So:
I’m going to pretend I’m a real music critic and write a top ten
list for the departed old year. But this being a cassette-only
webmag, I’ll limit my selections to that medium. Avid readers (they
exist, right?) will be able to go back and check the reviews page to
read up on the things I raved about last year: God Willing, Privy
Seals, Marble Sky, Warmth, Werewolf Jerusalem, etc, and all of those
would definitely make a true year-end list, but for the sake of
scope and novelty, I will write only about tapes I have not
previously reviewed. Note also that the order is very loose, from
top to bottom—I probably like the first tape listed better than the
bottom one, but don’t count on me to defend the chart positions as
if they were meticulously considered.
1. BLACK AIR “Phoenix / Albuquerque” (Iatrogenesis)
A
true noise supergroup, like Damn Yankees, or Audioslave—except that
Black Air totally slay. Sam McKinley (The Rita) met Jon Borges
(Pedestrian Deposit) and Gordon Ashworth (Oscillating Innards) on
their US tour two summers ago. Together, the three played several
shows in the Southwest, combining their efforts to create the
heaviest crunchiest Wall Noise ever to disrupt the bowels of New
Mexicans, Arizonians and Californians. This c20 showcases edited
recordings from their Phoenix and Albuquerque appearances, and let
me tell you: holy crap I wish I had been there. It’s a testament to
these three incredible musicians, as well as to the Wall Noise
project in general, that unrehearsed improvisational jams can end up
sounding this precise. Both pieces truly sound like the products of
a single creative voice. While the tracks evolve—and they do so
quite quickly and often, this is incredibly dynamic stuff for WN—all
three appear to be going in the same direction, following each other
and listening carefully. I’d be willing to say that this is as
sensitive an improvisation as you’re likely to find on any Keith
Jarrett CD.
2. EMERALDS “Allegory of Allergies” (Gods of
Tundra)
A
fucking c120. You’ve got to give these guys credit for
ambition. And it’s not just a “let’s get stoned and play for as
long as we can” kind of tape—it’s got a bunch of different tracks
per side (which I usually don’t like) that feel like carefully
thought-out compositions. The first track on side A is enough to
make this one of my most-played tapes of the year. It’s a gorgeous
ebbing ocean of churning synths and bell-like guitar tones that
could be a really long Eno/Fripp outtake—but better. The rest of
the pieces are less surprising but equally irresistible. For the
most part, I am rather suspicious of overly-hyped internet noise
bands, and other Emeralds releases have felt to me like dull
squiggly messes, but with this tape, these Ohio kids have proven
that they are capable of making some of the most beautiful and
evocative experimental music on the scene.
3. WHITMAN “Death’s Ship Has A New Captain”
(Folktale Records)
Live,
Whitman shows come in two varieties: group performances where half
of the DIY population of Riverside County drunkenly backs up
singer-songwriter Chris Payne’s eerie ballads, and solo shows where
Payne’s haunting voice and angular guitar playing prove more than
sufficient. It is during this latter category that Payne’s
songwriting is done the justice it is due. The group shows are
often unsatisfactory for audiences eager to hear Whitman songs—the
other members of the group clearly don’t know the songs, nor do they
have any interest in participating in any way meaningful to the
music. However, this tape, a group recording, uses the formant to a
very different end than the shows. Side A, like the shows, finds
Payne singing and playing guitar over the unrelated clanging of
backing musicians. These musicians, though, are rendered distant
and smeary, low in the mix, while Payne’s voice is heard in extreme
closeup. The resulting atmosphere is ghostly, far creepier than a
hundred Halloween sound effect cassettes. On side B, the other
musicians (possibly Payne himself, only multi-tracked) actually play
together in rhythm giving us an idea of what and ideal full-band
Whitman show could really sound like. Aside from all of this, the
songwriting is, of course, excellent. Payne’s awkward outsider folk
is anything but cutesy—a pitfall of a lot of his generic
brethren. His lyrics are often incredibly painful and human, but
his performance of them is so alien that one cannot help but
experience an unsettling disconnect. At a distance, his melancholy
appears understandable, but he lets you in too close—so close that
all emotions become the opposite of universal, and impossible to
relate to.
4. AIR CONDITIONING “The Ocean” (Callow God)
Britt
already wrote about this tape several months ago, and he fucking
nailed it, so I won’t say much. It is flawless. After my
disappointment with “Dead Rails,” Air Conditioning’s last
full-length on Load Records, this tape raped my brain in half.
5. SECRET ABUSE “Young Pig” (Eager Mother
Tapes)
Since
disappearing to Iowa last summer, Jeff Witscher has been on a roll,
reinvigorated by the change of scenery and releasing some of his
best work to date. This tape should be considered part of a loose,
perhaps unintentional, trilogy with “Pink Thorn” and “The Sad
Return” by Impregnable and Marble Sky, respectively. Each shows
Witscher dealing with his newfound interest in ambient guitar drone
in a different way. His approach on “Young Pig” is to ditch the
glassy sheen and navel-gazing quietude of his other cassettes and
drench his tone in an aggressive layer of spikey fuzz. Though it
retains the undeniable beauty inherent in the chords he’s playing,
distortion pushes the work past sentimentality and into another
realm altogether—imagine a chopped and screwed My Bloody Valentine,
or the prettiest melody you’ve ever heard played but the angriest
dude you’ve ever met.
6. EMACIATOR “Neglect” (Monorail Trespassing)
When,
in a few decades or so, noise receives the attention that all
important artistic movements do (way too long after the fact) a
critical theory is developed and a canon of great works is selected,
Jon Borges will be considered the genre’s genius—the noise Mozart,
Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, Robert Johnson. Just you wait. You’ll
see.
7. FROZEN BODY “Totally Fucked” (Vile Bile)
I was
thinking that a theme for this list should be “”People Who Fled Los
Angeles This Year.” Frozen Body (AKA Mike Zorman) left us for
Portland last summer, an exodus that bummed a lot of Southern
Californians out. His live shows are always top-notch—composed,
rehearsed, deeply effecting. This dude’s an underappreciated
heavyweight; a total pro. And “Totally Fucked” is a serious
burner. It chugs along, farting and retching out Tascam 4-track
overdrive gutter crunch, dissolving into a sickening hiss, only to
come back with more rumble. This tape is so blown out that it
threatens to break up into total silence due to your own car
stereo’s inability to handle the heavy. Printed on the j-card is a
sweet picture of the artist himself, all bleary eyed and drunky-pants
so you can chuckle to yourself while you rock out.
8. HEALTH [s/t] (DNT)
This
is the cassette version of Health’s debut album on Lovepump
United. Unlike The Mae Shi, who I inappropriately attacked in an
earlier column, Health did this one right. Perhaps they are still
close enough to the underground from which their exploded to be
counted as honorary members of it. They haven’t yet forgotten their
roots—we’ll see what happens in a few years when they’re headlining
Lollapalooza, or something, but for now, these guys have the respect
for the scene to put out a tape, and for it to be cool. If you want
to know what they sound like, just read Spin, or Pitchfork, or Fader
or some other shit, I don’t know. They’re really damned good, they
work really damned hard, and they’ve started to earn the praise they
deserve. What a novel fucking idea.
9. BLACK PUS / FOOT VILLAGE (Deathbomb Arc)
The
July entry of this year’s Deathbomb Arc Tape Club featured the best
side of music the series has ever released. Foot Village’s “Race To
The End Of Food” is an insane skit/song where the members of the
band pretend to be animals in some fantasy land. Few Foot Village
fans actually realize that the group is so highly conceptual—Foot
Village is the name of the nation that these four drummers are
building. With their first few releases, they studied the workings
of other sovereign states to gather knowledge and make decisions
about how theirs should operate. Since then, they have abandoned
their research and are apparently deeply situated in the project of
nation building. I’m not sure how this track fits into their
mythology, but I simply love that they have one. They’re like Iron
Maiden but way more committed to their narrative—plus theirs is way
more batshit crazy than any other band’s. The midsection of this
track represents the song’s titular race itself, and while it was
performed in the way that all Foot Village pieces are (four drummers
and unamplified vocals) the recording volume is cranked so high that
the result is a dizzying chunk of over stimulating
chaos. Afterward, the plot is wrapped up, I guess. This is easily
the funniest, most baffling tape this year.
10. BLACK LEATHER JESUS “Psycho Sexual
Mating” (Skeleton Dust Recordings)
This
is a double c20 of one of Richard Ramirez’s many Harsh Noise side
projects. Whether or not the other players listed as Ramirez’s
collaborators actually exist is always a question with his
recordings, but Black Leather Jesus is one of his longer running
bands, and I’ll therefore assume it includes real people as it’s
members. This tape’s lineup is a slightly smaller group than usual,
with only Kevin Novak and Scott Houston joining Ramirez on this
one. This slimming down seems to work well for the group as these
tapes are incredibly focused. They’re exactly what you want them to
be: it’s a solid Harsh Noise release. Nothing fancy or
progressive. Just the genre done to absolute perfection. It’s
awe-inspiring and also comforting to listen to an absolute master
apply his craft, even when he’s not breaking any new ground. It’s
as effortless and easy as breathing for him. Sure, there’s
something to be said for watching a performer sweat, but it’s
impossible not to be floored by this group’s natural
sophistication. No points, however, to the label for the shitty
pixilated artwork. I can’t complain, though, since the dubbing is
so fucking loud.
Honorable mention goes to the following tapes which didn’t make it
onto the top ten only because I couldn’t think of anything
particularly interesting to write about them:
ROBEDOOR “Hopeless Transformation” (Goaty Tapes)
WORK/DEATH “Dedicated to Peter O’Toole” (Ekhein)
TAIGA
REMAINS “Glass Estuary” (Monorail Trespassing)
MOMENT TRIGGER “Audio Maps For The Blind” (Breadboard)
TIK///TIK
“Hand To The Ground” (Black and Purple)
And,
just because I can, I’ve included my non-cassette top ten (er,
fifteen?)of the year, without any commentary to justify my bizarre
taste.
1. T
– PAIN “Epiphany” (Jive)
2.
KEITH ROWE “The Room” (Erstwhile)
3.
STARS OF THE LID “And Their Refinement Of The Decline” (Kranky)
4.
TURF TALK “West Coast Vaccine (The Cure)” (Sick Wid It)
5.
TRERIKSRÖSET “Sexregler” (Troniks / Chondritic Sound)
6.
ELIANE RADIGUE “Jetsun Mila” (Lovely Music)
7.
WOLD “Screech Owl” (Profound Lore)
8.
NERO’S DAY AT DISNEYLAND “Colonists” (EMR)
9.
PIG DESTROYER “Phantom Limb” (Relapse)
10.
CHRISTINA KUBISCH “Five Electrical Walks” (Important)
11.
MONSTURO “U-111” (EMR)
12.
SEWER ELECTION “Sex / Death” (PacRec)
13.
JAY-Z “American Gangster” (Roc-A-Fella)
14.
JASON CRUMER "Future With No Chance" (RRR)
15.
CHANGELING “Five Hundred Nights” (Phantom Limb)