lost in a sea of sound

Bob Bucko Junior is like a sound farmer. Planting seeds across multiple labels and delivering a plethora of musical styles and variations. On Decelebrate, the mission is clearly cultivation on external planets. Air and gravity and different mixtures, producing both sinuous and beautiful specimens of sound.

Seven tracks energized by BBJR radiation. Amazingly slow and patient developmental growth. The beats coarse with speeds of reptilian vascular systems. Each track sprouting new foliage and transforming into advanced life. Bob Bucko JR uses voice throughout, a mesmerizing tone and timber developed for organic stimulus.

Have you ever seen the eighties movie Flash Gordon? For a few seconds when Decelebrate kicks in, the soundtrack came to mind. BBJR channeling Queen in some metamorphed equation! Some of the effects are similar...

This is an interesting composition by BBJR. Some how orbiting in the distant reaches of pop. Shorter tracks maintaining a congruent flow through the entirety o…

A blur of punk music. Fast paced drums, seemingly beyond human speeds. Guitar chopping away at serenity with massive amplified riffs. Vocals reminiscent of some hybrid mix between early Bad Brains and angular Pylon.

Floodplain is a timeless effort in the realm of simple raw energy. There is a tenacious preciseness cementing these eight tracks, like both strings and percussion are being conducted by some unknown mathematical equation. Complainer constantly pours sounds out, the mind overflowing with a spilling brim of notes.

Mabel Suen and Joe Hess are the musicians making up Complainer. Together their sound is a double espresso with two scoops of ceremonial Matcha whisked in before consumption. Decibel destruction of the inner cortex as the perennial mosh pit wails on the soul. Be ready when pressing play on this cassette, there will be no rest.

Floodplain was released on Already Dead Tapes and Records. Tapes made in an edition of one hundred. This is their debut album and unfortunatel…

The droning loneliness the spirit feels when separated from those we love. Commotion, like rounds of artillery being discharged in the slowly approaching distance. In order to quell the clarity of fear the mind assembles, the place and time become oddly peaceful. As if the experience is bestowed on one participant, one listener. Billions of souls living together hear only fragments and dismiss any relevancy. An audio odyssey entwined with depth and darkness, uniquely appreciated by those generating their own tranquility. 

Alex Keller and Sean O'Neill combine consciousnesses, delivering unfamiliar energy in an all consuming harmonious surge. Together, mining the currents of cosmic singularities. The final sounds escaping gravitational slide, as both everything and nothing are compressed into unknown space. Kruos requires your attention! Once this condition is met, your thoughts will be embraced by an undiscovered beauty. In this unilluminated aural space, the listener is granted an …

Cool f'n band, i like them! You got the sweet label and now a little press. Have not checked out your facebook or the cool threads you may or may not be styling. Your swirling punk, metal, pop drives effortlessly as thoughts of jangled tunes cycle in cadence with every flip of the cassette.

The beauty of Rats Mouth's tape Bad Grammer is exemplified by the last track "I'll Be Your Mirror", a Velvet Underground song from 1967. Such a great choice as a cover song by Rats Mouth because this new rendition is so sincere, upholding the original with acoustic esteem. But "I'll Be Your Mirror" is more, Bad Grammar is a mirror of itself, making the VU cover deeply resonate. Starting with the opening track "Snoozer", the metal infused intro, the songs are all redone as acoustic versions on the reverse side of the tape. So far from redundant, more exposing how and where the talent generates from. Rats Mouth is playful with a plate full of wit. "C…

How to describe a composition made almost entirely of percussive sounds? Something for music scholars or expert drummers maybe? Dane Rousay emerges from another dimension and leaves the door open. Billowing through come rhythms disguised as physic chaos. Tranquility disturbed, transformed into an organic pulsating spectrum of a tumbling consciousness.

Blip is eight vignettes just under thirty minutes. The pace or tempo throughout the entire composition maintains a fairly wholesome steadiness. A quality much appreciated since this free form expose' needs a solid binding agent. Raw and undefined push at the ears straight away, but once these beats and blips coagulate together the skilled talent becomes more understood. Dane seems to have the slightest native sprinkle of Gamelan influence, maybe attributed to the organic foundations or choice of varying agents of metal and glass. Some sounds bounce along in rhythmic dance while others are dragged through and over the aural landscape.…

An intense call for all the drone heads out there to wake up, nappy time is over. Cop Funeral funnels red lining hypertensive industrial fluids through the consciousness. Sound waves forced through mental membranes with expertly guided creativity. The body's resting equilibrium punched aside as these new rhythms travel against the gradient.

Part Time Pay / Paid Vacation is the third proper release by Cop Funeral. This composition cycles through violent upheavals and placid static wash. Divided by the flip of the tape this Cop Funeral release is two EPs.

The first side, Part Time Pay is a staggeringly high mountain range of sound. The crossing is beautiful and extremely rugged at times. Altitudes beyond the troposphere, where the sound of space can be heard. The beauty exposed as the listener chooses the path more than once.

On the reverse, Paid Vacation grounds the foray. Moving under the crust of the Earth, where densities and temperatures vary. A vibrantly constructed decent, to…

Starlights Gloom explores the pulsating fields of the spirits existence across both known and undiscovered dimensions. A pinpoint in time spiraling out through the twisting vortex. Drone like rhythms drizzled with ethereal vocals, creating the nebulous enlightenment of what we know is Stag Hare. This composition cuts the tethers and moves in one direction, focusing less on the organic roots and more on cosmic reaches.

There are many connections Starlights Gloom has with earlier Stag Hare releases. Long sustained beats with swirling tones, creating the density to hold the soft dreamlike whispering vocals. On the release, The Djorna Trilogy, Stag Hare had divided sounds into three eras. Starlights Gloom is definitely the polished gem stone of the third era. Tempos are faster and tracks are just a little shorter. The website description says "Starlights Gloom is made up of primarily sampled material from throughout the Stag Hare catalog". These tracks show the change in an arti…

The process of describing music rests in an inverse relationship with how much love and talent went in to creating it. Discovering a composition like Husk by Wesley Powell, throws the brakes on any quick and tidy summary. There is so much ground covered on these eleven tracks totaling over forty minutes. Every song is it's own little world, varying approaches with angular guitar winds made even more complex by from the center passionate lyrics.

The entire cassette erupts with a vintage equatorial sound. The deep resonating drum lines danced upon by precise and playful strings. Revolving romantic lyrics filled with happiness and turmoil. Seemingly played beneath twinkling lights hanging from gently moving palms. Wesley captures or channels music from changing times. Vanguard styles lost in the sea, floating to and above the surface with Husk adding buoyancy. Could be the guitar and amp set up Wesley uses, has the retro coolness to it. The "Bye Bye Love" cover is superb an…

Mu Vonz and More Eaze on a colored seven inch split from Already Dead Tapes and Records. Six different versions (colors) in increasing limited quantities. Psychedelically sweet artwork by Curtis Tinsle. Music cast out and dispersed in the asteroid belt. Timeless and infinitely unclassified, both Mu Vonz and More Eaze await exploration. Rotating rhythms, heated and cooled in an orchestrated dance around your mind's threshold.

"Hypnotize" is the title of the Mu Vonz side. A sing song narration crisscrossing an ethereal dubbed out dancing drizzle. Early morning, before the sun rise, soothing grooves crafted for spirits in between sleep and awake. The click click outside your ear traveling to make your toes tap.  

"Binaries" rest on the flip side and is the contribution by More Eaze. Sounds floating in the space making up the nothingness that surrounds us. Multiple directions collecting surrounding harmonies and bringing all into focus. "Binaries" is anc…

Matthew Squires is a musician you want to pin down but have difficulty in doing so. The instrumentation combined with lyrics and voice make me end up thinking of musicians mostly with a country tilt. Maybe this is a correct path since Matthew hails from Austin, Texas, but there really is no country sound in Tambaleo, possibly a southwest tinge. Articulation spanning the distance with subtle complexity, thoughts and stories mixed with adept musical composition. This might be a long reaching comparison, but Matthew has an impressive capability much like the late John Hartford, take a listen. Amazing ability to create unique music then combine it with outstanding lyrics sung even more distinctive. Now you are thinking Matthew and John do not sound similar at all, and rest in completely different genres, but that is not the gist. The thought is; Song writing, playing music and singing are all different talents. When you encounter artists who can do it all, there is something special. So s…

Marjoram is here with health benefits you should understand. Eleven tracks crafted with therapeutic relief for the monotony of the long summer days. Robust flavoring of sounds flowering out from the pop center. Dipping into the groove then hovering above, Caramel Ship flirts with multiple genres and avoids being pinned down.

Desmond C. Simmons and Yuki Shindo are the creative minds making up Carmel Ship. This helps explain the worldly diversity that infiltrates these sounds. Spanning from  Detroit to the out skirts of Tokyo, the artists influences are subtly entwined. One of my favorites, "Disco for Robots" exemplifies both sides of the globe, portrayed with excitement and a flare for fun. There are a few tracks, "Dear Mimi", "Modern Take" and "Sea Foam Holiday", diving into the late night, tranquilizers radiating in harmony with street lights in transit. The eighth track "A Guessing Game" even touches on hip hop before mutating into i…