Stunned Records is a label known for bringing out the big guns and they sure don’t disappoint on this latest release. M. Geddes Gengras, (also known as Ged Gengras, M Ged Gengras, or simply M.G.G.) is a psychedelic/experimental producer from East Los Angeles who is notorious for heavy-hitting spirals of drifting synth and awesome facial hair. He also puts together mixes at the blog WHERE’S YR CHILD, and he is probably the only person featured on this blog who tweets. Gengras has put out a good handful of releases in the past few years, including three on Stunned: 2009 saw the release of a c44 and a colorful split with A.M. Shiner, and last year he delivered with a sprawling two-cassette release titled “Pink Moon/Deep Trail Time.”
Both sides of this release are killer and showcase exactly why Gengras is able to stand out in a genre that is becoming ever-saturated by torpid one-take bedroom wannabes. His characteristic sound is forged from long loops of delicately fluctuating electronica and is intensified by the deep, warm fuzz of Moog waves stretching the very medium of the tape itself. The j-card reveals that the album was “assembled during the week of rain,” which explains the expressive pitter-patter of its gently scaling arpeggios and its tinkling metallic conversations--like Louise Bourgeois arachnids chatting in the downpour.
More than anything, the cassette seems to place an overwhelming emphasis on the very act of transformation--the slowly shifting tides and subtle vicissitudes seem to speak volumes on the importance of celebrating liminality, as opposed to fixating on discrete destinations or starting points. Most of the tape’s 13 tracks take a long time to fully develop, which emphasizes the virtues of fluidity—the large expanses of betwixt and between that bind together our very existence.
“This Could Be the Last Time” comes on a crowd-pleasing diaphanous yellow cassette with a jazzy j-card and Phil French’s signature slash-ribbon artwork.
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