Thursday, September 30, 2010

The lastest batch from Gift Tapes...

Nathan McLaughlin - Echolocation 3 - Gift Tapes
Nathan McLaughin - Echolocation 3
Heavy duty tape of Deep Listening for the heads. This is the kind of music that completely fills whatever room it's being played in. The sonic textures are great, from low rumbles that sound like they were recorded from inside a glacier to distant bass lines emanating from impossibly deep in the music to sweetly droning tones. There's really a lot here, one of those tapes that takes a few listens just to wrap your head around. Recommended, don't want to miss this one. $7

Mi Or and the Pedestals - Eos - Gift Tapes
Mi Or and the Pedestals - Eos
Not sure I've ever heard a tape quite like this one. It's definitely coming from the Gift Tapes universe being in the mode of long-form synth and electronics exploration but the scope of sound is pretty wild. One pole is gently bubbling new-age/kosmische synthesizer and the other is raw electronics, and the tape swings back and forth between the two, building to loud erruptions of sound then washing back away into placid near silence. The flip is not as ebullient but there's still the pairing of relatively clean, dewey synth-tones and grittier, almost industrial-leaning sounds. $7

Panabrite - Wizard Chimes - Gift Tapes
Panabrite - Wizard Chimes
As the synth craze continues to sweep the underground we're at the point where it doesn't cut it any more to just warm up the oscillators and put echo on the filter sweeps. With Brother Raven's last LP for Digitalis a high water mark of the traditional school of kosmische playing, it makes sense that Anderson's Gift Tapes imprint would be keeping standards high. Panabrite's Wizard Chimes stands out for how wholley composed it sounds. Nary a knob twiddle feels careless. What we have is nine little worlds of mellow, bubbling sequencer and chiming bleeps, each succinct and thought through. $7

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