This year’s Debacle Festival is looking to be an amazing lineup, spanning four days and three venues—Sam has outdone himself! Also, take note: two of our favorite bands are on board this year, both making their debut Seattle performances—Portland-based Operative and Golden Retriever! Put this on your calendars and we’ll see you mid-August.
Thursday, Aug 18th The Josephine Doors 8:30
Harassor
Hive Mind
Thunder Grey Pilgrim
Slates
Hellgrammite
Friday, Aug 19th The Black Lodge Doors 7:30
Tiny Vipers
The Slaves
This Blinding Light
Hive
Garrincha & The Stolen Elk
The Polyps
Crystal Hell Pool
Mind Alien
Saturday, August 20th The Black Lodge Day show Doors 2:30
USF
Big Spider’s Back
Tjutjuna
Sorry
Vitamins
Megabats
Secret Colors
U
Saturday, August 20th The Lo Fi Evening show Doors 8:30
Brain Fruit
Konntinent
Operative
Golden Retriever
Brother Raven
Plankton Wat
Panabrite
DJ’s
Garek Druss
DJ Slow
Sunday, August 21st The Josephine Doors 8:00
Blue Sabbath Black Cheer
Demian Johnston & Mink Stolen
Summon Thrull
Karnak Temples
LA Lungs
Paintings For Animals
Wind Swept Plains
Upcoming Seattle show featuring Milwaukee-based synth popper Stacian and other locals, including Gift Tapes’ Stella Haze, Acinonyx, and Jabon. The night is curated by local Medical Records’ Pop Surgery Synth (see last week’s Stranger article). Still haven’t met the guy behind this label, but I’ll be sure to say what’s up that night— seems like he’s on his game, especially considering his efforts in trying to re-release Novels for the Moon by Axxess! I’ve checked out some of the jams by each of the artists and it’s looking to be an excellent night, so be sure to put this on your calendar.
Friday, July 29th // The Rendezvous // 2322 2nd Ave // 9 PM
Just got word this morning that Matt Carlson’s recent Gift Tapes release has been reviewed in the June issue of The Wire magazine. I’ve seen a few reviews of Gecko Dream Levels out there in cyberspace, and most of them basically warn people that it’s SO WEIRD you may have difficulty listening to it. Check this one out from OMG Vinyl:
You may have a little harder time wrapping your ears around Matt Carlson’s offering for the newest Gift Tape batch. It is a far, far gone piece of electronic experimentation.
You’ll notice that The Wire pretty much follows suit.
For me, the weirder the record, the better… and the more I want to listen to it. As a listener, I’m attracted to work that is challenging and hard to figure out—this is what I think distinguishes art from craft. I am a true fan of Carlson’s bizarro world. This tape has become my gateway to enter the deep waters of creative meditation, in search of the big, deep fish (deep-diving David Lynch fans will know what I’m talking about).
For those of you that are ready and waiting for more, keep your eyes peeled on the DRAFT website. We’ll be issuing our first LP for Matt in the coming months, and let me tell you: this one ups it a notch on the weirdo-scale! And for those of you in Seattle this Friday, May 13th, come check out Matt’s solo modular set at the Chapel Performance Space in Wallingford.
New GIFT TAPES coming to you March 8th! We just posted them and are available now for preorder. I’d recommend getting in on this action early because I expect them to go quickly. This is Gift Tapes first special art edition batch – with art by Brenna Murphy. She’s also crafted some amazing preview videos – check them out!
Matt Carlson, gecko dream levels :: GT032
C40 audio cassette, edition of 200
Description: side-scrolling kingdom in gecko-vision; perplexed power-up modular rippage
SPECIAL ART EDITION – Art by Brenna Murphy
Music by Matt Carlson
Purchase here
Spare Death Icon, survival :: GT033
C30 audio cassette, edition of 200
Description: hunted by an uninvited visitor from a dystopic futureworld; digitally sequenced vengeance
SPECIAL ART EDITION – Art by Brenna Murphy
Music by JEA
Purchase here
Million Mists, original motion :: GT034
C60 audio cassette, edition of 200
Description: perma-flow blade runner of the jungle; karaoke synth solos navigating snail trails
SPECIAL ART EDITION – Art by Brenna Murphy
Music by Jamie Potter
Purchase here
The following titles are also available:
Mi Or And The Pedestals, Eos – Gift Tapes GT028
Frak, Dry Vanadis/Tournament City – DRAFT D001
A. Diller, Still Life - DRAFT D003
KPLR, Voltaic Fits – DRAFT D004
Joel Brindefalk, A Rough Patch – DRAFT D005
Atlantic Triangular Trade, Velvet Satellite – DRAFT D006
J. Hanson, New Ruined Maps – DRAFT D007
Tapes are $7 USA/$8 Can-Mex/$10 World. Pre-orders will be shipped on March 8th. Thanks for your support!
I was pleased to see DRAFT (Gift Tapes sub-label)get some reviews in The Wire, thanks to Nick Richardson. Joel Brindefalk’s A Rough Patch and Atlantic Triangular Trade’s Velvet Satellite made it into the Outer Limits review section. We’ve posted samples of all the DRAFT tapes – check them out on the site: draftrecords.com You can find the review below.
Turns out Brother Raven’s diving into the pineapple portal LP in The Wire as well, from last month (thanks to Keith Moliné). Dave Segal posted it here on The Stranger Line Out music blog. Many thanks to Aguirre Records for making that re-release possible! Check out their newly re-designed website: www.aguirrecords.com to see all the killer jams Pieter has in store for us!
NEW Gift Tapes are coming soon. My thought is they’ll be ready sometime in late February… a little later than expected, but that’s not too far off. This batch includes solo projects from both members of Brother Raven, as well as the new solo tape by Matt Carlson (synth player in Golden Retriever). Since this will be Gift Tapes 2nd year in business, we’ve planned some pretty crazy surprises for this set of releases. You won’t want to miss out, so get in on the action as soon as these drop. I’ll post the release date and related info to the blog when the time comes. Keep posted!
Last week we received exciting news that one of our favorite Gift Tapes releases, Bee Mask‘s Canzoni dal Laboratorio del Silenzio Cosmico, will see a LP re-release on Edition Mego‘s new sub-label Spectrum Spools. EM’s releases are always top-notch, and this one will be cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering (meaning this LP will sound amazing!). It’s a limited edition of 500, due out April 4th – pre-order while you can! Congratulations Chris Madak!
Oregon Painting Society has a ton of content on their site, from photo documentation to audio downloads to video links – check it out. You can even download their Gift Tapes cassette, released last June.
Last Spring I posed a challenge to a fellow label-head/musician friend of mine (based in Tulsa, OK), to get revenge of sorts because of a massive 85 minute tape he asked me to do in an edition of 22! So in response, this is what I requested: Super experimental & non-musical & synthy, but not noisey & not too droney using only the pro-one & recorded to tape of course. I guess my challenge was more specific… but I tried to think of everything that that dude does exceptionally well, then ask him to do the opposite! His approach to the challenge is especially interesting to listen to; it’s improvised synth music that consciously attempts to avoid musical spaces. And it’s in that avoidance of musical spaces that hints of musical ideas occur. They seem to play on the creativity of the listener, providing a palette for which to connect the dots, link ideas and create our own music through interpretation. Please except this gift; a prized edition of the MICRO collection.
Next month: New tapes by Matt Carlson, Million Mists & Spare Death Icon.
Charlatan, exercises Download: GT020 59 MB ZIP file, includes 320 kbps MP3s
MICRO CASSETTES… The wave of the future.
Inexpensive. Miniature. Mono. Limited Frequency Response.
Last January we snuck this MICRO in more than a few packages; now it’s high time this is available to the masses. One of the lovely things about micro cassettes is the fidelity, a shadow of a recording allowing a hazy glimpse of what was there. These mysterious artifacts, buried in tape hiss, offer the essence of an artist’s creation, while the listener fills in the blanks. 3 more in the cue that I’ll post in the coming months — so stay tuned! Also, coming in this Winter, Gift Tapes will release new tapes by Matt Carlson, Million Mists & Spare Death Icon.
Knit Prism, coral mediations Download: GT016 53MB ZIP file, includes 320 kbps MP3s
MICRO CASSETTES… The wave of the future.
Inexpensive. Miniature. Mono. Limited Frequency Response.
Gift Tapes will present an exciting evening of electronic sound and visuals featuring CORRIDORS, Million Mists, Matt Carlson and Panabrite. Brooklyn-based CORRIDORS mixes multichannel works from processed instrumental and environmental sound and video imagery. Portland musician Matt Carlson (member of Golden Retriever) will play a solo synth set, and Seattle solo synth acts Million Mists (Jamie Potter of Brother Raven) and Panabrite (Norm Chambers) will both make debut appearances.
CORRIDORS
Byron Westbrook (b. 1977) is an artist working with the dynamic quality of physical space using multi-channel sound and images. His audio/video performances under the name CORRIDORS involve the distribution of processed instrumental and environmental recordings through a multi-channel environment with a focus on energy distilled from sound and light. He has presented at venues such as Tonic, Roulette, The Stone, Diapason Gallery, Issue Project Room, Experimental Intermedia, Exit Art Gallery, (NYC), Les Voûtes (FR), Wien Konzerthaus (Austria), NonEvent (Boston), Sonic Circuits Festival (DC), and Institute of Intermedia (CZ). He has shared performance bills with Tony Conrad, Phill Niblock, Jandek, Sawako, Heribert Friedl, Stefan Tcherepnin, Maria Chavez, Alessandro Bosetti, Jason Kahn, Jon Mueller, and Tetuzi Akiyama, among many others. Westbrook has also collaborated with Paris-based composer and former Kitchen curator Rhys Chatham in the drone metal group Essentialist (Table of the Elements), as well as performed in the ensembles of Phill Niblock, Rhys Chatham, Glenn Branca, Duane Pitre, David Watson and Jonathan Kane. He has worked as technical coordinator of Phill Niblock’s Experimental Intermedia Foundation since 2004. In 2007, he was the recipient of the Jerome Foundation Emerging Artists Commission through Roulette Intermedium. In 2008 he was an artist in residence at Hotel Pupik at Sclhoss Schrattenberg. A cd will be released in Fall 2010 on Sedimental Records. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Gift Tapes is pleased to announce its 7th batch of tapes, just in time for the Fall season. Synthesized soundscapes, meditations & fantasy landscapes… Available from gifttapes.com (orders will ship early next week). Also coming soon to many fine online distributors: Mimaroglu, Tomentosa, Discriminate Music, Eggy Records, DNT Records & Colour Ride (UK).
Mi Or And The Pedestals: EOS
C30 audio cassette, edition of 150 Aerated synth atmospheres and crystalline shapes; white light angelic perception
EOS is a skillful blend of voice and synthesizer, sculpted by Brooklyn-based Mi Or And The Pedestals (Ceci Moss). Distant atmospheres are spawned from lush soundscapes and chaotic noise in an excellent fusion of contemporary synth styles.
Nathan Mclaughlin (currently residing in Sauk Centre, Minnesota) reveals a new chapter in his recent series, following up a previous release on Digitalis. Echolocation #3 is ambient music, rich in color and mood. Layering vintage synths on room-length tape loops, Mclaughlin crafts music for meditation.
Panabrite: wizard chimes
C60 audio cassette, edition of 150 Submerged journey toward a glowing pearl; Juno-60 driven fantasy soundtrack
Seattle-based Panabrite is the brainchild of synth musician and record collector Norm Chambers. Wizard Chimes carefully layers drifting arpeggiated melodies, forming the soundtrack to an epic journey through fantasy landscapes.
*All new Gift Tapes are pro-dubbed, imprinted & loaded with chrome tape.
OTHER NEWS:
Few copies of Brother Raven’s VSS-30 LP available here.
Brother Raven Diving Into the Pineapple Portal LP & Eagle Vision TAPE due out on Aguirre Recordsby the end of next week!
DRAFT, the new sub label of Gift Tapes will debut it’s first releases in early October.
Details on upcoming Gift Tapes performances on 10/10 & 11/1 listed here & be sure to check out the Debacle Festival this weekend!
