: Summer At Shatter Creek
reviewed by Larry Crane
Craig Gurwich has been a long-time Tape Op subscriber, and it's great to get a CD in the mail and recognize his name as the creator. This CD is a dreamy delight, tracked on his 8-track 1/2", and...
Music Reviews
by Larry Crane
: The Sky Above The Mud Below
reviewed by Larry Crane
Chris Knox was interviewed some time ago in Tape Op, and along with his partner Alec Bathgate has been the Tall Dwarfs for many years now. This album began on Chris' 1/2" Tascam 8-track but ended up...
: s/t
reviewed by Larry Crane
Sam Coomes of Quasi is the Blues Goblins. One original song appears among severely frantic, disturbed takes on classic blues tunes by artists like Muddy Waters and Leadbelly. Sam played all the...
: The Escapist
reviewed by Larry Crane
Kevin Friedman is a Portland-based guitarist of note, having been in many interesting local bands. This is his solo alias, recorded on a Roland VS880 Expanded with an Ensoniq ASRX, Kawai K-1 synth and...
: The Joy of Molybdenum and Live Encounter
reviewed by Larry Crane
I must admit to being a closet prog rock fan. I saw King Crimson when I was 18 (Discipline tour!) at a tiny club, and again in the mid '90s. Trey was playing his crazy Warr guitar on that tour and...
: s/t
reviewed by Larry Crane
One time Tape Op writer and manager of MinerStreet/CycleSound studio in Philadelphia, Brian McTear is also a musician, having played in Marinernine and Mazarin among others. So what does he do when...
: Tusk
reviewed by Larry Crane
Ostensibly 4-track cassette recordings from 1987 that were "restored" in 2001, this is CVB's reworking of the classic cocaine-fueled Fleetwood Mac album - song by song! Some of it is funny, some is...
: Guestroom
reviewed by Larry Crane
What do bands do for fun in between albums? A collection of cover songs! Tunes by artists like The Cure, Papas Fritas, Steely Dan (!), Serge Gainsbourg, The Go- Betweens (my favorite) get the breezy...
: Brainwashed
reviewed by Larry Crane
Maybe out of respect to the dead, Jeff Lynne doesn't overproduce this posthumous release by the deceased Beatle. There's a sort of loose, low- key quality to these songs that lends a bit of mellowness...
: One Bedroom
reviewed by Larry Crane
I totally respect John McEntire, and have really enjoyed some of the records he's produced, but man is this one tight, controlled digitally- worked record. It feels like everything was labored over...
: Highly Refined Pirates
reviewed by Larry Crane
I dropped by Avast! Recording Co. in Seattle looking for Stuart Hallerman (who wasn't there) but Troy Tietjen was hanging out in the office. He mentioned that Steve Fisk was mixing a record, so I...
: Mount Eerie
reviewed by Larry Crane
Phil Elvrum, of Olympia, WA, was profiled in last issue and is also the force behind The Microphones. Mount Eerie is his strange new record he made at K Record's Dub Narcotic studio. It's like a...