Flotel - Valence cassette - Chemical Tapes 2011

Flotel - Valence cassette

I hear crowds knocking at my door. I do hear that satire and see those coins falling out of the pockets. Kow-towing walls do not save the refugee... Abrupt dramatic chorus accompanies one to the inner worlds where one has to fight against what mirrors return to him. That is a silent fight. No cries and no blood. This is all about spirit and it's sound vibrations.
Music for salvation. In all senses. Intelligent and splendid.
Buy this cassette from Chemical Tapes. 

Mohave Triangles - Smoked Mystics Cassette - Chemical Tapes 2011

Mohave Triangles - Smoked Mystics Cassette

Here's one of the recent tapes from Chemical Tapes label. Two lengthy tracks by Mohave Triangles take control over the noise explosions and reverse them onto the expectation surface. Glittering synth crystals divide and peel from the abstract ettles and grounds. Their hypnotic and impulsive flight seems endless. Maybe it is?
Buy the cassette from Chemical Tapes.   

Mo Kolours - EP1: Drum Talking - LP/cassette - OHM/Sweat Lodge Guru 2011

Mo Kolours - EP1: Drum Talking LP/Cassette

This was a real surprise for me. The record hardly contains anything except for the percussions sets and vocal manipulations. But it sounds really fantastic! Clear but at the same time rough melodies, hip-hop oscillations, mesmerizing vocals and unstable diverse beats occupy my mind and make me smile. Maximum joy with minimum materials. Thumbs up!
Music for cycling. Buy from either OHM or Sweat Lodge Guru.  

THE DREAMS - Morbido cassette - Yerevan Tapes 2011

THE DREAMS - Morbido cassette

Did you know that the guys from the beautiful Avant! label have just launched a new tape label? No? Then you must check this out. Their first release is undoubtedly one of the best records this year. A duo from France, The Dreams come up with twelve songs on their first album and hit the mark! Their music is fresh, dancy, ambitious, honest and fucking awesome! I can hardly classify the style precisely but if I've had to use only three tags I'd have said they're making a real dark wave-reggae. However this tape is so ripe for surprises! Dub collisions, lo-fi synth melodies, greasy guitar, amazing vocals and perfectly measured dollop of noise craziness.
Can't stop listening to it. Highly recommended, i. e. a must!
Buy from Yerevan Tapes. 

ZARASAI - PLACE MUZIK cassette - Sangoplasmo records 2011

 ZARASAI - PLACE MUZIK cassette

Wanna communicate with apparitions? This tape will help you.
New collab project from Anton Lukoszevieze and Arturas Bumšteinas presents to you some real spiritualistic experiences recorded on this tape. Profound and frantic soundscapes open all the secret chambers revealing mighty powers which distort the space and time. Longish kanklės sounds tumble over rasping electronic loops casting away big dark globules of vibrating sound emulcio.
Buy the cassette from Sangoplasmo records. 

Expo '70 - Radiance cassette - Further Records 2011

Expo '70 - Radiance cassette

Cracked and restless synth pulsations fulfill the stifling rooms of you mind. Breathless thoughts rush through them as a bureaucratic caravan of overlooked dreams and overheard confessions. In each room you find the same golden sphere of your hibernating consciousness. You traverse over boundaries. One of the rooms contains an answer. But the dream is too short to find the right one.
Splendid tape!

Varropas / Rainbow Valley - Split Cassette - Jozik records 2011

Varropas / Rainbow Valley - Split Cassette

Here comes a split between a duo from Finland Varropas and UK-based project Rainbow Valley. Both act in the field of synth music while using quite different approach. On the side A one becomes a witness of a calm prayer of a tired person. This music is totally descriptive and uses very simple structure however managing to draw one's attention to each sound as if to the importance of each second of the life. Side B is occupied by less dormant material. Trembling free-wheeling sound pieces create a heart-pounding atmosphere. While exploring three different stories each of which shows really hysterical mood along with definite melodiousness, one is now left without a story-teller and starts to dream up his own world... 
Buy the cassette from Jozik records.  

Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier “Discovering Mathematics 2” cassette - No Kings 2011

Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier “Discovering Mathematics 2” cassette

Another great tape from the great No Kings. Here Félicia Atkinson presents five lengthy plays constructed from amorphic and undulating sounds. Monotonous voice tells a story without the beginning and without the end. Ethereal words and vibes fall down into the water and dissolve in it making no rings. It seems that this music can exist singularly and autonomously in any circumstances and conditions. But nevertheless, one can hardly miss some kind of romanticism in the mood of the each track. Physical tricks telling about love and hope. Impressive.

Guanaco ± ‘Ardea Cinerea’ cassette - Sweat Lodge Guru 2011

Guanaco ± ‘Ardea Cinerea’ cassette

Well, I didn't like this tape when I heard it first time. Actually, I still don't like it. But - I am listening to it again right now and will listen again for sure. And I think there's nothing strange about such situation. Something attracts me in this music. Something calls me into the scary unpleasant places. This is just a trick of subconsciousness. Low ambient fibres show the way without even touching you, they just dance in front of you without even looking at you... This annoys you and you're starting to chase them, again without even thinking about the proper reason why you're chasing them. And when they disappear you feel disappointed. You feel that you have to experience this one more time...

PIĘTNASTKA - DALIA cassette - Sangoplasmo records 2011

PIĘTNASTKA - DALIA cassette

This tape by from a talented composer Piotr Kurek reminded me of some recent Anne Laplantine's recordings made for some net-label or something. The same approach and I think quite similar attitude. As for me this material is about the childhood how it looks for an adult. Sometimes fun, sometimes nostalgic, sometimes grotesque. Lucid melodic synth and simple rhythms will inevitably charm you and force to search for old photographs. Recommended!
Buy from the young but always good Sangoplasmo records.  

Banana Pill / Timothy C Holehouse split cassette - jozik recods 2011

Banana Pill / Timothy C Holehouse split cassette

This wonderful tape opens with unstable bitter guitar chords produced by Helsinki-based duo. As far as the flat story gets developed we can hear a blues harp and teremin-like ambient sounds which deliver a feeling of a really cold and sad mood of the North. On the side B we discover some less melodic but more diverse sound that actually is a collage giving us a chance to see many different images seen by one pair of eyes during the day. Morning, lasting dream, hot coffee, empty street, over-peopled tube, lunch, bothering work-mates, barroom, evening, clock that you should check with so that not to miss the telephone call. Patient, intelligent music.
Buy the cassette from Jozik Records.