July 2nd, 2010 by GT
Tomorrow, Cristin and I are headed out east for a little vacation to NYC. Immediately following our break, I’ll be touring as Harpoon Pole Vault with Bee Mask/Chris Madak (see Deception Island label). Super excited! Three of these shows will feature Zaimph/Marcia Bassett, so be sure to catch those if you can. Our NE mini-tour dates are listed below. Hope to see some of you! FRESH poster design by WITCHBEAM!
July 9, 2010 – Philadelphia, PA – Pageant Soloveev – HPV, Zaimph, Bee Mask.
July 10, 2010 – Brooklyn, NY – Port d’Or – HPV, Zaimph, Bee Mask.
July 11, 2010 – Burlington, VT – Firehouse Gallery – HPV, Bee Mask, A Snake in the Garden.
July 12, 2010 – Easthampton, MA – Flywheel Arts – HPV, Bee Mask.
July 13, 2010 – Providence, RI – ZACCHILLI HOUSE – HPV, Bee Mask, Arley Marks.
July 14, 2010 – Brooklyn, NY – Zebulon – HPV, Zaimph, Bee Mask, mi or and the pedestals.
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June 22nd, 2010 by GT
Gift Tapes Presents, An evening of contemporary drone music with:
Zaimph, Jaime Fennelly & Brother Raven
June 23th (Wednesday) – 8 PM sharp
Gallery 1412 – 1412 18th Ave (18th & E Union St) – Seattle, WA 98122
$7 admission
Gift Tapes presents a night of contemporary drone music: NYC-based Zaïmph, recent Seattle transplant Jaime Fennelly, and Seattle’s Brother Raven. Zaïmph, the solo project of Marcia Bassett, combines guitar and electronics to create subtle noise music. Jaime Fennelly (of Peeeseye fame) will make his first appearance solo on the west coast, performing with a harmonium and electronics. And lastly, synth duo Brother Raven will attempt to craft the music of the cosmos with synthesizers, performing the last show of their west coast tour in their hometown.
Come hang out!! This show is gonna be FRESH!!!
Posted in GT shows, Gift Tapes Artists, Upcoming | 1 Comment »
June 2nd, 2010 by GT
Gift Tapes is pleased to announce that our monster SUMMER double-batch has arrived! Six new tapes out today. Purchase them here while supplies last!
Oregon Painting Society – Radiant Dream Face, GT021, c30, edition of 150
Totally bizarre sound worlds from an island of misfit droids. Offered up by up-and-coming Portland art collective Oregon Painting Society (core members include: Matt Carlson, Brenna Murphy, Barbara Kinzle, Birch Cooper, and Jason Traeger) this recording is a document of their Radiant Dream Face installation mounted at Portland State University, December 2009. Improvisations with houseplants, a pair of corn cobs and a glass crystal, each controlling oscillators, recorded direct to 4 track.
Concessionaires – Skyline, GT022, c40, edition of 150
Synth/guitar duo project consisting of Brad Rose (The North Sea) and Pete Fosco. Their debut release unveils massive cathedrals of melodic sound that push/pull the listener through cavern-like underworlds into open, pale-blue, impressionistic skyscapes. Two side-length meditative improvisations, perfect listening for shimmering summer afternoons.
Studio SS/2 Hands on Knobs – Home Office split, GT023, c60, edition of 150
The daily reality of machines in the home and the office as interpreted by 2 synth artists. Studio SS merges home appliances with analog and digital synthesis. A mixture of both quiet noise and on-edge insomnia that hint at the claustrophobic terror state of a forgotten inmate. 2 Hands on Knobs engages office machinery with synths, sampling keyboards, and drum machines, creating industrial spirituals for a drone army or narrating the awkward birth of an android.
Zaïmph – Coast to Coast, GT024, c40, edition of 200
In Marcia Bassett’s newest Zaimph recording, masked guitar roams from the East to the West, through rugged American landscapes. Bassett’s guitar and effects are captured direct to cassette as a stereo room recording, summoning a gorgeous haze of tape noise and ambient sounds.
Merzbow – Untitled Nov 1989, GT025, c40, edition of 200
Electronics and field recordings collide in what many consider a peak moment of Merzbow’s extremely prolific career. Recorded in 1989 and mixed this past February on a 4-track that Gift Tapes sent to Japan! HEAVY factory sounds manipulated via amplification and signal processing to create a massive mechanized environment and an altered state.
Bee Mask – Canzoni dal Laboratorio del Silenzio Cosmico, GT026, c30, edition of 200
Bee Mask’s newest work gives a nod to experimental music of the 20th century; classic kosmiche zones are fused with musique concrete to form a surrealist sound collage of home studio and field recordings. Synths, sampler, prepared piano, variable speed cassette players, voice and handmade instruments all come into play, explaining quantum mechanics via dream logic.
*All cassettes are pro-dubbed, imprinted, loaded with high bias tape, packaged in regular size Norelco cases, w/ 2-sided color cardstock j-card insert that includes artist name and album title.
 
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In related news, Brother Raven‘s first LP entitled VSS-30 is due out very soon on Digitalis — keep your eyes peeled. You may have also noticed that Taped Sounds recently released BR’s 5th tape. I am told that copies are sold out at the source, but that an additional pressing is in the works. Additionally, the band will be touring the West Coast US in June, performing the following dates (most which will include Matt Carlson!):
June 15, 2010 – Villanova House (802 Villanova Dr.) – Davis, CA – w/ Matt Carlson, others TBA
June 16, 2010 – Hemlock Tavern – San Francisco, CA – w/ Matt Carlson, Moholy-Nagy
June 17, 2010 – Synchronicity Space – Los Angeles, CA – w/ Matt Carlson, Sun Araw, Metal Rouge
June 18, 2010 – 21 Grand – Oakland, CA – w/ Matt Carlson, En, Deep Magic
June 19, 2010 – Abyssal Behemoth – Portland, OR – Golden Retriever, Cloaks
June 23, 2010 – Gallery 1412 – Seattle, WA – Zaimph, Jaime Fennelly (of Peeesseye)
Also, Harpoon Pole Vault will be touring NE US in July w/ Zaimph & Bee Mask (both of whom have tapes out in this current GIFT batch)! Tour dates are coming together now, but more info will be posted here soon as details begin to solidify.
More exciting stuff happening later this summer:
DRAFT, the new no rules sub-GIFT imprint will debut its first set of releases. We’re expecting these to land sometime in August.
The next edition of the SYNTH NIGHT series will happen Friday, August 13th. An Evening of Meditative Music with Stella Haze, Spare Death Icon & Pulse Emitter at the Chapel Performance Space here in Seattle.
Posted in GT releases, GT shows, Gift Tapes Artists, Upcoming | 2 Comments »
March 22nd, 2010 by GT
Gift Tapes delivers its fifth batch: three new cassettes containing carefully-crafted analog recordings. High-bias, pro-dubbed, imprinted tapes with hand-numbered, full-color, double-sided cardstock sleeves, packaged in standard clear plastic cases, editions of 100.
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J. Hanson
blood orange :: GT017
C37 audio cassette, edition of 100
Description: Synthesized chanting; ethnic electronics bathed in crimson light
Music by J. Hanson
$6 USD |
On Blood Orange, Portland-based J. Hanson creates ethnic-tinged compositions with modular synth and spring reverb. These pieces take influence from ritualistic gamelan music, shamanic drumming, and early electronic music.
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Knit Prism
orbs :: GT018
C31 audio cassette, edition of 100
Description: Multidimensional perception; inverted flotation awareness
Music by MWP
$6 USD |
Ontario’s Knit Prism uses synths, guitar, electronics and tape to bring supernatural phenomena to light. The spacious assemblages of hovering drones and complex textures on this new release, Orbs, will stand out as some of KP’s finest work to date.
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Studio SS
sickness :: GT019
C45 audio cassette, edition of 100
Description: Sensory disruption process; panic-attack boomerang synthesis
Music by JS
$6 USD |
Studio SS is the solo project of the man behind Börft, an obscure, experimental Swedish label putting out tapes and LPs since 1987. Sickness is a meditation on various modes of delirium through the use of synths, effects, mics and speakers: LFO-modulated delusions and granular washes of hysteria… the perfect panic attack.
We’ll be selling what stock we have left of this batch, but you can also pick them up from Mimarolgu, Tomentosa, Discriminate & Colour Ride.
Also, I noticed that Mimaroglu still has copies of the Father Sound/HPV split from the last batch & Tomentosa has a few copies of various Gift releases : Pulse Emitter & Matt Carlson from last fall AND Stella Haze & Million Mists from the first batch! Get your hands on them while you still can.
Posted in GT releases, Gift Tapes Artists | No Comments »
January 3rd, 2010 by GT
A few months back, a guy named Kurt handed me a tape containing a live Brother Raven set from a hot summer night (performing with totally RAD folks: Marcia Bassett as Zaimph, Pete Swanson & Josh Stevenson as Magneticring). We want to share it with you… COSMIC MINIMAL SYNTH, recorded live to tape at The Josephine, Seattle, WA, June 24, 2009. Download here (MP3, 34 MB, MONO).
Posted in Gift Tapes Artists | 1 Comment »
December 19th, 2009 by GT
As promised, our 3rd micro cassette released this past FALL, limited edition 50. This completes the first series of micros, secretly known as the T&D Trilogy. New Father Sound jams will be available in Gift Tapes’ WINTER batch, coming in early January. Our new tapes will include a Father Sound/Harpoon Pole Vault SPLIT (C30), Brother Raven (C30) & Golden Retriever’s first tape (C20). Keep posted for more info… Happy Holidays!!!
Father Sound, elastic underwater cave diver
Download: GT012 63MB ZIP file, includes 320 kbps MP3s
MICRO CASSETTES… The wave of the future.
Inexpensive. Miniature. Mono. Limited Frequency Response.
Posted in GT releases, Gift Tapes Artists, Upcoming | 1 Comment »
November 29th, 2009 by GT
As promised, here is the 3rd GIFT available for download. This was our second micro cassette release that came out last June with the summer batch, limited edition 50. If you dig this stuff, keep your eyes out for the new 2 Hands on Knobs release space bath transformation, coming out soon on DSQ (c85, edition of 22).
We’ll post 2 new reviews soon and the 4th GIFT before the end of the year. Also, the new Gift batch is in the works and due out in January. Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving.
2 Hands on Knobs, cylon garden
Download: GT008 62MB ZIP file, includes 320 kbps MP3s
MICRO CASSETTES… The wave of the future.
Inexpensive. Miniature. Mono. Limited Frequency Response.
Posted in GT releases, Gift Tapes Artists | 3 Comments »
November 14th, 2009 by GT
For those of you that might have missed this one (or you don’t have a player), we sent this miniature tape out with one of first releases last Spring – our first micro cassette! So adorable, so cute. We like to make our GIFTS available to everyone, so be sure to stay tuned in for our future gift posts! We should have a couple more in the coming weeks.
Harpoon Pole Vault, whispering crystal babies
Download: GT004 64MB ZIP file, includes 320 kbps MP3s
*We hope you enjoy the distinctive qualities of this low fidelity music recording!
MICRO CASSETTES… The wave of the future.
Inexpensive. Miniature. Mono. Limited Frequency Response.
Posted in GT releases, Gift Tapes Artists | 1 Comment »
September 28th, 2009 by GT
Freshly returning from the mountain forests of Eastern Oregon…I wanted to put the word out there that the new Gift Tapes releases are out now. I couldn’t be more happy about this new batch of cassettes from Pulse Emitter, Matt Carlson and The North Sea. This time around the tapes have been pro-dubbed in editions of 100. These tapes will go super fast, so be sure to order soon.
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 Pulse Emitter - grass - C30 Fellow NW-based Pulse Emitter, the solo project of modular synth mastermind Daryl Groetsch, has created a beautiful work, half of which is reminiscent of his self-released Meditative Music series, while the other half delves into the weirdo world of sub-earth root structures crawling with insects. Grass is one of my favorites from his recent discography and Gift Tapes is extremely honored to present one of his works.
 Matt Carlson - stereo face - C40 Matt Carlson‘s recent solo efforts venture into the sounds of early electronics pioneers. As a member of the minimal noise drone trio Bonus & former member of the Parenthetical Girls, Carlson’s efforts have included pop music, noise, free improv and performance art. His new work, Stereo Face, is modular synth wizardry all over the stereo field and steeped in science fiction themes that nod at the 1960′s while simultaneously hyper-driving towards the future.
 The North Sea - daytona - C30 Daytona is an epic drone work formed of textured synthesizer and layered electronics. The North Sea‘s (Brad Rose) high-density sound projects degraded memories that lead to abandoned tunnels and empty into sunset skies. Both noisy and meditative, this gorgeous piece is the perfect compliment to lone autumn walks. Definitely another exciting addition to the North Sea catalog.
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Tapes available here: Gift Tapes.
Posted in GT releases, Gift Tapes Artists, Synth | No Comments »
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