Rejoice, friends: an excellent new label was birthed this February. Pennsylvania’s Brandon Dunlap, (who also runs Astral Research and plays in the very good psych band Fade to Pharaoh) released the first two tapes on Light of My Life on Valentine’s Day. They are, without any reservations, both scorchers, trafficking in many of my favorite things: opaque themes, disquieting surrealism and sonics so outré they’re bordering on antagonistic.
Houses of the Holy by Crying Motherfuckers, (a “collaborative effort” with no listed participants, though we have our suspicions) is an early contender for the year’s rippingest C20. The A side, “Receding Gun”, kicks it off with a wonderful, crunchy base layer that soaks up most of the low frequencies, punctured by intermittent feedback bursts that are somewhat reminiscent of a vibraslap. An eerie tonal, perhaps choral, loop creeps in, becoming more prominent as it malforms. The arrangement is progressive and well-considered, and repeated listens revealed that in spite of the chaos, everything sits quite well in the mix.
“Star With No Wish” is a different beast, opening with a startling stab of something harmonic (a MIDI horn?) before giving way to creeping, delay-driven fog. There are slow, deliberate and inaudible vocals that ratchet the dread up a few degrees. Death industrial? Not really, but I’m not mad if you come out feeling that way. There are occasional melodic intrusions and some disorienting panning that cement the funhouse-ride-from-hell feeling; and of course, there’s some release from all this anxiety.
Even more inscrutable is Angel Examination Room’s untitled C10. It lasts a little under 6 minutes, and yet I have found myself chewing on it since it arrived in my mailbox. The easiest way to describe what’s happening here is through the project’s name and what it evokes: a juxtaposition of the loaded-with-meaning word “Angel” with the quotidian “Examination Room.” It’s a jarring collision between the awe-inspiring and the mundane.
The liner notes (machine-embroidered on the back of the fabric 10” sleeve that houses this tape and its chicken wire mount) note the tools employed: “handheld tape recorder, 12 string guitar, rotting wheelchair, AM/FM radio, seance tape.” Interrogating it much beyond that would spoil the fun, but this is indeed a very tape-heavy sound.
A side “Young Terminal Wings” opens with some wild oscillating tones. The recording jumps speeds and lurches around before giving way to glassy clattering. Again, we have a wild arrangement; one gets the sense it could have been an intensely labored construction or a free improvisational burst of fast-forwarding and rewinding. Either way, it’s compelling stuff. “Specimen on Stained Glass” is somewhat harsher and a little more playful, with perhaps a little of the aforementioned 12-string. Where the wheelchair comes into play is yet to be determined.
A strong debut from a very promising label. Lucky for you, the Crying Motherfuckers tape (edition of 25) is still available for purchase from the label. The Angel Examination Room tape is sold out, but there have been whisperings of an eventual reissue. Stay on top of this; it’s shaping up to be something special.
Noise Not Music 