Top 10 Releases of 2017: Part 2

7. By the End of Summer - Laughing
(2017 Sango Records)

It's easy to forget that emo's emotional breadth can extend beyond sadness: you're only reminded of what the genre can do when you hear it pushed to its fullest potential. Cap'n Jazz could do it back in the day, layering sheets of ruddy-cheeked chords and lyrics about "kitty-cats" over punk-rock blast beats. Empire! Empire! did it too, centering around their honest and nostalgic storytelling. Kyoto's By The End of Summer's Laughing EP is one of the more recent installments in the "emotionally diverse emo" canon, bridging the gap between TTNG's wonky math-rock riffage and the teenage adventure of early Blink-182.

The four-song EP is addictively immediate. BTEOS arrangements roar to life without introduction, hurling riff after riff at the listener while frontman Miyazaki's voice cracks in surges of bittersweet catharsis. "Even Now", which takes its instrumental cues from late-80s skate rock, is the standout cut of the bunch, featuring enough hooks and swooping chord changes to fill an entire album in just two minutes.

BTEOS isn't flashy: like Cloud Nothings before them, the quartet pounds out raw, quick tracks that hit right in the sweet spot. The feelings are real and the lyrics are grounded.

"regret and remembrance / it's completely changed around here / the old vending machine / the running children / they were gone"

6. Playboi Carti - Playboi Carti

(2017 Interscope)

If Young Thug's the Cocteau Twins of mumble rap (at least according to this semi-popular Tumblr post) then Playboi Carti may well be the sub-genre's answer to Galaxie 500. Like the now-defunct Cambridge trio, he has a penchant for two-chord instrumentals and staccato melodies, haunting these dronescapes with dreamy phrases that roll off the tongue like December sighs: in a cloud of vapor.

Maybe it'd be even more accurate to compare Carti to The Velvet Underground. From the playful experimentation of his self-titled tape's interchangeable cover art to his penchant for lyrics that are iconic and intentionally shallow, he's a Warholian figure: a fourth-wall-breaking protagonist who's as fascinated by stardom in the conceptual sense. "I'm a rockstar," he asserts in the intro to lead single "wokeuplikethis*". Somehow it makes perfect sense. It's intrinsic. 

He's William Carlos Williams, too, neatly filing syllables into their perfect instrumental slots while offering just enough information to convey the outline of an image. The aesthetic's executed best on opnener "Location", in which Carti drops a fragmented series of interjections and descriptions that avoid do their best to dodge verbs: ("tats on my neck on my arms" ad nauseam). It's ideogrammatic, exchewing the third-person perspective images that the written word conjures in our minds for the swirl of sensory stimulus that passes through the cortex on the daily. Also, the Harry Fraud beat that carries the track is incredible, especially at 1:31 when its (dare I say) vaporwavey guitar sample screeches to the forefront of the mix. 

Carti is everyone that shaped rock 'n' roll and he's all the ideas that let it fall to trap music. Effortlessly, he became the zeitgeist. At least for the 50-minute duration of his mixtape, that is.

 
5. Girls Rituals - EMERGENCY!
(2017 Visual Disturbances)

Speaking of Warhol, Girls Rituals' EMERGENCY! does 21st century Pop-Art better than any Dean Blunt/Vektroid/Ferraro project I've heard in recent memory, and she does so by just being herself. Like its creator, the record's a product of low-brow mid-00s internet ephemera: Soulja Boy's early MySpace material, DeviantArt's amateurish digital paintings, the neurotic/hyberbolic humor of imageboard sub-cultures, and pretty much anything tangentially related to Newgrounds. 

Unlike many of the other "post-internet" artists that populate Bandcamp and Soundcloud, Girls Rituals isn't adopting this aesthetic ironically. The musical and aesthetic ideas she appropriates are borrowed out of sincere appreciation. On "xXx DNA xXx", the west-coast hip-hop synths are squelchy and out of tune because they want to be, in a way that's legitimately pretty. Girls Rituals' murmured vocals tame the bombast: she's a languid calm in a dissonant storm, just barely missing her notes. It's hypnotic. Strangely soothing.

According to nearly everyone who's reviewed EMERGENCY on Bandcamp, "Black Crow" is the cream of this 17-track crop. I'm inclined to agree. Painfully dysphoric lyrics, delivered dryly as usual, are paired with a carnivalesque arrangement of 16-bit riffs that moan and squeak like the Earthbound soundtrack. How do you feel listening to this? How can you feel? "Dig and dig and dig," she sings. "I smash and curse this skin." Breezy chords prop up a melting melody. "I'll be a black crow in my next life flying over an office park."

Cassette Corner Timeline: Part 3

The final installment in a list of influential and interesting cassettes. 2003-2013

Hair Police - Obedience Cuts

(2004 Hanson Records)

Lexington, Kentucky harsh noise unit Hair Police have been destroying eardrums since 2001, and Obedience Cassettes is just one of many solid tapes put out by the band. It was their debut on the infamous Hanson Records label and also happens to be their most accessible effort to date. Underneath the layers of screeching noise and grimy tape manipulations, one can hear the faint echo of shouted vocals and meaty bass guitar on songs like "Bee Scrape" and "Let's See Who's Here and Who's Not". Only the truly brave will listen to this with the volume cranked up to the max.

Vehicle Blues - Pizza

(2008 Lillerne)

I think just about everybody reading this can agree that the inventions of both shoegaze and pizza are two of mandkind's greatest achievements, and here they are, housed in the same cassette. Pizza is the debut tape single of bedroom pop project Vehicle Blues, two tracks that combine the influences of My Bloody Valentine and krautrock, creating a stagnant pool of reverb-washed sludge that doesn't do much but stew in its own juices. That's totally ok though, as elements like the "Dancing In the Dark"-esque keyboards on "But What You Feel Is" make for a relaxing and unique listen. This tape is a brain massage, and if you ever get the chance to get your oven mitts on this personal Pizza, by all means do so.

Kevin Greenspon/Cloud Nothings - Split

(2010 Cass/Flick + Bridgetown)

Yeah, you read that right. You may not have known it, but Dylan Baldi's Cloud Nothings have a few tapes in their back catalog, which rank among the finest selections in his discography. This split with Bridgetown Records founder Kevin Greenspon offers two sides of deep-fried fuzz pop. Greenspon's tracks combine the sounds of the Go-Gos and early Dinosaur Jr, while Baldi's side takes on a more modernist garage rock approach, which should appeal to fans of the Orwells and Beach Fossils. "I Apologize" is a noise-laden gem, and is my current favorite Cloud Nothings song.

Yu(c)k - Weakend

(2010 Mirror Universe)

Here's another currently well-known artist who got their start releasing tapes. Yu(c)k was the short-lived side project of Yuck's former frontman Daniel Blumberg. More in tune with "Shook Down" than "Get Away", Weakend is a collection of four dreamy piano tracks recorded in Daniel's flat. Each of the cuts is haunting, from the shoegazey "Daughter" to the stark "Automatic". Perfect in nearly every way.

Abuela - Self Titled EP

(2012 Swan City Sounds)

Abuela's 2012 debut tape served as my introduction to the world of cassette culture, a humble cassingle I happened upon by chance on a Bandcamp binge over fall break last year. Though only eight minutes long, Abuela's tape is a powerful listen. It's extremely raw, with its simple acoustic finger picking, handclaps and stomps, yet it's not particularly noisy or "lo-fi". It relies on sparsity and emotion, not sound quality to capture the attention of the listener. Ramon Crespo's gravelly falsetto is heart piercing, and gives life to each of the three somber tunes on the EP. If this cassette doesn't strike a chord with you, then I don't know what will.

Julia Brown - To Be Close To You

(2013 Birdtapes)

If any current cassette culture band is going to make it big, it's Julia Brown. to be close to you is a lo-fi masterpiece, squeezing strings, watery keyboards, twangy guitars and super tight vocal harmonies all on to one little tape. There's no filler to be found on this album, as it's one of the best overall releases of the year. Read my review of it here: http://half-gifts.blogspot.com/2013/02/review-julia-brown-to-be-close-to-you.html