TMT Cerberus 02 A Reptile Dysfunction

In this ever-expanding musical world, there's a wealth of 7-inches, cassettes, CD-Rs, and objet d'art being released that, due to their limited quantities and adventurous sonics, go unnoticed by the public at large. TMT Cerberus seeks to document the aesthetic of these home recorders and backyard labels. Access the archive here and email us here.

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People's Parties
People's Parties [CD-R]

[Cut Hands; 2009]

http://www.cuthands.net

By Jspicer

A solo outing for Emeralds' Mark McGuire, People's Parties finds McGuire trading in his soothing synth for an assault of angry guitars and damaged komische. The first four tracks cut fast and furious, like running through a crowd armed with knives and scissors. “Sad Bubbler” slices with the fury of 100 Roy Montgomery meditations, while album opener “A Trivial Pursuit” treads into harsh territory, with its ferocious oscillations and stinging drone, negating any happy feelings you'll derive from “A Cousin A Way Away,” which features a looped synth melody that's more in line with McGuire's previous solo outings as well as Emeralds' newer output. Don't mistake this happy face for a friendly one — this dog bites and won't quit until your fingers are separated from your palm.

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The Kids of the Atomic Age
Finale [CS]

[Unread; 2008]

http://www.geocities.com/unreadrecords/

By Gabriel Keehn

I've often ruminated personally about the arbitrariness of popularity. Was Bob Dylan really that much more talented than, say, Phil Ochs? Was Pink Floyd honestly that much more interesting than Eloy? My general feeling about questions like these is that the answer is often “probably not,” but you would never guess by peeping a record sales chart or their Last.fm pages. On this tape, Unread Records houseband The Kids of the Atomic Age force the issue in a big way. It's as catchy and charming as almost literally anything else you might be able to find out there -- and a good degree more sonically interesting than most of it to boot. Dunking all their songs in a pool of late-summer suburban haze and glazing them with a perfect sense of lyrical irreverence, KotAA take acoustic guitar pop to new, nostalgic heights. Once you add the humble warbling of songwriter Bryon Allison and the occasional intrusion of a type of avant-garde aesthetic that takes the form of bizarre backward-playing recordings and sampled spoken word interludes, you've got what should have been the next big thing years ago. Let's hope to God this isn't the real finale.

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Cold Cave
Painted Nails [7-inch]

[Hospital Productions; 2008]

http://hospitalproductions.com/

By Mangoon

If you're a little bamboozled by the noise community's inexplicable embracing of a new breed of Depeche Mode-inspired new wave synth pop, you're not alone. While I get the connection of analog synth being an integral instrument to new wave and the dark ambient/drone scene, the two styles still seem to be separated by a chasm stylistically. That's why an act like Philly's Cold Cave, who have been slated to play this year's No Fun Fest, could do wonders in closing the gap. Featuring Wes Eisgold of Some Girls, Painted Nails (possibly Hospital's first non harsh-noise release) starts off with a rip-roaring blast of pink noise before locking into the overblown bass thud and dance-floor hallucinations that makes opener Sex Ads such a successful amalgam of styles. More so than much of the current crop of resurrected Weird Records acts, Cold Cave know how to get their filters fuzzy, and while Side B starts off with a miss in the atrociously recorded "I've Seen the Future and It's No Place for Me," it bounces back with "Always Someone," whose persistent distorted drum machine yields some crack-a-lacking rave bliss.

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Sky Limousine
Out of the Blue [CS]

[Morbid Tapes; 2008]

http://www.morbidtapes.com/

By Gabriel Keehn

If you're at all familiar with the sometimes dark, sometimes whimsical, and always transcendental tones of the aptly named Sky Limousine, then you won't be surprised by this great little tape from the great little Morbid Tapes label (responsible for such gems as Climax Denial's Disgust cassette, Werewolf Jerusalem's Crawlspace CD-R, and others). Each side of the cassette is made up of many small subsections (all untitled), each providing a slice of whirling, glistening phosphorescence that, while distinct, feel like different acts of the same play, albeit slightly out of order. In these lovingly crafted, delicate meditations, Sky Limo plants and cultivates tiny bulbs of sound, watching them grow and eventually bloom, sending forth individual tone globules that float and dance in the cool background hiss. It's a sublimely relaxing listen that still, because of its ethereal, almost imperceptible softness, requires more of you than you might initially expect. Like the soundtrack to the Marfa Lights or rowing through an ocean of florescent jellyfish.

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Sparkling Wide Pressure
Seven Inside and Out [CS]

[Stunned; 2009]

http://stunnedrecords.blogspot.com

By Jspicer

Like a Domino's delivery man, Sparkling Wide Pressure's Frank Baugh delivers electro-charged moans and drones in 30 furious minutes — pedestrians and strays be damned. The A-side takes off like a tea kettle about to burst, full of steamy whistles and distant cries of danger from wildlife peering through your open curtains. The B-side begins with the sweet strums of a quiet guitar before all is swallowed by spaghetti drone heralding the arrival of blackened henchmen come to call you at High Noon. The cassette closes with the hushed, somber tones as if Baugh is — this time — delivering us a quick eulogy. Our last view is the turning deciduous beckoning us into the soil.

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Nice Face
”Exterminator” b /w “FUBAR Over You” [7-inch]

[HoZac Records; 2008]

http://www.myspace.com/horizontalaction

By Mangoon

After twice being thwarted from buying this record due to the provocative nature of its sleeve, I finally found a record store of questionable enough repute in which to purchase this perverted piece of petroleum-based product. The record store (which I shall not here refer to by name) stocked what some may deem a meager inventory, with more unheard and never-appreciated punk records than you'd care to shake a pair of plaid pants at. After standing in front of the register-less counter waiting for the completely spaced-out clerk to realize other humans were present, she dazedly asked me what "12 plus 6" was (the two records I was purchasing were $5.99 and $12.99). I gave her the answer, and she very confusedly handed me back my change as I started to plan my exit. Clutching my new Nice Face 7-inch in the discreet paper bag closely to my chest, I left, quickly putting on my shades and buttoning up my sweatshirt while hurriedly trying to affix the hood over my head. Walking at a brisk pace, I clutched the brown paper bag closer, ashamed of the secret that lie inside. When I finally arrived home and took it for a spin on the ol' Califone, those very same feelings I harbored exiting the store were conjured once again. On "Exterminator," Nice Face squirt out penis-pumping punk rock in the throbbing purple vein of Gimme Some Skin-era Stooges bar fighting with GG Allin and the Jabbers. Influenced equally by Boys Dead and Zero, The Face are at the tip of the spear when it comes to bringing punk music back into the forefront. The synths here are less upfront than on their "Sacred Bones" 7-inch, but in this case it works. Changing up their sound from the more lo-fi and new wave dance orientation present on that record, "Exterminator" is pure rock ‘n' roll that will help make a convincing case that punk rock is in fact the new punk rock.

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Monks of the Balhill
Ten Ways To Get Out Of The Water [CD-R]

[Peasant Magik; 2008]

http://www.peasantmagik.net/

By Gabriel Keehn

Ten Ways To Get Out Of The Water, from Vincents Caylet and Fribault, rising stars of French psych, is the best showcasing of their particular talents thus far. There are some other very solid CD-R releases on Akoustic Disease, Ruralfaune, and elsewhere, but this is the most versatile and mystifying of the bunch. There is some serious sorcery happening here, as the monks go about seamlessly fusing various traditions in psych, drone, ambient, and neo-folk musics into something entirely their own. Crippled guitars cough out melodies that fall into deep chasms of static, echoing off the walls on the way down and eventually plunking into a tiny pool of shivering, airy tones at the bottom. Esotericism flows openly through the ravines of these tracks, and one can't help but reflect on the appropriateness of the name of the duo. Images come to mind of medieval seers and alchemists hunched over tables littered with tattered manuscripts and vials filled with strange colored liquids. This is an intoxicating body of water that I'm not sure I want to get out of.

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Ducktails
Acres of Shade [CS]

[Arbor; 2009]

http://www.arborinfinity.com

By Jspicer

Matt Mondanile incorporates synthesizer in his latest pastique, transforming his Beach Boy dream jams into the calling card of Southern California's mysterious side. Side A (“White House with Green Shutters) is the stuff of Marshall Applewhite, as Mondanile hops aboard Comet Hale-Bopp for a transcendent ride into heaven and space. The B-side (“Surfs Up”) continues the galactic love, but keeps the locale Earth-bound, allowing us to gaze upon the night sky with a slow drone and twinkling shifts of knob and key that rolls like the moon-drawn tides.

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Haunted Graffiti
“Can't Hear My Eyes” b/w “Evolution's a Lie” [7-inch]

[Mexican Summer; 2008 ]

http://mexicansummer.com/

By Mangoon

Dropping the Ariel Pink possessive preceding the group's name, it seems Haunted Graffiti are making the move to a proper band rather than backup accompaniment for Ariel “Pink” Rosenberg. What's particularly remarkable about pseudo-outsider Ariel Pink and his constituents is their ability to draw upon such a vast spectrum of influences while holding them all in a weird line between homage and parody. This new record sees the group rip through two future AM radio hits, beginning with “Can't Hear My Eyes,” a convincing nod to the Quiet Storm of Luther Vandross and Teddy Pendergrass. The audio version of a soft focus, the track is as soulful as anything released by the aforementioned troubadours, but with a frenetic energy normally unseen in the genre. A steamy saxophone solo trumps the track, but not before fogging your windows and increasing your libido. The flip side, "Evolution's a Lie" is a convincing bit of anti-Darwinian splendor that conjures up visions of a late Vegas-era Elvis, running around the stage in a coked-up fervor, trying to convince the audience that human life was seeded on Earth thousands of years ago by the Annunaki after they were brought here upon Planet X. In other words, recommended.

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