cassette craze chronicles IX (feat. BADA, JAH CUZZI, LANA DEL REY and TIBETIAN MIRACLE SEEDS)

Tapes, tapes, tapes! And this time it's only recently released stuff, starting with one which combines two of my favorite things to write about on this blog: Roadburn and anticipation for coming live shows!

BADA - Live In Rolfstorf (2021)

After Of Blood And Mercury's live album this cassette from Bada is the second recording of a Roadburn Redux performance in my collection. Or at least it is closely related to that.
Unlike the duo the Swedish band, which features several musicians of Anna von Hausswolff's group - including herself on keyboards - didn't actually play live in an empty room in Tilburg, but recorded and edited a live session in an attic in the southern Swedish countryside. The four tracks on this tape are cut from those same sessions, so there are overlaps, but it's not entirely the same.
It still is absolutely mind-bending stuff though. A rousing but eerie jam of dark psychedelic rock with strong ties to drone, doom, noise and post rock, which - like almost everything Hausswolff is involved in - couldn't possibly more impactful and substantial.
The design of this limited tape is very simple, but it comes with a sticker that's a pretty great commentary on unreadable death metal band logos.
The best thing however is that two days from now, I will finally have the opportunity to experience Bada live in Hamburg. My bada is so ready for this!

JAH CUZZI - Chainsmoker (2021)

It's not the biggest step to get from Bada to the jam of the Romanian trio Jah Cuzzi on last year's split tape with Raw Deal. On their new album "Chainsmoker" however their sound slowly moves into a different direction. At its heart this is still a rather dark blend of psychedelic improvisational music, but they are adding a few nearly contradictatory flavours to it.
The organ (which generally compensates the lack of a bass player so good, that you don't even realize that it's missing) in the opener "Dick Tator" could almost be from Archive, until it gets too skew and dirty for that comparison. Other tracks like "Jahcometti" seem to incorporate elements from electronic music and there's a smack of dub all over the place. But everything Jah Cuzzi incorporates seems to be in a rather raw, unfinished and dirty state. And this is exactly what makes it so potent: there's no filter reducing the impact. This shit hits, just like the primitive album artwork very impressively succeeds in making me cough inside. Bottom line: "Chainsmoker" is a pungent heavy psych highlight!

LANA DEL RAY - Blue Banisters (2021)

Nope. There's no smooth transition from a Romanian band published on a Czech underground label to Lana Del Rey. There may or may not be some common smoking preferences. And of course Universal runs on a tighter budget than Stoned To Death Records. If it weren't so they would surely give you a download card with your cassette, right?
But let's not dwell on the big bad pop machine too long, but talk about the artist! Lana Del Rey has quite a prolific year, as "Blue Banisters" is already her second full album in 2021 after "Chemtrails Over The Country Club". And damn, that was a good one!
The first singles suggested that its successor would be a more nostalgic affair, and in part that's true, with some sounds that could have been on "Born To Die" and deliberately washed-out production choices reminiscent of "Ultraviolence". Several of the fifteen tracks have also been intended for previous albums, indeed going as far back as 2013/2014. But don't worry! This doesn't come off as a collection of rejected leftovers at all.

On the contrary "Blue Banisters" presents itself as equally manifold and balanced as "Chemtrails". It's still obvious that Lana is the master of her musical choices, does this from her heart and constantly works on herself as a singer. And she's clearly having fun with it here. She takes her voice to new places we haven't heard from her like this before, including some severe belting or even imitating a guitar solo. Which may be a little bit silly, but come on, who gives a fuck? Especially since the musical arrangements urrounding her are once again so flawless.

TIBETIAN MIRACLE SEEDS - Inca Missiles (2021)

For the last tape we go back to the world of psychedelic rock and from a possible future pop classic to an established hippie music classic from the late 1960s. Well, at least in some parallel universe.
I truth Tibetian Miracle Seeds is a modern-day Scottish project specialized in time travelling, because "Inca Missiles" gives you the sitar, the wah-wah, the flutes, the relaxed jam bass, the spaced out vocals and fab four harmonies... all that in spades. And don't think that the occasional lap steel guitar, harp or didgeridoo makes this any less  flowerpowery! No, multi-instrumentalist Jack McAfee, who stirs this boat, doesn't aim for any innovation trophies. Apart from very few details like the heavy fuzz guitar of the title track you could sell me this whole thing as the remaster of some obscure treasure from the past. It's the authentic quality and the sheer love for the genre put into the eleven tracks (including one digital only bonus track), which make these weapons of love so irresistable.
Admittedly it's a little much of this sound for me to sit(ar) through in one session, but for one-side-at-a-time consumption it's the sweetest dream soundtrack.
And am I already tripping too much or are they really citing the old Spider Man theme in "Ideas Reprise"?