#cassette culture

Since I’ve come back to Tumblr (sort of) here’s an obligatory plug for the cassettes of my first album, Plague, that just went up for sale on Bandcamp.

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Sympathetic improviser, modal mystic, and experimental soundscaper Landon Caldwell unveiled a new project earlier this year in collaboration with Moon Glyph, which saw the artist remotely leading an amorphous collective called Flower Head Ensemble. The result was a stunning display of ambient jazz spirituality, built almost entirely from chance and guided by pure intuition. Indeed, to craft the three slabs of sonic delirium occupying Simultaneous Systems—as well as the two side-longs on the Companion Environ tape released recently on the artist’s own Medium Sound—Caldwell sent each of his collaborators morphing and minimal soundbaths, over which they added sax, drums, strings, synth, and mallet instruments completely independently of one another. With this cache of primordial sonic matter, Caldwell then sculpted and shaped extended pieces of ethereal beauty and esoteric magic…pieces that feel so complete, and move with such grace and purpose, that it is hard to believe the contributors weren’t all in the same room riding the vibe together. Sounds merge and combine effortlessly, with vibraphones gleaming, horns screaming, and drums moving mysteriously underneath, sometimes rustling through windswept whispers, other times exploding into chaotic free jazz cacophony. Organ drones, e-piano dreamspells, polyphonic pads, and alien Moog modulations swim around in drunken seas of ether, flowing back and forth between serenity and intensity, and through it all, string instruments pluck, saw, and sigh, with tones ever-obscured by blinding glimmers of feedback. The result is something akin to both free and spiritual jazz, but that also takes in psychedelic minimalism, drone-based ambient, and experimental post-rock, with an overall feel that—at least to my ears—wouldn’t be out of place in the catalogs of early Kranky and Constellation, VHF, and of course, the legendary ECM. 

Landon Caldwell & Flower Head Ensemble - Simultaneous Systems (Moon Glyph, 2021)
At the start of “Reaching Out,” bell tones and trap kit motions decay through cavernous spaces, while the echoing horns of Mac Blackout (alto sax), Tom Lageveen (alto sax), and Nick Yeck-Stauffer (trumpet) spin romantic fanfares before swelling into ecstatic walls of sound. Chimes twinkle within the droning miasma, and subtle themes begin taking shape, with horns blowing in unison, plucked strings riding phaserwaves, and keys letting loose smoldering blues incantations. Tambourine splashes and sleigh bell shimmers grow in strength as bowed instruments generate blinding sprays of feedback, and having disappeared for a stretch, the horns eventually reemerge, with trumpet and violin singing songs of elegiac Americana in a way reminiscent of Jackie-O Motherfucker and their free folk/jazz odyssey Fig. 5. Bass synths accent Thom Nguyen’s drums as they sputter in the shadows, with tapped rides radiating golden vapors, and rimshots interspersing with junkyard percussion. K. Dylan Edrich’s strings continue asserting themselves through layers of splattered rhythm and dissonant synthetics, and at certain moments, the vibe is akin to the mighty orchestrations of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, only as if playing a shambling drone paean to the spirits of sun and sky. Brass swells bleat and blear into shamanic fire…into a purifying light that descends over an unsettled sea of organ droning, with tones otherworldly in their abandonment of melody…like waves of rainbow light mutating and modulating through a ceremonial storm of improvisation. Something approaching a defined drum beat emerges, with cymbal sizzles holding a count and broken kick and snare patterns ever-evolving. Trumpet and alto blow cosmic mysteries across the spectrum as the vibe approaches abstracted noir…like viewing a sunset cityscape through a fever dream fog. The rhythms continue their active ascent as Nguyen rolls around the kit in a physical display of force, and all the while, phasing keyboard chords grow ever more distorted…as if threatening to pull the track towards the sinister. Yet the horn trio contrasts the darkness with purifying baths of sonic light and longform melodic mysteries that eventually fade to nothingness. And by the end, all that remains are boiling bodies of organ drone and cymbal taps that sparkle like diamonds.

“Life Underground” opens the B-side with chords reducing to a metalloid haze, and repetitions of noise that are at once harsh and soft. There is a vague air of melancholy underlying the introductory movements, and eventually, gemstone keys reflect the light of a creeping dawn. Liquid swells wash the mix clean and waves of deep droning blue cascade over the body while alien fluids drip all around, and as Edrich’s strings fight again through layers of blinding drone, wild winds whip up a roaring vortex of sound. Keys evoke childhood music box meditations, rapidly bowed strings flutter like insect wings, and subsuming midtone drones push towards feedback while horns swell in the distance…their majestic melodies and waves of warmth uplifting the heart. Viols morph into displays of solar light and Yeck-Stauffer alights on shrieking solo adventures…his slithering and slip sliding trumpet leads moving in and out focus amidst resonant bell tones and the monosynth buzz of Mark Tester’s Moog. A symphony seems to swoon in the background ether as pounding bass patterns emerge, eventually revealing themselves as a sub-oscillator seance, wherein pitch and frequency modulate according to some unknowable logic. All the while, horns harmonize high in the sky—though their tones are obscured by blasts of galactic detritus—and as a final swell of synthesized starlight beams down from the heavens, the track breaks apart in totality.

The transition between “Life Underground” and “Woven Realm” is essentially seamless, and from the scattered silences of the former emerge the skroning saxophonics of the latter, which soar and scream through echoing corridors, resulting in an extended soliloquy of free jazz fire music. Keys begin letting lose blankets of mysterious arcana in the background, with subdued percolations evoking a lullaby dance through a sea of shadows. Sickly organs swell into a growing body of cacophony that is interspersed by beams of psychotropic radiance, with tonal drones sliding up and down while string instruments mimic theremins. As things progress, another holy soundbath emerges, featuring blissful waves of dissonance, phasing rotations, and the enigmatic dances of bowed strings and blown brass. Cymbal taps grow into stormclouds of metallic haze while elsewhere, Nguyen bashes, smashes, and crashes with reckless abandon, seemingly utilizing every square inch of his kit. And anchored to this kinetic display of rhythmic mesmerism is a glowing cloud of sonic serenity, wherein horns, strings, and synths evoke some mystical ceremony…some ritual of astral ecstasy that builds and builds towards transcendence before flowing away into an outro of seasick keys, woven brass patterns, and twinkling mallet tones.

(images from my personal copy)

Indira Valey
Indira Valey’s new album of alternate-world adventures, Yemas, was recently featured as Album of the Day on Bandcamp Daily. Such an honor! Read kind words about it (from the one-and-only Jacob An Kittenplan) on Cassette Gods and also find it through WaltzandK Records.

Reighnbeau remix
Thefirst in a series of remixes from Reighnbeau’s Antiquated Future release Slight (which is on the verge of its one-year anniversary!) just came out. From Montreal producer Thomas White, his ILWYW remix brings Colleen Johnson’s vocals to the forefront and pulses with such force. We can’t wait for more remixes to come!

David Thomas Broughton
We always love having some news about the great David Thomas Broughton (whose wild UnAbleTo we released back in 2013). Our very favorite DTB album, The Complete Guide to Insufficiency, is coming out on vinyl for the very first time! And on one of our favorite labels, Songs, by Toad. We’re so thrilled. Also, while you’re at it, pick up one of the few remaining copies of Crippling Lack, his triple-LP 2015 masterpiece. Soooo good.

Kickball restock
We just picked up the remaining physical albums from one of the greatest Olympia bands of all time (standing by this statement, forever and ever), Kickball. We’ve been working on releasing their final recordings as a cassingle for ages, and we’re hopefully inching closer toward that. In the meantime, get caught up on their brilliant back catalog. The Everything is a Miracle Nothing is a Miracle Everything is 10" is the brightest gem, but we’ve really been loving the hidden depths of ABCDEFGHIJKickball this week. 

Guidon Bear (now in other formats)
I keep saying that if Guidon Bear’s years-in-the-making debut, Downwardly Mobile: Steel Accelerator, doesn’t make it onto a year-end list I’ll flip out. It’s such a perfect piece of lyrically-dense indie-pop from some folks who have been at for it decades. Luckily, it’s slowly but surely getting some much-deserved love, including recent kind words from Various Small FlamesandCassette Gods. It’s also now available on CD, as well as cassette.

Antiquated Future: The First Seven Years
And if you haven’t picked up a copy(orfreely downloaded) our new compilation, you should! 19 songs from our first seven years. The A-side is more bands and pop songs, the B-side is more solo projects and ethereal dreams. Read about it on Various Small FlamesandCassette Gods and it’s also available through our pals at the Jigsaw RecordsandK Recordsdistro. 

New Distro
Adam Lipman- The Slouch (Shrimper Records)- An absolute gem of low-key indie rock. A casual croon over warm tones, a rhythm section moseying sweetly along, feeling good. Musical contributions from David-Ivar Herman Düne and Franklin Bruno (Nothing Painted Blue, The Extra Lens). For fans of Jason Molina, Kath Bloom, Spenking, Thanksgiving. (cassette) ($8)

Dorothy Carter- Troubador (Why the Tapes Play Records)- Otherworldly hammered dulcimer lushness. Surprising, largely instrumental, with splashes of Dorothy Carter’s mystical Malvina Reynolds-esque vocals. (cassette) ($6)

Nicomo- Views (self-released)- A smart six-song EP of breezy pop songs soaked in an ethereal haze. An early-morning hangout album meets complex after-dark mood music. For fans of Mega Bog, City Center, Shaggy Sample, Karl Blau, and Stephen Steinbrink. (CD) ($10)

And thanks to everybody who came to our anniversary party at the end of August! What a dreamy dream.

NEW ZINES

Assisted Living- From one of the modern masters of the sentence comes this handsome pocket-sized chapbook of four gloriously oddball short stories. ($6)

Behind the Zines #8: A Zine About Zines- The upswing in wrestling zines, amateur press associations, a brief history of Razorcake, so much. ($3)

Being- A lyrical memoir that works to put into words what it is to be transgender. It’s a book about relationships, about growing up, about the body and mind, about desire, about parenting, about how we adjust to huge changes, and about whom we know ourselves to be. ($6)

Digna- Part personal zine and part workbook zine, Digna looks at how healing can occur through both sound and the dream realm and how the two can overlap. ($7)

Glean Zine- A compact introduction to gleaning, food waste the world over, and how we can begin thinking differently about our food habits. Gorgeous comics and illustrations from the one-and-only Nicki Sabalu (DIY or Don’t We) throughout. ($5)

Hope That Clears Things Up: Six Ideas Rejected by Warby Parker- A series of strange and confrontational pitches to online glasses retailer Warby Parker. In the tradition of Joe Wenderoth’s Letters to Wendy’s, Jim Joyce (of Let it Sink zine) creates something strange, uncomfortable, and oddly hilarious. ($2)

How Restaurants Work- An art zine about working restaurant jobs. Weird food photos, strange receipts, and words about the reality and injustices of food service. ($10)

Lizard Men- A short collection of men posing with reptiles on Tinder. ($2)

Radical Domesticity #2: The Sewing Issue- How to sew on a button, how to sew in a zipper, the differences between scissors, how to measure yourself correctly, and so much more. ($3)

Radical Domesticity #3: Summers Up- Herbs and flowers to save the bees, ice-cube tray recipes, communal living, and more. ($3)

Radical Domesticity #4: Wintering- Preparing for the fall and winter months. A guide to deciduous leaves, DIY bird feeders and seed, recipes for hot beverages and warming foods, how to keep a cold at bay. ($3)

Reclaiming Dreams for Survivors- A short zine to assist abuse survivors that have issues around sleeping and dreaming. Going through herbs that can assist in this process, the zine offers a range of techniques and possibilities. Available in English and Spanish versions. ($7)

Reclaiming Our Ancient Wisdom- The new edition of Reclaiming Our Ancient Wisdom is a deeply researched “guide for practiced herbalists and midwives to better serve the women of their communities.” Benefits and safety issues, historical context, herbal implantation inhibitors, and so much more. ($7)

Starvation Mode- Seattle’s Elissa Washuta mini-memoir on struggling for culinary control. ($6)

Tin Can Telephone #7- Various delves into the obscure: an in-depth of ‘60s Doctor Who novelty records, a primer on library music, interviews with Unread Records and Andy Rench, zine reviews, great photos. It’s always such a treat. ($5)

User Not Found- A pocket-sized chapbook on social media and life in the digital age. In a single, long-form lyric essay, Felicity explores our collective addiction from a variety of angles. It’s a many-layered joyride of a think-piece. ($6)

We, the Drowned #4: The Inevitable- The latest in Jonas Cannon’s continued series of odd and hopeful stories about connection and disconnection. The highlight: a conversation between Jonas, Cindy Crabb (Doris), and Alex Wrekk (Brainscan) about regret (or the lack thereof) and the many possible paths that could have been. ($3)

Women of Color Zine #15- Place-based representation in children’s publishing, Black women bookworms, and so much more. ($5)

NEW BOOKS

Excavation: A Memoir- The debut memoir from the great Wendy C. Ortiz. ($15)

Incandescent: A Color Film Zine, Issue 16- Hay, high chairs, salt mines, forsythia, dried flowers, things on fire. All of this and more in the latest issue of our favorite photography journal. ($14)

Liar: A Memoir- When Rob Roberge learns that he’s likely to have developed a progressive memory-eroding disease from years of hard living and frequent concussions, he is terrified by the prospect of becoming a walking shadow. ($15)

Pretend We Live Here: Stories- In her debut collection of stories, Genevieve Hudson explores the idea of home and what it means to find one: in the body, in the world, in other people. ($13)

NEW MUSIC

Antiquated Future Records: The First Seven Years compilation- Nineteen songs from the first seven years of our label. Slightly-skewed pop, indie rock, lo-fi folk, oddball electronic, and soundscape wizardry. (cassette + digital download) ($5)

Dorothy Carter- Troubador- Otherworldly hammered dulcimer lushness. Surprising, largely instrumental, with splashes of Dorothy Carter’s mystical Malvina Reynolds-esque vocals. (cassette) ($6)

Indira Valey- Yemas- A series of seven short rituals offering brief peeks into alternate dimensions, past lives, and dream worlds. (cassette + digital download) ($7)

Nicomo- Views- A smart six-song EP of breezy pop songs soaked in an ethereal haze. An early-morning hangout album meets complex after-dark mood music. For fans of Mega Bog, City Center, Shaggy Sample, Karl Blau, and Stephen Steinbrink. (CD) ($10)