Talk West - Blindsight

Elegant guitar intermezzos made for headphone listening and moving through the world. As we watch and listen, Blindsight by Talk West will bestow affirmation all life is really just moments between acts. This music will compliment your perception of the reality around you, helping fix yourself to a spatial axis, to realize beauty exist at any moment or place. These tracks unlock this ability, and rest in a special place for modern composition.

Dylan Golden Aycock has taken eleven pieces and imprinted his gracefulness and refinement. Blindsight is not overly brooding or excessively contemplative. These tracks are rather syrupy sweet. Thick with patience and slow burners for roasting your consciousness. Playful like throwing a medicine ball back and forth or going under big ocean waves and hearing the power move over your suspended self. Brief moments in which life exerts it's ability to help you find yourself in the physical now. Blindsight plays through as one pleasing continuation of deft talent from noble emotion.

I have been a fan of both Sic Sic Tapes and Dylan Golden Aycock. When i noticed Sic Sic Tapes was releasing this cassette, was happy to put this on the top of the list as one to pick up. This is my second write up of a Dylan Golden Aycock release. The first titled Guitar Meanderings I on Cabin Floor Esoterica was done almost a year ago (hard to believe!). So this one has been sold out from the label since it was released. If you like it, Josh at Tomentosa has copies for sale from his most recent update. Probably only a handful though, so act quickly!

Links 
Sic Sic Tapes site - bandcamp - facebook 
Dylan Golden Aycock site - bandcamp - facebook - twitter

ATOP - 777

Iconic primordial notes. Methane moving upward from vast wetlands. Akkad the Orphic Priest has allowed this cassette ample fermentation. Now feedback and electric sizzle have mixed with once clean sounds in the anaerobic digestion process. Time has twisted this into a gaseous drone, making it initially catatonic to would be listeners. But allow the process to develop in entirety and only then 777 will bestow it's wisdom.

Synthesizer recorded and then played at 16-2/3 RPM. So slow the imperfections of the vinyl mix in making this an entirely new sound. The two sides of this cassette titled  777 are similar and different. Juxtaposed in Akkad the Orphic Priest's world. Meditation and enlightenment or fermentation and evolvement. The entire listen is a wave of sound moving toward you, cascading over, then receding. These are analogies to better understand how ATOP's 777 engages the listener. A solar breeze, moving the molecules in your mind. Comforting, calming and intriguing, these sounds have revitalizing properties.

This is out on the Wood Between Worlds label from Austin, Texas. Very cool small label emitting sounds from some crack in the earth in the Balcones Fault Zone. A cassette very worth securing while it seethes up from the rock in an edition of 50. Keep an eye on Wood Between Worlds....
There is so much done superbly, alluring sounds bound to graceful art in a cassette medium.

Links
Wood Between Worlds - bandcamp - facebook - soundcloud - twitter
Nice words from - Guide Me Little Tapes

Black Eagle Child - Playing

Have been listening to Black Eagle Child for a few years now. Noticed this newer cassette titled Playing on Scissor Tail Records and jotted it down as a good one to purchase. So ordered this and the new Tyler Higgins cassette together. I like how Scissor Tail only has a couple of tracks on the bandcamp page. This makes it really nice when the physical copy makes it's way into the tape deck. This particular Black Eagle Child recording pretty much sums up the fine experience.

Everything about this cassette, the artist (Michael Jantz), the label, the beautifully recorded music and the joy being issued forth from these tracks makes this a tape to get. Michael Jantz has been composing incredible sounds. Playing is not only a continuation of this but an elevation into a world tread by few. The guitar playing sounds sweet, like someone having a good time with their playing skills. The sounds say "i am going to make you feel good rather than think and contemplate". The melodic layering over the guitar adds depth, like looking into a dark forest with as much sunlight as it will accept pouring through. The sounds throughout Playing can put you in a vacationer's trance. You are sitting somewhere looking out at unfamiliar surroundings and everything is new, beautiful and filled with wonder.

This cassette could have been easily put out on vinyl, maybe giving it more impact, but the fact that it is just a tape makes Playing really special. Scissor Tail Records knows what they are doing. One hundred cassettes will disappear into tape collections, "sold out" will pop up on the internet and any one who did not pick it up will wonder how they missed it. Your tape collection has one true reason to be that much better with a copy of this.

Links
Scissor Tail Records site - bandcamp - facebook
Black Eagle Child  - bandcamp

Dismal Niche Tapes - 3 New Cassettes

The purely wise label from Columbia, Missouri has ended the summer with three new cassettes from Hush Arbors, Hylidae and Tyler Powell. Each tape is uniquely different and equally excellent. They all have write ups and digital sounds linked here on Lost in a Sea of Sound. Hope you enjoy this batch!

Here are the links straight to the posts

• Hush Arbors - Gualala Blues
• Hylidae - Intransitive
• Tyler Powell - Outgoing Messages 

 

Tyler Powell - Outgoing Messages

The bells can be heard but they are not of this earth. Some rift is energized allowing sound waves to pass through. At times the charge wains and distortion creeps in. Listen closely. This could be a mechanical recording like what is on Voyager. Depicting ritual sounds of  of some distant civilization. Transcribed to pass through dimensions and time. In hopes the beauty of one ancient world will not be forgotten.

Now i am entranced. Maybe this was the goal. Subsequently entering the disturbance. Following the music. Does the rip in space connect a temporal pathway to the past or future times? Or is this more a perpendicular or parallel dimensional thing? The transition is not instantaneous. Tyler Powell takes you down the tunnel with lengthy reverberating noises. Concussive sounds like riding in a car with only one rear window open. Now emerging to a spectacular alien waltz. Molecules are thick here causing sounds to start off louder than normal then quickly taper into the extremely dense atmosphere. The music here is beautiful and will require a lengthy stay in order for my consciousness to absorb it's secrets.

Tyler Powell's tape Outgoing Messages is one of three new cassettes out in September for Dismal Niche. I have listened to this one many times and enjoy it's continuous reverses in the deck.
From the notes on the Dismal Niche bandcamp page this is in a run of 50. There are physical copies available now. This music will find you and pull you through.

Links
Dismal Niche site - facebook - bandcamp

Hylidae - Intransitive

When music arrives at your ears from vast directions and influences, the brain has work to do in order to process. Intransitive is a source of such immense amount of variation, your mind will work with exuberance! Bound together with foundations of droney beats and fibrous feedback, Hylidae has created a composition brimming with sounds and styles of ultimate variation. With this factor in place, the entire tape still plays with deft cohesion, making Intransitive impressively savory sounding.

Where to even begin? Hylidae has moments of funky slinky beats then plays more reflective songs. Industrial pop music for robots making robots in robot only factories. Intransitive is a recording of this entire production process. Creating an infinite depth of sound made by German machines in secret Caribbean Islands. Sounds of dub and steel drum echo in the air while the noise from laser etching of giant metal plates, slowly electrifies your ears. Frozen voices drift through tracks, echoing past civilizations of humans now extinct. Then finally a reflection into the dream world only rest can provide.

This is number fifteen for Dismal Niche and one of three tapes just released for September. I was not familiar with Hylidae, but the first time i listened to Intransitive on the computer, it fell directly into my wheel house for music. Not sure on how many of these were in the run, but they are available now. Dismal Niche has consistently been releasing some really unique and awesome music. Don't miss out on this one!

Links
Dismal Niche site - facebook - bandcamp

Hush Arbors - Gualala Blues

Hush Arbors is guitar meditation. Mississippi John Hurt strings ringing so true. Absolutely beautiful notes, but the patience.... If you climbed a mountain to speak with the the guru sitting atop, he would be playing guitar just like this.

The real proposition of the blues for me is  uplifting my feelings and simultaneously giving me a sense of being melancholy. Delta Blues for example creates this with both guitar and voice, two instruments working together pushing and pulling. Hush Arbors has accomplished this with just guitar. The beautiful clarity of every string played with time tempered fingers. Making my mind slow down and really listen. These notes alone are like majestic trees standing alone, but together tell the story of the forest being cut down. Major keys disguising themselves as minors.

I would like to thank Dismal Niche and Hush Arbors for finding each other and releasing Gualala Blues on cassette. This one was run in an edition of 100. Copies are available at the Dismal Niche site.  A truly beautiful composition that will always be close to the door of the cassette deck if not already in it.

Links
Dismal Niche site - facebook - bandcamp

Domenique Dumont - Comme Ça

Here is relatively new record out on Antinote Record Label. The artist is Domenique Dumont and the lp is titled Comme Ça. Music for hot summer evenings, providing rejuvenation from heated days with smooth sounds and tropical beats. From what i have read, this is a debut album from the previously undiscovered Domenique Dumont. Very incredible first composition.

Six tracks in all at just around half an hour. The first couple start with subdued beautiful vocals giving way to instrumental tracks for the last four. Covering grounds from global pop, samba music, rootsy dub, and island serenade. Comme Ça is magical and plays as an exquisite lp.  The first time i heard the samples for this i was immediately transported to where you wish all music can take you.

You can purchase this from the Antinote site. I bought a copy from Forced Exposure but they are sold out. Looks like most US distributors do not carry this lp (maybe it is hard to get) or they are sold out.
Discogs has a bunch, but they are all outside of the US. This is worth the effort to get if you want some very good music.

Links
Antinote site - bandcamp - facebook
Domenique Dumont - twitter - soundcloud

This record has received much deserved attention
Gorilla vs Bear write up
Resident Advisor write up
Pitchfork write up
Stamp the Wax write up

Graham Repulski - Success Racist

Graham Repulski has added a new cd titled Success Racist to the 2015 music offerings.  With 17 tracks at right around a half an hour, the diversity of this album is vast for such a short length. Grahams voice and static filled guitar world ties everything together, making the entire listen a venture into his own universe. Shorter snippets or tracks help make transitions from differing tempo and varying feedback, giving the entire cd a more intimate feel.

To me, Graham's sound is difficult to describe. It is like music caught in a time blender set on the most ultimately slow setting. The sounds i hear are particularly from the late 60's and early 70's being gradually churned with 90's flavor. The blending is happening as yours ears listen, but the process is far from being pureed. There are a few things infused, but for the most part the layers are still there and only the edges are blurred in a static wash. At times i hear a emerging band from the UK from forty five years ago. Then the early bedroom pop music made in the last twenty years.

The style and sound of this music is truly unique and has an immense amount of emotion resonating within. Graham's music is solid and is experienced in composition. Success Racist is a testimony to this statement and I think this is better when listened to as a complete cd. You can check this out at his bandcamp page.

Links
Graham Repulski on bandcamp and facebook