Adrian Knight - Vacation Man

Vacation Man, please do not despair, your dignity is still on the top of the charts. Listening to this massive testimonial to life and friends, your sorrows resonate with the drizzling rain outside the window. The years have gone by so quickly, remembering these tones and timbre from parents records and childhood radio. Adrian Knight shows how existence is cyclic, what was smooth and silky, discarded then found again. A polyester jacket, sewn with a large collar and zipper closure, sits in the closet. Removed from the hanger and worn again, still fascinating with bright multi colored patterns, but somehow out of place in modern fashion. These tracks are flipped from white to black, played in a hazy minor scale and radiating a melancholy beauty.

Adrian Knight has dialed the rotary phone and read poetry from his pocket notebook. Verse connected to emotion, thoughts of friends and their actions conveyed in composition. In order to impart these messages, the band is back together. A revolving mixture of GALTTA's studio band, Michael Advensky, Alice Cohen, David Lackner, Nick Stevens, along with Adrian Knight. All reveling the turn of the radio dial through temporal space. Stereo signals flicker as sounds from the Bee Gees, Carol King and Wings hold keys to both accord and sentiment. Taking cues from both harmony and sleek delivery, this well honed group of musicians finds grooves in the most special manner. A place where sound has gone, and no one until now has the channeling ability and talent to begin to match it. The beauty of Vacation Man is the connection to the past, and it's coconut butter twist on the future. Relevance is left for music scholars to figure on and they will ponder arduously...

Released on the GALTTA label from Brooklyn. Vacation Man is in an edition of one hundred and twenty five. Very importantly, the lyrics are available with download after purchase. Copies are currently available.

"Salt in my heart again
and in my soul
It’s in my ragged brain
and it consumes me whole"

Your radiogram is amazingly clear.

Links
GALTTA site - bandcamp - facebook

LEUMANN - Dystopian Land​(​e​)​scape

Ubiquitous sounds filling the spaces in the consciousness. Decaying drone, once painted so harmoniously across the temporal facade, now dissolving as melodic brightness radiates through the cracks. Dystopian Land​(​e​)​scape situates itself on the precipice of a despairing world, hopefulness either fleeting or returning, this remains unknown. Still, in this aural glimpse, beauty is manifested. A melodic cadence finding tranquility within the corrosion of society. Sounds tangled like twisted tree roots that penetrate the ground below. 

LEUMANN is an Italian sound artists and this EP represents a fluctuating sonic connection with melodies languishing through time. Dystopian Land​(​e​)​scape consist of five tracks in just over sixteen minutes. This cassette turns through quickly, but fortunately the set is duplicated on both sides of the tape. The third track utilizes narration and guitar by Fabiano Pittiglio. A deviation from the other tracks, anchoring the composition with lives many people live. Similar to the Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime" meanings, LEUMANN's "I-nine-infinity-x" is about achieving goals set by societies standards including owning a Frigidaire. Excellently narrated, mingled in storytelling and documentary techniques.

Dystopian Land​(​e​)​scape is released on Gertrude Tapes in January of this year. In an edition of fifty cassettes with copies currently available. The cover image is by TJ Norris and fits perfectly with the thoughts going into these sounds.

Links
Gertrude Tapes site - bandcamp - facebook

Perrache - Une Cassette Comme Les Autres

A world of sound with heavy sonic elements. The consciousness throbbing with cyclic undulating cathodic sound waves. Hours have been lost in the darkness of night, now the sun rises radiating blocky splotches of energy. A long lullabye to usher in colors splitting the sky. Une Cassette Comme Les Autres is a dazzling veer of sounds. From the coldness of machines and their human less locations, to heat filled sways of reverberating tundra, this composition covers so much alien ground. With the vast range of feelings Perrache evokes, daily life is thrown into a vortex of warmth and introspection.

Serious throw back to late seventies mixed with a dark chip tune vibe. Perrache is mystery. Soundtracks for sarcophagi resting in Elysium. Sleeping souls listening to hymns spanning eons of existence. With seven tracks spanning over a half an hour, Une Cassette Comme Les Autres is a difficult composition to categorize. Electronic vignettes, so succinct individually, all forming a collage of grander perspective. Perrache delivers seven journeys, one for each skill of Akira Kurosawa's samurais. These audible frequencies hold secrets from the past and present pathways for the future. From start to finish Une Cassette Comme Les Autres is utterly fascinating and will garner infinite repeat listens.

This is Perrache's solo debut on Taping Desk O-phon Mania. A label based in Stuttgart, Germany with Une Cassette Comme Les Autres being their seventh release. Joachim Henn is the musician behind the the Perrache moniker. Another project he works on is E Jugend. Lost in a Sea of Sound had the opportunity to describe an E Jugend vinyl lp titled History Works on the Cosmic Winnetou label almost three years ago. Was really excited to dive into this composition and have listened to it now many times. Une Cassette Comme Les Autres is well worth the time. Copies are available from Perrache's bandcamp page.

Links
Perrache site - ejugend - bandcamp
Taping Desk O-phon Mania site

Adderall Canyonly - Lucid In A Wasted Way

Heavy sonic pixelation, harmonic dots in some continual organizational process. Like ants moving grains of sand, digging asymmetric tunnels in the darkness of underground. Adderall Canyonly sending signals only eusocial receptors the Formicidae family can truly understand. Move here in a block like dance, move this with your Herculean strength, move back and repeat. These electronic beacons are mysterious, ponderously rich, carved from a consciousness that hears a world homo sapiens hold in awe and consternation.

Lucid In A Wasted Way is filled with endless halls and turns. A perfect companion for exploration in Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Castle. Titus discovering a millennia of congeries surmised in just under forty five minutes. For parts of this composition, Adderall Canyonly has zeroed in on the late 60's gravitation towards psychedelic rock. Maybe this a stabilizing root that supports OSTs, pop music and lots of mushrooms. Other tracks dissect sounds from the 90's and beyond. "Murochrome" and "Tomorrow In A Day" are futuristic anthems for late night zero gravity travel. The title track, "Lucid In A Wasted Way" brings everything back for a meditative rhythmic introspective farewell. Trying to place any of these sounds in one category is unquestionably not possible.

This cassette was released by \\NULL|ZØNE// in the fall of last year. In an edition of fifty with all of these being completely sold out from the label. Found out yesterday from Adderall Canyonly, he has few copies left on his bandcamp page. This was good prompt to get this description done and let listeners know there are some copies left.

Links
Adderall Canyonly - bandcamp - facebook - twitter
\\NULL|ZØNE// - facebook - bandcamp - twitter

dyLAB - Rum Sodomy and the Crash

Lost in a Sea of Sound is not an expert on Acid Music. More accurately, poorly knowledgeable is a better validation.... When the time arrives to describe this new release from dyLAB, there is some trepidation. Describing sounds is always difficult and this genre is part of that process.

Acid/Techno music have been around for a long time and dyLAB has been creating sounds for a very good part it. Check out his bandcamp page, the first release under the dyLAB name was from ten years ago. On this newest release titled Rum Sodomy and the Crash, four heavy tracks are divided in just under a half hour. With a few repeated listens to this composition, dyLAB slowly drills the metal sheeting on the consciousness. The revolutions per second or beats per minute held seamlessly steady. There is no grand build up for each track. Just continued beats, augmented by hypnotic electronics. These sounds oscillate above the continual percussive canvas and vary in angular degrees between each track. A fully developed experience for those who can handle the minds deep crevices.

Rum Sodomy and the Crash is a spoofy title on another popular album there is no need to go into. Not sure where the connection is, maybe a melodic structure that carried over. Never listened to the referred to Pogues lp so can not make that analysis.

Released on the label Degenerate Trifecta out of Washington State. This compact disc is in an edition of twenty five with only six remaining. dyLab is from Melbourne, Australia. He has a radio show on Seance Radio every Sunday night at 11pm GMT.

Links
Degenerate Trifecta - bandcamp - facebook
dyLAB - bandcamp - facebook

Revolution Rabbit Deluxe - Tales From Armageddonsville

Tales From Armageddonsville is a heavy testimony. Psychedelic influenced rock music filled with observations about the current state of our social structure. Revolution Rabbit started off on a solo journey of song writing and guitar playing. He was joined by Chanda, May and Una all contributing to vocals and adding bass, guitar and drums respectively. Maybe the additional musicians are the "Deluxe" in the band's current name. Together these four artists have combined with a driving sound filled with passion and energy,

Trying to classify the sound of Revolution Rabbit Deluxe is a tough task. Their melodies seem to cross genres and decades, pulling from a wide array of influences and emotions. This makes comparing Tales From Armageddonsville to other albums or bands is lost en devour. But finally without hesitation, Lost in a Sea of Sound has one of the only chances of referencing a much listened to band from the same city. The ties are their Cardiff roots, well written music and solid rock sound, but Budgie has to be mentioned. These bands sound nothing alike but do possess love for a heavier sound with well written lyrics and diverse tracks. Replace the metal with a modified lighter alloy and age it for over forty years, Stranded mutating to Going Solo. One thing for certain, the lyrics on Tales From Armageddonsville are much heavier than the metal rock writing of the past.

Self released and available on most every digital platform. Physical copies in compact disc form are available from the band at RevolutionRabbitDeluxe@gmail.com

Links
Revolution Rabbit Deluxe - facebook - bandcamp

Radio Free Clear Light - Rare Is The Moment

A door opening into a sonic shop of antiquities. Sounds ticking like vintage wooden clocks, chiming with the brush of a body and disintegrating upon closer inspection. Radio Free Clear Light steps directly into aural puddles created by the precipitation of genres and time. Melodies and musings so finely tangled, thoughts becoming submerged in the haze of intricacy filling the consciousness. Rare Is The Moment could be a soundtrack for the mortal coil or a glimpse of the future's endless possibilities. Each listener will undoubtedly experience this composition on their own terms.

Radio Free Clear Light has been channeling higher sounds for a long time. The current composition of artists for Rare Is The Moment is Juan Carlos Mendizabal, Etanna Zak, and Lydia Harari. Each with their own love for creative beauty and continuing journey to explore the impact zones of the cosmic craters sonic vibrations create. With twelve tracks arriving just shy of an hour, this body of work is extremely faceted. Sounds moving through the antique x-ray screen, radiation exposing the most minute details. Motion continuing and oscillating to only hear the facade of what is held within. Rhythms and beats kept in the waiting room, their cry for attention and urgency faintly heard as this examination of inner workings continues on.

Released on the Black Note Music label from Daly City, California. On compact disc in an unknown edition. Physical copies are available from the label's website.

Links
Radio Free Clear Light - bandcamp - facebook
Black Note Music site - facebook

Dolphin Midwives - Liminal Garden

Impalpable sounds from spiritual space. Where ethereal voice and harp are gently torn by probing electronic fragments. There are moments of rest, but these are such random occurrences. A sonic landscape filled with pulsating debris left over infinite amounts of time. Dolphin Midwives is Sage Fisher and this is her world of broken elegance, a place where sunlight chaotically dances as it's rays are filtered by wind and leaves.

Ten tracks divided in various links in over forty minutes.  Richly organic tones with music loosing ground to natures prolific growth. The balance is constantly undulating but neither side ever tips the scale. The fluctuating stability is the most alluring quality of Liminal Garden, the exquisiteness of Sage Fisher's harp playing and voice, caught in a spiraling vortex with the recesses of her consciousness. A world were unknown creatures speak in foreign tongues about all things yet to be understood.

The release date for this lp is tomorrow, Friday January 18th. Liminal Garden is a project of two labels working together Sounds et al and Beacon Sound. Both labels with roots in Portland, Oregon.
In an edition of five hundred. This record can be ordered directly from either label.

Links

Dolphin Midwives site - bandcamp 

Sounds et al site - facebook - twitter

Beacon Sound site - facebook - twitter

Complainer - Pure Vanilla

With accelerated intensity, five songs from Pure Vanilla lock in place. The formula is simple, two musicians in a synchronous state, playing songs written with an acetylene torch. These sounds cut through the consciousness, reaffirming the beauty of youthful energy, conviction and how talents pierce through their incarnate shells.

Pressing play on Pure Vanilla is like pushing down the plunger on a TNT detonator. The blast of punk granite fills the air then quickly settles. Four songs with crucially urgent vocals from Mabel Suen, her guitar playing similar to the sounds of quickly move tank treads heading for combat. One song titled Vanilla with saxophone in lieu of vocals. All songs filled with the potent drumming of Joe Hess, a meteor shower of penetrating percussive particles. The world will not survive the cosmic barrage Joe unleashes, severity and spirit tangled in timeless interlacing. 

As described above Complainer is the St. Louis, Missouri duo of Mabel Suen and Joe Hess. Pure Vanilla is their most recent release on Already Dead Tapes and Records. Copies are available from the label and future shows should be kept on everyones radar. 

Link
Already Dead Tapes site - facebook - bandcamp - twitter
Complainer - facebook - bandcamp

ML Wah & Herbcraft - No Slack

Juicy Fruit (Herbsman Dub) by ML Wah causes goosebumps. A hazy image of Augustus Pablo playing melodica channels straight to the consciousness. This cassette titled No Slack is an extremely well curated assemblage of root doctor's medicines. A bag of four remedies, each with different healing properties. Juicy Fruit (Herbsman Dub) goes to the core the quickest. Baselines giving passage through the dark, drums echoing seemingly in all directions, guide like guitar constructing the flickering visions of a melodica player facing towards the edge. This is an ML Wah effort with the first song Malawa Beat being the other.

Herbcraft has two tracks on the reverse side, Ababa and No Slack (General Vibe Dub). The first track Ababa, perfectly combines the feelings of the deepest roots with sounds from the most recent decade. If a comparison is needed, take seventies sounds from Ras Michael and interweave this with Peeking Lights 936 album. The title track, No Slack (General Vibe Dub), timeless dub exhalations creating an encompassing ethereal experience. Disintegrating beats cast out over seasons and space. Reaching for and pulling guitar riffs as both slide into an expansive abyss. Sounds are stretched across conscious fields, the energy like a translucent blanket, providing warmth and ushering good spirits.

Released on Crash Symbols in the middle of November in an edition of one hundred. Very surprising there are copies remaining, but eight seven six are still currently available. Both Crash Symbols and Matt Lajoie have a large following, so No Slack will be out of print soon. Wanted to add, Matt Lajoie has a new album out on both cassette and vinly, released yesterday on January 11th. Titled The Center and the Fringe, four solo guitar pieces played straight to your ears. This is on the Flower Room label and will begin shipping next week.

Links

Crash Symbols site - bandcamp - facebook
ML Wah - facebook - bandcamp
Herbcraft - facebook - bandcamp

Casio Adcock - Nope, Nothing Clever

What is desire? Casio Adcock has a few answers. Some very ruminative thoughts delivered in a heterodox of sound. But this can not be talked about, instead, keep reading and try to forget this was a question at all. After pressing play on Nope, Nothing Clever, don't even think about going back. A rather odd looking purple ray gun is out of it's holster and ready to fire at anyone. Fortunately an even more substantial question awaits.... Will we go to heaven or go into the sea? Dead and decomposing in the earth, all of which does eventually erode into the sea at some point. Or life after death.... They found Orenthal James' supposed pair of gloves and asked will you try it on. He went to "heaven" relatively speaking right there.

Nope, Nothing Clever is a testament of verse gone asunder, frailly held together in some other worldly confluence of synthetic metrics. Describing Casio Adcock's sound is similar to the process of trying to give definitions to many things known but never needing to be described. An example would be how salt taste, what funny is, or why minor tones are considered melancholy. One thing not needing an explanation is what loneliness is, the lack of a gift of a Rolodex for reasons that must be heard. And while listening you will be awarded five hundred gold for another amour upgrade. Without patience and understanding you are going to need it. Please remember this description might not be the product of your expectations, but Casio Adcock has imparted a little bit of coding and graphic design to help us understand.

Released on \\NULL|ZØNE// from Athens, Georgia. In an edition of fifty with the consistently beautiful artwork by Shifter. And the description (story) on the bandcamp page is so much better than this one. Should of just copy and pasted it, but you have to try and rise above when it gets hard. Thank you Casio!

Links
\\NULL|ZØNE// - facebook - bandcamp

Bitsy Knox & Roger 3000 - Om Cold Blood

Thoughts are decomposing. Written worlds falling apart, a trail of single letters spinning to the curb as the engine rattles asunder. Thesaurus becoming some mechanical guru, an oracle to cease repeating and keep repeating. With increasing age and depleting energy, fashioning coherency is an augmenting gradient to traverse. Om Cold Blood causes the pitch to tilt steeply up, as secure mental footing becomes scarce. It is very difficult to describe poetry, freely flowing and without boundaries, especially when added into a constantly resonating mix of experimental, ambient, punk noise. Bitsy Knox thoughts pierce the monotonous frame work, exposing the erector set life is built upon, an abundance of flimsy connections and extremely poor planning.

Om Cold Blood is an explosion of ideas and musing, spoken in globules of shrapnel. Poignant understandings exposing patterns and thoughts held in reveries of seclusion. The entire time, beautiful harmonies trying intently to pull canticles forth, like perfectly laying stones for songs to step across. Roger 3000 is keenly adept at creating this ambient fluidity, but drawn out words stay perched with lengthy legs straddled in more spoken word than song. Eventually Bitsy can not resist and on the third track titled "Om over you / Walking", her words begin tentatively being sung. The music on Om Cold Blood is hypnotically vexing. So much so it is worth exploring more of Roger 3000's sounds. Together, these two artists are perfectly balanced, poetry and music, holding the door open for each other.

The union of voice and music is a subject of much subjectivity. Tanuki Records is a stalwart source for understanding these relationships. Check out A Hidden Life by Simon Wickham-Smith for another example of how Tanuki explores this venue. Not sure if there is a connection, but another Belgium label, Sloow Tapes is filled with energy in regards to the written words and music. Om Cold Blood is a cassette release from late November. Copies are currently available with the option of a shirt highlighting the tape cover.

Links
Tanuki Records - bandcamp - facebook

Ted Apel and Anthony Burr - False Iguana

A blanket of tones pulled over and snugly warming the consciousness. Upon closer listening, this is not a homogenized cover but rather an intricate quilt of finely crafted stitching. Ted Apel playing a modular synthesizer system and Anthony Burr controlling a Univox combination organ. Together, these artists creating minute seams, almost unnoticeable, fractal patterns building a very sublime droning state of wellbeing.

From reading the notes by Anthony, these two side long tracks are performances done at an unstated time. Each piece only minimally adjusted for this Muzane Editions cassette. The first side titled "Hollow Phobos" is incredibly vibrant, but at an almost micro level. Imagine if you could here a long line of ants moving. The uncountable number of legs in systematic cadence, shifting slightly to navigate undulating surfaces. Anthony and Ted following this pattern, sustained notes changing in slight degrees, almost one long drone, but not at all. "24-Track Set" is the title of the second side. Beautiful tones more obviously changing. Like the suns radiance on a rotating object. The cycle of exposure, heating, darkness and cooling, repeating in a dazzling timeless fashion. Notes bubble to the surface, then retreat as the infinite drift envelopes these creations.

Two extremely beautiful tracks on one cassette. Released by Muzan Editions in December, one hundred copies now down to fifteen. False Iguana is part of the Muzan Editions Fall Batch, three releases that are still available as a batch, but very limited at this point.

Links
Muzan Editions -bandcamp - facebook - twitter

Period Bomb - Lost and Found

Lost and Found is an interesting term. A place where hopes find resonance but more frequently are abruptly extinguished. Also describing a condition of being, a state of mind or status of material object. In this instance, Lost and Found is the title for Period Bomb's cassette release on Already Dead Tapes and Records. A very appropriate name for these twenty four tracks that stem back through great lengths of time and efforts. Again, also connecting with the state of finding something really good that has been lost to listeners at this point.

Period Bomb has one of those long cartoon gun powder fuses. Sounds travelling in a tiny flame crossing all forms of terrain. Once ignited, the path these tracks take is simultaneously straight forward and sinuous. Punk like root combustion, vaporizing into whimsical psychedelic recordings and story telling. Lost and Found is filled with mind piercing shrapnel, groovy pop fragments melting into thoughts and causing melodies to ricochet in the head. Cam and DJ are the artistic at hub of these richly colorful borderline maniacal tidbits. "Status Quo" is what Period Bomb is not, and this warbling track emphasizes their deviation. Quickly march along with them on "Nice Kabob" and in less than a minute, thrash away with "Rot w/U". A few songs have featured artists, all so tangled and mutated, hard to discern what is Period Bomb and what external influence has contributed. Throwing in "What's That Smell? Best of the Period Bomb Hotline 2018" between the last few tracks of sound aftermath, is an excellent conclusion to this collection of lost sounds found on one fully realized composition.

Released on Already Dead Tapes and Records in late October of 2018. Copies are currently available. David Drucker's description of Lost and Found on the Already Dead bandcamp page is very well written and fully informative. Wanted to just copy and paste it here.... Also the constantly listening and writing Ryan Masteller has a great description on Tiny Mix Tapes. The complex creativity, high energy and bursting emotions delivered by Period Bomb make Lost and Found a tangible manifestation of artistic sublimity.

Links
Already Dead Tapes site - facebook - bandcamp - twitter
Period BOMB - facebook - bandcamp - twitter