Browse by Label: BLANK TAPES (UK)

Artist:	BASS CLEF
Title:	A Smile Is a Curve That Straightens Most Things
Label:	BLANK TAPES (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	BLANK 003CD

"Blank Tapes are proud to release the debut album from Bass Clef, aka Ralph Cumbers. Having spent years refining and distilling his sound, Ralph finally locked himself in his tiny studio in Hackney 8 months ago to emerge with a clutch of demos that contained some of the freshest, most dazzling beats that the Blank Tapes posse had heard in years. Anyone familiar with his earlier release as RLF for labels like Rex or Hombre will notice a distinct progression in his sound. Gone is the clatter and clutter and higher tempos, instead things have been eased to the steady heartbeat of dubstep. But there the similarities with the fashionable new genre end. Utilizing just an old cassette four-track (ask yr parents), a drum machine, a sampler, a vintage synth and valve compressor, Ralph has conceived a striking and original debut. Opting out of the race for the latest sequencer/processor/sound card which drives much IDM, Ralph is somewhat of a connoisseur of vintage analog equipment, polishing his literally broken beats with analog fx held together with blue tac gives his work a wholly unique character, charm and depth. Think the viral dubspaces of Mad Professor, the DIY intimacy of Third Eye Foundation and the brain-teasing beat-programming of AFX, all with live interventions on trombone, theremin and cowbells and you're nearly there. PR by Hermana, so expect the same kind of response as with Scatter, the last Blank Tapes album, if not more."

Artist:	BASS CLEF
Title:	The Opera EP
Label:	BLANK TAPES (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$9.00
Catalog #:	BLANK 004EP

"Bass Clef's ascendancy to cult stardom continues with this cracking bit of vinyl. Two highlights from the Smile Is A Curve... album have been chosen alongside a brand new, never heard before tune to constitute The Opera EP for your listening pleasure. 'Cannot Be Straightened' leaps from your speakers, slaps you across the cheeks, then tickles your balls all in one fluid movement that will leave you in a confused but pleasant daze. 'Opera' is a slightly more refined affair, but only just. Intricate programming of beats paired with a glorious synth melody make this an electro-boogie monster with a big heart. 'Don't Ask Me To Forgive You' takes a more melancholic angle on the whole wonky dubstep thing. A bit like 'Careless Whisper' re-imagined by Throbbing Gristle."

Artist:	THEE, STRANDED HORSE
Title:	Churning Strides
Label:	BLANK TAPES (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	BLANK 005CD

"Outstanding debut album from France's Thee, Stranded Horse. Churning Strides is an album that draws you in slowly and then leads you out into a head-space uniquely its own. The work of singer, songwriter and Normandy resident, Yann Tambour, this is a suite of songs that gleams like the moon on water and follows impulses that work like tides, slowly but irresistibly. Playing acoustic guitar and kora -- simultaneously in the case of 'Tainted Days' -- Tambour has a crafted sound that slips and slides from place to place, feeling to feeling. The music of sub-Saharan Africa -- Delta blues -- French chanson -- the lyrical anarchism of Leo Ferre -- the precision and unexpected melodic angles of Joanna Newsom's arpeggios -- the cosmic folk of Marc Bolan's Tyrannosaurus Rex. All of these may come to mind at different points of Churning Strides. None are the key to Thee, Stranded Horse: this is Yann's voice and his lyrics -- written mostly in his fluent English -- their stops, starts and restless shifts from image to sound image. Yann Tambour has previously made music as the founder and orchestrator of Encre, an outfit which made use of samples, guitars (electric and acoustic), as well as other live instruments and his own unmistakable voice. Encre's two albums, Encre (2001) and Flux (2004), were released in France to great acclaim by Clapping Music, but Yann made a clean break in 2006, exploring the kora, moving to the Normandy countryside and dreaming up the acoustic reveries and voices of Thee, Stranded Horse."

Artist:	SPRING TIDES
Title:	Hostile Takeover
Label:	BLANK TAPES (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	BLANK 006EP

"Blank Tapes continues developing its interests in a new kind of sound -- Unreal Word Music -- with the debut release by new signings Spring Tides. Featuring Ghanaian Afla Cey on vocals, lead track 'Burnt Out Moons' reverberates around a juju via danceteria skank. 'Happy Sighs' is an electrical rush of instrumental, Krautrock-esque hooks. On the flip, 'No More Mornings' has been retooled by Hot Chip and, unsurprisingly, sounds like a lost folk song from the future. Closing instrumental 'Fuck The Situationists, Fuck The Wildlife,' despite its title, is a benign reflection, a straight-to-tape head nodder."

Artist:	BASS CLEF
Title:	Zamyatin Tapes Volume 1
Label:	BLANK TAPES (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	BLANK 008EP

"Bass Clef returns with this first installment in a two-part series. Picking up where 'Cannot Be Straightened' left off, 'One Hundred Point Three' is a cerebral assault on the dance floor. Constructed around a monolithic bassline, this track will shake the fillings from your teeth. Taking a sidestep to the left, '23 Tunnel Chords' tantilizes with meandering melodies reminiscent of mid-'90s IDM, before finally dropping with a free-for-all turbo-rave 2-step. The flip is dedicated to a bastard gabba-punk garage, somehow infused with a poptastic euphoria that has to be listened to to be believed."

Artist:	BASS CLEF
Title:	May The Bridges I Burn Light The Way
Label:	BLANK TAPES (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	BLANK 011CD

"Starting with the same raw material of bass and beats assembled on four-track cassette (it was good enough for Lee Perry), Bass Clef has stepped beyond E8 city limits and into the studio to add Africanist percussion, This Heat-style drum freak-outs, and the usual riot of trombone, Theremin and cowbell familiar to anyone who has experienced Bass Clef live ... and following his storming main-stage performance at Sonar as part of 2010's Radio One showcase that now includes several million repeat-broadcast-exposed UK listeners."

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