Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Big batch from Night-People, here are the first couple:

Dunebuggy - Suck Me Raw Through a Flavor Straw - Night-People
Dunebuggy - Suck Me Raw Through a Flavor Straw
Before I start gushing, this tape is on the short side, 10-minutes in total. JUST SO YOU KNOW! Ok, Dunebuggy is a favorite around here and this tape is definitely a new height. Side A is something we haven't gotten from these guys before, a slow burner, and they really nail it. Vocals are echoed way out in les Rallizes Denudes style, but underneath the haze is the inscrutable, child-like tenderness that Charles Free seems to emit from deep within. A short drums-and-organ jammer finishes out the side in classic Dunebuggy style. The song on the flip continues in that mode but rips it up for the whole rest of the tape. Total bliss-out. The kids are going crazy. I don't know about you guys but I'm going to dub all my Dunebuggy tapes onto a c60 and jam it all summer. $5

Baronic Wall - The Golden Sword/In the Parlor - Night-People
Baronic Wall - The Golden Sword/In Granit Parlor
Bizarre and often bracing tape from this scumbag visionary collecting two out-of-print releases, each on a side. The Golden Sword raves away in Mark E. Smith mode over a backdrop of no-fi drum machine and keyboard murk. In Granit Parlor, by contrast, has a definite Shadow Ring feel, forgoing the drum machines and assault of the flip in favor of a more surreal text and open sound. Honestly, the first ten or so minutes of this tape are a hard listen because there is nothing to prepare you for the sonic barrage that starts immediately and doesn't let up for the entire side of the tape, but the totality of vision here is undeniable. Once you acclimate, this stuff can hit you pretty hard. Challenging and rewarding to a degree unusual to find in the casual confines of a c45, this is some serious stuff and highly recommended for anyone who wants something to chew over. $5

Tracey Trance - Fountain - Night-People
Tracy Trance - Fountain
Strange, beguiling, child-like music that quietly works its way deep into the crevices of your brain. On the title track, keyboards and drum machine back up a simple, eastern-leaning vocal melody that drifts along like a lazy stream bathed in morning sun. The other tracks are gentle instrumentals. Perfect tape for spring. I look forward to hearing more stuff from this guy/these guys. $5

Wild Safari - Cave Sequins - Night-People
Wild Safari - Cave Sequins
Nice little tape of synthesizer and drum machine sketches. Short but appealing tracks that hold their own. They remind me a little bit of the instrumental bits on Another Green World in that they feel like transmissions from a strange land. $5

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Two great tapes from BAKED TAPES out of Brooklyn:

Driphouse - Romanti & Gains - Baked
DRIPHOUSE - ROMANTI & GAINS
New tape from an Eggy favorite -- Driphouse is the solo project of Iowa expat Daren Ho based in Brooklyn now. Two long-form synth jammers. Side A is a head-nodder, riding a muted, loping groove through swells of synthesizer and keyboard figures until running into some very trippy and elastic territory. Tape speeds become vague, fever sets in. Side B is more monumental, probably some of my favorite Driphouse stuff to date. Slow filters, nice tones, epic eyes-on-the-setting-sun vibe, kind of an East coast Brother Raven thing. Very nice. $6

Nasa - High Cube - Baked
NASA - High Cube
Very pleasant surprise with this tape. I picked it up having stocked their Not Not Fun tape last year, and enjoyed that one for it's in-the-red, total bruiser, cavemen-in-the-basement antics. Shit has really come together in the meantime, and these guys sound totally in control. The tracks are more measured and open -- the opening piece has something magisterial about it and a rough beauty. Thoroughly enjoyable tape that covers a lot of ground. Side B even ends with some sludgified blues murk in the vein of the earlier NNF tape. Comes with a very silly Baked Tapes sticker. $6

Monday, March 15, 2010

ARBOR TAPES:

Justin Meyers - The Amplitude of Neighbors - Arbor
Justin Meyers - The Amplitude of Neighbors
Simple and beautiful work on the A side -- some of my favorite stuff to reach my stereo of late. A recording of Meyers' neighbors setting off fireworks is paired with subtle, shifting sine-wave tones. Super restrained, totally perfect. Side B is purely tones, moving in and out of phase like ghosts. $6

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Bloodstream Sermons - Arbor
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Bloodstream Sermons
Deep, enveloping tone-work of weight and substance. The honey-like richness of Roland's beloved Juno 60 synthesizer tone is augmented with a sine-wave generator and electronics for a very appealing fullness of sound. I was surprised by how keyed-in my body became to the shifting sound-plane of Side A before remembering the title of the tape and understanding that this is indeed music for the bloodstream. Side B begins in a similar position to the flip but forgoes its low swells and visceral rumbling in favor of exploring the upper frequency territory of the drone-scape. Near-frequency beating feels more apparent and a few delicate treble squiggles adorn the sound. Incredibly focused and well-executed stuff. $6

Cloaked Light - Plain Curtain - Arbor
Cloaked Light - Plain Curtain
Strange and intriguing piece on the A side that very carefully and simply creates a sonic space unlike anything I've come across. An AM radio sermon is folded onto itself several times so that while one voice is distinct, the others create a low murmur, reverberating and moving in a vast, imagined space. What's striking is the sense of nothingness beyond the activity of these several voices -- reminds me a lot of Beckett's The Lost Ones. Very mysterious. Side B is regrettably indistinct, some undulating tone-work, but I recommend this tape highly nonetheless. $6

Gregg Kowalsky - Tape Chants: Early Experiments - Arbor
Gregg Kowalsky - Tape Chants: Early Experiments
Varied and visceral sound pieces that all share the emphasized, tactile mid-range of rough tape recordings. What's best about this stuff is its sense of mystery -- never quite knowing where or when the recordings were made, or what was being recorded. My favorite part is on side B when a high, organ-like tone is paired with a strange buzzing that sounds almost like a fly. $6

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Goaty Tapes:
Truth Syrum - Why We Look At Our Neighbors - Goaty Tapes
Truth Syrum - Why We Look At Our Neighbors
Nice follow-up to last years Night-People tape, Truth Syrum dispels the murk of that release to give us a better view of his strange sonic worldview. Lots more “candy” on this tape -- nice guitar figures, some vaguely 60s pop moments – but more idiosyncratically weird passages, too. Long encounter with a piece of squealing electronic junk is a highlight. $7. Order here.


Russian Tsarlag - Goaty Tapes
Russian Tsarlag– Unleash the Chain
This beloved Rhode Island creepazoid is in top form here – indolent, detuned pop numbers interspersed with dialog from VHS throwaway flicks. B-movie vibe ties everything together, probably the best, most cohesive Russian Tsarlag release to date. Elaborate packaging with letter-pressed insert. $7. Order here.


HNY - Dead in a Year - Goaty Tapes
HNY - Dead in a Year
Gothic, American darkness. Deep tape. Does not stop being bleak for a second. Which isn't to say it isn't carefully put together -- the attention to detail and wide sonic palette really stand out. Reminds me of that moment on the first Valet record where she goes, "My blood is clean/ but the devil's in me," turned into an entire tape. $7. Order here.


Trudgers - Goaty Tapes
Trudgers - Bedroom's On Fire
One of the most straight-forward tapes in the Goaty catalog to date -- the reference points here are 1980s romantic and gothic stuff and there's a Smashing Pumpkins cover to end things out. A steady beat and forward momentum through-out give it a feeling of always being on the verge, always being in a heightened emotional zone. The quality of this stuff should silence the haters -- plenty of hooks and thought-through arrangements. $7. Order here.


Paradise Sisters - Jeff Atkins no. 7 - Goaty Tapes
Paradise Sisters - Jeff Atkins no. 7
Hypnotic synth-sludge. Definitely not an easy listen, sometimes brutally repetitive, moments of genuinely odd beauty and weird peace form themselves from the murk. LP for De Stijl on the way. $7. Order here.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

EGGY RECORDS CATALOG:
Eggy releases can be found in Portland, OR at Mississippi Records on N Mississippi and Shaver, Exiled Records on SE Hawthorne and 47th, Container Corps Publishing Press on N Killingsworth and Maryland and Tender Loving Empire on SW 10th and Stark.
Tapes are distributed in the US by Weird Forest Distro, Discriminate Music, Tomentosa and (soon) DNT.
Tapes are distributed in Australia by Albert's Basement.

UPCOMING, tapes by:
Tracey Trance
Pak
Lab Coast
The Golden Hours

Earthmasters - s/t - Eggy 18
Earthmasters - s/t - Eggy Number 18







"Beheaded" by Earthmasters
Earthmasters is the woozy, sideways pop-craft of young Brooklynite George Demoura. George sites Ariel Pink and Blank Dogs as influences but what he's created is a million times more zonked and wholly his own. These tracks exist in a frictionless alter-verse, either instrumentals held down by sea-sick drum machine or pop songs whose bizarre logic doesn't keep them from being inscrutably, weirdly catchy. Hand-colored covers, each one a little different. Pro-dubbed.
SOLD OUT
Nodolby - s/t - Eggy 17
Nodolby - s/t - Eggy Number 17







"Red is the color of my true love's hair" by Nodolby
Nodolby is the solo project of Mic Scariot who runs the Italian noise label Dokuro, and who has graced Eggy with an excellent tape of lush, elegant noise music. The sonic palate is wide, moving from the traditional feedback-distortion axis into more mysterious audio territory where strange rattling and scraping evokes Brothers Quay-esque interiors and where distant melody flickers in the dusk. Hand-colored covers, each one a little different. Pro-dubbed.

Five Dollars. Order here.
Orca Team - Let It Go - Eggy 16
Orca Team - Let It Go - Eggy Number 16







"Vancouver B.C" by Orca Team
Ten songs from this Portland trio who have made the pre-Beatles 60s their turf and keep company with the likes of Link Wray and Joe Meek's reverb-pop projects. The tracks here outline a very succinct sound -- stylishly up-front bass-lines, flashes of melodic guitar and steady, minimal drumming. Remarkably solid collection of songs that just get better and better with each listen. Pro-dubbed.
Recorded by Robert from Hornet Leg/Nucular Aminals.
SOLD OUT
The Polyps - Twenty Colored Circle - Eggy Fifteen
The Polyps - Twenty Colored Circle - Eggy Number Fifteen







"Twenty Colored Circle Parts 2 and 3" by the Polyps
This tape was conceived of as the sister tape to last year's The Gong Is the Moon on Night-People, further exploring the use of tape loops, synthesizer and homemade electronics in combination with simple song-form, but incorporating field recordings and a more pronounced audio-collage aesthetic. Three tracks; one ten-minute, side-length piece of '60s leaning pop fragments backed by Idea Fire Company-inspired synth drift, and two on the flip using mellow, electronic warble and some noisy crows. Silk screened covers, pro-dubbed tapes.
SOLD OUT
A lot of the Polyps back catalog is listenable here:
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Polyps/
Street Gnar - Street Gnar EP - Eggy Fourteen
Street Gnar - Street Gnar EP - Eggy Number Fourteen







"Soux Bee" by Street Gnar

Totally breezy, effortless pop. You just slip into it like talking to an old friend. This is the latest missive from the Void Skateshop crew who are ripping it up in Kentucky, totally on a roll right now. Check out the Jovontaes tape if you haven't yet. Street Gnar is hitting the road next month, North-East and Mid-West in early June if you are lucky enough to live in those parts. Silk screened covers, pro-dubbed tapes.
SOLD OUT
Orca Team - Orca Team EP - Eggy Thirteen
Orca Team - Orca Team EP - Eggy Number Thirteen







"No Fun" by Orca Team.
Minimal drums, slinky guitar lines, big, catchy bass lines and loads of tape hiss -- Orca Team revist the pre-Beatles 60s via Olympia, WA of the 90s and the bass-up-front sound of 80s post-punk. Reverb-ed out sock-hop tunes that look back to the Ventures, Link Wray and Joe Meek's pop-hits. Pro-dubbed.
OUT OF PRINT
The Woolen Men - Sunday EP - Eggy Twelve
The Woolen Men - Sunday - Eggy Number Twelve







"Twenty Twenty" by the Woolen Men

More fizzy power-pop, the Woolen Men expand their sound to include 90s guitar-soloed slow burners ("Summer Story") and long-form, art-damaged thrash ("Hammer").

Five Dollars. Order here.


Jovontaes - Masks of the Land - Eggy Eleven
Jovontaes - Masks of the Land - Eggy Number Eleven







"Madame Montespan" by Jovontaes

Skater-weirdos holding down the fringe scene of Lexington, Kentucky buy some krautrock records, pour sludge on them, then slide down a handrail backwards in slow motion. Silk screened covers, pro-dubbed tapes.

Five Dollars. Order here.


Mattress - WFMU Tape - Eggy Ten
Mattress - WFMU Tape - Eggy Number Ten







"My Reason" by Mattress
Recorded live on WFMU radio show, Talk's Cheap with Jason Sigal. Killer performance, excellently recorded. Silk screened covers, pro-dubbed tapes.
SOLD OUT
Lame Drivers - Launchpad 2 Demoverse - Eggy Nine
Lame Drivers - Launchpad 2 Demoverse - Eggy Number Nine







"Demondzblood" by Lame Drivers
There's a video for "Demondzblood" here.
For half a decade, Jason Sigal and the Lame Drivers have been issuing blast after blast of blown-out power-pop candy, but this is a definite curve ball. The list of influences spirals out of control, not only from track to track but from moment to moment. Scrappy lo-fi pop, turns into big rock, turns into weird noise, turns into David Bowie. The Lame Drivers' own thing going on here. Make no mistake, the pop hooks are there, and in spades, but you've got to find them this time out. Silk screened covers, pro-dubbed tapes.

Five Dollars. Order here.

The Honeys - Phraze Haze - Eggy Eight
The Honeys - Phraze Haze - Eggy Number Eight
Art by Jeff Kriksciun







"Have an Idea" by the Honeys








"Floating Thoughts" by the Honeys
The Honeys are your friends. They are two of your smart, talented friends who decided to start making music together because that's what creative people do in the small city where you live. When you listen to their music it sounds like your two friends making music together, and it sounds like the city you live in and the lives being lived in it. Kersti's voice is honest and clear, and her guitar playing energetic and intuitive. Jeff's voice is rough and emotional, and his drumming simple and effective. These songs have a magnetic attraction. I have listened to this tape many many times.
Recorded by Nick Bindeman and Zachary Reno.

BACK IN PRINT! PRO-DUBBED ON OLIVE GREEN TAPES!
Five Dollars. Order here.

The Woolen Men - Pavilion EP - Eggy Seven
The Woolen Men - Pavilion - Eggy Number Seven







"Land of Laughs" by the Woolen Men
Debut tape from this hard working PDX trio with eyes on the prize. The approach is pure, the demeanor earnest, the goal -- nothing less than classic pop songs. Energy, melody, simplicity. Six songs starting down a good path. Silk screened covers, pro-dubbed tapes.


Five Dollars. Order here.


Selda - '71 - Eggy Six
Selda - '71 - Eggy Number Six







"Yalan Dunya" by Selda
I picked up a Selda Bagcan(pronounced "bah-jan") CD when I was in Istanbul a few years ago after hearing her music on both the Love, Peace and Poetry: Turkey compilation and the first self-titled CD that Finders Keepers released. The CD turned out to be a collection of early singles, circa 1971, that were much more melodic and rooted in folk music than the heavy-hitting psych grooves of the other releases. In this stripped down setting her incredible voice and guitar playing really shine. The CD quickly became a personal favorite and one I've listened to on a regular basis ever since that trip to Turkey. Despite many reissues of her early catalog, most of the tracks are still effectively unavailable to anyone living outside of Turkey, hence this Eggy release. Ten songs altogether, this selection represents the peak of Selda's early career. It should be noted that five of these tracks are available on the World Psych LTD Selda release of material largely from the mid 70s, but A) I do not care for the rest of the music on that CD and B) my two favorite Selda songs -- the Yalan Dunya/Kalenin Dibinde Tas Ben Olaydim single, which features the incredible garage/psych/traditional Turkish group Mogollar (pronounced "moh-oh-lar") as her backing band -- were left off, which is why I decided to do this tape. Silk-screened covers
OUT OF PRINT.
The Golden Hours - Spooky - Eggy Five
The Golden Hours - Spooky - Eggy Number Five








"Baked Brown" by the Golden Hours
Sometimes you press record at the right moment. Four lo-fi pop gems from a too-many-beers-too-little-recording-equipment session, ranging from noisy, Velvets style vamps to reverb-y surf-pop. This lovable Portland train-wreck has an LP on the way from Digitalis LTD.
OUT OF PRINT.
Majic Eyes - S/T - Eggy Four
Majic Eyes - S/T - Eggy Number Four







"We Are Shocked" by Majic Eyes








"It's Time To Go" by Majic Eyes
Danny is a friend of mine from Providence, now living in San Francisco. This tape is the debut of his bedroom psych-pop project Majic Eyes. The territory here is the hazy pop of prime Elephant 6 -- weird, blown out sounds, solid pop songs, strange, sometimes disturbing, lyrics. What really stands out is the simplicity of these songs, and the stripped-down arrangements make the sturdiness of the song-writing apparent. Adorned with restraint, the simple, home-made percussion, odd synthesizer noise and doubled-up vocals buttress the songs in the right places without weighing them down Silk screened covers, pro-dubbed tapes.
OUT OF PRINT
Eggy Number Three was discontinued and reissued as Eggy Number Eight.
The Polyps - Wheat - Eggy Two
The Polyps - Wheat - Eggy Number Two
OUT OF PRINT
Peixe 6
Eggy Records 01
The Polyps - Peixe/Fennel's Daughter 7" - Eggy Number One







"Fennel's Daughter" by the Polyps
Follow up to the lauded Digitalis LTD tape, this record captures the Polyps still in their early pop phase. Side A has an upbeat Elephant 6 vibe, side B is a recording from one of the ubiquitous Providence living room shows of the era.

Four dollars. Order here.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

DIGITALIS INDUSTRIES/NORTH SEA - BRAD ROSE INTERVIEW
Plankton Wat - Our Solar Beings - LTD95
Here we have part three in the Eggy blog's ongoing interview series. The name Brad Rose should be familiar to anyone interested in the fringe music world -- the scope of Brad's activities really does warrant the designation "Industries." For years, the Foxy Digitalis webzine has been lifting the stones of the music world to reveal the most interesting critters underneath, the family of Digitalis labels has provided a home for countless artists and releases, and Brad himself has been a tireless creator of music under the monikers the North Sea, Ajilvsga, Alligator Crystal Moth and Altar Eagle (and others?), which has been released by some of the fringe music world's most venerable labels -- Type, Root Strata, Gift, Goaty, etc. On a personal level, Brad has long been a supporter of my music and writing, and as is the case for many, many others, I'm sure, Digitalis provided me a foot in the door of a strange and wonderful world of music. I spoke with Brad via email about his label, bands and music in Middle America.


How has being located in Tulsa had an impact on Digitalis? And on
North Sea?


I'm sure it has though it's hard to pinpoint how, exactly. Tulsa's pretty isolated in some ways in that there's not a ton going on with the local scene or shows and what not, so in some ways it's like being on an island. The biggest impact it's had is that it's so cheap living here that Eden & I are able to pay our rent/bills by working part time, so it leaves a lot more time and energy to put toward the label and music.


Do you have any thoughts on the remarkable vitality of fringe music in Middle America?


I think a lot of it stems from living in places where there's not a ton of stuff always going on, so we've got to find new and fun ways to stay inspired, creative and moving forward.


Are there other scenes, in America or internationally, that are exciting to you right now?



I dunno - it's hard to say since I haven't done a ton of traveling recently. I will say that I've got a deep affinity for Madison, Wisconsin and Chicago, but part of that is just from the fact we were up in both cities recently. With the kind of music I'm interested in, it's impossible to ignore Portland, OR and all the incredible stuff coming out of there.

Lakes - Monument of Nests - LTD103


Tell me a little about the beginnings of Digitalis -- did you have a clear idea of the kind of music you were interested in releasing?



Yes and no. I mean, I've never had a clear idea about it beyond it being something I was really into, so that's why our stuff can be sort of all-over-the-map soundwise. But I like that... for me, nothing is off-limits so it keeps everyone on their toes.

How would you say the label has changed, and is changing, since you first started it?


The biggest change has just been in our ability to get stuff out to a wider audience, I think. Obviously over the years we've done a multitude of formats and now we're hoping to transition into doing mainly vinyl and cassette releases (w/ digital versions available of some). I'm just figuring it all out as I go along.


I'm also curious about your North Sea project, how long it's been going, what it started out as, how it's different from Ajilvsga and Alligator Crystal Moth?


The North Sea started in 2002 though has its roots in an early project I did in the mid-to-late '90s called Ukraine. Sound-wise, I'm not sure how different it is from other projects but the main difference is that it's generally just me, doing all the sounds. This isn't the case on the new album, "Bloodlines," on which Mike Weis of Zelienople plays drums on the whole thing. But generally, it's just me.


So I just read that Not Not Fun is starting to digitalize their out-of-print back catalog so people could listen to otherwise unavailable music on ipods -- do you think other underground labels will start going in that direction?


Most of our CD releases (and some vinyl releases) are already available via digital download. The way I look at it is that anything that gets released on whatever format, some rip or mp3 version of it is going to end up on blogs, torrent sites - whatever. And generally, I'm cool with that - I want people to hear it. But I figure there is some population out there who doesn't really buy physical media (which is their loss, in my opinion, but still - music fans are music fans, whatever format they prefer) - so I figure why not give them the option of a format they want
in a way that supports the bands and the label?


And:
What are your five favorite bad pop records (I will let you interpret that as you like)?



I don't know about five favorite, but some 'bad' pop records I'm listening to a lot these days are Erasure's "The Innocents" (I really gotta get that recent 21st anniversary edition); Lady Gaga; Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" (which was seriously my favorite song of 2009); The Cardigans; and I can't get Ke$ha out of my head lately.

Brother Raven - Nellie - LTD104