elements on this side, even if they don't always come together totally seamlessly. Grief Athletes have all the makings to be a pretty interesting band, I'll be curious to see how they develop.
Brideburger's side is called "Untitled #6." What the hell's a brideburger? On second thought, I'm not sure I want to know. Brideburger is doomier than their counterparts on Side A. Sullen drones sigh against a wash of feedback until the dudes start raging. This definitely sounds good when you crank it up. The grim and grimy drone attack has the palpable essence of someone's dark and dingy subterranean underdwelling. Smoked for flavor.
You can buy this tape for 2, that's right 2, American dollars and according to the liner notes, the digital version is available from "the internet." Gotta love that dry British humour.

Bought this from Dan Greenwood AKA Diagram A at this past Tuesday's show. As you can see from the picture this is a 9-volt powered tin can. Inside are two or three oscillators interconnected by tilt switches. Once you plug that battery in, the can is on and generating sound. Any slight tap scrambles the oscillations and makes the sounds freak out.

Depending on the angle of the can, you can get low end growls, repeating patterns of chirps, lots of clicks and other harsh sounds. Shaking and moving it around vary the results. Fun with strobe lights.

As far as my experience with boutique gear goes, this guy has a high bang-for-your-buck value sitting around $30.

http://diagram-a-greenwood.blogspot.com/

The joining of two of Western Mass's most beloved institutions. Nothing here but the best. You get Dan Greenwood's sputtering and squealing homemade electronics, Chris Dooley's obliviated guitar feedback, shitty keyboard beats, deathly growls and quick n' nasty edits make this short 20 minute (?) tape crucial old school noise. Fast paced and dynamic. There's hints of metal abuse in the feedback. These men are insane.

Xeroxed, single-sided insert and spray painted case.

This one's for the purists.

The only contact you need: http://diagram-a-greenwood.blogspot.com/

Like my fellow C-godz staffer Fog Tropes, I got this Dolores Boys tape in the mail and when I popped it in there was only 10 seconds of music on it. I did hear a Shadow Ring cover ("City Lights") from the tape on Free From Freakout and it sounded pretty cool. If whoever sent me this tape wants to send another one with music on it I will gladly check it out.
The tape came with 3-D glasses which you are to wear when viewing the nun's nipples on the cover. The 3-D doesn't really work but I suppose it's good to include a mildly entertaining gimmick like this if you're sending a blank tape for review.

note:
I got one of these too, but I haven't checked it out yet, seeing as it had already been reviewed TWICE (and now a third time).  Granted, only one of those copies seemed to have music on it. Mike Barrett's review of the actual music XXX.  Fog Tropes review of the blank tape XXX. --OKF

According to wiki, a monolith is: a geological feature such as a mountain, consisting of a single massive stone or rock, or a single piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument. Nicholas Rejack's Monolith Transmission No. 0 is EXACTLY the sound of "a single massive stone." Hailing from Florida, Rejack's music is noise of the highest quality. There's not much information available about him or his music, but I can say that this is my favorite tape I've yet heard since joining CG. The gurgling static snow that begins the first side is the soundtrack to an over thinking headspace. A certain kind of thickness rumbles and clashes as if the music is overtaking the environment beyond one's physical location. I picked up a guitar and started jamming along with the drones coming out of my stereo. Rejack's composition wasn't meant to be listened to this way I'm sure, but I WANTED to be a part of it as it was playing. My jamming didn't last too long as I became involved with the subtle tonalities revealing themselves underneath the fuzz - one could say I was transfixed. Side B started a bit quieter and swelled at a gentle pace until, like the first side, the noise was all I could focus on. This wasn't over the top abrasive noise, just steady and dense soundscaping. Again conventional notes could be heard under the snap crackle of the top layer of grime. The piece on side b cuts off unexpectedly, leaving me with only my own silence to deal with. I loved every second of this tape.


Contact info HERE.

With a cover that looks like some late 80's hardcore demo, and a history of releasing more extreme noise/weirdo recordings, this tape by Distant Trains threw me for a loop. I was not expecting jangly, stoner basement indie rock. It goes to show you can't judge a tape by its cover, or a band by one split and a couple comp tracks. Teen Lust is strongly footed in mid to late 80's American post punk... you know, the likes of Mission of Burma and Volcano Suns, with a nod to Thrones and a little of that Temporary Residence Ltd sound.

The song that really grabbed me was "The Truth About Fire." Sandwiched between two dirges, "Effective Aperature" and "Grey Metal," its a quirky, jaunty tune with twee vocals. Its how the band takes sharp left turns after ever chorus into solos and jams that push at the edges of the band's song craft is what makes this the most exciting song on here. Managing to simultaneously reference Ween and the Lorelei singles on Slumberland.

The B side of the tape jumps genres a bit. "Want So Hard," a hazy southern rocker, is set right next to a white reggae instro, "Exquisite Mass Grave." "No Forests," like "Grey Metal," is a slow, drum machine and bass-heavy instrumental dirge.

Teen Lust touches on all sorts of nostalgia for me, having grown up in Western Mass and reveled in the glory days of local college radio stations like WAMH, WMHC and WMUA (which I still have a show on, wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

File this tape right next to the Dolores Boys tape I reviewed a few weeks ago. Pop this one in your boom box and take it to that sweet swimming spot, and imbibe your substance of choice to discretion and chill. Repeat as necessary.

Scope the jams here.

photo credit - 'the internet'


Strange Maine is one of the coolest little shops in the Northeast, and should be on the to-do list of anyone making the hour and forty five minute trek up to Portland from Boston...or wherever.  Ostensibly a record shop, but there's really so much more housed among the assorted ephemera.  This place is a real haven for VHS and cassette junkies in particular, but will surely appeal to vinyl lovers. The LPs are mostly used, but there are a few new discs by Maine artists.  The alphabetical browsers have some pretty generic (and cheap) records, but the new arrivals and oddball sections will surely have something you covet. The VHS selection is much more curatorial. An entire shelf is dedicated to films organized by label (Good Times, Anchor Bay, Vestron, etc...) and the rest are separated into genres and alphabetized all the way up to the ceiling.  Prices vary based on quality of the flick and rarity.  The audio cassette wall is stuffed with great stuff:  I've seen The Velvet Underground, Galaxie 500, Crispin Hellion Glover, Minor Threat, Public Enemy and Zappa in the last month, to name a few.  The small wall of contemporary underground cassettes is pretty cool (lots of touring bands leave  a tape when they play at the shop during the regular summer music events).  There are print and zine sections that are well stocked, a rack of vintage video games and systems, 8-tracks and many bins of self released noise CDrs.  The whole place is a real work of art, stuffed to the gills with weird artifacts and imagery (much of which resides in the 'permanent collection').  The 'found photo' box is one of the weirdest I've ever seen, and there are binders full of amateur artwork to browse through.  I'd also like to add that the three employees are all immenintely cool dudes, and talented folks in their own right: Brendan (Garm, Visitations), Skot (Id M Theft Able) and Mike (Coelacanth comic) have kept this place going for most of the 2000s, making it one of the most lived in shops of this kind I've ever been too.  Website
I would be remiss if I didn't mention Moody Lords, another record shop located right above Strange Maine in the old Time-Lag space.  They've got a lot of jazz, 60s rock, R&B/Soul and rap on vinyl as well as a few racks of ladies clothes and some circuit bent electronics.  There are some solid 'wall records' there.  Otto Pizza next door is pretty rad too if you can afford the $3+ slices and draft beers after a dat of record shopping.

What the fuck Guerilla Toss?  You guys rule!  Best band in Boston right now if you want my opinion.  These cats are perhaps the only ones out there who are taking Fat Worm of Error's Prime Time-styled excursions and building a new sound upon it, with designs on taking us past the Epoch-a-lypse.  Ever wish that band would be just a tad less skittish in the rhythm-section dept? (not me, maybe you?).  Well Guerilla Toss is your party-rock answer to the eternal question: what do you get when you cross music schools smarts with neon-egg running-down-your-face-on-the-tilt-a-whirl?  They've got two new tapes out that showcase two slightly different line-ups, both highlighted by the prog-as-fuck rhythm section of Peter Negroponte & Simon Hanes and the guitar and keyboard tandem of Ian Kovac & Arian Shafiee.  The earlier tape on Digitalis Ltd. is an absolutely incredible sounding instrumental recording that features great sax work by former member Andy Allen.  Better snap this one up soon cause it's one of the last releases on the Digitalis Ltd. imprint.  Try the label's website or experimedia...The self released tape isn't as crystalline a recording but already shows the GT gang moving on to bigger and better things with their new vocalist Kassie Carlson (who replaced Allen).  Look for a re-release of this coming soon on Spooky Town.

Become a believer xxx

weird. for some reason, this post is making the other posts below it get pushed onto the next page.  I guess GT is just so awesome it pushes everything else away from its bad self.  But seriously, click "older posts" to see tons more current reviews...

We've long been a fan of Tracey Trance here at Cassette Gods.  His concise fun machine dreamhouse tapes on Night People and Not Not Fun are highlights of both those label's catalogs and his Hangtown USA tour tapes have been some of my personal favorite tapes of recent memory.  I'm very pleased to announce that Pyper Kub, which was available on the recent tour from Florida to Maine, shows new and exciting development to the dude's songwriting.  Nearly all the tracks are composed for guitar, bass, drums and vocals.  Those amazing wah-wah swoops are still in full effect and sound not a bit diminished as they wrap themselves around six-string work whilst glides smoothly over the now trademark haltering dance beat.  The real shinning star here are the lyrics and melodies which are featured more prominently than on any other release in his discography.  A lovely and sincere collection of road songs from one of the USA's most singular sound-makers.

I remember sitting on a porch at a small house just east of downtown Austin, drinking Lone Star's, passing a semi-hollow body guitar back and forth with a friend visiting from Houston, looking at the dead brown lawn that was more dirt than grass, and thinking about how goddamn hot it was getting outside. It was the beginning of June and we were sweating our asses off just sitting there singing and playing music. This memory is the first image I have after pushing the play button on my cassette deck. The sounds I hear come courtesy of singer-songwriter Joe Kile. Alone with his acoustic guitar and twang vocals, his collection of tales of living by six strings and heartbreak is titled, "Songs About the Same Old Stories."

Kile, to my ears, is a disciple of the school of Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. Though his rustic poetry doesn't reach the heights of Van Zandt's (an impossible task, TVZ is untouchable), Kile's songs do recall Clark and the southern Texas, Louisiana, up to Tennessee country folk tradition. I love the hiss of this album. It sounds like it was recorded alone in an empty house or good sized shed. Maybe it was early in the AM and Kile didn't want to wake the family that was letting him sleep on their couch after a gig. The album's title is both tongue in cheek and accurate because his genre-style of lonesome acoustic picking does tend to tell the "same old stories," but they're good stories and that's all that really matters. Kile's fingerpicking riffs roll off the guitar as natural as a mountain stream runs after heavy rains. My favorite tune here is called "One Day Behind" and it starts off Side B with the kind of spot on melancholy typical of the introspective songwriter, but I love it just the same.
One small complaint: the cassette's packaging. I enjoyed the music and that's what counts, but the hand cut j-card (unfortunately paper of the thinner variety) and copy machine layout left me wishing for something more. I do love the typewriter aesthetic of Unread Records & Tapes though. In the end, I'd recommend this to fans o' folk quite happily. 

Buy HERE.

Put this tape on and let it hit all of the senses: wind chime, machine, vibration, calm, calculus, marching. It's a knowing blade cutting between two worlds and when you let the capillaries regrow between them you'll see how everything is connected for proper blood flow. Point A to Point B. Wet coat and dry coat. Battalion to quieting. Exploding then reassembling. Cryogenics then thawing. It can all be rendered much more reliably with nuance than grenade. Take this tape on the freeway during rush hour and laugh at how conflicted everyone is. Take it on an airliner and sense the landing gear retract up then lower down. Know before and after, settle into calm. Cruising altitude. The drone is pure and drone is power of cellular vibrations. Breathe it until sounds are solidified and replace your own form in transition. Drink reflection from a pond and step back to see it looking up at you. Strata in a slice of mountain angles: did you count them? Did you count your own rings? You can guess at the number. It's just marbles in a very large jar that sits quietly until it is noticed by your former self. Focus on how everything connects in transition, the end to the beginning and the middle to both halves. Get this tape and find a better place within or that will come. Purchase yourself a copy from I Had An Accident Records

Hey readers,

I've been out of town/silent for a bit.  I hope to get to writing again today or tomorrow, because I've got some really exciting music in my pile here: 4 tapes from Pittsburgh's VCO label, 8 new Night People tapes, 4 from Friends & Relatives, 2 from the amazing band Guerilla Toss, 3 from the Crash Symbols label, tons of stuff I got at the Raw Meet in Boston last weekend and lots lots more.  If you sent me something, it will be reviewed soon, I promise!  For now, please enjoy this video:

Ugh surf revival opener with a girl moaning on top - then a linda sharrock style free slop - neext a tribal beat with more shrieks and moans. Followed again in a 'black woman' mode - which falls into a stoner rock tempo complete with more occasional wordless female moans. The more up-tempo tracks next are a lot better, but this whole thing is pretty scattered - definitely prefer the tracks with the male vocalist. Pretty standard rock instrumentation - guitars, bass, drums, saxophone, some tape-speed effects. Photo above is the cover art, if you're intrigued take a trip over to their bandcamp.
Came with a hand-written note to the reviewer, which was very much appreciated.