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New House Of Tapes: “Funeral”

The past two weeks have been packed with work, meaning keeping up with new music has been a challenge. Hopefully I can find a way to vanish to a mountain retreat or something and just catch up on everything in the near future (more likely, actually get back to all my emails and, uhhhh, do my job). Near the top of that must-listen list is the latest full-length from Nagoya’s House Of Tapes. Up to this point, I’ve only listened to “Funeral,” a number that manages to be very House-Of-Tapes-y without sounding like the project’s main operating mode. This isn’t a suffocating number, but rather a delicate number guided by keyboards and a drum beat. The tension comes from the feeling that these melodies are going to derail from one another, replacing the usual pounding with a sense of something about to go haywire at any second. Never comes though, and instead all of these sounds find an uneasy balance. Listen above.

Electronic Round-Up: Negative Headphone, House Of Tapes And Vibes Kiun Featuring DJ NightPool

— Everything can feel so fast nowadays, and sometimes you just need to zone out. Like, completely. Negative Headphone’s latest full-length offering, Ambient Ground, pretty much tells you everything you need to know in the title. This is a solid collection of ambient tunes, calming and only ever disrupted by the slightest of ripples breaking through the sound. During a different week, this one might have just slipped by. But right now, it’s nice to sink into. Get it here, or listen below.

— House Of Tapes has tried out a lot of modes over the years, but disorienting isn’t one I’d normally associate with the Nagoya producer. “Paint It” approaches the claustrophobic zones of older material, but also feels like a creation where the seams show clearly, the rough edges grinding up against one another and creating a loopy tension. Listen below.

— If the above are too chill or choppy for your liking, Vibes Kiun’s collaboration with DJ NightPool should scratch your itch. This cut is a thumping house number bolstered by some nifty vocal slice-and-dice, making for a track in constant motion. If you aren’t getting ready to pass out on a Friday night, here’s the one to get you moving into the night. Listen below.

Tanukineiri Records Cooks Up Tanukineiri Curry Sampler Featuring House Of Tapes, Guitarsisyo And More

It has been a bit since the last Tanukineiri Records sampler, but here they are to feed the streets with two collections of music…all over the place. Tanukineiri Curry Sampler comes in two flavors — Cumin and Coriander — and all of the song titles reference the classic dish, while some of the songs go pretty literal in being about an easy-to-make item (that’s tough to master, take it from me, guy who sucks at making curry). But don’t get too caught up on the culinary theme — this is a chance for an indie label to showcase their artistic clientele. Cumin features a good mix of artists crafting odes to the food using guitars (see Johnnie The Bulgaria’s “Curry Rice”) to fidgety synth-pop numbers (AKR-FITW’s Vocaloid-assisted “Papa’s Curry” and Attic Note’s “Curry Walk”) to noisy affairs (House Of Tapes coming through with the throwback chaos of “Dark Spice”). Get it here, or listen below.

Coriander ventures into similar territory, kicking off with a singer/songwriter number with hints of Indian music mixed in via 163(g)’s “No Spices,” before going off in all sorts of directions (including another India-inspired cut, Hideki Takimoto’s “Space & Spice” which goes a little too far with this idea). The highlight here for me, though, is Guitarsisyo’s tipsy-turvy “Sisyo No Curry Udon,” which uses guitars and effects to create a disorienting number. But like all comps, you just gotta dig in and see what you like. Get it here, or listen below.

New House Of Tapes: Drift EP

House of Tapes always gravitates towards the more cacophonous sounds, but look between the cracks and the Nagoya artist smuggles in a lot of beauty. The Drift EP offers one of the single best examples of this right away with the title track, which features buzzsaw electronics and a heavy-hitting beat. But in between those tougher elements, one of the prettier melodies House Of Tapes has thought up sneaks through, revealing charm hidden beneath punches. The rest of Drift leans closer to the aggressive — “Steps,” at least is pressure applied heavily, while closer “Karma” stews in unease via its slower beat and sudden effects. But that first moment is a heck of a hook and a reminder of the layers at play here. Get it here, or listen below.

New House Of Tapes: “I Can Not Say Goodbye To You”

Nagoya’s House Of Tapes has tried out a lot over his career — and now comes something resembling a tone poem. “I Can Not Say Goodbye To You” finds the producer sing-speaking a melancholy set of lyrics against a discombobulated (but never overwhelming) electronic backdrop. While it isn’t as suffocating as their older material, their is a nice bit of tension between the singing and the music, which moves from scatterbrained to somewhat ethereal by the end. Listen above.