2018: Change is Good

C'est ça the mantra of IRS (the chilling acronym of this here blog) in the new year. Big things happening over at HQ: most importantly, I've started a tape label! You can check things out over at kman925.bandcamp.com or on IG @kman925tapes. Or, email us at kman925tapes@gmail.com with demos, event proposals, etc.

That will be the main focus for me musically in the coming months, as well as getting a monthly concert series off the ground (wish me luck/plz help!!!) and playing shows/recording as a solo act, but I'll still be posting here. The emphasis will be a little different, though - less album grabs and more reviews of local/independent artists with links to listen on bandcamp/buy physical copies. See below for a sense of things, the review of Julia Bloop/Sunset Diver's recent tape.

Of course, this is all anticipatory/to come/etc., and I'm always open to new ideas from longtime/new readers! LMK in comments.

<3 R

Review: Sunset Diver, "SD" (Patient Sounds, 2017)

A friend recently asked me to characterize my taste in music. I didn't have to think too long: "Repetitive, but not boring." As I type this now, it still rings true, on an aesthetic and on a political level; I could listen to Steve Reich or William Basinski records all day long, but I had vague, nonetheless violent fantasies at a certain point this mandatory "grow the economy" season after the 10th or so take on "Santa Baby." To stress a belabored point, guns DO kill people, and so do, slowly, bad sounds ad nauseum.

Good sounds are a different breed, however. Julia Bloop, a.k.a. (or is it f.k.a.?) Sunset Diver, knows about these, and about repetition. Sunset Diver's 2017 "SD", out on Patient Sounds (ohboy whatta label!), reinforces this. "Sailing" opens things with a two-chord guitar loop, vaguely punched through with two loping single note lines and something like the creaking of a boat or a smatter of waves. Of course, the name of the song and project could be suggestive; throughout, evocative yet ambiguous crunches and clusters give texture to things. 'Cabiria' is a slow fog of whispered amorous correspondence from the bottom of the ocean. On side B, 'Pavlava' gives us a strikingly poignant piano melody held aloft by wind chimes and jovial but ominous laughter.

These songs emerge fully formed, all the more strong for their distance, for the most part, from anything resembling a con-ventional drum part, bass line, etc. The force of Sunset Diver's choices and their curation together is all that's needed.