Visionary hermits hailing from Chattanooga and Minneapolis, respectively, pair up for this dusty split C42 on the latter’s new imprint Hectare. (Side note: shout out to Stomachache for always keeping me stocked with copies of his new releases; 2021’s Good Machine cassette and this year’s Capacity Limit / Compressor lathe 7″ are also great and well worth checking out.) I had never heard of Amanda Haswell’s Slow Blink project before now, but consider my ears opened because her contribution, the side-spanning “Axis Tilt,” is a tremendous feat. Longing loops spool up haunting laments that breathe and grow instead of decaying away, letting more and more light in as the piece progresses—dissonance becomes harmony, tension dissolves into catharsis. The piano-led second half that melts into bliss like frost on a sun-drenched window is so affecting that listening to it aloud alters the very essence of the space you’re in. On the moodier flip, Stomachache delivers a pensive suite of his distinct spin on stripped-down, subdued analog noise: “Zone” turns the equipment-strewn tabletop into a miniature dramatic stage production with narrative arcs of shifty stumble and rickety rumble; cryptic whispers haunt the shadowed crawlspaces of “Finally Secret.” Both artists, each having been active for the better part of a decade, are at the top of their game here; even with somewhat disparate (though complementary) approaches and atmospheres, this tape offers up some of the best tape music I have heard in recent years.
Noise Not Music 
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