Filmmakers Kimberly Craven and Patrick Scott (closing. modern tapes) are taking their short documentary on a brief DIY screening tour of the midwest with stops at Skeleton Dust records in Dayton Ohio on Dec 14 and at Elastic Arts in Chicago on Dec 15 respectively. closing. will also perform a live set accompanied by real-time video feedback/synthesis. Please spread the word and we’ll see you there!
OUT NOW! The first single from Staring Problem’s upcoming second LP, ‘Equinox’ is now available on the Modern Tapes bandcamp (as well as all the other streaming services).
The video for ‘The Void’ is up for your viewing pleasure as well. The first of two for this album, director Eryn Walanka takes the band through a swirling, dream-like journey that blends seamlessly with the sounds coming from your speakers.
Also, Pre-sales for the LP ‘Equinox’ are go! the album ships 12/18/24. For those of you in the EU, the kind folks at Kernkrach.de will have copies so you don’t have to get clobbered by shipping costs.
After an embarassing amount of delays (on my part) Nashville, Tennessee’s Nicholas Maloney casts upon us his first modern tapes release. After stellar offerings on labels the likes of Park70, Unfathomless, Modern Concern and Invisible City, Nicholas coaxes us along a slow crawl through field recordings scattered, diced and smothered.
further compositional insight can be provided by Nicholas himself.
“± was born out of several sessions using Max/MSP + ppooll environment in conjunction with a library of field recordings gathered February-September 2022. The sessions were recorded directly to tape then later edited and arranged further to form the compositions presented here. Some of the source material on “4304 (oganesson)” was taken directly from a room recording of a live performance in Chattanooga, TN using the same ppooll setup.”
Textured, hissing tones give way to the sound of slowly dragging a cassette recorder behind you that is playing the recordings of slowly dragging a cassette recorder behind you.
Rovellasca is the prolific solo presence of sound and visual artist Craig Stewart Johnson, also of Death In Scarsdale, Liminal Haze and the curator of the impeccable Invisible City Records label.
Half-slept soundscapes succumb to the resonant rumblings of an unsettled sense of self on Derek Rush’s second release as UNFEELING, the first for Modern Tapes. The title NEUROBIOLOGICAL TRAUMATOLOGY, refers to actual physical changes that can occur in the brain due to emotional trauma. The music stirs misfiring synapses, pulsating blood vessels, and woozy sensations into the kind fog you can only remember in the moments just after you wake up.
16 tracks of disjointed and relentless harsh noise. From cut up to chaos this frenetic collection of blistering sentence fragments does not let up. SBTDOH is a prolific artist with a deep catalog and Modern Tapes is incredibly grateful to have this release, its silences are just as powerful as it is at full blast. Limited edition with silkscreened jackets and photocopied insert.
3 tapes. 6 projects. an hour and a half of minimalist sound. 15 minutes each from:
Sergey Pakhomov, James Shearman, E.F. Stoermer, Dosis Letalis, PTRKLLR, V.H.
The phrase “flirting with the noise floor” has been floating around my head since the mid 1990s. I’ve even said the phrase out loud a few times. Mostly in reference to silence, incidental sounds and space used in improvisation and composition. I spent a good part of the early 2000s focusing on variations of this idea in both what I was making and listening to. Years later, I became aware of a renewed interest in what had by then become known as ‘lowercase sound’ coming from people in the Harsh Noise Wall community. The overlap made sense to me considering HNW’s approach to the other pole of extreme minimalism. It was only a matter of time before the extremes would cross over to one another. This is a collection of artists who are doing just that; coming from a harsh noise background exploring nuance and texture with extreme focus and intensity but not necessarily the relentlessness normally associated with HNW.
The debut from this Vienna based duo finds Violet Candide aka Peppy Pep Pepper, also from Mitra Mitra teaming up with the enigmatic Tigerlilly to bring us 5 tracks of stark, hook-filled, DIY, minimal synth greatness. A stellar introduction to this new project.
Early goth overtones, proto-shoegaze allure and raw DIY production have informed this incredible collection of songs. With themes ranging from love and loss to science fiction as well as flora and fauna, Chicago’s Staring Problem give us their strongest work to date in celebration of their and Modern Tapes’ 10th year not only in collaboration but in existence.
Here’s the video for the title track.
Harsh noise expose of the unspoken usage of human originated meat (HOM) as a part of the american food supply since 1942.
cassette is pro-dubbed and printed in a two color silkscreened cardstock jacket with photocopied booklet.
download includes pdf booklet of notes including an excerpt from FDA depositions on the history of the Human Salvage Program and a video edit (mp4) of “The Whistle Is Blown” which can also be viewed here: youtu.be/TnKDBA6FnZE
Dissonant drones and a hissing, murky ambience. The sound of isolation, slumber, depravity, rebellion, lonliness, whatever you want to project onto it. Grim minimalism for weary ears.
cassette is hand dubbed with a silkscreened jacket and photocopied insert.
mt035- Dosis Letalis Surroundings c60
this prolific serbian noise wall artist goes understated for his modern tapes debut. static and what feels like the hum of living are buried underneath the textures, ambient in an uncomfortable way.
mt034- Verhalten Corrupted Structures v.3 c40
third in the series of releases focused on humanity’s obsession with designing its own obsolescence. This time the focus is pointed inward. Electromagnetic field recordings from various points in the town where this transient sound mangler was raised. Chopped up, spit out in misaligned patterns and clipped beyond recognition.
there will be/are copies available from Scream + Writhe in canada and Skeleton Dust in the states if you’d like to stock up on these releases as well as tons of other stellar noise and experimental releases.
Modern Tapes 
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