(d)(b)(h) / russian tsarlag - i can't think / i can't walk - el tule - cass - 6$
This 75 minute split tape is essentially a full album per side. "I Can't Walk" by Russian Tsarlag features more of Carlos Gonzales mutated guitar pop similar to that heard on the recent "Open Casket" and "Community Death Tube" LPs. Tslarlag sounds so incredibly wasted that he can barely string a song together, but somehow he manages to and it becomes something entirely new and amazing in the process. These woozy wierdo-pop tunes will burrow their way deep into the recess of your brain and swim around until you catch yourself humming one of them in line at the post office.
Local Bloomington free improv group (d)(b)(h) gives us "I Can't Think". (d)(b)(h) live are never the same more than once. I witnessed them play once in the bathroom of a house, one member was shaving at the sink, the other stripping and changing his clothes in the bathtub and Justin Rhody, the ringmaster of the group, was sitting on the toilet with his pants around his ankles reading a playboy all while a strange prepared tape played in the background. This tape showcases their free form, improvised, noise-skronk jams at a breakneck place. Sometimes these songs remind me of an injured animal wildly flailing around with their last breath, but in a good way.
luke perry- brainwave's rerun crunch - el tule - cass - 7$
New full length tape from New York's Luke "Axl" Perry. Retro TV commercial psychedelic synth pop styled after 90s teen dramas. Listening to this tape feels like watching reruns of "Saved By the Bell" and "90210" early on a saturday morning while your brain starts shorting out from eating too much sugar with your breakfast cereal. Tapes packaged in teen idol trapper-keeper design with hot pink shells sporting Krusty the Clown and Luke Perry himself as Sideshow Bob.
rob funkhouser - prevention and suspension - el tule - cass - 6$
"Everyone in Bloomington knows and loves Rob Funkhouser. He's everyone's favorite Hawaiian-shirt wearing party-attending, philosophy-spewing college student. Most people haven't heard his music yet though. Rob is an incredible percussionist and composer and this tape showcases both of these talents. Side A is an epic synth-based piece that could easily be the new soundtrack to chasing replicants through future Los Angeles. Side B is a haunting marimba composition recorded in an empty high school gymnasium. Both sides show that Rob is extremely talented and is deserving of much more recognition."
-eltule
children of scare midget - invocations - el tule - cass - 6$
Chidren of Scare-Midget is one of Bloomington, Indiana's hidden treasures. He has been intriguing the locals here for some time now with a collection of limited CD-R releases and numerous, spooky live performances. This tape is a perfect example of COSM's total outsider weirdness, consisting of bizarre drones, lo-fi keyboard murmurs and mumblings in an unidentifiable ancient language. Sounds like the lost, corroded master tapes to a 1930s horror movie soundtrack. Dubbed on to found cassettes, the A sides are all COSM, the B sides are what was originally dubbed onto the tape, but with a hidden bonus track.
-eltule
drekka - pia: flight 813/761 - el tule - cass - 5$
"This cassette, entitled 'PIA: Flight 831/761' is a 30 minute sound journal I recorded in the airspace of Pakistan on October 16, 1999. While traveling home from Nepal that day, my friends and I were delayed for a few hours in Karachi airport because there was a coup happening in Islamabad! We weren't in any danger, but it was still quite intense.
Side A features an extended spontaneous harmonium piece entitled 'Ke Garne' (Nepalese for 'What to do')... layered harmonium melodies blend with the sound of the airport and CNN reporting the coup live as it unfolds.
Side B features a 15 minute master-mix of the exciting in-flight entertainment offered on board PIA... enjoy the sound of the plane and an eclectic A.D.D. shitfest of sound!"
Limited to 50 Copies
Artwork by Michael Anderson
-el tule