Gift Tapes
Well, we missed the first batch, but we are on track with the second batch of releases from Gift Tapes. Run by Jason Anderson of Brother Raven, this Seattle label is putting out quality electronic music in limited numbers on cassette only. All three new titles come in double-sided full color covers with nice labels and are C20s. First up is the new Brother Raven entitled “A Sound Like Wailing Winter Winds Is Heard“. If you read this blog, you’ve find a recent reference to a concert they played alongside Magneticring, Pete Swanson and Zaïmph. On that night, the duo had their analog gear out and brought back memories of the numerous releases of electronic music on Sky Records from back in the 1970’s and 1980’s. For those of you who didn’t grow up with those around, I should explain that they put out LPs of gentle, melodic synthesizer music with experimental flourishes. The best known examples from their catalog would be Cluster and the first four albums by Asmus Tietchens. The emphasis here is drifting off into soundworlds, not the sequencer driven drivel of post-Krautrock Tangerine Dream. It is an area that seems to be getting explored more lately by the likes of James Ferraro from The Skaters and others. Brother Raven really nails the cosmic aspects of this stuff though. It seems to the big release in this batch, as “A Sound Like Wailing Winter Winds Is Heard” is limited to 80 copies (and comes with a bonus, gift-wrapped microcassette), while the other two are in editions of only 50 copies. Not that this should suggest these other two are any lesser. “Early To Rise” by Jeremiah Walker carries on in a similar vein albeit with longer tracks that are more of carpet of dreamy sound similar to early Popol Vuh. Really meditative and mystical, perhaps my favorite of the trio. The final new release is by Million Mists and is called “Spaeship” (not “Spaceship”). The most experimental in this set, this tape features a more aleatoric atmosphere on “Crab Pulser” mixing sounds evocative of radio transmissions from distant stellar bodies with the long slow synth sounds you might expect from a sci-fi movie about those regions. It is an interesting contrast as Million Mists is the solo project of Jamie Potter, half of Brother Raven and a former member of Bonus. All in all not a bad moment over the course of three release and the style of music makes the 10 minutes of each side stretch onto infinity in the good way.