architeuthis rex – foam - my dance the skull - cass - 7$
About the cassette: ‘Foam’ is the name of Architeuthis Rex’s debut cassette release on MDTS ; true to it’s title there is a wealth of both soft & sharp sonic bath bubbles to get lost in for 20 minutes.
The first side is ‘Red Sun’ and begins with textured guitars and glitches, similar to Rounds era Four Tet. The track transitions into a noisier soundscape yet still retains an almost relaxed mood, before moving into an ambient drone forest where different colours of rain are falling. An indigenous sounding female voice and rapid stick rhythms enter the atmosphere, so now the sound has now sublty morphed into prime Robert Rich with a Fennesz noise filter.
The second side is ‘Foam and Souls/Grain of Sand’ ; which takes in discordant ambience, ritualistic yet industrial style drumming and psychedelic swirls. The sound of waves on the ocean alludes to the title but this is a beach that Steve Roach has washed up on and he’s been taking the Soma again. Single elongated guitar notes swoop around like demented seagulls and warped/WARPed strummed chords get tossed about the shore. The drumming natives have now gone, replaced by sparse electronic drums. New Age has moved forward, or rather back to when it was actually exciting and part of the new age of music.
On his first release for MDTS, Architeuthis Rex has displayed an idiosyncratic approach that combines many different facets into a heady brew that can strike out and sooth in equal measure.
His myspace page contains both ‘Psychedelic’ and ‘Healing/Easy Listening’ descriptive tags, listen to ‘Foam’ to hear what freaking out whilst chilling out can sound like…
Joel Levy
-my dance the skull
telekaster – at how many beats per life - my dance the skull - cass - 7$
About the artist: Telekaster is Berlin-based musician Matthias Grübel and video-artist Stefan Bünnig. Together they create a universe of abstract narration and associative beauty consisting of Grübel’s shimmering noisy soundscapes and Bünnig’s perfectly crafted yet always universally minimal real-film sequences.
About the cassette: Telekaster’s new cassette-only release At how many beats per life begins by conjuring a hazy aura that quickly mushrooms into something quite disturbing, sort of like being caught by a blast and fluctuating into milky atmospherics instead of actually disintegrating. Sort of. The cozy textures that kickstart side B slowly but surely breathe life into a thick wash of effects that turn the song into pure headphone gold. This Side B contains something of wondrous beauty, I shit you not. Hard to pin down, Telekaster is ambient music that refuses to stay put when it comes to sedation, or something wrapped in hiss you should probably be listening to. Or something. It is just very good.
-mydancetheskull
woodpecker wooliams - sleeping under dark suns - my dance the skull - cass - 7$
20 minute double sided cassette - hand numbered edition of 100.
''Sleeping Under Dark Suns is a story of sleeping women in myth. Women that sleep or go under. Women that grow mute or die. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Lilith, Eurydice, the Honeybee in winter ’s dreaming time. Two ten-minute compositions, the second a collaboration with the dark and murky Talvihorros. Slumberous, somnolent, drowsy dears. Where are our women? What have they done? Out in the woods, up in the towers, down in the dungeons, we’ve been eating apples, and loving men, swooning under their stern gazes, and giving up ghosts. I wanted to find out why…''
Woodpecker Wooliams, May 2010.
-mdts
tom white - false ponds - my dance the skull - cass - 7$
20 minute double sided cassette - hand numbered edition of 100.
''Tom Whites latest cassette tape release for MDTS titled False Ponds more than lives up to this young artists already formidable output. White creates the type of music that intersects noise, dissonance and isolationist angst. Summoning Ballardian imagery throughout, the two sides of this immensely addictive release employee’s lo-fi tape loops, field recordings, guitar fragments and feedback in what is a deeply unique and personal auditory mosaic.
False Ponds is a record that continually evokes and alludes to the subtle process of listening and memory, both personal and collective. From the loops of a child’s voice to the static washes that ebb and flow throughout, this is music that conjures apparitions from forgotten times and places, from obsolete technologies and the hands that once operated them - once locked into these worlds you’ll find it difficult to escape''.
Mark Peter Wright | sound artist/curator
-mdts