Charles Barabé - Dates + Confessions

Depth, like you just don't come across often courtesy of Charles Barabé with Dates + Confessions on Tranquility Tapes. Menacing, exceptionally massive and beautiful synth timbres, thick haunting vocoder, garbled spoken word that seems to be reciting dating profile details. If I were to bet on that description, I place chips on a complete mess, but this is NOT. From all of this, comes something that feels so incredibly singular. The emotion of human kind all at once, or something like that. Some of the stuff on the back half had me just about weeping synth tears, notes piercing through recordings of people describing their positive attributes selling their humanity to humanity. I don't know if it's supposed to be sad, but boy I took it that way.

Edition of 100 beautifully presented pro dubbed and printed. Sold out from the label, I was honestly shocked to find a copy at Tomentosa, who has on in stock as of 12/8 at 8:18. Given that this just grabbed #1 at the on the Tabs Out top 200 of '14, you better act fast.

The Rainbow Body - Magnetic Highway

Cavernous ambience from The Rainbow Body with Magnetic Highway, on Tranquility Tapes. Although I'll certainly try, you can't explain a tape like this. Elements of progression and melody exist in plenty, and warrant note and description. Sounds could of course be described and detailed with ernest intent. But I think really, these six tracks are about texture. It's about a set of headphones in a quiet room, and being the sort of person who can focus directly on something that requires no direction. Starring through the back of your eyelids out into a massive galaxy of sound and interpreting the negative space. At their most basic, these seem to be loops of electronic effects, layered with improvised guitar in various states of treatment, but moreover, it's a totality of experience. For those seeking an elevated ambient space through which to consider our insignificance within the scope of the universe, they have found it. Sounds like a lone starship, powerless in the gravity of a black hole, each choice of melody and texture pulling your ear drums closer to the ultimate end.

Edition of 100, already sold out at Tranquility (things tend to go quick over there!), a very, very few copies remain directly from the artist, along with full streaming over at The Magnetic Body Bandcamp.

Albino Groupie - Shadow Bong Synth

Fogged out Himalayan pilgrimage weirdness from Albino Groupie with Shadow Bong Synth on Tranquility Tapes. I’m feeling a ghostly, windswept vibe from the entire muddled, droning affair. Bits of what seems to be vocal, echo around the soundscape, imparting a chanting, ominous, and somewhat meditative effect. A menacing swirling murk of synth and guitar. Sounds like ascending a lost Tibetan mountain pass while delusional from the altitude sickness. Dig these sounds on your transitional journey through the Bardo.

Edition of 100, pro dubbed and printed. Channel enlightenment directly from Tranquility Tapes.