Awww yeah, you know what time it is. KZSU’s in-house noise rockers / rotation messiahs, The Noriegas, are back at it again with their signature extended
cavernous jams. Features an intergenerational lineup of ex-General Managers and Music Directors.
Plenty of stretched-to-the max electronics, ringing wind instruments,
pitting drums, and krautrock wanderings. Every once in a while, a huge
gong will ring out to remind you you’re still on this planet.
Picks up right where Brian Wilson’s Smile left off: sunny harmonizing vocals, painstakingly layered walls of sound and explosive creativity. Imaginative lyrics, big-time vocals and a varied palette of sounds—all of them top-notch and wholeheartedly unique. Some tracks are reminiscent of late 1960's Britpop, others are saturated with heavy Bossa Nova--but all of them work. 
The incomparable Holy Page Records just blasted this Halloween mixtape our way: 25 tracks, none of them take themselves too seriously, and that’s why this works. Halloween themed too! The original cassette glows in the dark and has candy corn and pumpkin stickers (see Fig. 1). All songs are just as good as their titles (just head over here and take a look why don’t you…), and although they align themselves mostly towards the electronic end of the spectrum, there is something for everyone in this goodie bag: lo-fi rap, ambient narc-washes, thrasher rock, etc. There is probably nothing better than this album for those valiant 3-6 AM radio slots—trust me, it’s even better than playing Prince and Joe Meek at the same time. I cannot say enough good things about this tape. Play it during Spring Break, play it during Christmas, play it at your wedding.
Sci-fi Casio keyboard explorations from everybody's favorite "neo-neon" artist Christian Filardo, the man behind the brainmelting tape label Holy Page. These four tracks very well could have been A-sides for the soundtrack to a cartoon version of The Terminator or a Tracey Trance/Alex Barnett collaboration in disguise.
We got this tape a little while back from Ginjoha, and although we liked it enough to immediately slap it on our year-end list, we never got around to reviewing it until recently. It packs a nice one-two punch with both sides clocking in at about 15 minutes, which makes it convenient for small commutes, or those short interludes where you can catch a quick break.Side B: Gentle, whispering intro. Slowly shifts into harsher vibes—deep resonating pulses and tangled knots of synthesizer. The last 5 minutes is probably the best of the entire tape—a pastiche kaleidoscope of bewitched string elements, broken clockwork, spooky vocals, and that scene from Toy Story where all the toys came back to life and crawled out of that gunk, and it scared you so badly that you peed your pants.
Tomorrow the guys from the Oakland-based Crash Symbols Records will make the trip across the Bay to talk about their cassette label, and share some of their current and upcoming releases. The interview will be broadcasted from 8-10 PST on 90.1 FM in the Bay Area, or here online.
We started broadcasting at midnight! Tune in anytime in the next 24 hours to catch some great experimental music, all broadcasted live from our studios in Stanford, California! 29 artists in 24 hours. You can sleep when you're dead! Here's the official schedule: 
From the beloved Sonic Meditations label, this is one of those tapes that makes you wonder if cassettes were invented by aliens or underwater sea creatures in order to infiltrate the human world and hypnotize all seven billion of us into submission. I, for one, welcome our Atlantean liberators as our natural overlords, and am grateful that they have created such gorgeous, soothing ambient to lull our useless cortical circuits into a state of blissful tranquility. Shimmering, sparkling resonances of the ethereal void... for fans of Comoros, No Mind Meditation, Enfer Boreal; featuring members of: Grass Magic, Endless, Davenport, Journey to Ixtlan, Second Family Band, and even doom/psych band Jex Thoth (it really is a small world).
Chicago, one of the great cassette tape hotspots of America, has recently given the world yet another killer label! Paramita Recordings, started their catalog off with three split tapes, and they were kind enough to send us a copy of each (which are all still available). Thanks guys! 
Soundings/Shapers/Verma - Split 
Brooklyn-based experimental Christopher Merritt sent us a package of tapes a little while back—this one from Digitalis is perhaps the finest example of his intricate collagework.Side B starts with crunchy blown-out beats in the extraterrestrial style of Clams Casino, (but orchestrated a few months earlier might I add...) and later transitions into blurry patchwork of gently plucked acoustic guitar, rainsticks, atypical percussion, the rush of water—all sorts of creatively blended recordings.
The brand-new label Teflon Beast puts their best foot forward with their first cassette release Sports! This c40 is split into two halves: "Fanfare" on the A and "Victory" on the flip, and explores the various facets of the human athletic experience. Composed of noisy electronics and field recordings, it was recorded both to showcase the intricacies of sports (on an amateur and multi-million-dollar-contract level) and to showcase the more "joyous" side of noise. 
Mark your calendars! On Feburary 12, KZSU will be broadcasting 24 straight hours of live experimentation and improvisation from experimental/noise/drone bands and artists from the Bay Area and beyond. You can tune in here, and find out more information and read all the juicy details here. Should be a great time, so listen in, or visit the station to see the performances in-action if you're in the area. 
We got a new batch of tapes in from the ever-faithful Cae-Sur-A! Check 'em out:
The face melter strikes again! If that doesn't make sense to you, let me go ahead a redirect you a previous Red Electric Rainbow Release here. 