Wolf Fluorescence - There is a Mirk Inside Here Which She Must Tint Brighter or Collapse

Nocturnal, somber, melodic sound collage on Sic Sic Tapes. "There is a Mirk Inside Here Which She Must Tint Brighter or Collapse" is the strongest yet from Wolf Fluorescence. The entire album length release feels like the downloaded scratch pad of metal patient creative genius. It vibrates with the feel of live mic recording. Seemingly, a spontaneous, unrehearsed, journey down an etherial and melancholic path. Unrelated recordings, sounds, and carefully chosen timbres weave into a cohesive whole, dispute their singular uniqueness. The magic trick I most admire in this release is the ability to work between opposing poles of open experimentation, and elegant musical structure. The closing track of side a, "The Glorious Night" challenges the listener with vague washes of ambience and experimentation until giving way to a haunting piece of recorded orchestration. Sounds like a ghostly hand on your shoulder leading you home, or perhaps not home. One of the best yet in '12.

Part of an incredible new six release batch. Unique art for each new tape in the series, pro printed, hand numbered, awesome. Sic Sic is getting quite the reputation of late as an "it" label (see the reviews from my pal Michael over at the Honest Bag) and runs of 85 don't last long, so best to look lively.

Black Velvet Stereo - Metal Rain Machine

Black Velvet Stereo on Sacred Phrases kills with Metal Rain Machine. Seems like an exercise in stark contrast, and beautiful synergy, between disparate subgenres of electronic music. An extremely refreshing intermingling of electronic relatives. Vast, evolving, ambient spaces weave into blissful focused drone. Waves of overdriven melody give way to propulsive layers of rich, full, progressive synth. Each side peaks with an absolute standout track, the massive uptempo burn of the Alex Barnett-esq “Hope” on A, and the pulsating, extraterrestrial emotional pull of “///” on the flip. When c40’s are born, they dream of becoming a tape like this.

Don’t miss this one, seriously. Grab it along with the rest of the new batch directly from Sacred Phrases.

Woob - 1194

It struck me yesterday while enjoying 1194 from Woob, that this legendary work of ambient dub is just a few years shy of two decades years old. Released on the UK cult em:t label, 1194, from sound artist Paul Frankland is regarded with almost universal praise as one of the finest ambient electronic albums ever made. A beautiful, moving, spooky, ethereal trip through a haze of world music and cult movie samples. The 32 minute opening track "On Earth" forever changed my musical taste. If you’ve heard it you already know, if you haven’t, find it, check it out. Sounds as fresh and engaging today as the first time I played it.

Long out of print, and typically going for a small fortune online, prices have recently come down dramatically as the album has been made available much more affordably on itunes, and finally without large corporate encumbrances, on Bandcamp

Inez Lightfoot - Riverbottom Nightmare

Not quite sure how a tape can sound so hazy and warm, and yet still be so clear and refreshing. Riverbottom Nightmare from Inez Lightfoot on Biological Radio continues in a line of recordings exploring what I perceive as nature, natural surroundings, and naturalistic emotion. Inez treads across mountains of melodic progression, brushed with subtle hints of varied instrumentation and an increased vocal presence. It all seems alive and breathing with a spontaneous unrehearsed quality. Sounds like waking up from a dream, standing at the edge of a lake, staring at your own reflection.

Packaged in a fold around cardboard sleeve, with sewn edges and hand stamping. Song titles on insert. Limited to 25 copies. Purchased from Discriminate, who sold out with a quickness. Scour the web for any available copies at this point.

Nuojuva - Otavaiset Otsakkaha

Soothing, uplifting, naturalistic stuff from the latest moniker of Ous Mal, Nuojuva, on Hooker Vision. Ghostly vocals, delicate layers of synth and guitar, soft chimes, and electronics that bubble and flow like spring ice melt. Reminds me of "Drift" from Adham Shaikh and Tim Floyd, with it's sense of warmth and character. Otavaiset Otsakkaha walks deep into lush green woods, looks up at the sun, smiles, and breathes deeply of the air. It is an impossibility to feel worse for having heard this tape.

I grabbed my walkman and summited the sun bathed hill to the best vantage point at Hawk Mountain. Tape and trail a perfect partnership.

I purchased from Discriminate, but they appear to be out of stock as does the label. Check around or keep your fingers crossed for a restock.

Lightning Strike Lightning - Creepy Power

Refreshing, clear, overwhelmingly emotive passages of ambient electronics, drone, and organic instrumentation. Lightning Strike Lightning are absolutely stunning with Creepy Power on Digitalis. Chimes, melody, and vibes of eastern influence seem to float in pools of ghostly vocal and thick buzzing guitar work. The tape is varied and progressional from front to back, traversing peaks of accessible, almost pop structures, and delving deep into droning hallucinogenic ambience. Images of a Tibeten monk creating tape loops for a shoegaze band somehow see relevant here. As with all the Digitalis releases, the quality here is really sharp. Full color J Cards and incredible sound.

I purchased from Discriminate, along with several others from the last official Digitalis batch and that glorious white box was ascending my front steps in just two days.

Basic House - Ambrosias Vol. 1

Basic House dials up hallucinogenic mind melt, with Ambrosias Vol. 1, on Koppklys Records. The entire work is refreshing and complex, ranging widely from noisy and challenging, to contemplative and thoughtful. Amid the host of varying tensions and pressures, there is a cohesion and holistic structure that ties the tape together beautifully. Sounds that may originate in vastly different contexts combine seamlessly to form a single sound with confidence and character. A swirling mass of insects becomes a noisy backdrop to stringed instruments and distant chimes. Disassociated voices played in varying pitches smear across caverns of introspective melody. An elegant push and pull between moments, from high tension, to welcome respite. The tape develops front to back like a storybook.

There are tapes, and sometimes unique moments of tapes, that remind me of landmark releases in the decade(s) old waves of electronic music that were formative in my appreciation of the genre. Ambrosias Vol. 1 took me to those releases and those moments. Seriously, killer stuff.

Ambrosias Vol. 1 (#'d to 50) is available along with releases from Sundrips and Phylum Child by ordering batch #2 directly from Koppklys.

Seabat - Mountains of Palawan

Mountains of Palawan from Seabat is a mind melting carpet ride to an alien dance party. Big waves of synth layered thickly across agile rhythm patterns that will absolutely bounce the db meters on your tape deck. The timbre and melody on this tape seem both foreign and extraterrestrial simultaniously. I totally dig stuff that straddles the line between experimental and accessible, and Seabat is getting it totally right. The entire sound floats and drifts, and assisted by the images on the cover art, I envisioned myself doing the same.

I grabbed this one along with the rest of a massive 8 tape batch directly from Goldtimers. This was my first pickup from GT, and their art and packaging are really sharp. All the tapes are pro printed, and the J Cards are full art front and back. Killer.

Red Dwarf Star - Untitled Cassette

So a few months back I started trading tapes with a dude named Tanner from Washington. Along with a copy of Steve Peters' Filtered Light, he sent back a mysterious unlabeled cassette full of meditative sound collage. Bits of warm miasma, field recordings, elements of mechanical processes and subtle moonscape. A range of styles from the raw sound of public places, to passages of deep evolving light and dark. Within the tracks that I now know were unfinished at the time, existed the elements that have now been made available as "Untitled Cassette" from Red Dwarf Star. I was intrigued by these tracks when I first heard them, and now in their finished form they are something truly special.

Untitled Cassette is a hand assembled run of just 10 copies. Each one comes with a unique color cover, and a handwritten title on the spine. Support by visiting Bandcamp, where you can stream excerpts, and purchase a physical copy.

Secret Girls - In Hiding

Really, really, digging this tape from Prairie Fire. Each of the four tracks on "In Hiding" is soft and fragile, yet open and massive. Faint whispers of beautiful drone are delicately painted against thick black brushstrokes of heavy cavernous bass. The entire recording shows restraint by never letting either layer outpace the other, maintaining the distance of each from the listener. Steadily drifting forward, and yet never seeming to arrive, these tracks are like the headlights of a car, approaching for miles on a country road. Far as I can interpret, these aren't sounds for the moment, these are sounds for the moment before.

I found this one, digging as I usually love to do, through the virtual bins at Discriminate, and copies are also available directly through Prairie Fire as well.

Try as I might, I can't find a clip to embed, but please, take an extra click here. I think this one is something truly special.

Pine Smoke Lodge - Season Above Lakes

I hate to post about a tape not available somewhere, but this one is just too good. Seasons Above Lakes from Pine Smoke Lodge is 2 untitled tracks of meditative free drone on cae-sur-a. Images of deep, untouched groves of Mountain Laurel, cave paintings, mountaintops, forgotten rituals, and a hazy vision of an elder shaman as you close your eyes to reality, and finally open them to your soul. Side B is an absolute mind warp, circling, rising, and falling, with melodic, entrancing and unrecognizable vocals and musicality. Truly one of the best moments of tape I've heard.

I dropped this tape into my walkman and took off to climb the nearest mountain. Took 4 listens to reach the top. One more, and I would have found my spirit animal and never returned.

Bobby from Geographic North was generous enough to trade this tape to me. He also does some excellent writing for Foxy Digitalis which you should absolutely check out. Check the distro links on right to scan for anything Pine Smoke Lodge related if you have even a passing interest in the experimental drone scene.

Venn Rain - Diamond Dust

Hot on the heels of his self released 20 Loops, Jimmy Billingham, the artist behind Venn Rain and Tidal drops another killer work, this time on Fadeaway Tapes. Super lush blurred out layers of melody one on top of the other, with occasional bits of rhythm build seamlessly into a something that simultaneously sounds extraterrestrial and nostalgic. Absolutely one of my favorite artists going right now, hitting all the right notes between melody, timbre, and engaging progression. If martians land in a jungle 1,000 years from now and use some type of futuristic dowsing rod to dig this tape up from under a layer of muck, they might just let us live ...assuming they have a tape deck.

The entire new batch from Fadeaway is pretty incredible, and includes tapes from Sparkling Wide Pressure, Cenote Glow, and Aphid Palisades. Venn Rain is already sold out at some distros, but the whole batch can still be ordered like I did, direct from Fadeaway Tapes.

Hobo Cubes / J Hanson - Split (Freebie!)

Really nice split tape from Digitalis LTD, featuring Hobo Cubes and J Hanson. Cool metallic pulses and other assorted mind melting sound waves. I've enjoyed this tape and now it's ready to be shared. If you have interest, simply email me at guidemelittletape at gmail dot com and I'll drop it in the mail. No catch. Links to several other unclaimed freebies on right as well. Cheers! Gone to Tanner from Vancouver as of 1/5. Enjoy!

Venn Rain - 20 Loops

20 Loops from Venn Rain is exactly what it says, twenty loops on a single cassette. Each loop seems capable of being fleshed out into a complete track, showcasing deep and moving melodies that drift into, and out of, fields of haze and distortion. However, the structure of the entire cassette gives us only snapshots and ends each track abruptly. Each loop has an almost robotic charm. It's hard to verbalize, but perhaps best described as a forgotten automoton playing a rusty piano thinking about more pleasant times, or something like that. Based on their similarity with other Venn Rain and Tidal tapes, I'm guessing these loops may be bits and pieces not fully incorporated into the other works from creator Jimmy Billingham.

I've always very much enjoyed both of those projects, and did not hesitate to pick this up by following the directions here. Word to the wise, don't wait long, there are only 20 copies, and each has a unique package.

Tulasi / Caligine - Split

New split cassette from Jozik Records of Finland. Side A from Tulasi floats amid washes of flute, organ, bits of percussion, and assorted electronic shimmer. At some moments ritualistic, and at others rooted firmly in acoustic folk. Side B from Caligine offers an elegant juxtaposition to Tulasi. Heavy guitar drones and feedback scorch across the soundstage, before collapsing into a series of moving acoustic melodies to close the tape.

I purchased directly from Jozik along with the rest of their new 3 tape batch, and received a hand written thank you, and free copy of an existing release as a bonus.

Inez Lightfoot - Pollen on the Brow

Hypnotic new tape excursion on Digitalis. Soft fuzz, forgotten rituals, and field recordings mixed with blurry female vocals. Very nice tape, culminating in pure sonic hallucination on side B with the melodic "Dreamwalk". At it's best moments Pollen on the Brow allows the listener transport into a strange and wonderful world. I purchased my copy at Discriminate Music Inez Lightfoot - Dreamwalk by Inez Lightfoot