cassette craze chronicles XLVI feat. AIDAN BAKER & WARIO PIANESI, CATATONIC LEISURE ALONE, CHURCHLICKERS, COLIN WEBSTER / BALÁZS PÁNDI / MATT CARGILL and COLIN WEBSTER / MARK HOLUB / NOAH PUNKT

Phew, that headline was a mouthful, wasn't it? Even though I snuck a cassette into my last Temple Fang double review there's still enough new tape left to justify this forty-sixth edition of cassette craze chronicles - and of course we're starting with the elephant-blue item, which sticks out most in the picture above:

AIDAN BAKER & WARIO PIANESI - 4Rooms (2026)

Yes, this tape is actually connected to a name tag and several layers of cardboard cutouts with a key ring. And no, it's not as impractical as you might think. It's indeed pretty easy to loose the shell from the ring, so you only need to think about how to store this thing. Mine is hanging on a hook close to my player.
I bought this tape directly from master Aidan Baker himself after his show on the MS Stubnitz in April. I don't know how many copies exactly exist, but it's surely among the rarest items in my music collection.

Musically this is a live improvisation session of the quality you should expect from the Experimental guitar player, who once again impresses with beautiful layers of Ambient, Drone and Noise Rock, while the source of Industrial beats (and probably other sounds I cannot with certainty distiguish from his performance and effects), operated by Wario Pianesi comes as a little surprise, since it's a Nintendo DS.
Full disclosure: Despite its apparent household-name popularity I had to look up, what this Gameboy successor even is, so I can only assume that there were (are? Sorry, I'm completely out of this loop...) not only games for the mini console, but also some kind of music / drum computer apps.

Well, if your name is Wario** this is for sure a fitting instrument of choice. And this session - divided into four rooms ("Room1", "Room2" etc.) - sounds seriously good. Intriguing stuff!

CATATONIC LEISURE ALONE - Veil of Sparks (2026)

The Japanese label NEUS-318 presents a live recording from China by a Russian musician living in Switzerland.

Catatonic Leisure Alone is a solo moniker of none other than Electronic Noise artist and saxophonist Anton Ponomarev (P/O Massacre, Witness Wounds, Suncuts, Teufelskeller - just to name the projects I have already written about).  "Veil of Sparks" consists of a half-hour long performance called "A Noise of Bunch" in two parts, both filled with immersive, aggressive, expressive, mean yet somehow meaningful Industrial Noise. Even the saxophone turns into a manipulated shrill murder apparatus far from a musical instrument and much closer to a mechanical drill recklessly probing your brain. A profoundly brutal trip to Dystopia, scaringly close the actual hell we're building right now. Sick!

The cassette in minimalist design is limited to not 50, not 75, but for whatever reason exactly 23 copies.

COLIN WEBSTER / MARK HOLUB / NOAH PUNKT - Neue Hard (2025)

The following two tapes were ordered directly from another saxophone player, the prolific Colin Webster, whose many appearances in my tape/record/CD collection mostly see him beside Rene Aquarius and Otto Kokke in Dead Neanderthals and in Jason Köhnen's projects Bong-Ra and The Lovecraft Sextet, but also jamming with many other musicians in various outings like Kodian Trio, Saxoctopus or the Martina Verhoeven Quintet. And then there's of course also the work (which probably paid more than all of these combined) on the latest Florence + The Machine album.

"Neue Hard" is a trio recording from Zürich with Mark Holub on drums and Noah Punkt on upright bass. Classic chaotic, but still seamlessly flowing, very musical and listenable Free Jazz with just the right Experimental edge. Rather on the traditional side of Webster's work, but not antiquated at all. Inspired performances, great natural sound of the instruments and a mix flawlessly showcasing both. What more do you need? Awesome!

I always love the lino-print on recycled cardboard aesthetic of his releases and the simple bold typo of "Neue Hard" on this cassette cover is no exception. Since this stuff is already from last year, there might not be too many copies left, so better check it out sooner than later!

COLIN WEBSTER / BALÁZS PÁNDI / MATT CARGILL - Chewed Up And Spat Out (2026)

The second Colin Webster session here, on which he jams with drummer Balázs Pándi and Matt Cargill (Sly & The Family Drone) on electronics, is a darker and weirder beast.

And a little under forty minutes is just the right length for this kind of beautifully eery, yet still wild Doom and Heavy Jazz. Brilliant stuff - and as far as tapes go - also almost gone...

CHURCHLICKERS - Churchlickers II (2026)

Is this an album or rather an EP with bonus tracks? I'd say the latter, because I already owned the second half of this latest Churchlickers tape - which consists of live recordings from the MS Stubnitz - as a digital release from last year.

The opener "Whiteout" is also familiar as a previous live single, but now we get to hear a studio version of this great slowly building Post Rock track, which begins with dark piano, adds twangy and later more and more heavy and atmospheric guitar work. What could have been produced to a huge epic of Mono dimensions with many instrumental layers and a perfect bombastic sound doesn't give in to this temptation, but willfully keeps the unfiltered punkish DIY attitude. And exactly that interplay between cinematic ideas and honest minimalist rawness is the central strength defining the trio from Hamburg.

Only a quarter as long as the opener the three-minute track "Wasp Cemetary" is another great example for that, as well as the familiar live tracks, which well... also include a repeat of that very track. But anyway, that actually doesn't attract any negative attention and it's of course generally nice to have this material on tape now, too. The intensity of those keys in "Frost" alone is worth it. Lick this! 

** Hmm... Coming to think of it... is Wario even real or is this some kind of "Adaption" Kaufmann & Kaufmann situation? ;)

TEMPLE FANG - Live at dB's / Live at Sonic Whip

Rejoice! Dutch Epic Psychedelic Rockers Temple Fang have self-released two new albums - and just like four of the seven releases I already had in my collection from them, they both begin with the two words "Live at".

TEMPLE FANG - Live at Sonic Whip (LP) (2026)

"Live at Sonic Whip" basically is a live version of LP 1 of the fantastic first studio album double album "Lifted From The Wind", containing the two each side-long tracks "The River" and "Once". Of course both songs more than live up to their studio recordings.

Temple Fang are just a class of their own on stage, always living their music to the fullest and letting it find new ways and waves of expressing itself. Even when they don't change much about the structure of a song, and even though their music in general is rooted in deeply familiar Blues, Psych and Prog traditions, it always somehow feels fresh and new.

On "Once" they even add some special sauce with the guest performance of Mees Vullings (Heath / The Bird Experience), who adds an exciting extra level of greatness to the piece with his signature amplified harmonica playing. This is everything you want from this band and more. Definitely among Temple Fang's peak recorded performances!

The record is housed in a simple hand-stamped and numbered cover, just like their 2020 full-length debut "Live at Merleyn". Very nice.

TEMPLE FANG - Live at dB's (Tape) (2026)

Do we already want to listen to these songs again? Yeah, why not? Why not even longer? "Live at "dB's" features a version of "Once" which runs nine minutes longer than usual, so the track alone reaches the half-hour mark. More than another half of an hour in comparison to "Live at Sonic Whip" is added with two more tracks from the recent studio album, "Harvest Angel" and "Josephine". And that's still not all, because this show recorded in Utrecht started with the classic "Gemini", so the quartet treats us with all in all over ninety minutes of magnetic instrumental performances and fantastic vocals leading to pure Psychedelic bliss.

Sadly there is something serious to critique here, and it's not that the sound is a bit rawer and could use a little more brilliance here and there (not to keen on the uncomfortable way the low end is booming sometimes), but it actually is the total length. And no, I'm not getting bored by the music, but appearantly it's just too much music for the poor pink cassette shell supposed to carry it!
There is some physical friction and drag at the beginning, which simply makes it impossible to play that thing, unless I spool forward by hand until I'm a minute in (where thanks to a long guitar intro  not that much has happened yet). I still have the feeling that the whole tape then still spins a little bit too slow... and expectedly a minute before "The River" ends the tape decelerates and stops again.

I love me my tapes (as evident in my ongoing cassette craze chronicles), but this one I'm afraid can only serve as a nice-looking haptic addition to the digital Bandcamp release. Of course I can only speak of my own copy, maybe the shell is somehow just glued together a bit too tightly and I could actually fix it... or completely ruin it while trying... Nah, better live with it as it is. And that, dear labels and artists, is one example of why you should always provide a download with your releases! 

cassette craze chronicles XLV (special nautical edition) feat. CHAINED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN, NADJA and WHERE MERMAIDS DROWN

Sailor, bring your boombox when you go to sea!

And if you take me with you I'll bring my latest three tapes:

CHAINED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN - Let Us Not Speak Of Them But Look And Pass On (2026)

CTTBOTO live in Hamburg

This mini album came to me during my last visit aboard the MS Stubnitz, where Chained To The Bottom Of The Ocean where supporting Sumac. Speaking of: Sumac's Aaron Turner also created the cover artwork for "Let Us Not Speak Of Them But And Pass On".a

Between wails of feedback and distortion the release contains four boundlessly angry tracks of buzzing, droning, absolutely crushing Sludge Metal to suck all air and joy out of every room. This is nasty business - and it slays!

NADJA - Seemannsgarn (Church In Session) (2026)

In case you're not speaking German and you wondered about the nautical reference of this tape: "Seemannsgarn" directly translates to "Seaman's Yarn".

The over fourty minutes long single track of this album had been released before and presented on video for Roadburn Redux, the 2021 pandemic online edition of the festival, so I knew without a doubt that this new live performance from January 2025, recorded in the Genezareth Church in Berlin, would at least be worth checking out.

And of course it was! The slowly building piece is dark foreboding Drone Metal in flawless perfection and for sure one of my favorite works in (the beknown to me part of) the huge discography of Leah Buckareff and Aidan Baker. Brilliant from start to finish.

The mint green cassette itself is anonymous, but it comes with a nice cover inside a slipcase with a punched out logo. Feels like an item found in an antiquarian treasure chest.

WHERE MERMAIDS DROWN - Embrace The Ineluctable (2026)

The French Post Rockers are back - and not back, because they are still on a planned hiatus - with a new three-sog EP. Eighteen minutes of their epic longing sound packed into a beautiful cassette shell. Everything like you would expect, yet still a bit different.

"Embrace The Ineluctable" was recorded as a trio and the tracks are... not smaller or significantly shorter then all songs from the past, but a little more intimate. The chair circle draws closer together - and it has moved from the bottom of the ocean to sun-filled waters near the shore. Where Mermaids Drown hug you in a meaningful embrace, putting an understanding hand on your shoulder in a world of perpetual melancholy.

MUSIC 2025: TOP 4 non-album releases

Another mini-list before we're wrapping music of the year season 2025 up with my favorite albums. While I'm still unfairly ignoring everything I don't own in a physical format, other than that this category includes everything which is not a studio or live album (except split releases) or not a reissue. I once again have been pretty focussed on all of these however and not so much singles, EPs, compilations... so a longer list just wouldn't make much sense. And while four isn't a high number this quartet is a really strong selection - pinky promise! 

TOP 4 non-album releases 2025:

1. GREEN MILK FROM THE PLANET ORANGE - Tragedy Overground
   
   
   
   The crazy Japanese Psychedelic Prog Punk trio Green Milk From The Planet Orange are surely one of my most exciting new discoveries of 2025. From delicate songwriting with wonderful melodies to total power trio jam excess and pained panic this one track EP encapsulates everything which makes this group so spectacular. What a fun ride!
   
   
   
   
   
2. SARMAT - Upgrade
   
   
   
   More increasingly insane Progressive Death Metal! More unhinged bonkers Jazz Fusion with trumpets, keytar and upright bass! Sarmat are back with the spiritial successor to the 2023 "Dubious Disk" EP and deliver one of the best bastards of Avantgarde Jazz and Extreme Metal ever. There's no doubt - we need more - and longer! - releases of this delightful madness.
   
   
   
   
   
3. SUNN O))) - Eternity's Pillars b/w Raise the Chalice & Reverantial
   
   
   
   
   Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson, the core duo of Sunn O))) released their latest EP on Sub Pop Records, old home of their greatest inspiration Earth. And just as that move feels like a throwback, you shouldn't expect these three tracks of the guitar-only essence of their Drone Metal to reinvent their sound. Instead this nicely packed record feels like a perfect rekindling of their initial spirit.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. UBOA & WHITEHORSE - The Dissolution of Eternity

   
   

   

   Fuck yeah, what a killer split release! On side A Whitehorse pummel you down with their misanthropic Sludge powered by awesome riffs and seemingly recorded in a giant dystopian dome of torture. And that was only the warm-up for the trip through psychological hell and back - with surprising moments of remembering the existence of sunlight - by Noise artist Uboa.

   
   

favorite MUSIC 2025 - all my lists:

TOP 25 albums   |   TOP 7 live albums   |   TOP 4 reissues

TOP 4 non-album releases   |   TOP 25 live shows

cassette craze chronicles XLIV feat. AGRICULTURE, NOIR NOIR, RITUAL ASCENSION, TEMPÊTE SOLAIRE, TERZIJ DE HORDE, UBOA and WHITEHORSE

Are we still spinning tapes here? Of course we are! And we're starting the haul of my latest bunch with one of the many reasons I haven't even decided what my TOP 25 albums of the year are, because this is yet another burning hot candidate...

AGRICULTURE - The Spiritual Sound (2025)

I recently listened to most of the new Deafheaven album. And in shocking contrast to my previous experiences I actually liked it. So that kind of ruined what I wanted to say about the work at hand here, which was that Agriculture actually redeem what Deafheaven promise... Well, at least they're still doing it better.

"The Spiritual Sound" is made of Black Metal and Shoegaze, of hopeful celestial melodies and wild Rock star shredding. It comes pure, raw, radical and in your face, but it can also be quiet and fragile. It's beautifully brutal and brutally beautiful, half-way between Alcest and Boris. If you understand the term beyond a specific subculture and music genre,  Agriculture are most definitely Punk.
This is a serious work, but it's so much fun to listen to! The wild energy it radiates has such a cleasing yet life-affirming quality - just an album unlike any other. And surely one of the prime Metal releases of 2025.

The tape looks good, I especially dig the back cover. Putting the track titles only onto the cassette shell itself is a minor annoyance though.

AGRICULTURE - Agriculture (2023)

While I was ordering "The Spiritual Sound" it was a no-brainer to also get the Californians' 2023 debut album. Relatively speaking the Ecstatic Black Metal on the self-titled "Agriculture" may not take as many detours in style and intensity yet, but the difference is actually not that huge. All the trademarks including super sparsely instrumented ballads and the brute yet perfect production are already in place.

Other than its successor, which only has Emma Ruth Rundle on its final track, the debut even features several guest musicians on violin, saxophone (hey, it's Patrick Shiroishi!) and lap steel guitar. So both albums have their unique details. And while yes, Agriculture are even better today, this shit already fucking rules!

TERZIJ DE HORDE - Our Breath Is Not Ours Alone (2025)

We're not leaving (Post) Black Metal territory yet, but we're moving from The Flenser to Tartarus Records, and from the US west coast to the west of Europe with the Dutch steamroller Terzij De Horde.

"Our Breath Is Not Ours Alone" contains more and shorter tracks than their last 2022 album "On One Of These, I Am Your Enemy" and adds to a ten minutes longer total playing time. A little over fourty minutes still aren't Swans dimensions, but for the angry ferocious high-speed assault this group delivers it's really more than enough.

With a vocal performance closer to Hardcore than to Black Metal, this album feels seriously pissed off - and the melodic layers in the killer guitar riffs are not designed to tame, yet rather to amplify that relentless, never pausing anger. 

An album with long and winding song titles like "A Hammer To The Great Matter Of Birth And Death", "The All-Consuming Work Of The Soul's Foreclosure" or "Justice Is Not Enough To leave The House Of Modernity" of course deserves a seperate booklet for its lyrics. This comes with the tape in one of those Tartarus-typical  black deluxe boxes with golden hotfoil print. Nice.

I don't know if it's just my copy of this edition of 100, but it features the classic switcheroo with sides A and B being interchanged. No biggie, shit happens. The music of course still absolutely rips!

UBOA & WHITEHORSE - The Dissolution Of Eternity (2025)

If Black Metal is too light and upbeat for you, Tartarus Records also has something more malicious for you with this Australian split tape of artists who really give down under a double meaning.

Side A features two tracks of nasty life-hostile Sludge from Whitehorse. Slow, deep and soul-crushing their Doom strikes with inhumane vocals, crawling killer riffs and great supportive electronic effects, as well as a giant drum sound. These two songs are surely among the best of this genre released this year. I assume it has something to do with line-up changes at the time, that these recordings from 2017 had to lie dormant for years. Good this sick shit is out there now!

Still not brutal enough? Enter Harsh Noise artist Uboa with five recent tracks on side B! She starts off with flavours of hardly and then even less musical mayhem, filled with tons of tension and destructive expression. The interesting turn however happens first with the piano interlude "Dreamwalker, Fuck I Miss You" and then the shoegazy "Pareidolia Shadow", both drowned in Ambient sounds and Noise, before "The Apocalypse Of True Love" summons the whole spectrum of both beautiful and uncomfortable textures in Uboa's repertoire and even evolves into a Post Rock hymn for a while - before descending into hell and finding peace there. Cathartic.

NOIR NOIR - Black Curtain / Divine Swelling (2016/2022/2025)

We're continuing with another solo artist, Noir Noir from Spain, who also incorporates Electronic Noise into his sound, but all in all leans more into Industrial, als well as Dark Wave, while being rooted in Death and Black Metal. This cassette released by Sentient Ruins Laboratories combines two EPs from 2016 and 2022, thus giving us a good overview of the range of low-fi raw and rather polished majestic noises. Be ready for some extreme shifts! This is a weird one. But it's dark, double dark, one could even say. And definitely not your ideal soundtrack for going to bed.

While the outburst of drum computer Old School Black Metal in the middle of these apocalyptic soundscapes still confuses me a bit, as a whole - or the sum of two wholes if you will - "Black Curtain / Divine Swelling" is as evil as it gets and a pretty powerful and overwhelming experience.  

RITUAL ASCENSION - Profanation of the Adamic Covenant (2025)

This next ejection of Dissonant Death Metal and Doom has already been reviewed by me back in February, when it came out. But as so often with Sentient Ruin releases it took a while until the tape was available within Europe and found its way onto my shopping bag.

Since my opinion about this album hasn't changed, I could only repeat myself here. Ritual Ascension's filthy journey into the swamp is still as foul, mouldy and ghoulish as ten months ago. Some listeners may have decomposed already, so my advise comes too late for them, but I suggest at least one thorough shower after listening.

TEMPÊTE SOLAIRE - La Précession Des Équinoxes (2025)

Last but most definitely not least a tape I bought at this year's last show for me, which was Thisquietarmy x Otay:onii. This is the second release of Eric Quach's bass, drums and saxophone trio Tempête Solaire.

Even bolder than on "Heliospheric Dialogues" Quach, Eric Craven and Elyze Venne-Deshaies are exploring their explosive take on Free Jazz, which includes traditional Jazz trio aethetics as well as broader Fusion and Post Rock sounds, electronic effects, Drone textures, doom-ish heaviness, Punk, Prog, Ambient and Noise. It's a wild mixture that comes together much more natural than one would assume and even in its most abstract and experimental passages like during the seventh track "Manicouagan" always stays enganging. A brilliant album!

cassette craze chronicles XLIII feat. DISEMBODIMENT, ESCARNIUM, INCONSOLABLE GHOST, SANCTUARIUM and SUBMARINE ON MARS

That came fast, right? Well, I told you last time that I already had enough new tapes for another edition, didn't I? So let's go!

DISEMBODIMENT - Spiral Crypts (2025)

Let's begin with Everlasting Spew Records, who are quiet good at designing attractive cassette packages with lyrics (very small though) and all. Life hack: take a picture with your phone and read along that way!

Lyrically you'll see what you probably already suspected from the cover artwork of Disembodiment's mini album: It's all about infestation, mutation, rotting, body horror and shit, just what the music demands. And the music of the Canadian quartet is gnarly Old School Death Metal with riffs rooted both in the primitivism of classic Obituary and the swirling insanity of Morbid Angel's "Altars of Madness". Every now and then it also leaves breaks for some sick and slow, even doomy delights.

There's no double bottom, no secret or special sauce to "Spiral Crypts" - and it isn't needed. Sometimes you just need high quality gruesome fun in your Death Metal. Love it!

ESCARNIUM - Inexorable Entropy (2025)

Equally satisfying is the layout of this other Everlasting Spew release by Brazilian Death Metal horde Escarnium.

"Inexorable Entropy" also flies by with just an half-hour playing time, yet musically this assault feels bigger. A cavernous, yet brutal and not too blurred production, a wider stylistic approach, More atmosphere and epic grandiosity, yet also deadlier riffs with more sinister disharmony.

An awesome, ferociously performed Death Metal rubdown, rich in variety, but never losing its focus. Banger!

SANCTUARIUM - Melted and Decomposed (2025)

All sick things come in threes. So fuck yes, here's even more Death Metal! And this time it's a longer album (around fifty minutes) - and for a change the production actually feels really muffled and low-fi. The latter actually is a feature however, since after a short phase of adjustment you realize that it's the most consequent choice for the putrid aural abyss the Spaniards Sanctuarium are unleashing on this creeping, crawling, blustering and gurgling gory Doom Death monstrosity.

Sanctuarium live in Berlin

I bought the tape right after their brilliantly intense show at Morbid Catacombs Fest and it's a perfect reminder of that excellently poisonous experience.

"Abhorrent Excruciation In Reprisal", "Exultant Dredge of Nameless Tombs", "Phlegmatic Convolsions", "Sadistic Cremation of Emaciated Offal", "The Disembodied Grip of Putrecine Stench"... the hilariously exaggerated song titles say it all in the best possible way.

Rancid Death for the relaxing visit to the tomb within.*

INCONSOLABLE GHOST - Sokołowsko Channelling (2018)

One day before my memorable encounter with Sanctuarium I had already witnessed the comeback show of The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, from which I also brought a tape back home.

Inconsolable Ghost is another project of some of the band members and "Sokolowsko Channeling" is the live recording of a 2018 show in Poland, consisting of an hour-long Dark Ambient improvisation (divided into two parts for the tape), in which multiple layers of electronic noises merge with guitar, viola and trumpet.

It's actually quite close to what The Mount Fuji Doomjatt Corporation is doing, just a little more abstract and without a bass guitar leading through it.

A very intriguing,  dynamic wave of sounds. The digital version gives you a quarter-hour bonus from another performance with "Kraków Channeling".

SUBMARINE ON MARS - Mission One: Fuzz Infused Space Rock (2024)

Finally another merch purchase, this time from the Pink Tank Open Air in September.

Submarine On Mars live in Osterrönfeld

The German trio Submarine On Mars makes it almost a little bit too easy to write a short review like this, because they conveniently include the style description in the title. Fact-checking the three tracks of their debut EP I must confirm the music on this tape can be indeed rightfully be labeled as "Fuzz Infused Space Rock".

Yet while I'm enjoying their cool Psychedelic sound I'm wondering if they will continue naming their releases this way - and if yes, what the next mission will be. Not gonna lie, the biggest boss move for "Mission Two" would be a King Gizzard style jump to something completely different. Americana-Infused Showgaze? Dub-dripping Slowcore? Disco Drone Electro-Funk? Whatever, Bring it on!

But don't worry! If you "only" have more Stoner Kraut jams like these in your pipeline for now, that's ok, too... I guess.

* because I couldn't finish this with at least one Autopsy reference

cassette craze chronicles XLII feat. MAUD THE MOTH, SOLAR CORONA ELEKTRISCHE MASCHINE, TAVARE, THE MOND and THISQUIETARMY x OTAY:ONII

Ok, since I already have enough new tapes for the next epsidode this post is overdue as fuck. So let's not waste time and press PLAY!

MAUD THE MOTH - The Distaff (2025)

This is not a transparent vinyl edition. I had actually ordered that one, together with Messa's "The Spin". Yet somehow my retailer kept putting me off from month to month, even though both limited editions were already on the market. So at some point I canceled that order and rather got the albums in other formats. And I must say that the Woodford Halse tape version of Maud The Moth's "The Distaff" was a great choice, since it surely must be the loveliest edition of the release, with a slipcase, a cut-out J-card and the possibilty to put in an alternatiove cover artwork. A very nice item!

And musically? While Amaya López-Carromero remains the sole songwriter of her project, and her piano work and ethereal or operatic vocals are still the main attraction on her new album, it features a lot of guitar by her Healthyliving bandmate Scott McLean (who also contributes Moog synths and saxophone) and drums, which often make it feel like a "real" band effort.
On top of that it can of course never be wrong to also have Alison Chesley aka Helen Money on cello on your recording.

"The Distaff" is an impressive journey through dynamics and emotions. From the small and brittle to the surprisingly crushing and cathartic it's an amazingly beautiful achievement. And it does it all in complete defiance of genre conventions. Neoclassical, Doom, Ethereal Wave, Singer-Songwriter, Experimental Folk, Post Rock... the tag list on the album's Bandcamp page goes on and on - and nothing is wrong there, while it still feels as if this is made of a dozen more stylistic influences.

Maud The Moth doesn't try to outdo the the hooks and earworm qualities of Healthyliving's 2023 debut, yet instead impresses with touching heavenly heights and profound spiritual depths. Mesmerizing art.

THISQUIETARMY x OTAY:ONII - Howl And Tell (2025)

Speaking of captivating female singers there's no way around the spellbinding magic of Lane Shi Otay:onii, who seems to be everywhere right now - yet still I keep missing my chances to see her live in Hamburg due to clashes with other shows...

For this album the Chinese-American artist spontanously teamed up with Canadian Drone guitar master Eric Quach aka Thisquietarmy. So this is just the two of them - guitar and effects on one side, vocals, keytar and kazoo on the other interacting with each other. A duet and dialogue here, a harmonious or deliberately cacaphonous merging there. Whatever happens, the artistic chemistry is always palpable.

At the latest once you reach the feral despair of the album's midpoint in "Limps Dragging Towards Saturn Slowly", there's no denying that this a meeting of exceptional experimental artists, who know how to make your bones rumble and your soul shake. A logical sequel to Hypnodrone Ensemble's "The Problem Is In The Sender - Do Not Tamper With The Receiver", where they met before, yet a much closer and more dangerous experience. Amazing waves of emotional Noise!

The cassette design is solid, I especially like the full print on the shell itself.

TAVARE- Too Small To Be So High (2025)

Smooth transition to another core member of the Hypnodrone Ensemble with Aidan Baker's trio Tavare featuring him on guitar, Tristen Bakker on bass and Angela Muñoz (who's also part of the Ensemble) on drums.

Their music is quite quiet, a minimalist semi-acoustic form of slow-motion Alternative and Post Rock, very song-driven with all members singing. It is stripped down, but ambitious enough to still intrigue you. Atmospherically this actually reminds me a lot of good old SubRosa, but Tavare have their own very distinct vibe, providing an excellent soundtrack for winding down with songs that keep getting stronger with each listen.

Could this be one of my favorite Aidan Baker projects? Possibly. But he has so many, right? Well, who cares? Especially the natural, imperfect but just right feeling and tasteful harmony vocals on "Too Small To Be So High" are just balm for the soul.

And the interestingly structured "Left Behind" alone makes me happy that I got this cassette, which comes in an all-cardboard packaging, from Cruel Nature Records. A cool, lovely release.

SOLAR CORONA ELEKTRISCHE MASCHINE - Live At Cafe Oto (2024)

And now we're getting really trippy with a live release from last year, featuring a live performance from 2023, when the Portuguese Improvisational Stoner Rock band Solar Corona played an especially cosmic, hypnotic, infinitely improvised and above all very electronics-based show in London - hence the "Electric Machine" extension of the band name.

In two long Kraut jams with robust robotik backbones sounds are pulsating, oscillating, creaking, wafting and drifting through the cosmos like an android's mind discovering its soul and consciousness and the beauty of the stars in existential wonder.

The hand-numbered tape comes in an interestingly designed, layered combination of one transparent, one shiny silver J-card and prints on the cassette tray. A good visual fit for this great Experimental Psychedelic music. Awesome stuff!

THE MOND - 3 修正ニュートン力学 (2019)

My introduction to the Czech trio The Mond and their self-titled 2016 album hasn't been long ago. I actually featured it in the previous edition of the cassette craze chronicles.

Three years later their combination of Electronics, trumpet / bass clarinet, synths, organ and electric guitar still creates a distinct range of sounds. And while this is still home at the crossing of Experimental Free Jazz and Psychedelic Noise the performances on "3 修正ニュートン力学" (which unsurprisingly I cannot pronounce) actually feel less bonkers and more focussed here. Still way too crazy for the average consumer, but that's a basic prerequisite of everything Avantgarde, right?

The kind of weirdness that makes me happy, with a nice artwork that doesn't hurt either.

cassette craze chronicles XLI feat. CH'AHOM, DÉLIRANT, DIRK SERRIES, GORGONIS, HAGER/KAPUTT, MIIRA, NEVER SOL, THE MOND and URN

Phew, they keep piling up! Time to spin some tapes again!

DIRK SERRIES - Fog Curtains (2025)

Let's start with the elephant in the room, the one which obviously sticks out in the picture above! Released by Momentarily Records, a label specialized on small cassette releases in special packaging, Dirk Serries' latest(ish?) solo album comes as an unexpected haptic experience in a grey block of concrete.
There's something oddly satisfying about this inconvenient housing which you cannot even fully close. Just holding this solid thing in your hand, feeling its surface - and also being glad that this is not the standard for all tapes.

The music fits the grey colour and just like the concrete surface is a rather textural experience, in which maybe three or four layers of sound keep meandering around each other, just like... uhm... "Fog Curtains". Droning, whooshing, resonating, this is a pure sound experience, the core of Ambient guitar music.

The Bandcamp description actually almost says it all:
"The four songs on the album are a beautiful and captivating journey through a misty landscape. The artwork consists of a self-cast concrete shell and a colourful credit inlay, which perfectly matches the slightly hazy colour of the tape."

One might only add that you probably won't even notice that these forty minutes are divided into four parts, because all changes are very subtle, the principle of organic formlessness never changes. "Fog Curtains" certainly requieres attention and deep listening - yet the album rewards you with a freeing and relaxing sensation not meant to be put into words.

GORGONIS - Choice Paralysis (2025)

A pink mutant cat shooting lasers from its eyes - yeah, this release by Fuzzed Up & Astromoon Records surely caught my attention with its packaging, too. Even though I was at work I immediately checked it out hoping that the music would be good enough to justify ordering it. And damn, this shit is not just good, but absolutely on fire!

Gorgonis from Boston are a big band project with a Rock'n'Roll line-up plus a brass section and additional gang vocals, combining a wide array of styles like Garage Punk, Rockabilly, Horror and Morricone soundtrack music, Psychedelic Rock and johnzornish Avantgarde Jazz to an exciting wild ride that could totally work as the score for a Super 8 Tarantino tribute short film.

Speaking of short: The songs are compactly on point, so the nine tracks don't even add up to a total playing time of twenty-five minutes. But that's just the right length for this fun little album. You can - and should - just always spin it again if you need more. It's a feral, loudly meowing killer!

DÉLIRANT - Thoughteater (2025)

I've already reviewed this deliciously horrifying slab of Dissonant Deathened Black Metal back in February, but as so often with releases from Sentient Ruin Laboratories it took a while until this awesome looking tape became available for a reasonable price in Europe.

And not that this fact needed further confirmation - but yes, Délirant's "Thoughteater", a sonic nightmare in seven chapters, remains of of the sickest Extreme Metal releases of the year. Yet after almost six months I still cannot close my review of this gloriously discordant maelstrom better then I already did, so I'll just lazily copy that whole last paragraph:

"Thoughteater" feels like the horrific freeze frame of the moment Saturn's son realizes that Francisco Goya is making his father fucking eat him alive. What a dickhead! And what a brain-levelling blast!

CH'AHOM - Knots Of Abhorrence (2023)

Alongside Délirant I also purhased a Sentient Ruin tape, which is a little older. Ch'ahom's debut album has been released in 2023, the same year I got the compilation of their first four demos.

"Knots Of Abhorrence" doesn't stray from the band's former path, yet only increases the quality of the German Death/Black Metal group's music. It's still dedicated to Aztec blood cults, intercuts its attacks of dissonant brutality with accordingly ritualistic flutes and percussions - and almost tries to hide its Progressive influences and technical masterclass in a swampy low-fi aesthetic. So if you don't pay attention you might miss that this actually a pretty amazing, atmospherically dense Death Metal killer.

With "Path to Ixtab" there's only one track that had already been released previously, the other five tracks (including the digital only twelve-minute bonus "Ts'Ono'Ot") are all new - or were new in 2023 -, so there's absolutely no reason not to include this in your sick collection of advanced ghoulish insanity.

NEVER SOL - Tell The Sea I'm Coming Back (2024)

From Sentient Ruin Laboratories to a label which dedicates itself even more to tapes, the diverse Czech underground herald Stoned To Death!

A while ago I couldn't resist their friendly discounts, which introduced me to the singer and solo artist Sára Vondrášková aka Never Sol. Her three-song EP "Tell the Sea I'm Coming Back" is based on the full droning sound of the pipe organ, so there's of course no way around comparisons to the great Anna von Hausswolff. And concerning the slowly moving monolithic instrumentals this is more than fair.

Vocally however Never Sol doesn't reach the same eccentric Kate Bush heights, but mostly stays more reserved inside a warm range which reminds me of the lower registers of Angel Olsen.
It's only during the mini album's second half that the singer explores a higher, more mystical and dramatic tone with higher notes. Both organ (plus some added synths) and voice build a huge and intense atmosphere, contributing to a very good release.

Even though I don't feel that Vondrášková has reached her full potential in terms of songwriting yet - the pieces are still missing a certain something to really make them stand out - I can only recommend this tape.

URN - Self Sabotage (2024)

Slovak composer, guitar player and long-time Danish resident (now living in Tuscany) Jakub Volovár released another album of tracks recorded in Aarhus under the moniker URN. And no, "Self Sabotage" isn't much easier to put into a box than "Recitál" from 2019.

Or maybe it actually is? Yeah, especially since with very few exceptions the upright bass and drumming remain stylistically consistent this can all in all safely be labeled as Jazz, even if the guitar occasionally explores other territories like Blues, Flamenco or Experimental Ambient.

Reading the description on Bandcamp I would argue that I don't experience the album by far as depressively melancholic as intended. The vibe of "Self Sabotage" is intimate and most the thirteen tracks seem rather relaxed - at least on the surface. There are subtly interwoven dark undertones. And there are also hints of funkier Fusion on one and rebellious Heavy Jazz on the other side. But URN doesn't approach these influences in a radical way, yet rather introduces everything harmonious and playfully. This whole album by design feels more like an eased juggling of ideas than a presentation of completely finished songs - and that's what actually makes up a large part of its appeal.

An interesting, somehow very private take on contemporary Jazz.

THE MOND - The Mond (2016)

The third Stoned To Death tape of this bunch is clearly the oldest release here. Yet as I am writing this there's still one last copy of this insane live recording available! So if you're a friend of chaotic improvisations between Psychedelic Rock, Avantgarde Jazz and Noise - don't think twice and get it!

The 2016 debut of Experimental maniacs The Mond delivers a very enjoyable take on free musical madness, mainly because the trio's instrumentation of "electrified trumpet", modular synths, drums and keyboards establishes an interesting, recognizable and hands down just cool trademark sound. "The Mond" is not the reinvention of music, but a very fun album for fans of raw Heavy Jazz and pleasently weird soundtracks to stuff falling down stairs.

MIIRA / HAGER/KAPUTT - Split (2025)

Am I saving the best for last? Maybe. I actually don't want to tie myself down on that. Yet undoubtly this split cassette on Nasse Records (limited to fifty copies) is something special.

Side A belongs to the German guitar/drums duo Miira and their twenty minute Post Rock epic "Unfollow Function". It's just amazing how big their sound feels. And this piece is more emotional, sophisticated and dynamic than their previous album "Wellness".  Huge and heartfelt.

Framed by church bells side B belongs to the duo of Philipp Hager (Zement) and Franz Joseph Kaputt, whose even longer track called "Beschluss der Ewigen Anbetung" ("Decree of Perpetual Adoration") is a calmer affair, which mixes a beautiful saxophone with acoustic guitar and Ambient sounds. It feels as if Smooth Jazz was meeting Appalachian Folk under the umbrella of Post Something on a small, softly lit living room stage.

Both sides complement each other perfectly, making this cassette an exemplary split release, which leaves nothing to be desired.