Super-thick, beautifully printed gatefold jacket, double, 220 – gram, Czech virgin vinyl, jazz reimagined for electronics–all for around 20 bucks. No wonder I’m in like.
While the smoking ban has pretty much snuffed our live experimentica scene, Minneapolis suffers no lack of adventurous record labels. De Stijl, Roaratorio, Housepig, Tone Filth, Dark Winter, North American Hardcore, MP3 Death–even with Freedom From, Meniscus, and Doctsect in apparent slumber mode, I’d be hard pressed to finish singing the praises of all the above (not to mention the ones I’ve missed) if I started today and wrote straight through until Christmas. But I have a serious crush on Taiga Records, and it’s only getting worse: a couple nights ago, I picked up the year-old, vinyl-only label’s first relase–Rafael Toral’s Space–and I’m still regularly basking in its abstract glory. With four, high-quality, beautifully packaged titles to go, including the Deep Listening Band’s newly dropped Then & Now Now & Then, I’d better hurry, especially as the myserious* Eleh’s Homage to the Square Wave is already out of print. More soon.
Toral gets interstellar again.
*Sure, it’s the word everybody uses to describe the planet’s hottest new drone entity…mainly ’cause hardly anybody knows anything about them…and those who do aren’t talking.
