Hausu Mountain, rock-steady purveyor of deep electronic zones, just released a split between two Brookylnite cosmic warblers Jerry Paper (Lucas Nathan) and Andy Boay (Andy White, one half of the left-field psych duo TONSTARTSSBANDHT). I don’t mean cosmic as in celestial, but more as an internal abyss, more bustling, more human, fleshier, more neuroscience than astrophysics; ya dig?
For Jerry Paper, the tape marks another stop on his tour of the inventive electronic tape labels, making us all feel warm and fuzzy in a manifold ways; warm because his oscillating synth tone is the musical equivalent a Jacuzzi (jets ON); fuzzy because these jams all revolve around an intense romantic infatuation. He crafts a complex, relatable humanoid character capable of simultaneously being goofily charming (“All I eat is romance, breakfast lunch and dinner”) and pretty creepy (“I just want to rip my skin clear off”). Andy Boay’s side of the tape on the other hand is a loop-based, (largely) a capella spacewalk. It has a spontaneous feel; it grows like a canvas of spin art with Andy continually heaping on new coats of vocal doodlings, feedback, synth, and spastic drums, then tweeking the speed of the loop’s revolution intermittently.
The artists are an intuitive match. Together they form like the yin and yang of an homage to Todd Rundgren’s “A Capella” with its fixation with vocal sampling and its balance of abstract experiment versus gauzy pop sensibility. This should give all of us internet denizens comfort. The story goes that A Capella was the nail in the coffin in the relationship between Rundgren and his then label; a middle finger to the notion of pop stardom in the form of a soft-rock caress. From this perspective, the existence of this split at this moment on this record label is a declaration of musical progressivism. As opposed to the way that Rundgren was forced to make his declaration of outsiderdom backed into a corner, these two dudes are standing tall together with the backing of a community of weird. It shows both Andy Boay and Jerry Paper exploring the position of cult musical figures in a way that wasn’t possible pre-internet. Rejoice, it’s spring in the post-internet era! Hop on your dating site of choice, find a hubby to take to the b00ne z00ne, pop this cassette in your Toshiba, et voila!
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