Just when you thought it was safe to compile your year end lists: LA-based Not Not Fun unveils a stunning trio of cassettes ripe for road trips, sensory deprivation tanks, and slipping into abstract meditative states. While the three acts hail from various corners of these United States and beyond (Dallas, Los Angeles, and Tokyo, respectively), all bring their A-game and present lo/no-fi sound collages and pristine alternate reality soundscapes ready for your consumption December 7, with previews available below.
The first up is a deep, sprawling double cassette transmission from the early days of Texas journeyman Joe Knight’s “voyaging kaleidoscope kitchen sink-psych” project, Rangers. Europe on TV brings together two loose, genre-hopping no-fi sets originally released via As Above So Below back in 2009, prior to the slightly more polished yet equally epic Pan Am Stories and Reconsider Lounge. Each side is its own opus, consisting of vignettes veering between Knight’s scuzzy drifter rock persona to blasted new wave, warped basement dance vibes, and so much more. Four unique sides comprising over 100 minutes of music is a lot to digest, and the excerpt below is a mere nibble at what else lays beneath the gritty surface of this monster set.
The next tape is from lo-fi ambient L.A. resident Dravier, a.k.a. Caleb Draves. Spirit Channels expands on the myriad sonic twists and turns Draves both creates and curates on his stacked label Jungle Gym Records. “Canopy” fits neatly among the many experiments in ambient Not Not Fun has put out over the years, but elsewhere, the tape drifts in and out of “equatorial new age, narcotic lounge, surrealist exotica, desert island serenade, sunrise sky-surf, and devotional tape hiss,” as the label writes.
Last — but certainly not least — is a new collection of spirited down beat zones from Japanese collection UNKNOWN ME. Astronauts follows up the stellar subtropics cassette NNF released back in February 2017, and it’s every bit as precise, serene, and left field as its predecessor. “Orbicular Water” highlights the polished, high-rise oxygen bar vibe the group has refined to a T. In describing the tape, NNF writes, “the album’s eight songs float in an airless limbo of exploration and emotion, final frontiers and memories of home, zero gravity ambient zones conjured from an array of old analog Roland and Juno synthesizers.” All I can say is…sign me up for this trip into augmented reality and let me wander for a while.
Europe on TV tracklisting:
01. Europe On TV
02. Street Smell
03. Volvo Jungle Mist
04. Concorde Breakfast
Spirit Channels tracklisting:
01. Discovery
02. Spirit Channels
03. Hotel TV Network
04. Tropics
05. Safari
06. Pools
07. Canopy
08. Parasail
09. Sacred Passage
10. Inner Chambers
Astronauts tracklisting:
01. mercury seven
02. no gravity
03. Buzz Aldrin’s Dream
04. Brazilian Space Agency
05. Orbicular Water
06. radiation
07. UNKNOWN SEASON
08. return to the earth
More about: Dravier, Rangers, UNKNOWN ME
