Psychonaut 4 - Have a Nice Trip (CS, Depressive Illusions, 2012)

The music of Psychonaut 4 has just about everything black metal could possibly offer: midtempo rhythms, classic blasts, downtempo shoegaze infusion and tremelo riffs. Graf, the vocalist, even comes equipped with onstage self-mutilation and bloodletting (assuring DSBM authenticity), and has an interesting hybrid of all three waves of black metal lineage. As the band hails from the nation of Georgia, there is even an accordion track steeped in traditional Russian folk music. This is a raw feeling album that has a studio quality. I think it's a nice package.

Since the cassette was released on a very underground Ukrainian label, good luck finding it. In the meantime, enjoy the streams below:

Justine & Juliette - Kiss of the Whip (Arbeit Group, 1988)

I just stumbled across this today. I had never heard of it but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to rest until I find this cassette. American sexy female S&M  industrial duo from 1988. Mostly fast pulsing low end bass explorations contrasted with high pitched Lydia Lunch'ish spoken word. Minimal but rhythmic and sublime in a subtle synth punk way. Sick, sick, sick. Must have. Wow, just wow. In the interim we can all make do with the youtube tracks below. You're welcome.

Beru / Aloonaluna Split - CS (Watery Starve, 2013)

Each year music writers make lists of their favorite albums. This takes a lot of hard work, time and thought. But, the most difficult part is making discoveries from said year after the fact, when its too late. So far, my regret is this one not being on my list.

Lynn Fister's Watery Starve is a great cassette label. Her own project,  Aloonaluna, really does it for me. Check out all of her releases. Both sides are fantastic but side A just took me off guard.

Beru (the name lifted from Luke Skywalker's aunt) describes her music as a Keiji Haino and Vashti Bunyan music baby, which in itself should intrigue you enough. Her side is quite a journey through forms.It begins with lovely soft ambient guitar a la dark shoegaze. This aligns with synth that feels like Gyorgy Ligeti light, lush haunting female vocals, and percussion. The swirling narrative eventually experiences some sort of temporal shift / wormhole that gives way to a ritual rhythm. This beat conjures a terrifying black metal drum machine blastbeat combined with the screams of a tortured banshee.

I'm just overwhelmed by this. Its blowing my mind. Buy the tape!!







BERU-Music Excerpt From The Split Cassette With Aloonaluna from Jessica Nicole Collins on Vimeo.

More about Beru HERE

German Army - Burushaski (Belaten, 2013, CS)

Besides the fact that its incredibly good, I'm having trouble describing this cassette. LA act, German Army makes noisey coldwave synth pop? No, that's not enough, it also feels like ritual music from a space tribe. Maybe those supposed aliens that purportedly visited earth thousands of years ago? Of course, this sounds like you're watching the music on vhs. A retro-futuristic cyber dub? Maybe the aliens' ship crash landed at a resort in the South Pacific? Now, they're stuck for eternity, drinking on the beach like the Corona commercials, only their analog synthesizer brain implants allow them to record tape loops while inebriated. Yeah, that's it, and then, twenty years ago, David Lynch and Phillip K. Dick remix it and put it in a time capsule, only they don't bury it because all of this is happening simultaneously...in Manchester...in 1978...when Cabaret Voltaire smoked meth with Ray Bradbury while watching Donnie Darko on laserdisc. Bumbaclot.

Torn Birch - Effigy (VAALD, 2013)

Earlier this year, Grant Evans, of Hooker Vision, unleashed a beast that wouldn't be conducive to his primary label. VAALD is his new venture, one that documents the lower depths of sound exploration.

Torn Birch, an anonymous project released as part of Evans' first batch of cassettes, is a mindbending listen. This is a narrative pastiche that surpasses music and noise, moving into pure emotion. Beginning in a vein reminiscent of the earliest Abruptum recordings, there are pangs of anguish in the vocals. Things later alternate between ambient, drone and noise, relaying a perfectly experimental bedroom black metal aesthetic. "Effigy" is a paradox of beauty and horror.

N.Y. Scum Rock Live At CBGB! (Roir, 1989) (CS)

This is a rare cassette only comp I scored this week. Here we have raw, foul, offensive, disgusting, scuzzy, scummy, gnarly, and sloppy as can be amateurs fucking around at the greatest nightclub ever. Dirges of punk meet motor city wannabe riffs and vocal strains. The only difference in this and no wave is that these train wrecks chose to use the traditional two chord aesthetic. Don't get me wrong, I love it. This is a killer set of ridiculous music. Indulge while ingesting cheap uppers and 40's.

More info HERE

Parallelogram #003 - % split w/ Galapagoose (Cassette, 2012)

% (pronounced "Owner/Operator) is Southeastern U.S. sound artist Michael Felix. His side begins with field recordings from the forest in West Virginia. Its a sort of ode to nature via broken beats and synth. This is a lovely five part narrative that combines bouncey instrumental hip hop with lush, blissed out melodies.

Galapagoose is Melbourne, Australia resident Trent Gill. His side is comparable to Felix', in that it has a similarly bright and slinky beat vibe, and incorporates subtle and quiet spoken word.

As far as I'm concerned, this is the future of hip hop. These are the most captivating beats I've heard in quite sometime.



Purchase HERE

Quiet Evenings / Former Selves - S/T (Split Cassette on Constellation Tatsu, 2012)

With all of their recordings, Quiet Evenings creates a feeling that is easy for me to identify with. They present winding narratives of warm and familiar ambient music made from synth, guitar, and vocal drones. This release is a good one for a newcomer, as their side, Riverbend, is a fifteen minute journey into their repertoire of earthy and enchanting drone with hints of classic space music.

The Former Selves side, Future Nostalgia, chooses a different path with a classical structure. Here we have a comparable ambient aesthetic but the composition is presented in three movements. It begins with soft and ghostly synth melodies, shifts gears to a more somber note punctuated by a four on the floor kick drum moving at a snail's pace, and resolving (in a sense), with wintry, introspective minor tones and a keyboard melody that is sure to send you into a state of melancholic contemplation.

This is a wonderful half hour of music. And remember, cassette runs are extremely limited. Get one before its gone.

Stream / Download / Purchase HERE