fort evil fruit generosity
i placed an order with irish tape label fort evil fruit a bit ago and it arrived right quick along with a bunch of download codes for free stuff on bandcamp. super generous of them! i'm gonna write about everything i've listened to below. note that i briefly talked about head shot shy by teresa riemann in my previous early March roundup post, i love that tape and it was what got me into the label to start.
phil macguire and aonghus mcevoy - habitual syrup
a duo of guitar and synthesizer. lots of quiet, strange sounds, odd chords, micro-events. a mood setter for sure.
fergus kelly - echolocation
a composer using percussion and electronics to make sparse digital textures emphasizing quiet and often high-pitched tones. meditative is how i would describe this work, definitely of the eai orientation.
clara lai / barbara togander - ·i·
bizarre sounds with vocalist/turntablist togander improvising alongside lai's electric piano and synth. i enjoy any performer willing to take the human voice to weird and uncomfortable areas. improvising with the voice in a non-standard way (not just jazz singing etc) is a thing you have to be pretty brave to do honestly. the tape here has a fun and disorienting atmosphere, lots of sounds coming and going - samples, synth noises, glossolalia. i really enjoyed this one.
ireland - s/t
this is something a bit different from the previous three very quiet and kind of intellectually oriented records - improvised jazz metal along the weasel walter or john zorn axis. good noise rock vibe and definitely closer in energy to the teresa riemann tape that got me into fort evil fruit, not that i don't love the meditative work as well.
shiroishi / reviriego / trilla
as a huge fan of everything patrick shiroishi i was glad to be able to acquire this one. very dark atmosphere, less of the immediate in-the-room quality of some of his work (this is a long distance collaborative recording project) but a worthwhile listen nonetheless.
mantua - galtee virtual muse
shoegazy, dreampoppy electronics and vocals drenched in delay etc. wonderful solo work in the world of smeary echoey tape music.
whirling hall of knives - whok lab emissions vol. iii
i first heard whirling hall of knives with the release of their green glow bridge/red glow bridge tape in 2011! i can picture myself walking around the book warehouse i was working in at the time with a walkman listening to it as i picked orders. ashamed to say i haven't followed them too much since, for no other reason than i'm stupid, but i remember loving that tape when it came out. anyway, this is a fun piece, two sidelong tracks each built around manipulating a small sonic idea in various ways. droney and occasionally beat driven. definitely enjoyable and i'll have to check out more of their catalog in the past 15 damn years as well.
conclusion
overall this is a label worth following for free improv and electronic weirdness. not a bad piece in the batch and some heavy hitters for sure. big shoutout for the kind inclusion of so many extras too!
hopefully it warms up again around here soon. talk later everybody!