Mike Shiflet - Opening Act [905 tapes]

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I had no idea how old this tape was until I received some more recent 905 releases all of which numbered in the 70s, this one is 19. So I guess it’s as good as gone from all distros now, and Mr. Shiflet has probably moved on too, but what the hell.

As suggested by the title the tape contains two live sets from 2008 opening for Astro and TV Pow in St. Louis on the A-side then for Michael Johnsen and Jack Wright in Cleveland on the flip. Both sets are recorded from the desk, so there’s no room acoustics or crowd mutterings getting in the way, and no applause. I’m guessing what we have here is edits of the whole though as both are squeezed onto a C20. The St.Louis show excerpt plunges straight into an obliterated tone cutting in and out and clipping like an overdriven speaker hanging from a loose connected thread. The whole set is equally destroyed, not a clean tone in sight, every frequency is sent through the Shiflet mincer, as if Shiflet is putting his whole rig through Christian Marclay’s Guitar Drag technique, a contact mic tail rattling across various textures of gravel and tarmac.

My favourite of the two though is definitely the Cleveland show. The rough, grainy texture of the previous side still dominates, though here not shredding the tones so much as just roughing up their edges. The timbres on offer here are more varied and their progression into and out of one another managed by a series of careful segues leading the listener along through the blasted hues of Shifletian meltdown. This tape is a far cry from attentive tone combinations exhibited on the split with Ryan Jewell (reviewed below) but where the attentiveness shines through it hits the spot.

905 tapes

Sun Stabbed - The World Upside Down [peasant magik]

Sun Stabbed are a guitar wielding French duo that I first came across due to a lovely little screen printed 7” released by Doubtful Sounds a little while back. Other than that single and this tape I’m not aware of any other releases. The two tracks have similar and opposite titles: The False is a Moment of the True and The True is a Moment of the False respectively, and the music of each is equally similar, if not containing the same inverted logic . The first kicks off with a low-passed guitar feedback drone not dissimilar to latter-day Yellow Swans or Double Leopards, or if you prefer the wails of lost souls resonating in underground caverns. It pendulums back and forth through a regular phase, with gentle chirrups of cracked circuitry and other buzzing interferences occasionally tossed on top. When the drone bed recedes to the background, barely audible the pair fleck the resulting space with a variety of drips, drizzles and splurges. Here, letting go of the constancy that dominates the tape is to my mind its strongest moment as they slowly ramp up the energy with an interplay continually on the brink of collapse. This is the most event-heavy section, making nice use of the dynamic range from abusive blurts to diminutive shrieks. The gradual wind down works a treat, making the impact of stomped boxes and struck strings that brings in the final section all the greater, eventually bringing us full circle to much the same territory of the opening. Really nice piece.

Side B works with much the same palette, with the notable addition of regonisable guitar plucks scattered around. The whole track is pinned together firmly with a mid-range surge whose swelling and shrinking defines the energy of the piece. Again this is offset with occasional more gestural actions. The form is also alike to the A-side, with a quiet section in the middle - this time populated by some almost Keith Rowe-ish scrabbles alongside a remaining wisp of feedback. It’s difficult to say why when the contents are so similar this side is much less satisfying, possibly it’s the flatness of the central tone. Although when this is dispensed with, the energy produced by the great playing around it, vanishes and the closing third drifts past fairly featurelessly.

peasant magik