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"?

cassette craze chronicles I (feat. DEAD NEANDERTHALS, PHURPA, RAT ABBEY, RAW DEAL & JAH CUZZI)

Nothing to see here! Just some tapes of albums, which I I have already covered in previous reviews. Plus some bonus stuff.

I've already told René Aquarius that half of my new stuff since getting into tapes again will probably consist of his misanthropic shit, so here we go...

Initially I had been content with the digital version of the Dead Neanderthals death crust sludge metal monstrosity "Blood Rite", but when after a while the very last copies were still available, I couldn't resist and add this tape to my collection. The artwork really nails the 90s underground death metal aesthetics and thus makes it a good companion to some of the old rancid stuff in my shelf from bands like Stillbirth or Sanity's Dawn.

As a bonus purchase I got myself the more traditional Dead Neanderthals classic "Prime", which sees René (drums), Otto Kokke (sax) and Colin Webster (sax) going berserk through one insane fourty minutes free heavy jazz cataclysm. Glorious!

This one I ordered on Bandcamp Friday August. First I was a little disappointed that the cassette artwork of Phurpa's "Hyms Of Gyer"is different from the digital release, but this cover has an eerie quality to it, which also fits the unreal otherworldliness of the group's overwhelming a cappella drone.

On Bandcamp Friday September I ordered "The Engine Of Night" by Rat Abbay, the instrumental drone/ambient/post rock solo spawn of Thomas Fisher from Esben And The Witch.

The artwork of the tape packaging and additional postcard features a painting by Fisher himself and is done with much love. Still would like to put this beauty into a fitting tray though.

Another Bandcamp Friday, another tape. Well, two actually, but the other one's not on its way yet.

The Raw Deal  / Jah Cuzzi split is totally made for this format in every way. Dig it.

And just in case the tape in the envelope wouldn't be enough for me, Stoned To Death records were very generous with free download cards for other (in physical form already partly sold out) stuff.

"Půl Litru Země" is a great punkish, but at times also quite epic psych ride from Pacino, released in 2017. I especially dig the raw emotional vocals.

The experimental finger picking guitar on "Face to Face Against American Primitivism in Eastern Europe vol. 2" (2019) is something completely different, yet also very interesting.



And finally there were two recent releases from this year:

JASNOVIDEC - Jasnovidec (2020)

How many drone duos are out there? Well, here's another one, featuring a member of Raw Deal.

Six tracks of pure buzzing, whirring, flickering. Here meditative, there drowned in whooshing noise. You won't find great melodies or even songs here. This is primal textural ambient and drone. And even though it's not mindblowing or super innovative, Jasnovidec are quite good at it.

SUNBURNED HAND OF THE MAN - Covered In Mud (2020)

While there isn't much seriously not to like about the arrangements of the raw psych tunes on here, the production of this jammy psych rock album is rather low-fi, and especially those passages where a way too loud overdriven voice talks over the rest are as good (or bad) as unlistenable.

But then maybe that's just befitting, given song titles like "Mid-Grade Sandpaper" or "Sexpiss". And of course there's also the cover, which might very well be one of the greatest of all times. At least for an album which sounds as dirty as this one. The last track "Hot Lickity Lazy Day" is astonishigly chill though. Weird shit.

BANDCAMP DAY Oktober 2020 mit NITELIGHT, LINGUA IGNOTA, -S-, RAW DEAL / JAH CUZZI und MILTVUUR

Und schon wieder erster Freitag im Monat! Die Zeit fliegt. Nur ein paar digitale Tracks, maximal fünfzehn bis zwanzig Euro ausgeben, das war mein Vorsatz. Hätte auch beinahe geklappt, haha. Aber welches hyperaktive niederländische Duo den Plan dann doch noch zerschmettern sollte, war ja klar.

Doch zunächst einmal heißt es Datenhandschuh an und Laserbrille auf, denn es ist Achtziger-Jahre-Zeit:

NIGHTLIGHT - Nitelight plays: Death's Symbolic (download) (2020)

Es könnte ein schlechter Scherz sein, und sicher gibt Fans, die schon prinzipiell Heugabel und Fackel aus der Scheune holen, wenn die Prämisse hören, doch das italienische Duo Nitelight geht tatsächlich all in und interpretiert das komplette Death-Album "Symbolic" (1995) als instrumentalen Synthwave-Epos neu!

Und was soll man sagen, außer dass Chuck Schuldiner bei dieser liebevollen Homage an sein Werk vor Freude an die Decke gegangen wäre. Alleine dass Nitelight erkannt haben, wie sehr sich die vielen starken Gitarren Melodien dieses Albums zur Überführung in ihren Elektrostil eignen, ist ja schon respektabel. Aber aus dieser Idee dann wirklich ein komplettes Neun-Track-Album zu schustern, welches vermutlich auch ganz ohne Vorkenntnis des progressiven Death-Metal-Klassikers funktioniert, das ist schon geniale Fleißarbeit.

LINGUA IGNOTA - Kim (download) (2020)

Wir bleiben bei Coverversionen, denn Kristin Hayter beglückt uns auch diesen Monat wieder mit einem Track, und es ist ihr Take eines der wohl fiesesten, aggressivsten Stücke von Eminem, die... sagen wir mal in ganz weiter Auslegung des Begriffs... Mörderballade "Kim". 

Dass der So-long-bitch-you-did-me-so-wrong-Refrain mi ihrer opernhaften Stimme zehn Meter größer als das Original gerät, ist dabei natürlich keine Überraschung. Ebenso wäre es sicher unsinnig, Eminems Rap kopieren zu wollen. Stattdessen wird der Text hier auf seinen Kern reduziert und langsam in Lingua Ignotas in seiner dramatischen Direktheit durchaus mit dem original verwandten Stil überführt. Nun ist "Kim" tatsächlich eine Ballade, allerdings eine verzerrte, lärmende, verstörende.

Ich bin kein Experte, doch für mich ist dies das beste Eminem-Cover seit Tori Amos' "97 Bonnie and Clyde", welches passenderweise ja auch im Original quasi das Begleitstück zu "Kim" darstellt.

-S- - Zabijanie Czasu I (download) (2020)

Traue niemals den Genrebezeichnungen, die sich Künstler selbst geben! Dennoch ist "Dark Occvlt Funk" eine zumindest in Passagen erstaunlich treffende Bezeichnungen für den hyperadvantgardistischen, mit Bass, Drums, Gesang und - was sonst? - Klarinette erzeugten Sound der Polen -S-.

Wem die Labelkollegen Esoctrilihum und Neptunian Maximalism noch nicht schwer einordbar und merkwürdig genug sind, für den halten I, Voidhanger Records mit dieser auch auf CD erhältlichen EP eine ganz neue Herausforderung bereit. Wie hier Elemente aus Jazz, Klassik, Punk, Postrock und extremem Metal fließend zusammenkommen, das ist vielleicht streckenweise mit Gruppen wie Gura vergleichbar und ist sicherlich für jeden John Zorn-Jünger zu empfehlen, entwickelt allerdings einen enorm eigenständigen Charakter.

Kunst, aber geil!

RAW DEAL / JAH CUZZI - Split (Tape) (2020)

Diese Split-Veröffentlichung ist da schon eine ganze Ecke einfacher einzuordnen: zwei Krautrockbands, jeweils ein Jam, einmal siebzehn, einmal vierzehn Minuten lang.

Das ist nicht weltbewegend und will es auch gar nicht sein, aber es ist halt cooles Zeug, wobei der langsamer und heavier beginnende und fiesere Track von Jah Cuzzi gegenüber dem doch etwas stereotypischen flotten Vierviertel-Beat-Jam von Raw Deal klar das packendere und kreativere Stück ist.
Ok, es ist teilweise auch klar das chaotischere. Aber Chaos macht halt auch Spaß.

(Zur Kassette an sich kann ich an dieser Stelle natürlich noch nichts sagen.)

MILTVUUR - Sleep Forever (Tape) (2020)

Diese vier Einkäufe sollten es eigentlich gewesen sein, doch dann musste ich ja auch noch auf dieses auf 25 Exemplare limitierte Tape aufmerksam werden.

Es ist ja technisch eigentlich nicht so, dass ich unbedingt noch mehr unbarmherzig infernalisches Gekloppe der Dead Neanderthals oder mit den Dutch Heavy Jazzern assoziierter Projekte benötigen würde. Gerade erst habe ich mir schließlich nicht nur mehrere Alben des (manchmal um weitere Mitglieder erweiterten) bekloppten Duos, sondern auch die Hirnabrisse von Cryptae und Plague Organ gegönnt.

Aber mehr ist halt mehr, und das gilt umso mehr für Miltvuur, den Projektnamen einer selbst für die Maßstäbe der Beteiligten noch ungeheuer maßlosen Session der beiden Neanderthalzombies Otto Kokke und René Aquarius mit dem Black-Metal-Musiker Vitriol (Ulveblod).

Die vier Teile von "Sleep Forever" sind im Grunde Dead Neanderthals im traditionellen Drums-und-Saxophon-Freegrindjazzexzess, jedoch geradezu ertränkt in einem Mahlstrom aus bösartigem Synthie-, Gitarren- und Wasweißich-Gelärme.

Das Resultat ist absolut diabolisch, Satans Coverversion von John Coltranes "Ascension". Eine Butterfahrt durch die Hölle. Abschließendes Büffet mit gut durchgegartem Kinderbraten inbegriffen.