Thursday, March 27, 2008

Gates McFadden returns with Get Out The Tape

Joel Schrauben, aka Gates McFadden, has wasted no time in filling out his compositional niche by releasing his second album for 2008 within three months of his first. Get Out The Tape re-emphasizes the G.McFad tendency towards patterned construction of songs, approaching a minimalist idm but not quite. If anything, Gates' voice is becoming more mature as Schrauben's techniques become more sophisticated. Get Out The Tape employs repetition and subtlety in variation to beautiful effect so that each moment is a pleasant stasis of sound without becoming disengaging. These eight new songs are written and performed on laptop with some sampling of Schrauben's old band Bear Mountain Picnic thrown in for good measure. Think of mashing Stars of the Lid's heavenly swells with the stylized electronic adolescence of Cornelius. It's up on last.fm now, or you can get it here.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Arts vs Entertainment Ensemble - self-titled

A delayed notice that the self-titled Arts vs Entertainment Ensemble album is available for free download in full here. Joshua produced and compiled this from incidental recordings made from Jan.-Dec. 2007, mashed into a collage of 6 untitled tracks. Lots of droney, ambient and freely improvised stuff. I think about a dozen people contributed to this, willingly or not.

Friday, March 07, 2008

Swim Club Super Friends Blowout 2008

In East Lansing, Michigan a select group of distinguished swim clubbers, culled from disparate regions of the nation, ushered in 2008 in the company of Fields of Industry, Goro, and, in their debut performance, The Make-Out Kings. Ripped from the boutique sensibility of an on-cam audio mic, this dirty sound is every lo-fi aficionado's dream. Experience it along with those that attended by downloading the audio here for free (with two special songs performed by FoI that night that we can't put on last.fm), and feel the Michigan winter basement swelter, smell the burning chest hair. Get it.