Tapes reviews of tapes I buy or get sent.

Send cassettes for review to: Flat 16 Raddon Tower, Dalston Square, London E8 3GN.

Sunday 18 September 2011

Sentridoh + Shrimper

When I was a teenager, there was a veritable treasure trove of a Record shop in Reading called Green River Records, which became our central meeting point/group hangout and encyclopedia for Indie rock and punk that we had been exposed to. I was opened up to Shellac when the first 7" came out and was given discounts on classic Killdozer LP's. I bought Weezer's 'Sweater Song' single on cassette and first discovered a lot of the music i still cling to from those formative years.

One 7" that was a game changer was the Sentridoh 'losercore' 7" which was when i had just discovered Sebadoh, and it was recorded by Bob Weston of Shellac and released on Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth's label, so it was like the missing piece of a puzzle, and for only 50p!

My love for that 7" has always led me to holding a soft spot for Lou Barlow's ultra lo-fi acoustic tape recordings. Man can write a song regardless. So onto record shop story number two. I pick up a copy of the Lou Barlow's Acoustic Sentidoh - Winning Losers 10" from the increasingly amazing Kristina Records in Dalston and get offered the rare original Lou Barlow tapes pictured below plus a Shrimper Tape compilation with Sentridoh and early Mountain Goats, Franklin Bruno, Bugskull etc. Hitting gold for a second time.

I'm not going to write about these, tapes. You can't buy them anymore unless you get the CD or Vinyl re-issues (which you should) and those of you that need these recordings will already know it or not. Massive thank you to the guys in Kristina for being my new favourite place to spend money i don't have!


Sentridoh - Most of the Worst, Some of the Best of


16 songs including a covers of Bryan Adams and Sonic Youth.

Lou B's Acoustic Sentridoh - Wasted Pieces '87-'93


23 pieces in 38 minutes.
Pawnshop Reverb - (A Shrimper Compilation)


Featuring - Sentridoh, Al larson, Nothing Painted Blue, Carne A, Primordial, Undermind, Shoeface, Mountain Goats, Oar, WCKR SPGT, Lil Johnny 4, Refridgerator, Franklin Bruno, Paste, Goosewind, Buzzsaw, Bugskull, Halo, Satnam Puppets, The Jim Bishop Guitar Army, Showboat.

Saturday 10 September 2011

Sealings + Boneyards = Italian Beach Babes

Italian Beach Babes has been kicking out some pretty quality releases for almost 2 years now, with Dirty Beaches, Mazes, Male Bonding, Fair Ohs, Graffiti Island, Fear of Men all making appearences across tapes, 7"s and 12"s. These are the two latest tapes with some Old Forest tape action on the way very soon (go pre-order it).

SEALINGS


I remember when the first Sealings tape (1st of 5 tape releases) came out a while back, it sounded like they had some pop songs being smeared by black metal leanings and distorted sound scapes. This new 4 track EP still retains that feeling, with screwed guitar lines and cutting drum machines beats. The vocals also sound pretty bleak, no hope anthems. Everyone seems to mark out their summer tunes, i'm marking this as my winter cassette, ripe for slipping in the walkman when leaving for work before the sun has risen and coming home after it has come down.

  1. King Shot
  2. Swag Chandelier
  3. Cruel World
  4. Black Hole


BONEYARDS

Having some cartoon bong-smoking trolls on the cover of your tape is always a good thing. Throwing together some garage punk and mid 90's Indie punk is also a pretty good idea, thanks Boneyards!The first side is studio recorded, with a pretty clean sound and then side B side, which is self recorded kicks in, totally in the red and pushed to the limit. I don't know if its the reverb overkill or the strung out guitar lines that sound like buzzsaws but the second side sounds way better to me. The vocals have that Coachwhips tinny-scuzz to them and the drums are way heavier. Not too far from the Lovvers 'Think' record. I vote Side B.

Side A
  1. Endless Summer
  2. Dead Arm
  3. Ride
  4. Huanted Vomit
Side B
  1. Snare Sneezer
  2. Way Out
  3. NowNowNow
  4. Human Nature
  Endless Summer by BONEYARDS

Snare Sneezer by BONEYARDS


Tense Men + Domestic Blitz = Cazenove Tapes

LAC from Sauna Youth has started his own tape label. It was a no brainer that a SY member would have some choice picks to start their label with. Go buy the first two fruits of his punk loom HERE

TENSE MEN


Tense Men = Ollie Fisher of Cold Pumas + Rich Phoenix of Sauna Youth.
The four jams on this tape are tightly woven and dense workouts of noise punk with occasional deep vocal swells that hint at their musical day jobs. Switching it up from upbeat locked grooves at the start of the tape, with zoned-out repetition and sweet guitar riffs before ending on blissed out kraut waves as the tape runs to its conclusion. The loop pedal seems to be the grounding force in TM, the 2nd guitarist or bass player who doesn't drop a note when drunk and keeps the song constantly driving forwards regardless of where the other two are in the wig outs, meaning they don't relegated to the being one of those two pieces who are good but would be better as a three piece. This little pink tape kills it start to finish, buy it.

  1. A Gruesome Discovery
  2. Tubular Swells
  3. Killing Birds
  4. Dawn Tourists



DOMESTIC BLITZ - TIME IS MONEY, WASTE BOTH


Who are Domestic Blitz? They are not the late 79-81 punk band or the Australian DIY televison show? Who cares though when you have an album of skronked out punk like this. Sometime they have some garage punk inclinations, then they come over all Killdozer or maybe a drunken Modern Lovers, and then slow down and do a George Harrison cover (the best Beatle, good choice). This tape is confusing in all the right places, and has followed me to work a lot recently and always seems to be top of the tape listening pile. Waste your money on this.

1. Property Development
2. A New Man
3. Strange Feeling
4. Ancient Scroll
5. The Heartstrongs
6. Thinker
7. Ben
8. Don't Eat That Please
9. Sincerely Complicated
10. Stay In Touch

 
Domestic Blitz - 5 by Sound Savers