The Haters - Wind Licked Dirt (Hanson Records - 2008)

This cassette is of the type C0. So no sound on it, then? Well the subtitle of this release is 'This tape is played by rubbing dirt in it'. The real artist is you!

I got this tape from the International Record Fair in Utrecht. Bought it from alt.vinyl. The owner is a really nice guy with some fantastic and rare records. One records made of glass with golden grooves and another one where the grooves where so thin that you could hardly see them. If someone could point me to these records, please leave a comment or contact me.

The release was the first one by The Haters in a series of "anti-records". These are four 'records' that do not contain any sounds, but should challenge you to make the sounds yourself. The second one, Oxygen is flammable, contains some plastics where you should poor water on to make sounds. The third one, Fire , contains a record with all blank grooves that you should tamper with the enclosed steel wool. The last one, Shear, is a ball of cotton that you are supposed to squeeze to generate sounds.

This release, and the other "anti-records",  are more a form of art that wants the 'listener' to act, than an to just listen to sounds or songs.

I couldn't get any descent sounds out of the dirt, but for the concept it gets:

4/5 blips for the hips

P.S. The dirt is included, so no need to scoop some up yourself.

Various - Polyphonal (Delirious Riot - 2007)

Polyphonal is a concept album. The only prerequisite was a telephone and use it in your song in any way you like. This emerged in a tape plus a bonus 3”CDr. The tape contains a mix of experimental tracks and indie rock tracks. The CDr features two tracks of the experimental sort by Dutch masters Machinefabriek and Wouter van Veldhoven.

A lot of tracks have names referring to the telephone in every way. From ‘Tone’ through ‘Walky Talkies’ to the new ways of communicating aurally over  a distance ‘Senegal (Skype Version)’. The use of the telephone in the tracks is also very different. The one plays its entire song through a telephone, another uses modem like sounds and a third uses the beeps and stretches/twitches/manipulates them to an extent that you almost do not recognize them any longer.

The design of the package is really nice. A blood red tape in a grey sleeve with a couple of different pictograms of telephones on it. But you can see that at the top off course.

 All in all this tape is an odd man out due to the mix of different styles. I don’t have a lot with the indie rock music on it, but the requirement of using a phone makes them a more bearable. And sometimes it is nice to listen to other music styles.

 

2/5 blips for the hips