Junior Pande - The Red Tape

Through the course of posting about the first three numbered Junior Pande tapes, I've had the chance to describe the work of Justin Peroff quite a bit. His latest, and the first outside of a numbered sequence on Spring Break Tapes, is The Red Tape, and it continues much in the same evolutionary vein as those first three. A genre less boundary crashing mix up of beat styles. Perhaps this time things feel a bit more controlled and less chopped. Track remain plentiful, and lengths short and rapid fire. But, with that familiar mechanic, I'm finding tracks that veer a little more towards dance influence and bit less hip hop banger. It's a more controlled blend, but no less effective and still full of such surprising twists and turns that a smile crept across my face more than once. The mix still breaths with heavy compression as bass hits suck all the air out of your lungs and then push it back in with a tide of synth, but now structured and integrated with increased focus. Raw, controlled, just a hell of a lot of fun.

Packaging on this is so sick and so detailed. Edition of 50 unlabeled red shells housed in an individually numbered hand stamped ocard with section of photographs and a bit of paint. From what I can tell, each tape in the edition has unique photos. Along with the tape, a zine full of photos from the artist, a pin and a sticker are all included. This was no doubt a monster undertaking and it presents wonderfully. Grab direct from Spring Break Tapes!

Junior Pande — Liberty After by springbreaktapes

Junior Pande - Tape Three

Head rattling off kilter beats. Big crusty curtains of noise that huff and puff, breathing in syncopated rhythm with the beat. Sly little homages to 70's California cool. The Junior Pande moniker of Justin Peroff keeps on blasting through traditional beat scene genre boundaries with Tape Three on Spring Break Tapes. What I've found so enjoyable about what, at this point, stands as a trilogy of editions, is the lack of concern of (or carefully considered disregard for) staying cannon to singular tropes associated with beat making. Everything feels exactly on, and also quite "off". It all sounds spontaneous, organic, as if created on a whim, and not living inside a midi time signature slave to a Propellerhead Ignition Key. Spacey, crunchy, throwback, 8bit, whatever else. How much is there to say about something like this, just play it.

SBT is about as selective (and diverse) curatorially as it gets in tape land, with just eight releases total. That three of them represent the Junior Pande trilogy should tell you how essential these are. Stop depriving yourself the chance to have a little fun, grab this one direct from Spring Break Tapes.

And the trilogy...

V/A - Greetings From Spring Break Tapes! Vol. 1

Sun drenched beats and lazy acid jazz vibes on the new comp from Spring Break Tapes, Greetings From… Vol. 1. An absolutely killer stable of producers, tour de forcing their way through ten tracks of mid tempo beat scene sickness and 70’s soundtrack chic. Favorites of mine, including Junior Pande and Jah Connery make appearances, along with Lazloh, Dr. Quandary, Elaquent, Lushlife, West Widows, Don Cash, Amable, and Sunclef. Thick, beefy production, high quality sound, and a flat out fun to play feeling that begs you to borrow an old car with a tape deck and head to the beach. All ten tracks repeat on both sides to double your chill out capacity.

I hadn't grasped what a massive undertaking this comp must have been until the package arrived. Each copy packaged in a separate, custom stamped inner envelope, bursting with extra goodies. Button, die cut sticker, ten miniature postcards, one for each artist, and a download code. Grab directly from Spring Break Tapes.

Junior Pande - Tape One

Killer mash up of genres and scenes from Junior Pande, with Tape One, on Spring Break Tapes. There's about 20 tapes worth of loops, fuzz, and experimentation here, all smashed into a single crazy headspin that sounds like an improv performance recorded live to mic in your living room. Enough melodic ambience to keep you hypnotized, and enough variety to keep you awake. Some tracks have clear boundaries, other seem to overlap and intersect with reckless abandon. It's that unpredictable spontaneous element that makes Tape One such fun. It keeps you sharp, not sure if the next track will be straight up sequencer loops, or a drone / desert rock mash up that sounds like Earth gone tape crazy.

Junior Pande is the first release from Spring Break Tapes, with a second now available from Don Cash. It's time your cassette deck had a little fun.