Jungle Heart - Burn Dem

Some recordings are made on their production. Not necessarily in the traditional sense, but by the way in which the captured sounds are translated to tape and become a part of the music itself. Burn Dem, from Jungle Hearts, on Cae-Sur-A, is mangled, suffocating, study in just that effect. Droning, cyclical, hypnotics that are just absolutely strangled in gritty mid range production. It captures the energy of what feels like live, straight to tape improv, and pulls you into each of the side long tracks as if you're sitting right there in the moment. The music itself is captivating. Moments of sparse, almost noise compositions, that slowly build into emotional highs. It took a pair of listens to digest what I think is going on here, and it's through that process that I began to appreciate that without the sound of the recording it wouldn't be the same recording. Killer.

Hand numbered edition of 100 on yellow shells. Grab direct from Cae-Sur-A.

Drowning The Virgin Silence - Blue Noise

Menacing, theatrical compositions from Drowning The Virgin Silence, with Blue Noise on Cae-sur-a. The standout title track combines elements of dark ambient, industrial, and most prominently, 70's horror cinema vibes into a wandering line of consciousness, or maybe, more of a long twisting scrape. The flip stays in the macabre, but travels into a bit more ambient realm, layering strings over echoing melody and percussion. Things never get fully blown out into noise, and never recede into the subconscious, staying just at the edges of your awareness, picking at your consciousness with an eerie persistence. Sounds/feels like madman dragging his axe down the hallway outside your door. Truly disconcerting.

Hand numbered edition of one hundred, double sided jcard, grab directly from Cae-sur-a, if you dare.

Velvet Elvis - In Deep Time

Heads up on a couple (see below) of incredible new releases from cae-sur-a.

The first, represented here, is a full length vinyl debut of rocking fuzzed up doom from Velvet Elvis, with In Deep Time. The entire six track LP absolutely rips. Production screams through crisp and crusty, actually improving in clarity and detail with additional volume. Each instrument in play, including the bass (I know, awesome right?), is detailed and available in the mix. A distinctive female/male lead vocal sets this five piece outfit in rarified space. The baton pass of vocal direction maintains diversity in tone and mood from aggressive to somber, despite the continued bloody knuckled riff barrage. The album moves like a pendulum between slowed down and stoner, to riffed out and rocking. An exceptional variety in tracks that lets out just enough rope to lose yourself, before raking you back over the coals with a drunken bar fight of a track like Rattleskin Boots. Heavy, well played, well recorded rock.

I liked everything about this record, including the presentation. Beautiful art design, full size liner notes, black vinyl, download code, even a piece of the original analogue tape is included. Grab direct from cae-sur-a.

Lefterna - Not Here (if anywhere) / Degradation_Obsession

The second release in the batch (see above), is a release more canon to the traditional cae-sur-a tape standard. Lefturna presents a wierdo soup of glitches and complex melodic collage with Not Here (if anywhere) / Degradation_Obsession. Pulsating repetitive waves of rich synth. Moments of spontaneous, breathtaking timbre bursting forth from long expanses of circular glitch movements. The final track, retrograde consists of merely starting the same passage repeatedly, and as odd as that sounds, results in a satisfyingly transportive composition. These are sounds for patient ears. Special moments of easily accessible sound that have to be earned by working through more challenging periods. Experimental, truly bizarre sounds like these are why the tape scene needs to exist.

Break open your piggy bank for this, and the Velvet Elvis LP over at the exceptional cae-sur-a.

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.