dark hair - riese und zwerg

dark hair is john pyle of delaware. played a few shows with him. this is a house/techno-influenced noise project. most of the time. pretty prurient-esque, as far as the industrial material goes. this was released in 2011 and is out of print from beyond the ruins. i believe pyle gave it to me himself a while back when i was on tour and shared a dining room show with him in delaware. it can't be a coincidence that the color scheme and pattern here come straight from twin peaks.

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cotton museum - merkins revenge c30

33 copies on middle james company, run by david payne of the canadian weirdo junky, druggy, experimental/noise collective fossils. a very prolific project might i add. i haven't heard much fossils i didn't dig.

cotton museum is christ pottinger from the detroit, michigan area. runs/ran a label called tasty soil, and he's also a graphic artist. he's been doing cotton museum for over 10 years. this run was limited to only 33 back in 2010 so they're long gone from the label.

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chemtrails/steel dangerous - split

chemtrails is jeff host, who is a local resident here in chicago. my first listen to his work was this tape, but he has since then done a lot of other stuff, and i hear he is doing techno these days. or, sometimes. i'm not sure. he played a few blocks down a few months ago and i didn't find out until the next day. i asked him to remind me of his gigs, but that was probably a weird thing to ask a guy who i don't know too well. either way, he's a super nice guy and makes really well thought-out electronic/synth music. this is a split with steel dangerous, and i know nothing of that project. however, i somehow end up seeing his videos reposted on vine all the time. i really love his side of this split, too. and this gem of a label. one of my favorite labels that's ever existed. hasn't been real active as of late. no 2013 releases, in fact. the label is run by julian guylas, who does some music, too. and all of the label artwork, which is fantastic. he is in one of my favorite projects, amazing births, with mark mcguire from emeralds. the first tape they did was wacky tape manipulation. totally weird stuff. i will be uploading that one sometime soon.

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budweiser sprite - muculent passage

this is the first tape i had ever heard from this project. this guy phil put it out. phil kruse. i randomly met him online and connected very deeply with him for a while. he also ended up being a good friend of my current girlfriend's. my girlfriend and him were close friends when him and i started talking, but i hadn't met my girlfriend yet. nor had i any idea i'd end up moving to chicago years later. sO cRaZy~*~*~*

anyway, he has since moved to central america for some reason but he'll be back here in chicago soon enough. he ran a label called oms-b. he didn't release much, but all of his releases look really good and i'm lucky to own almost one of each from trading with phil. i've also, through him, met the people behind some of the projects that have been released on his label, which has also generated many more trades and even some touring partners.

budweiser sprite is dan rizer who lives in or near dayton, oh. he goes under the name "glom" now, but a lot of his methods are the same. lots of tape loops and a minimal array of other stuff. i've managed to drag him out to shows i've played when going through dayton on tour. he knows i dig his stuff so it's real cute when he goes to share news about his project with me, sort of nervous that he will seem arrogant by bringing the subject of his own music up, but also being confident that i will definitely give a shit. anyway, this is some hypnotic gunky shit. jam!

http://www.discogs.com/Budweiser-Sprite-Muculent-Passage/release/2449841

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brent gutzeit - rocks and blows

AWESOME "sound-arty stuff" (as my buddy jeremy bible would say). this absolute master lives really close to me. so does the guy who put out this tape. brent has played here in chicago a zillion times since i moved here and every time i am not able to make it. i worked with the label guy for a while. he was going to put out a tape for me once. then he didn't. but he did give me this one, amongst many, for free, one time when i slept on his couch during a tour. enjoy this stimulating collage of electronics, acoustics, electro-acoustics, drones, field recordings, and whatever else brent does. i wouldn't know. i should make it out to a damn show.

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breatherholes - come home

I might be guilty of community aloofness or purposefully seeking out of music NOT located "just around the corner" here in Austin. We (the city that is) are celebrated for all the music that's always happening here, but I have to tell you, while I keep my ears open, I don't actively involve myself in the issues of the local music peeps. Reasoning? My idiot brain wants to be contrarian and explore the wider spectrum of happenings around the world. This is not my best trait as a music writer, but fuck it...I have had PLENTY of good times right here at home (meaning this urban hot spot), but damn how can I contain myself in a box when soooo much music is being produced elsewhere? Geographic ADHD? My burritos, burgers, and beers are enjoyed locally, but music is INTERNATIONAL. So, as I open the mailbox I find a tape sent from across town, 15 minutes or less down the traffic jam - a local duder dealing with hang ups, life questions, and singing from within the county line. Will I enjoy this? 

Breatherholes' Come Home isn't what I expected...and that's a good thing. The artwork, moniker, and presentation led me to believe the music might be on the damaged side of sloppy punk or art-noise, but the truth is different. Acoustic strums, reverb vocals smearing the drawl and hum of the melodies, and (almost incidental) homebrewed percussion make this the surprising tape of the year for me as a critical listener. According the note sent along with the tape, the music was “recorded in an RV in a driveway in Austin, TX." With this knowledge, the DIY fidelity & handmade charms make even more sense. Folky perhaps, but this aint folk music. The isolated, interior musings of a reformed punk rocker living life on the barest of essentials? You be the judge.

-cassette gods

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blood lake/moon climb the wall split

some bedroom lofi noise pop and beyond. i think it's a copy, a bootleg perhaps.

nothing on discogs, but i'll add it soon.

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